are the saved with jesus after death?

In 2 Corinthians 5:8, the Apostle Paul wrote, "We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord." When an individual is saved and the soul departs (becomes "absent from the body"), he immediately becomes "present with the Lord." The Apostle stated, "For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better" (Philippians 1:23). This verse reveals when we (the soul, the real person) depart from our earthly frame, if we are saved, our soul goes "to be with Christ." As Stephen became the first Christian martyr, he cried in Acts 7:59, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Therefore, a saved individual is with Jesus after they have passed away. 
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The Scriptures also teach while time is standing, the saved who pass from this life go to Paradise (also denoted as "Abraham's bosom"; Luke 16:22). In Luke 23:43, Jesus told the repentant thief, "To day shalt thou be with me in paradise." Paradise is the immediate eternal realm a believer occupies subsequent to death. Jesus uncapped eternity and allowed us a glimpse when He spoke the words recorded in Luke, Chapter 16. Verse 22 says Lazarus "died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom," indicating Paradise immediately succeeds death. (Some refer to this account as a parable, but Jesus mentioned the name of the individual in this account, Lazarus, and none of Christ's parables mention a personal name. This account is not a parable.)

Earl R. Borders

From the May 2024 issue of The Gospel Trumpeter