What Happens to Babies When They Die?
More completely, “What happens to babies when they die since we're all born with a sinful nature that separates us from God?”
This question was submitted almost two months ago, but answering it now fits in perfectly because it’s a logical question to ask given what we keep seeing over and over in the Scriptures about our default position before God:
Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned — Romans 5:12
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God — Romans 3:23
But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear. — Isaiah 59:2
And, as we were reminded last week, we are not sinners because we sin, but rather we sin because we are sinners with a sinful nature which we acquired not at birth, but at conception (Psalm 51:5).
Remember Newton’s First Law of Motion? “An object at rest remains at rest, and an object in motion remains in motion at constant speed and in a straight line unless acted on by an unbalanced force.” This is also known as the “law of inertia.” Well, we have what I like to call “spiritual inertia”:
We’re all born spiritually dead, and unless something drastic happens to us between the time of our physical birth and our physical death, we will continue to be relationally separated from God for all eternity in a very real place called hell.
But what happens when life is cut short by what would be considered—by human standards—“too soon?”
Unfortunately, there are no simple, clear-cut verses in the Bible to which we can turn that will spoon-feed us the answer—there is no “Romans 10:9, 10 for babies.” But that’s not to say that there’s no answer to be found in the pages of Scripture. We’re just going to have to do a little legwork; we’re going to have to “concentrate and connect” as my late pastor Ken Hutcherson was fond of saying, and infer the answer from Scripture.
This inference is seven-fold.
God Loves Children
[Jerusalem] slaughtered My children and gave them up to idols by causing them to pass through the fire. — Ezekiel 16:21
… ‘Hear the word of Yahweh, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, “Behold, I am about to bring a calamity upon this place, at which the ears of everyone that hears of it will tingle. Because they have forsaken Me and have made this a foreign place and have burned incense in it to other gods, that neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah had ever known, and because they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, a thing which I never commanded or spoke of, nor did it ever come upon My heart, — Jeremiah 19:3–5
But Jesus said, “Let the children alone, and do not hinder them from coming to Me; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” — Matthew 19:14 (cf. Mark 10:13–16, Luke 18:15–17. There were babies in addition to children.)
God is Just
First, remember from last week that not God is not only perfectly just, but He Himself is the very standard of what justice is:
Far be it from You to do such a thing, to put to death the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do justice?” — Genesis 18:25
The Rock! His work is perfect, For all His ways are just; a God of faithfulness and without injustice, righteous and upright is He. — Deuteronomy 32:4
God is a righteous judge, And a God who has indignation every day. — Psalm 7:11
Everyone Is Accountable for His Own Sins
Fathers shall not be put to death for their sons, nor shall sons be put to death for their fathers; each shall be put to death for his own sin. — Deuteronomy 24:16
But everyone will die for his own iniquity; each man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth will be set on edge. — Jeremiah 31:30
The soul who sins will die. The son will not bear the iniquity of the father, nor will the father bear the iniquity of the son; the righteousness of the righteous will be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself. — Ezekiel 18:20
Age of Accountability
But there’s also a recognition that the very young do not recognize that light for what it is; in other words, they have not reached a level of maturity beyond which they are accountable for their rebellion against God:
Moreover, your little ones who you said would become plunder, and your sons, who this day have no knowledge of good or evil, shall enter there, and I will give it to them, and they shall possess it. — Deuteronomy 1:39
So should I not have pity on Nineveh, the great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?” — Jonah 4:11
For before the boy will know to refuse evil and choose good, the land whose two kings you dread will be forsaken. — Isaiah 7:16
Ignorance is Not Imputed as Unrighteousness
Owing to God’s just nature, He will also not hold us accountable to that of which we are truly ignorant. Note what Jesus said to the Jews after Jesus opened the eyes of the man who was born blind:
And Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind.” Some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these things and said to Him, “Are we blind too?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.” — John 9:39–41
It seems here that if we’re willing to admit our ignorance—our spiritual blindness to the truth—then God is willing to show us mercy and not impute those sins committed in ignorance to us, the same way that Paul “was shown mercy because [he] acted ignorantly in unbelief” (1 Timothy 1:13) Jesus says something similar about the world in general in John 15:
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates Me hates My Father also. If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well. — John 15:18–24
Then He began to denounce the cities in which most of His miracles were done, because they did not repent. “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles had occurred in Tyre and Sidon which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. Nevertheless I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. And Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will descend to Hades; for if the miracles had occurred in Sodom which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day. Nevertheless I say to you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for you.” — Matthew 11:20–24 (cf. Luke 10:10–14)
I think that a fair way of summarizing the principle behind these two passages is “God judges us according to the light we have been shown.”
We also see this principle in Luke 12:
And that slave who knew his master’s will and did not get ready or act in accord with his will, will receive many beatings, but the one who did not know it, and committed deeds worthy of a beating, will receive but a few. From everyone who has been given much, much will be required, and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more. — Luke 12:47, 48
At this point, the self-identifying atheist or agnostic might at last desire to lay claim to a supposed loophole as he stands before Christ at the Great White Throne (Revelation 20:11–15), but he cannot; for he has the inescapable problem of being “without excuse” because God has revealed His existence, eternal power, and divine nature not only through creation, but He has also written a fundamental understanding of good and evil on their hearts (i.e., their conscience, cf. Romans 2:14–16). He is not ignorant of God, he willfully suppresses the truth in unrighteousness (Romans 1:18).
God does not impute sin to someone for something that he does not know or had no way of knowing.
We Are Saved By Grace, Condemned by Works
When the Bible describes those who inhabit hell, the emphasis is on their willful rebellion against God:
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. — 1 Corinthians 6:9, 10
Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. — Galatians 5:19–21
For this you know with certainty, that no one sexually immoral or impure or greedy, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. — Ephesians 5:5
And the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. — Revelation 20:12b
Case Study: David and Bathsheba’s Firstborn
The only passage of which I am aware that directly addresses the issue of the fate of a young child is found in 2 Samuel, after his son (conceived in his adultery with Bathsheba) died:
Then he said, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, ‘Who knows, Yahweh may be gracious to me, that the child may live.’ But now he has died; why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.” — 2 Samuel 12:22, 23
Clearly, David consoled himself not in the expectation of joining his son’s corpse in a tomb (what consolation would that be?), but rather in joining him in heaven after his own death (cf. Psalm 23:6).
The Final Answer
I believe that Scripture teaches, albeit indirectly or subtly, that children who die before reaching an age of accountability do not have their sins imputed to them, so they will thus be ushered into heaven upon death.
Homework
This week’s assignment was submitted by another student in my class:
What happens to people when they die? Do they go straight to heaven? Because in Revelation it says “And the dead in Christ will rise up.” Are they already in heaven or it is talking about physical bodies?