Q. 55. If you persevere in faith and holiness to the end, what benefits will you receive from Christ at death?

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If I persevere. God provides his children with the grace necessary to persevere. At the same time, Scripture warns about the possibility of drifting away from the truth or becoming once again entangled in the defilements of the world and overcome by them.

Faith. We persevere by continually “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2).

Holiness. The faith that counts is “faith working through love” (Galatians 5:6). We must “strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14). “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12–13).

To the end. “The one who endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 24:13).

Ark. God has ordained for the church and its pastors to play a crucial role in watching over our souls, keeping us from sin, and nurturing us to maturity in Christ (Hebrews 10:23–25; 13:17; 1 Timothy 4:16; Ephesians 4:11–16). There is no ordinary possibility of final salvation outside the visible Church (see Notes on Q. 40).

Moment of death. The soul of the believer remains conscious after death and immediately goes to be with God in heaven. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord: “we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8).

Rest. While the soul remains conscious after death, the death of a believer is frequently referred to as falling “asleep” (Acts 7:60). Like sleep, death is a peaceful and temporary state from which the saints will “awake” when their souls are reunited with their bodies at the resurrection of the dead (Daniel 12:2). This is why Christians commonly call their burial places “cemeteries,” which means “sleeping places.”

Until the resurrection. The separation of the soul and the body, commonly called the intermediate state, is only temporary and not ultimately desirable. “It is against the nature of the soul to be without the body. But nothing that is against nature can be lasting” (Aquinas, Summa Contra Gentiles 4, 79). The resurrection of the body is secured by Christ’s bodily resurrection (Q. 33; 56).