"For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain...My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better." The Apostle Paul says in another place that when those who belong to Christ die, they go immediately to be with God (II Corinthians 5:6-8). Here Paul says that his life in this world is about serving Christ. Paul seems to have a death wish. He says death is an advantage because when he departs this life through death then he goes to be in the presence of Christ. So we pass through death of the physical body on the way to full possession of eternal life, which is obtained through bodily resurrection when Christ returns at His second coming. The place we call heaven is an intermediate and temporary state or place where the Christian's identity in Christ is preserved by God as he or she is on the way to being resurrected and obtaining full possession of eternal life. Thus, what we are and do in the present life in the body matters because it is preserved by God in heaven when we die and then reaffirmed in the future eternal life when we are resurrected.
