Although many people have never had any specific teaching about heaven, it’s interesting that most people have a notion that heaven exists & consequently believe they will go there after they die. Israel’s King Solomon, a man of vast wisdom & experience, said “I have seen the burden God has laid on men. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men” (Eccl 3.10-11a). We all have a sense that there’s something more to life here on Earth.
But mention heaven & your mind may be overcast with foggy visions of fluffy clouds, childlike cherubim strumming harps & Saint Peter overseeing the pearly gates. Not so fast – where did you learn this? You probably have been exposed to such portrayals in movies, cartoons, books, stories or even jokes. Hardly authorities on the matter.
In fact, many people hold some pretty strange ideas regarding heaven. One woman told me she thought it would be whatever you wanted it to be & you could just enjoy all your favorite things. This is peculiar since none of us even chose to come into this world, didn’t have a say in its design & can’t control much around us, yet our own mere desires will somehow dictate what heaven will be like? One problem with this is that it’s extremely self-focused.
The focus in heaven will not be on us, but on God. It is heaven because God is there, not us. And it will still be heaven whether we are there or not. God is the one who decides what heaven is – after all, He decided what Earth is. We can’t trust fanciful depictions conjured up by the human mind, nor our own desires, but only the authority of God’s revelation in the Bible. So let's consider what God has revealed to us.
Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man,
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him. – 1 Cor 2.9 NKJV
Here are some fast facts about heaven based on the Scriptures:
You make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. – Ps 16.11
And heaven is even far better than we can imagine. So would you like to go there??? While God does want us to go there & be with Him forever, not everyone one does. It’s not our default destiny. There is something that keeps us out. A couple of primary characteristics of heaven are that it is holy & there is no sin there. These 2 things actually go hand in hand. God's holiness requires moral purity which necessitates the absence of sin. But our problem is that we have all sinned – violated God’s holiness by breaking His moral law (Rom 3.23, 1 Jn 3.4). And we say with Jesus’s disciples “Who then can be saved?” (Mt 19.25)
Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins. – Eccl 7.20
If we say we have not sinned, we make him (God) a liar, and his word is not in us. – 1 Jn 1.10
But nothing unclean will ever enter it (heaven), nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life. – Rev 21.27
All sin is hostile & evil in the sight of an absolutely holy God (Rom 8.7, Col 1.21) & it separates us from Him not only in eternity, but also in this life (Isa 59.2). God requires pure holiness to enter heaven, so even if we only sinned once (and we’ve done much more) we have blown it (Jas 2.10). For example, if we merely consider a few of the 10 Commandments (Ex 20.1-17), we’ve missed the mark if we have ever done any 1 of the following: lied, stolen, hated, lusted, coveted, disrespected our parents, used God’s name as a curse word or failed to keep God first in our lives. Further hostility to God is when we disregard His holiness by trying to justify or excuse our sinful behavior or try to cover it up with religion.
Since our sin prevents us from entering heaven & there are only 2 options – heaven or hell, then we should be extremely interested in knowing how to make sure we arrive in heaven. Fortunately for us, God in His blessed kindness, extreme mercy, deep grace & wonderful love has made a way for us sinners to be cleansed of our sin & qualified for heaven.
God’s one & only Son, Jesus Christ left the glory of heaven to come to this Earth to not only live a perfect moral life that’s impossible for us to live, but also to die a horrible death – crucifixion on a cross. When He died, He was not being punished for His own sin, but He stepped in to take God’s punishment for our sin. Due to God’s pure justice, He must punish our sin. Sin against an eternal God requires us being punished in an eternal hell, but Jesus Christ being eternal Himself bore that punishment in our place to satisfy God’s justice. But this doesn’t mean everyone’s automatically spared from hell.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. – Jesus in Jn 3.16-18
It requires our faith. Whenever we admit we’re sinners & believe that Jesus died in our place, God accepts Jesus’s sacrifice on our behalf & atones for our sin. Atonement is a fancy word meaning God forgives our sin & reconciles us to Himself – think of it as “at-one-ment” – we are united & at peace with God (1 Pt 3.18). Not only that, but God also applies Jesus’s perfect moral life to ours so that He qualifies us for heaven! How gracious & kind of God!
…the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. – Col 1.12-14
…in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. – 2 Cor 5.19-21
In light of God’s awesome gift of salvation… If you are already a Christian – Great! Seek the Lord in prayer & reading the Bible; As a citizen of heaven, keep your eyes on Jesus & follow Him (Mt 6.33, Rom 12.2, Eph 2.8-10, Php 3.20-21)! And if you haven’t accepted God’s only way of salvation, I implore you to do so. God not only wants you for eternity, He wants you now. By believing what’s explained above & praying about it to God, you can not only be saved from a horrible hell & gain eternal life in heaven, but you can also begin a person relationship with God right now! Don’t pass it up!
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. – Rom 6.23
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." – Jesus in Jn 14.6
But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name. – Jn 20.31
But mention heaven & your mind may be overcast with foggy visions of fluffy clouds, childlike cherubim strumming harps & Saint Peter overseeing the pearly gates. Not so fast – where did you learn this? You probably have been exposed to such portrayals in movies, cartoons, books, stories or even jokes. Hardly authorities on the matter.
In fact, many people hold some pretty strange ideas regarding heaven. One woman told me she thought it would be whatever you wanted it to be & you could just enjoy all your favorite things. This is peculiar since none of us even chose to come into this world, didn’t have a say in its design & can’t control much around us, yet our own mere desires will somehow dictate what heaven will be like? One problem with this is that it’s extremely self-focused.
The focus in heaven will not be on us, but on God. It is heaven because God is there, not us. And it will still be heaven whether we are there or not. God is the one who decides what heaven is – after all, He decided what Earth is. We can’t trust fanciful depictions conjured up by the human mind, nor our own desires, but only the authority of God’s revelation in the Bible. So let's consider what God has revealed to us.
Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man,
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him. – 1 Cor 2.9 NKJV
Here are some fast facts about heaven based on the Scriptures:
- God & Jesus Christ are the unmistakable focus of heaven (Rev 4.2-3, Isa 6.1-4, Eze 1.26-28).
- Since holiness is God’s preeminent characteristic, it follows that heaven is likewise holy (Isa 6.3, Rev 4.8, Ps 47.8).
- Speaking to His sovereign rule & justice, God’s throne is in heaven (Ps 11.4, 103.19).
- Heaven is powerfully filled & illuminated with God’s majestic glory (Rev 5.13, 15.8, 19.1, 21.10-11, 23, 22.5).
- Our earthly experiences pale in comparison (1 Cor 2.9, Rom 8.18).
- Heaven is eternal (everlasting) because God is eternal (Dn 7.14, Ps 93.2, 145.13).
- It is the home of righteousness (Ps 89.14, 2 Pt 3.13).
- Heaven is completely void of all sin, evil, deception & temptation, nor are there any evildoers (Ps 5.4, Rev 21.27).
- There is no death because God is the constant source of life. Sin is the source of death & there is no sin there (Rom 5.12, Rev 21.4).
- Nor is there any mourning, crying or pain (Rev 21.4).
- Heaven is replete with joy in the presence of the Lord (Ps 16.11, Mt 25.21, Jd 1.24).
- Heaven is a place of peace since everything that disrupts peace – sin & the curse on creation – does not exist there. Eventually, the old order of things as we know them will pass away & be replaced with a new era ruled by Jesus, the Prince of Peace (Mt 24.35, Rom 5.1, Isa 9.6, Mic 4.3, Rev 22.3).
- There is eternal rest – not continual slumber, but rest from striving against the sinful natures of ourselves & others as well as rest from exhausting life in a fallen world (Heb 4.1, 10-11).
- When a Christian dies, their soul immediately enters heaven (Mt 22.32, Lk 23.43, 2 Cor 5.8, Php 1.23, 1 Thes 5.9-10).
- Citizens of heaven will eventually get new bodies. At the end of this age, the earthly bodies of Christ's followers will be resurrected & changed into immortal bodies built for heaven (1 Cor 15.50-55, 2 Cor 5.1-5, 1 Jn 3.2).
- If a married couple is there, they will surely know one another, but marriage & procreation are not in heaven because they are no longer necessary (Mt 22.30, Lk 20.34-36).
- Worship there is unlike any you’ve ever experienced (Rev 4.8-11, 7.9-12).
- Heavenly citizens have the joy of serving the Lord as well as have various responsibilities (Rev 22.3-4, 1.6, 20.6, 1 Cor 6.3).
- Heaven is sometimes referred to as paradise (Lk 23.43). The Greek word carries the idea of a grand garden hinting that it will be akin to the first garden paradise – Eden, complete with the transplanted tree of life & perfect communion with God (Rev 2.7, 21.3, 22.2-4).
- There are awesome, astonishing angles called Cherubim & Seraphim, not childlike ones (Isa 6.1-6, Eze 1.5-14, Rev 4.6-8).
- Jesus has been preparing a place there for His people (Jn 14.1-3).
- There’s a huge capital city called the New Jerusalem that is 1,380 miles CUBED (Rev 21.2, 15-17).
- There are indeed pearly gates & streets of pure gold, but not guarded by St. Peter (Rev 21.21).
You make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. – Ps 16.11
And heaven is even far better than we can imagine. So would you like to go there??? While God does want us to go there & be with Him forever, not everyone one does. It’s not our default destiny. There is something that keeps us out. A couple of primary characteristics of heaven are that it is holy & there is no sin there. These 2 things actually go hand in hand. God's holiness requires moral purity which necessitates the absence of sin. But our problem is that we have all sinned – violated God’s holiness by breaking His moral law (Rom 3.23, 1 Jn 3.4). And we say with Jesus’s disciples “Who then can be saved?” (Mt 19.25)
Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins. – Eccl 7.20
If we say we have not sinned, we make him (God) a liar, and his word is not in us. – 1 Jn 1.10
But nothing unclean will ever enter it (heaven), nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life. – Rev 21.27
All sin is hostile & evil in the sight of an absolutely holy God (Rom 8.7, Col 1.21) & it separates us from Him not only in eternity, but also in this life (Isa 59.2). God requires pure holiness to enter heaven, so even if we only sinned once (and we’ve done much more) we have blown it (Jas 2.10). For example, if we merely consider a few of the 10 Commandments (Ex 20.1-17), we’ve missed the mark if we have ever done any 1 of the following: lied, stolen, hated, lusted, coveted, disrespected our parents, used God’s name as a curse word or failed to keep God first in our lives. Further hostility to God is when we disregard His holiness by trying to justify or excuse our sinful behavior or try to cover it up with religion.
Since our sin prevents us from entering heaven & there are only 2 options – heaven or hell, then we should be extremely interested in knowing how to make sure we arrive in heaven. Fortunately for us, God in His blessed kindness, extreme mercy, deep grace & wonderful love has made a way for us sinners to be cleansed of our sin & qualified for heaven.
God’s one & only Son, Jesus Christ left the glory of heaven to come to this Earth to not only live a perfect moral life that’s impossible for us to live, but also to die a horrible death – crucifixion on a cross. When He died, He was not being punished for His own sin, but He stepped in to take God’s punishment for our sin. Due to God’s pure justice, He must punish our sin. Sin against an eternal God requires us being punished in an eternal hell, but Jesus Christ being eternal Himself bore that punishment in our place to satisfy God’s justice. But this doesn’t mean everyone’s automatically spared from hell.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. – Jesus in Jn 3.16-18
It requires our faith. Whenever we admit we’re sinners & believe that Jesus died in our place, God accepts Jesus’s sacrifice on our behalf & atones for our sin. Atonement is a fancy word meaning God forgives our sin & reconciles us to Himself – think of it as “at-one-ment” – we are united & at peace with God (1 Pt 3.18). Not only that, but God also applies Jesus’s perfect moral life to ours so that He qualifies us for heaven! How gracious & kind of God!
…the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. – Col 1.12-14
…in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. – 2 Cor 5.19-21
In light of God’s awesome gift of salvation… If you are already a Christian – Great! Seek the Lord in prayer & reading the Bible; As a citizen of heaven, keep your eyes on Jesus & follow Him (Mt 6.33, Rom 12.2, Eph 2.8-10, Php 3.20-21)! And if you haven’t accepted God’s only way of salvation, I implore you to do so. God not only wants you for eternity, He wants you now. By believing what’s explained above & praying about it to God, you can not only be saved from a horrible hell & gain eternal life in heaven, but you can also begin a person relationship with God right now! Don’t pass it up!
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. – Rom 6.23
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." – Jesus in Jn 14.6
But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name. – Jn 20.31
Related Pages
|
|
|