Is it correct to say that, after they die, a believer’s soul is with Christ?

This text is from a letter written by David Gooding in 2000.

This is a very interesting question. When it comes to death, I find it easier to think in the terms that Scripture uses.

For instance, our Lord said to the dying thief 'Today thou shalt be with me in Paradise' (see Luke 23:43). He did not say 'Today thy soul shall be in Paradise', but 'thou'.

Similarly, Paul says in Philippians 1:23 'I have a desire to depart and be with Christ'; not 'My soul longs to go to be with Christ', but 'I long to go to be with Christ'.

Peter says that soon he is to 'put off his tabernacle', that is, his physical body (see 2 Pet 1:13–14). But as long as he is in this tabernacle—as long as he is in his physical body—he wants to stir up his fellow believers by way of remembrance. So, for Peter, the physical body is the tent in which he dwells. At death, he will no longer be in the tabernacle. He, Peter, will be with the Lord.

And again, 2 Corinthians 5:6 points out that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. Then, in verse 8, we are willing rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. That is to say, when a believer dies, they leave their physical body and go to be with the Lord. The believer—the person, the real person—is with the Lord.

So it is not the whole story to say that the soul is with Christ, or the spirit is with Christ. It is the person who is with Christ.

Yours sincerely in Christ,