I am confident that I am
among that number. And I am confident of that fact because God has promised
that, those who come to Christ in faith, will not be cast out (John 6). Thus, I
can stand assured of my salvation, not because I can somehow hold on to it, but
because God has promised he will not let me go (Jude 25). Further, he has given
me the Holy Spirit as a pledge of that which is to come (Ephesians 1). All this
leads me to the inevitable thoughts that often occupy the minds of the
believers: what will heaven be like and what will I be doing when I get there?
I often talk to my wife
about this subject. Many times, I ask questions such as the one above. Invariably,
she will tell me that we will be worshipping and glorifying God throughout all
eternity. Of course, that is biblical since, in the few glimpses that we do get
of heaven in the New Testament, that is exactly what all those there are doing. But I often wonder
if we’ll be doing other things as well. Sometimes I tell my wife that it would
be really neat if God was to “replay” all the events of history that are so well known by
the Christian: Daniel in the lion’s den, the Exodus, etc. I would really like
to be there when the water came back on the Egyptians and experience first-hand
the awe that must have gripped the hearts of the Israelites at witnessing such
an event.
But inevitably, one
thing that comes up when we discuss heaven is the medium through which we will
enter it. In other words, as Paul reminds his readers in 1 Corinthians 15,
flesh and blood will not inherit the kingdom of God. That means that, unless
the Lord comes while we’re alive, we will have to “go through the valley of the
shadow of death” (Psalm 23). As I heard one person put it recently, “it’s not
so much death that I’m afraid of, it’s the method; I don’t want to suffer.”
Although that was said tongue in cheek, the reality is that we, in our humanity,
fear what we don’t know.
This is where the words
of those who have gone on before us can gain special poignancy. In his
Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin discusses thoughts about the
world to come. In a chapter entitled, “On Meditating on the World to Come,” he
reminds his readers that the Christian should not only not be afraid of death,
but should look forward to it as the passage into the world where no pain will abide.
We should even hate our flesh, Calvin continues, not because we abhor it for
its own sake, but because it is the repository of all that makes us the sinners
that we are.
How different such
attitude is to that of so many of us, who cling to our flesh with tenacity and
whose every move and action is motivated by making our bodies feel or look
better. I must confess that I all too often lose sight of the fact that it is
the “things which are unseen” that are eternal (1 Corinthians 4:18). If we hold
on to the world too tightly, however, we will eventually find out that we spent so much
time taking care of the temporal, that we neglected the eternal, all to our
everlasting chagrin.
But there is one thing
that we are told about heaven and the consummation of all things that is,
without a doubt, a most amazing event. Again in 1 Corinthians 15, Paul argues
that the resurrection from the dead is a fact and not a myth. He argues against
those who deny the resurrection, but also against those who claimed that the
resurrection of Christ was a onetime event undertaken by a god and that we
cannot expect that we will likewise be resurrected. In the midst of this
argument, Paul declares that Jesus is to reign until all things have been
placed under his feet. Then, he pens what to me is one of the most amazing
passages in all of Scripture.
“Then
the end will come, when He hands over the kingdom to God the Father after He
has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For He must reign until
He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last
enemy to be destroyed is death. For He ‘has put
everything under His feet.’ Now when it says that ‘everything’ has been put
under Him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put
everything under Christ. When He has done this, then
the Son Himself will subject Himself to Him who put everything under Him, so
that God may be all in all.”
1 Corinthians 15:24-28
Every time I read
that passage I get goose bumps! I keep thinking about the fact that we will be
witnesses of Christ submitting himself to the Father and God being all in all.
As opposed to the misguided ideas of the Arians of yesterday and today (the
Jehovah’s Witnesses being perhaps their greatest modern day disciples), this
has no reference to the Father being better than the Son. But it simply shows
how the Supreme Being of the universe is in harmony in everything He does and
that the persons of the Godhead are perfect in their roles and in their
humility. To think of the fact that we will be there to witness such a scene
leaves me, literally, breathless.
In discussing
heaven and the resurrection again Calvin spoke of those who speculate about
what heaven will be like and their irresistible urge to try and equate it with
the world that now is. “Independent of use” he says, “there will be so much
pleasantness in the very sight, so much delight in the very knowledge, that
this happiness will surpass all the means of enjoyment which are now afforded.”
He finishes the thought by saying that “fruition, pure and free from all
defect, though it be of no use to a corruptible mind, is the summit of
happiness.”
And thus, after
all is said and done, I can think of no better reason to want to be in heaven
than to be in the presence of the God who saved us and to behold how the
Father, the Son and the Spirit will demonstrate for us all what true service,
humility and yes, greatness are all about. Just as he did while Jesus “tabernacled”
among men!
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