Where do believers go after death? Do they go straight to heaven, or a lower level of heaven, or a waiting room? In 1 Thessalonians it talks about the dead in Christ rising. Where do dead believers rise from?
When believers die, their bodies go into the ground where they quickly decompose. But according to 2 Cor. 5:6-8 their spirits go to be with the Lord. Then, at the resurrection, their spirits will be given new bodies that will never die. It will be like they’ve risen from the dead.
Paul wrote that in order to gain entrance into Heaven, we mortals have to clothe ourselves with immortality (1 Cor. 15:53). For the dead in Christ this means getting a new immortal body to replace the old mortal one.
We don’t know what these new bodies will look like, but John said when we see the Lord we will be like Him (1 John 3:2) and the Bible clearly states that He has a physical body (Luke 24:39).