What does the Bible say about death?
The Bible neither romanticizes nor avoids death. It calls death 'the last enemy' and weeps at gravesides. But it also calls death — for those in Christ — 'gain,' a 'falling asleep,' and a doorway to a presence we have only glimpsed. The resurrection of Jesus reframes death from a final word into a defeated one.
O death, where is your sting?
Bible verses about death
"But when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting? The sting of death is sin; and the power of sin is the law: but thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."
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"Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth on me, though he die, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth on me shall never die. Believest thou this?"
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"For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain."
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"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me; Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me."
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"For the wages of sin is death; but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
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"and he shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more; neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more: the first things are passed away."
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"we are of good courage, I say, and are willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be at home with the Lord."
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Frequently asked
What happens after death according to the Bible?
Paul writes that to be 'absent from the body' is to be 'at home with the Lord' (2 Corinthians 5:8). The full hope of scripture is bodily resurrection — not just disembodied afterlife (1 Corinthians 15).
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