What Benefit do Believers Receive from Christ at Death (Alexander S. Paterson, A.M., on the Shorter Catechism). 9 – 37

The souls of believers are at their death made perfect in holiness and do immediately pass into glory; and their bodies, being still united to Christ, do rest in their graves till the resurrection.

We are here taught:—

1. That the souls of believers are at death made perfect in holiness. Heb. xii. 23—”To the spirits of just men made perfect.”
2. That, after death, the souls of believers pass immediately into glory. Luke xxiii. 43—”Jesus said unto him, Verily, I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in paradise.”
3. That the bodies of believers, while in their graves, remain united to Christ. I Thess iv, 14.—”Them also who sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.”
4. That the bodies of believers “rest” in their graves. Isa lvii. 2—”They shall rest in their beds each one walking in his uprightness.”
5. That the bodies of believers shall be raised from their graves at the last day. I Thess. iv. 16—”The dead in Christ shall rise first.”

EXPLANATION.

Observe.—In the souls of believers at death, perfection appears in the following respects:—They feel themselves at liberty among the spirits of just men made perfect; they are delivered from sin, and from all the enemies with which they were surrounded in this world; they feel no more pain from the commission of sin: They are no longer vexed with the filthy communication of the wicked; they have now reached the summit of holiness and perfection: they have now arrived at the full stature of perfection in Christ Jesus: they are now perfect as God is perfect, and pure as he is pure; in a word, They are now the image of Jehovah, and conformed to Jesus, who is, “the image of the invisible God.”