Considering that “the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life” (Romans 6:23) and that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), why would God take a prophet into heaven without first experiencing death?

In Scripture there are two believers whom the Lord permitted to enter heaven without tasting physical death. Elijah, whom your question seems to be mentioning, is one example (2 Kings 2). The other is Enoch (Genesis 5:21-24; Hebrews 11:5).

Certainly, neither of them is an exception to the two passages you quoted from Romans. They were both sinners who fell short of the perfection God created us to have. As a judgment on their sin, they had both earned death—physical death and eternal death. Even though they had been brought to faith in God’s promised salvation, they would normally still have had to pass through physical death as the gateway to eternal life. However, by his grace, God allowed those two Old Testament believers, whose eyes were focused on the coming Messiah, to be exceptions to that typical path.

Of course, that begs your question: why did God make those two exceptions? God may have had many reasons, but he has not revealed to us why this was the best way to take these two believers home to heaven. However, allow me to say this much: we can see from Scripture that both of these believers lived at a time of an almost overwhelming flood of unbelief. At such a difficult time for his believers, was God granting a powerful reminder of the reality of eternal life—with glorified soul and body? Such a goal by God’s grace awaits all believers at the end of their earthly life.  Did the believers at the time of Enoch and Elijah need such a reminder?

Only God knows if that was even one small part of his purpose for allowing the two exceptions that he did. This much we do know for sure: God’s actions were perfectly wise and gracious.

But there’s one last thought to consider. Elijah and Enoch won’t be the only ones in heaven who will have bypassed physical death! Many Christians will pass from this life to eternity without passing through physical death. All believers who are living on earth when the Last Day arrives will in an instant be gloriously transformed and wondrously translated to the glories of eternity.

The apostle Paul speaks of this in 1 Thessalonians 4:16,17. As he contrasts what will happen to dead believers and living believers on the Last Day he says: “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, . . . with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.”