The background of Paul’s idea of the life to come (more than bodily form issues). Does Paul give any details about heaven or hell? What role does the resurrection from the dead play in Paul’s view of the life to come? What role does the bodily resurrection of Christ play in the Christian’s hope of participation in the life to come?

In general, Paul utilizes the word heaven to provide Christians with hope (Philippians 3:20 [NASB]). Paul also identifies heaven as a spiritual domain that coincides with the physical world.[1] In addition, Paul refers to the heavens as part of the cosmos that represents the spirit world (Ephesians 3:10; 6:12). Alternatively, according to Paul, hell is a real place of destruction where non-believers experience divine wrath. Furthermore, according to Paul, the eternal state of Christian existence is in a bodily form resurrected from death into the presence of God.

Paul provides a number of details about heaven and hell. First, regarding heaven, Paul explains that heaven is Christ’s dwelling place (1 Thessalonians 1:10). Paul also asserts that God reveals His wisdom in the heavenly domain (Ephesians 3:10). Additionally, wicked supernatural beings exist in the heavenly realm (Ephesians 6:12). However, Peter O’Brien points out that this should not frighten believers because these evil powers are subjected to God and Christians have been transferred from this dark sphere (Colossians 1:13).[2] Next, Millard Erickson points out that experientially “heaven will far surpass anything experienced here.”[3] Paul supports Erickson’s assertion in a reference likely discussing the blessings of heaven by stating, “Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him. For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God” (1 Corinthians 2:9-10). Paul also claims that heaven is full of rewards (1 Corinthians 3:14-15). Harm Hollander appropriately clarifies that the reward Paul refers to is not salvific, but instead, “The reward seems to be something additional to salvation.”[4] Finally, Paul’s most comforting perspective of heaven for believers on earth is that Christians, even now, “share Christ’s life in the heavenly realms.”[5]

Regarding hell, John Walvoord recognizes that Paul’s view encompasses a location where the “wicked will receive sudden destruction when the Day of the Lord overtakes them” (1 Thessalonians 5:3).[6] Furthermore, Paul suggests individuals destined to hell will experience divine wrath (1 Thessalonians 5:9). Finally, Paul explains that choosing eternal destruction results in an eternal separation from God’s presence (2 Thessalonians 1:9). Walvoord also addresses the issue of the duration of hell by noting that Paul uses the Greek word, aion, to describe the endless nature of eternal punishment and adamantly claims that limiting the definition of the word to anything less than “endless” within the context of Paul’s references to hell is a distortion of the Greek.[7]

Prior to assessing the role of the resurrection in Paul’s view of the life to come, it is critical to determine whether Paul believed in the historical factuality of Jesus’s resurrection. Ronald Sider explains that theologians William Farmer, Karl Barth, and Rudolph Bultmann all, in their own ways, reject the notion of an actual resurrection of Christ.[8] However, Sider concludes that Paul’s words in his first letter to the Corinthians confirm the reality of an actual resurrection of Christ by stating, “He (Christ) was buried, and that He was raised on the third day…and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren” (1 Corinthians 15:4-6).[9] Accordingly, Paul believed in the historical factuality of Jesus’s death and resurrection. In fact, F. F. Bruce explains that Paul’s Pharisaic background provided a strong foundation for a belief in the resurrection from the dead.[10] Furthermore, Luke records Paul explaining to Governor Felix “that there shall certainly be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked” (Acts 24:15). Bruce also notes a shift in Paul’s emphasis, after the apostle’s recent brush with death, to an enhanced focus on dying prior to the Parousia.[11] Accordingly, Paul connects the importance of the resurrection to the immortality of the believer’s souls by stating, “He who raised the Lord Jesus to life will with Jesus raise us [people still alive in the flesh] too, and bring us to his presence” (2 Corinthians 4:14). In fact, Bruce continues, “Paul could not contemplate immortality apart from resurrection.”[12] Paul further clarifies the relationship between immortality and resurrection by explaining that, at the time of physical death, Christians will rise in a spiritualized embodiment of life, which carries believers into the presence of the Lord.[13]

Gary Habermas and J. P. Moreland maintain that the resurrection of Christ supports the hope of believer participation in eternal life in two ways.[14] First, Jesus’ resurrection “establishes Jesus’ authority.”[15] In other words, Paul explains that death is subject to the authority of Christ by pointing out that since Jesus raised for the dead, “death no longer is master over Him,” and if death is no longer master over Christ, and believers are in Christ, then death is no longer a master over Christians (Romans 6:9). Second, Habermas and Moreland note that the resurrected Christ actually exemplifies life after death.[16] More specifically, in Jesus’ resurrected spiritual body the eyewitnesses to Christ attest to a “living example of the afterlife.”[17] Importantly, Christ’s resurrection not only provides supporting evidence for the reality of an afterlife, but Christ also exemplifies the traits of life after life for each Christian.[18] It is difficult to overestimate the importance of Christ’s resurrection to the hope of all Christians past and present for, as Bruce astutely notes, “what was true of Him must be true of his people.”[19]