Thoughts on the intermediate state

[beloved7]

We do not know much about what the intermediate state is like, and I dare not enter into the secret councils of the Lord. Scripture is all sufficient, and everything we need to know on this side of eternity has been provided for us in Scripture.

Having said this, I find myself more and more imagining what life will be like after I take my last breath. What I will behold. These thoughts have become very prevalent after the death of my father two years ago, I am confident he is with the Lord.

I find myself pondering what he must be experiencing, what it is like. Does anyone else think about what it will be like once we are with Him but before the Second Coming?

This is not an invitation to suggest anything that is outside of the Word, I just find myself thinking about this often.

 

[Taylor]

I think about it a lot. It’s really the only thing that makes this life bearable at times, knowing that one day, I will be able to “love Christ with unsinning heart.”

 

[RamistThomist]

On one hand, we will be bodiless, yet on the other hand we will have more or less recognizable forms (Rev. 6, saints under the altar).

While it's tempting to think it will be smiles and sunshine, and I suspect it largely will, the saints in the intermediate state in Revelation were under the altar praying for judgment.

 

[Stephen L Smith]

I think about it a lot. It’s really the only thing that makes this life bearable at times, knowing that one day, I will be able to “love Christ with unsinning heart.”

Taylor I know we both love Dr Lloyd-Jones ministry and have both been through difficult trials. Here are a couple of emphasis from Dr Lloyd-Jones ministry that I think will be edifying and also pertinent to the OP.

The first sermon I heard by MLJ was a powerful sermon he gave while visiting the USA in 1969. He preached on that great passage:
"For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal." 2 Cor 4:17-18 NKJV

MLJ emphasised the 'weight of glory' is an important truth to reflect on.

On his death bed he asked his close friend Vernon Higham to preach on 2 Pet 1:11
"for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

No matter the difficult trials we face, we can be encouraged by the weight of glory to come, and we pray for an abundant entrance into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

 

[KMK]

Dr. Waldron's commentary on chapter 31 is helpful in his "A Modern Exposition of the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith." As a Reformed Baptist, it is a book worth having.

 

[beloved7]

Dr. Waldron's commentary on chapter 31 is helpful in his "A Modern Exposition of the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith." As a Reformed Baptist, it is a book worth having.

Thank you for this, I will check to see if my church library has this. Dr Waldron is a blessing indeed.

 

[Jerusalem Blade]

In one respect, I think it is rather simple:

But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel (Heb 12:22,23,24).​

We shall be in the glory of God's presence, direct recipients of His love and care, among our saved friends and families. Despite all this bliss and wonder, we – those in that state – will deeply long for our resurrection bodies, as without them we will not know the full wonder of our utter union with the glorified body of our Saviour and Elder Brother, in whom we will know the glory of the triune God as He does, according to our limited ability to comprehend the Infinite One.