Christians believe that those who trust in Christ already share in the new life God gives.
This life does not end with death.
Christians trust that, in God’s time, they will share fully in Christ’s victory over death and be raised to new and transformed life in God’s presence.
What is begun now will one day be known in fullness. The love, joy, and life already glimpsed in Jesus Christ will be complete, and death will no longer have the final word. This renewed and abundant life with God is what Christians mean when they speak of heaven.
What about people who refuse to repent and turn to God?
Some Christian teaching uses language about people who refuse to turn towards God being “under judgment” or “separated from God”. Taken on its own, this can sound final or bleak, but the Bible itself contains several different voices on what happens when we die, especially for those whose lives feel unfinished or unrepentant.
Some passages speak of judgment and separation (for example Matthew 25:31–46; 2 Thessalonians 1:9), which have shaped more traditional views of hell.
Other texts suggest that judgment is meant to heal and restore rather than condemn (such as Lamentations 3.31–33; Hosea 11:8–9; Romans 11:32. And still others offer a deeply hopeful vision in which “in Christ all will be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22) and God is finally “all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:28).
Because the Bible includes all these strands, many Christians today, including many in the Methodist tradition, place more emphasis on God’s mercy than on fear of punishment.
When we conduct funerals, we speak out of this hope, entrusting every person to the goodness of God, trusting that nothing – not even our incomplete repentance – lies beyond the reach of God’s transforming grace.
You can read more about this in the Bible:
- Luke 23:40–43 But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingdom.” He replied, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
- John 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
- John 11:25–26 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
- John 6:40 This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day.”
- 1 Corinthians 13:8–13 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part, but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end.
Read full text - 1 Corinthians 15:12–57 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised, and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation is in vain and your faith is in vain.
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