The nature of Heaven

The nature of Heaven

We have looked at the nature of our resurrected bodies. We will be real people, more alive than we are today. Now let us explore the nature of our new environment, heaven itself. The Bible does not spell out in detail the nature of heaven and leaves much to our imagination. However, it gives plenty of clues from which I have culled the following:

Heaven is real

We tend to think of heaven as somehow being less real than our present existence. However the New Testament puts it the other way round. Paul says: “Our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:17, 18). In comparison to things we experience in this life which are “light” and “momentary”, the glory that awaits us is “weighty” and “eternal”. In other words, heaven is more real than life here. I expect to be more alive than I am now, more aware of who I am as a forgiven and transformed child of God, more aware of my potential. We will be real people living in a real universe.

The Bible states four times that God will one day create “a new heaven and a new earth” (Isaiah 65:17; 66:22; 2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 21:1). Note that it includes a new earth. If God created this vast universe, even if he took some billions of years to do it (because he enjoys creating), it is going to be no problem for him to create a new universe (or renew this one) in which he will enjoy the company of his created and redeemed people for eternity. In the booklet God’s Vision for His Family, the Church: A Call to the Churches of the New Millennium, in the chapter on The Church and Creation, I have explored the biblical basis for believing in the goodness of God’s creation and that this created world will itself be part of God’s restored and transformed universe.

Archbishop William Temple, alluding to the three great material truths of Christianity, namely creation, incarnation (Jesus taking human nature) and resurrection, summed up very well the importance of created matter in his book Nature, Man and God^{^[15]}, based on his Gifford lectures of 1932-33. He wrote:

It may be safely said that one ground for the hope of Christianity, that it may make good its claim to be the one true faith, lies in the fact that it is the most avowedly materialistic of all the great religions. It affords an expectation that it may be able to control the material, precisely because it does not ignore or deny it, but roundly asserts alike the reality of matter and its subordination. Its own most central saying is: The 'Word was made flesh', where the last term was, no doubt, chosen because of its specially materialistic associations. By the very nature of its central doctrine Christianity is committed to a belief in the ultimate significance of the historical process, and in the reality of matter and its place in the divine scheme.

It seems likely that, just as our resurrection bodies will be the same bodies with their identities intact (N.B. Jesus’ scars), this new universe will be a regenerated universe, purged of all present imperfections, rather than a replacement one. Jesus spoke of it as “the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne” (Matthew 19:28). The Greek word translated “renewal” is literally “rebirth” and is used of the spiritual rebirth of people in Titus 3:5. This also seems to be the implication of Paul’s statement in Romans 8 that “the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God” (v. 21). Peter does speak of the destruction of this present universe by fire (2 Peter 3:10-13), but maybe this is part of the cleansing process.

It is interesting that in the wonderful vision which John has of heaven in the last two chapters of the Bible, he sees the Holy City “coming down out of heaven from God” (Revelation 21:2). The origin of this home for God’s people is in heaven. Its foundation is in the new earth where God will live with his people (Revelation 21:3; 22:3,4). In a very real sense, heaven and earth will have merged.

The Bible also appears to indicate that all that is best in this world of the things which God and humans have experienced and created, will have its counterpart in heaven. “The glorious treasures of the nations will be brought into the city” (Revelation 21:26). C. S. Lewis provides a useful analogy for describing the relationship between our experiences in this life and the next. Writing to his friend Malcolm, he said:

The hills and valleys of heaven will be to those you now experience not as a copy is to an original, nor as a substitute to the genuine article, but as the flower to the root, or the diamond to the coal.

I have often wondered whether the biblical picture of the wolf living with the lamb, the leopard lying down with the goat, the calf with the lion, and a little child leading them (Isaiah 11:6-9; 65:25) is to be taken merely as a metaphor of peace among humans, or does it imply something more literal? In his book The Problem of Pain, C. S. Lewis has an interesting section where he argues for the presence of animals in heaven, not by virtue of right, but because of their relationship to humans.

And don’t be put off by the symbolism that is used in the Bible to describe heaven. This does not make it any less real. John Buckeridge, assistant editor of Alpha, says that when he was a child he imagined that everyone would be busy digging up the streets. “After all the preacher said that the streets of heaven were paved with gold—so I figured a jack hammer or pick-axe would be a lot more useful than a harp!” Heaven is no more literally made of gold and precious stones than the promised land of Canaan literally “flowed with milk and honey”, but the image being presented is clear enough in both cases. It is sad, however, when adults avoid the issues raised by the biblical teaching on heaven by poking fun at its symbolism. C. S. Lewis has a delightful passage in Mere Christianity^{^[16]} about this:

There is no need to be worried by facetious people who try to make the Christian hope of ‘Heaven’ ridiculous by saying they do not want to “spend eternity playing harps.” The answer to such people is that if they cannot understand books written for grown-ups, they should not talk about them. All the scriptural imagery (harps, crowns, gold, etc.) is, of course, a merely symbolical attempt to express the inexpressible. Musical instruments are mentioned because for many people (not all) music is the thing known in the present life which most strongly suggests ecstasy and infinity. Crowns are mentioned to suggest the fact that those who are united with God in eternity share His splendour and power and joy. Gold is mentioned to suggest the timelessness of Heaven (gold does not rust) and the preciousness of it. People who take these symbols literally might as well think that when Christ told us to be like doves, He meant that we were to lay eggs.

No doubt the reality will be even more glorious than what is indicated to our limited imagination by the symbols.

At this point it may be helpful to compare the first three chapters of the Bible with the last three. Though the writers employ much symbolism, the significance is obvious.

Genesis 1-3

Disobedience (3:6)

The ground cursed (3:17)

Relationship with God broken (3:23)

Spoilt human relationships (3:16)

Pain and suffering (3:16-19)

Death (3:19)

Satan victorious (3:1-7)

The gate shut (3:24)

The tree of life unobtainable (3:24)

Revelation 20-22

Service (22:3)

No more curse (22:3)

Relationship restored (21:3,4)

Evil and division banished (21:8, 27; 22:2)

No more pain or sorrow (21:4)

No more death (21:4)

Satan judged (20:10)

The gate open (21:25)

The tree of life for all (22:2)

As Anglican scholar John Stott points out in his excellent book The Incomparable Christ, the whole focus of John’s description of heaven in the last two chapters of the Bible is on life—the book of life (21:27), the water of life (21:6; 22:1, 2, 17) and the tree of life (22:2, 14, 19). He adds:

He uses three distinct metaphors. The first is security in the city of God, the new Jerusalem. The second is access to the tree of life in the Garden of Eden restored. The third is the intimate relationship of bride and bridegroom in marriage. John has a remarkable facility for mixing his metaphors. He jumps abruptly from one to another (the city, the garden and the wedding) without any apparent sense of incongruity.

Heaven is God centred

On earth we humans have displaced God from the centre of things. In our pride we think we can do things better our way, a process that began in the dawn of history (Genesis 3). That is why the world is in a mess! However, in heaven God will be the centre and focus of his recreated universe. This is beautifully pictured in Revelation 4 and 5. Chapter four pictures God on his throne being worshipped as the creator of all things, while chapter five speaks of him as the redeemer of his people. There are four concentric circles around the throne. In the immediate vicinity of the throne are the four living creatures (4:6). These have been variously interpreted as either the highest order of created beings or perhaps representative of the whole of creation. The faces with the likenesses of lion, ox, man and eagle perhaps signifying majesty, strength, wisdom and swiftness. Whatever they represent, they focus on the holiness and eternal nature of God.

The second circle consists of the twenty-four elders, representative of God’s people of all ages, twelve being the number associated with the people of God (twelve tribes of the Israelites in the Old Testament plus twelve apostles, the foundation members of the church in the New Testament). They all wear crowns and are seated on thrones. The New Testament speaks of a “crown that will last forever” (1 Corinthians 9:25), a “crown of righteousness” (2 Timothy 4:8), “a crown of life” (James 1:12; Revelation 2:10) and “a crown of glory” (1 Peter 5:4) which await those who are faithful to Christ. Whereas in this life crowns are for winners, and when someone wins others lose, in heaven there are crowns and laurels all around! There is also emphasis on reigning with Christ. “To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne” (Revelation 3:21). “And they will reign for ever and ever” (Revelation 22:5). The elders praise God for his work of creation (4:11) and when Jesus, “a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain” (5:6), appears in heaven, they praise him for his work of redemption. “With your own blood you bought for God people from every tribe, language, nation, and race. You let them become kings and serve God as priests, and they will rule on earth” (5:9, 10).

In the third circle are the millions of angels who praise Jesus, who “is worthy to receive power, riches, wisdom, strength, honour, glory and praise” (5:11, 12). The fourth and outer circle is represented by “all beings in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and in the sea” (5:13), in other words, all living creatures, who also join in praising God and Jesus.

Because God is central to the whole picture there will be perfect harmony in the new heavens and earth, in contrast to the picture we have here now, where humans have usurped centre stage.

It is significant that Jesus is called the Lamb (in Jewish culture the animal of sacrifice) twenty-seven times in the book of Revelation. It was his sufferings and death on our behalf, that will give us the right to a place in the kingdom of God. In heaven he will forever carry the outward marks of those sufferings. “Only Jesus has the power to save! His name is the only one in all the world that can save anyone” (Acts 4:12).

In the picture of heaven described in these two chapters of Revelation there is no mention of the third member of the divine Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. However, the Holy Spirit does appear at the beginning of the book, represented by the “seven spirits before [God’s] throne” (1:4). As most of the symbolism of Revelation is taken from the temple worship of the Old Testament, I expect that what John saw was the seven-branched lamp-stand that stood in the priest’s court of the temple. I expect that “the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city” (22:1) also represents the Holy Spirit. It is he who illuminates our lives with the truth of the gospel, who draws us to Christ, who transforms our lives from within, and whose presence in our lives will always be our link with God the Father and Jesus. He is the giver of life, the one who makes all we have been describing a reality in our experience and through us brings glory to the Father and Jesus.

Heaven is for relationships

As I have explored in some depth in the booklet on the Church, God is a personal God who exists within himself in loving relationships between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He created us to become members of his forever family and to enjoy those loving relationships with him and one another. Through the transforming work of the Holy Spirit, our self-centredness and those sins that hinder our relationships here will be removed. We will be “conformed to the likeness of his Son” (Romans 8:29; see also 2 Corinthians 3:18).

Because we maintain our full individuality we will be able to enjoy those relationships to the full. In this respect Christianity is in complete contrast to the Buddhist and Hindu view of the future where Nirvana implies the loss of individual identity. The Shakabuku Kyoten, the “conversion manual” of Soka Gakkai, states, “Life after death merges into the Great Life of the Universe; it cannot be found anywhere.” This is the general essence of Buddhism. An individual has no existence and thus death’s sorrow is overcome and there is no God to confront me for God and I are one. But in the process we lose out on the possibility of meaningful relationships. This is where all the emphasis is in the Bible. It also contrasts with the Muslim view of heaven where the emphasis is on sensual pleasures rather than those which come from loving relationships with God and others as members of God’s forever family.

This emphasis on our personal individuality is implied in Jesus’ word to the church in Pergamum: “To him who overcomes…I will also give…a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it” (Revelation 2:17). C. S. Lewis, in The Problem of Pain,^{^[17]} has a thoughtful comment on this statement:

What can be more a man's own than this new name which even in eternity remains a secret between God and him? And what shall we take this secrecy to mean? Surely, that each of the redeemed shall forever know and praise some one aspect of the divine beauty better than any other creature can. Why else were individuals created, but that God, loving all infinitely, should love each differently? And this difference, so far from impairing, floods with meaning the love of all blessed creatures for one another, the communion of the saints. If all experienced God in the same way and returned Him an identical worship, the song of the church triumphant would have no symphony, it would be like an orchestra in which all the instruments played the same note.

In other words, we will each have something different to share with others of our experience of God. This is true unity— a union of distinct individuals who unite in our praise of God. For this we were created. This is very different from the pantheistic view of Eastern religions where everything is God. As Lewis says, “God created: He caused things other than himself that, being distinct, they might learn to love Him, and achieve union instead of sameness.”

I have sometimes been asked, “Will we know each other in heaven?” I have always been surprised that people would raise this question. If he created us for the very purpose of having a people on whom he could shower his love and who could enjoy one another as loving members of his family, would he have forgotten to key in the factor necessary for us to know one another? Anyway the Bible is clear on this point. Moses and Elijah knew one another on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matthew 17:3). When Paul is giving encouragement to the Christians at Thessalonica who have lost loved ones, he tells them that when Jesus returns “then those who had faith in Christ before they died will be raised to life. Next, all of us who are still alive will be taken up into the clouds together with them^{^[18]} to meet the Lord in the sky. From that time on we will all be with the Lord forever. Encourage each other with these words” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18). Paul expresses his disappointment at not being able to revisit his converts in Thessalonica. But at least he can look forward to meeting them again at Christ’s return. “After all, when the Lord Jesus appears, who else but you will give us hope and joy and be like a glorious crown for us?” (1 Thessalonians 2:17-19). When we have this perspective it will affect many of our goals in this life. Jesus indicated in his Parable of the Shrewd Manager that we can start building those relationships for eternity now by the generous use of our material possessions (Luke 16:1-15).

One of the great experiences we can anticipate will be the opportunity to enjoy relationships with people of all ages and all cultures. In this life we are severely limited, both by space and time, in the relationships we can enjoy. H. Russell Bernard, A University of Florida anthropologist, and Peter Killworth, an English physicist, have done a study in which they estimate the number of people that most of us know. Asking 1554 people specific questions about their acquaintances, they concluded that the average person knows 290 people. In God’s forever family, however, we will be able to explore relationships with people of all ages and all cultures.

In John’s magnificent vision of heaven he sees “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language” before God’s throne and singing his praises (Revelation 7:9, 10). How we will cope with the language differences, I don’t know, but I am certain that will be no problem!

Apart from space and time barriers, it is our sin and self-centredness that cause most of our problems in relationships in this life. Without that problem we will be able to develop those relationships at the deepest level possible. Here we can only have the closest of relationships with a very few people, the closest of all being within marriage. Even then we are only scratching the surface of really knowing each other. There are no doubt also countless people in the world whose personality and gifts would blend very closely with ours, but that opportunity does not exist. In heaven there will not be those limitations. I believe that this is the reason Jesus says there will be no marriage in heaven, “but they will be like the angels” (Matthew 22:30). As Howard Marshall comments, “At the resurrection, all relationships will be taken up to such a high level that the exclusiveness of marriage will not be a factor in heaven as it is on earth.”

I believe it is because of this emphasis on relationships which we find throughout the Bible, the New Testament letters in particular, that while the Bible story begins in a garden, it ends in a city.^{^[19]} In a garden the emphasis is on the beauty of the environment. In the symbolic language of Revelation, though there is still an emphasis on beauty with the precious stones, the streets of gold, the river of the water of life and the tree of life (Revelation 21, 22), the fact that it is described as a city changes the emphasis somewhat. We are God’s people (Revelation 21:3). Our cities tend to be places of smog, slums and noise. We put up high fences and so hardly know the person next door. However, the new earth will be transformed and sin and injustice will be no more. “God has promised us a new heaven and a new earth, where justice will rule. We are really looking forward to that!” (2 Peter 3:13).

And, believe it nor not, there will be no churches or denominations in heaven! “I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple” (Revelation 21:22). The joy of unhindered relationships will supersede the need for church buildings and the unhelpful divisions caused by denominations will be no more!

It is because of this certainty of renewed relationships that Paul says we are not to “grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope” (1 Thessalonians 4:13) when we have lost Christian friends. That does not mean it is wrong to grieve at all. Grieving is natural and even Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus (John 11:35), but our grieving is mingled with hope.

A moving story is told of an English post-office clerk, whose job it was to handle letters that were inadequately addressed. He was at his desk on Christmas Eve. He was brokenhearted because death had taken his little son. He was given a letter addressed in childlike writing to “Santa Claus, The North Pole.” Attached to it was a note from a postman giving the address where he had picked up the letter. The clerk was startled because it was his own address. The writing was that of his daughter. And the letter said: “We’re very sad at our house this year. My little brother went to heaven last week. You needn’t leave me anything. But if you could give Daddy something that would make him stop crying, I wish you would. I heard him say to Mummy that only eternity can cure him. Could you send him some of that?” The good news is that God is able to send us “some of that”. This can soften the blow when we lose our loved ones, as we can have a certain hope of a joyful reunion if we are one in Christ.

The Bible is very clear that we are not to get involved with trying to contact the dead which can open us up to all kinds of deceitful and evil influences (Deuteronomy 18:9-13). However, if our loved ones are with Christ and we have a relationship with him, we can rest assured of a common bond that one day will be renewed. Several months after Bishop Handley Moule’s wife died in July 1915, he wrote in a letter:

Now she dwells in a better country, very far better, where the Lord shines unveiled as the sun of its sky and of its happy field. My eyes are famished for her, but he who took her is with me and she with him, so we are together still in the nearness of the spirit.

In Holy Days and Holidays, edited by Edward M. Deems, the story is told of an eminent theologian who said that his first idea of heaven was a great city with walls and spires, and a great many angels, but not one person he knew. Then he lost four of his brothers and a friend and began to know a little about it. He added:

But it was never until I let one of my own children go up to the skies had I any idea as to what heaven was like. Then the second and the third and the fourth child was taken away from me, and there came a time whin I lived more with them and with God than here on the earth.

So the best view of heaven comes to you and to me when we have loved ones in that city of light. We are not put on earth to be remembered! We are put here to prepare for eternity and eternal relationships.

A place of joy

There is much emphasis on joy in the New Testament. Particularly the inward joy that Jesus gives when we have a good relationship with him. Speaking of that relationship at his last meal with them, and likening it to the relationship that exists between a vine and its branches, where the branch draws all its nutrients from the rest of the vine, he said to his disciples, “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete” (John 15:1-11). In our present existence there is much to cloud our vision and destroy that joy. In heaven those things will be removed forever. “God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Revelation 21:3, 4). As Bishop Marcus Loane expressed it:

There will be no room for a permissive society…or a wealthy elite, or a down-trodden minority; there will be no place for political intrigue, or public wrangling, or partisan interests, or power struggles.

St Teresa made the statement that, from heaven’s perspective, the most miserable earthly life will look like one bad night in an inconvenient hotel!

The greatest hindrance to our joy in this life is our own sinful, self-centred natures. However, if our lives are submitted to Jesus, he has the power to “present [us] without fault before his glorious presence …with great joy” (Jude 24). What it may be like to be so transformed that we will be without any taint of sin is beautifully expressed by Joni Eareckson Tada in an article in Challenge Weekly. She explains that as much as she is looking forward to leaving behind her wheelchair, that will not be the best part of heaven. She has learned to cope with hands and legs that won’t do as she commands. But she says: “I am sick and tired of fighting my flesh; that is ‘the law of sin at work in my members’ [Romans 7:23] that just won’t do as I command.” However, she continues:

The day is coming…when instead of being a hindrance to the spirit, the body will be the perfect expression of the glorified mind, will and emotions. Right now we wear our souls on the inside. But one day we will be “clothed in righteousness” as we wear our souls on the outside, brilliant and glorious.

I can’t wait to be clothed in righteousness, without a trace of sin. True it will be wonderful to stand, stretch, and reach to the sky, but it will be more wonderful to offer praise that is pure.

I won’t be crippled by distractions, disabled by insincerity. I won’t be handicapped by half-heartedness. My heart will join with others and bubble over with effervescent adoration.

For me, this will be the best part of heaven.

Concerning the question about whether we could ever sin in heaven, I understand the emphasis in Scripture to be that we will be so transformed into the likeness of Christ that sinning would be inconceivable. Though the New Testament makes it clear that Satan will be banished forever from heaven’s confines, I find a comment by John Donne useful in this regard:

I shall be so like God, as that the devil himself shall not know me from God, so far as to find any more place to fasten a temptation upon me, than upon God; not to conceive any more hope of my falling from that kingdom, than of God being driven out of it.

The only reminder of suffering in heaven will be the five wounds of Christ. There will be nothing to cloud our vision of Jesus, the source of that joy for, “they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads” (Revelation 22:4). All sources of spiritual, mental or physical darkness will be banished forever “for here will be no night there” (21:25; 22:5). “The glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp” (21:23; 22:5).

It is significant that the New Testament does not speak of us “going to heaven” but rather “departing to be with Christ”. Many scriptures point to this meeting with the Lord. Jesus prayed, “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory…” (John 17:24). “…Then we shall see face to face” (1 Corinthians 13:12). “…With Christ, which is better by far” (Philippians 1:23). “We will see him as he truly is”(1 John 3:2). “They shall see his face” (Revelation 22:4). James Packer, in his magnificent book Knowing God adds:

It will be like the day when the sick child is at last able to leave hospital, and finds father and the whole family waiting outside to greet him—a family occasion, if ever there was one.

It is this meeting with Jesus that will no doubt be our greatest joy. This has been the desire of believers down the ages. As Reformed pastor Richard Baxter put it in his poetical version of his covenant with God to which his wife–to-be “subscribed with a cheerful will” on April 10, 1660:

My knowledge of that life is small,
The eye of faith is dim;
But ‘tis enough that Christ knows all,
And I shall be with him.

The blind hymn-writer, Fanny Crosby, wrote:

Thro’ the gates to the city in a robe of spotless white
He will lead me where no tears will ever fall:
In the glad song of ages I shall mingle with delight;
But I long to meet my Saviour first of all.
I shall know Him, I shall know Him
And redeemed by His side I shall stand,
I shall know Him, I shall know Him
By the print of the nails in his hand.^{^[20]}

When Evangeline Booth, daughter of General Booth who founded the Salvation Army, was speaking at Tremont Temple, Boston, during the Chapman-Alexander evangelistic campaign in 1909, she declared:

I want to see John Howard when the last prisoner shall have been reformed, and Florence Nightingale when the last wound shall have been staunched, and John Huss when the last martyr fire shall have burned out, and William Penn when the last heathen shall have been civilised, and Francis Willard when the last lost girl shall have been won, and your great President Lincoln when the last slave shall have been made free, and my father and mother; but most of all I want, and I want all of you, to see Jesus.

John Bunyan died of a chill on 21 August 1688, at the home of a grocer in London. He was fifty-nine years old. One of his dying comments was recorded:

Christ is the desire of nations, the joy of angels, the delight of the Father. What solace then, must the soul be filled with that [has] the possession of him to all eternity.

William Hendricksen, in his very scriptural book The Bible on the Life Hereafter, points out that in the famous painting by Goetze, “Despised and Rejected of Men”, all the eyes are turned away from the spear-riven and thorn-crowned Saviour. But in heaven our Lord will be the very centre of interest and attention, for he will be all-glorious, and we will no longer be self-centred.

And if we should think that the emphasis on adoration we find in the New Testament glimpses of heaven should prove boring, then we need to consider the words of Carol Zaleski in her Ingersoll Lecture on Immortality, “Adoration cannot be boring, for one is gazing at the face of the beloved, and the face of the beloved is inexhaustible.”

We will not only be with Christ, the Bible declares that “we will be like^{^[21]} him” (John 3:2). I take this to mean that we will be like him in his moral purity and love. When Charles Spurgeon was a young preacher, he wrote to the aged Horatius Bonar and asked for his picture. The old man sent it and wrote, “Dear Spurgeon: If you had waited a little, you could have had a better likeness, for soon I shall be like Him.”

Fear will have no place in heaven as there will be nothing to be afraid of. In the vision of heaven which John gives us in Revelation 7, we have a pastoral scene where the emphasis is on living under God’s protection. “The one who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them. They will never hunger or thirst again, and they won’t be troubled by the sun or any scorching heat. The Lamb in the centre of the throne will be their shepherd. He will lead them to streams of life-giving water, and God will wipe all tears from their eyes” (vv. 15-17).

The emphasis on joy in heaven is underlined by the manner in which the New Testament repeatedly likens the kingdom of God to a feast, particularly a wedding banquet. The first of the “signs” of God’s coming kingdom that John records, the turning of water to wine, symbolising the new life Jesus came to bring, took place at a wedding feast (John 2:1-11). In several of the stories he told, and in other statements, he likened the kingdom of God to a wedding feast or banquet from which some may either excuse themselves or be excluded.^{^[22]} In John’s great vision of heaven, he hears the final union of Jesus with all his people described as a wedding feast (Revelation 19:9). If there is great joy in heaven over just one sinner who repents (Luke 15:7, 10), then how much joy will there be when all the lost who have put their faith in Jesus are finally gathered into his kingdom at his return? In his classic Divine Comedy, the Italian poet Dante described how he finally arrived in Paradise and heard the heavenly choir singing praises to the Trinity. He adds, “It seemed like the laughter of the universe.”

And I am sure that much of the joy of heaven will also result from its beauty. A little girl was walking with her father on a starry night. When he asked her what she was thinking, she said, “I was thinking that if the wrong side of heaven is so glorious, what must the right side be?” I wonder if our experience will be something like that of the little girl who lost her sight just after her first birthday. When she was twelve, a surgeon was able to operate and give her back her sight. As she looked around on the day her bandages came off, she said to her mother, “Oh, Mummy, why didn’t you tell me it was so beautiful?” “I tried, my darling,” said her mother, “but I just didn’t have the words.”

A place for creativity, growth and service

The New Testament has very little to say about the activities of heaven, other than that of praise. However, the Creation story emphasises that we humans have been designed with certain God-like qualities (Genesis 1:26). That certainly includes our creative gifts. Apart from loving relationships, much of our joy in life comes from creating something beautiful or useful. It is one of the ways we express who we are. Though our gifts are as varied as our personalities, we all have some gifts. Our opportunities to develop and use those gifts are often thwarted in this life by many negative influences. Yet God created us the way we are for a purpose. It is inconceivable that we will not be given the opportunity to develop our potential to the full in God’s perfect re-creation. Jesus’ statements about the faithful servants in two of his stories imply responsible activity in heaven: “You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things” and “Because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities” (Matthew 25:21 and Luke 19:17). Maybe there will be new explorations of God’s creation to undertake, and much to create ourselves for the glory of God and the enjoyment of others. I believe Ian McClaren got it right when he wrote, “Heaven is not a Trappist monastery. Neither is it retirement on a pension. No, it is land of continual progress.”

C. S. Lewis, in his fantasy The Last Battle, expresses this idea of growth and progress beautifully. Speaking of those who had fought the last battle and gone “further up and further in”, Aslan explains that

…in the Shadowlands we call Death it has done the worst it can do and now is the beginning of Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read, and which goes on forever with every chapter better than the one before.

The most eloquent passage that I have yet come across expressing this idea of growth in heaven comes from the pen of Ellen G. White in her book The Great Controversy. I certainly don’t believe all that she wrote, but this passage fits well with all I gather from the New Testament:

There the grandest enterprises may be carried forward, the loftiest aspirations reached, the highest ambitions realised; and still there will arise new heights to surmount, new wonders to admire, new truths to comprehend, fresh objects to call forth the powers of mind and soul and body…And the years of eternity, as they roll, will bring richer and still more glorious revelations of God and of Christ. As knowledge is progressive, so will love, reverence, and happiness increase. The more men learn of God, the greater will be their admiration of His character…The great controversy is ended. Sin and sinners are no more. The entire universe is clean. One pulse of harmony and gladness beats through the vast creation. From Him who created all, flow life and light and gladness, throughout the realms of illimitable space. From the minutest atom to the greatest world, all things animate and inanimate, in their unshadowed beauty and perfect joy, declare that God is love.

Lest we should find it difficult to conceive of growth in our condition of perfect love and sinlessness, it is good to be reminded that in his youth, Jesus, though perfect man at each stage of his development, “grew in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and men” (Luke 2:52). However many clues we may gather from the Scriptures, it will surpass all that we could imagine. Paul declares, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9).

One thing that is clearly stated is that heaven will be a place of service to God. “His servants will serve him” (Revelation 22:3; see also 7:15). What form of activity this involves is left to our imagination. It is true that the Bible says that those who “die in the Lord” will “rest from their labours” (Revelation 14:13). But surely that is rest from the burdensome nature of much work in this world, rather than from the work itself. It will certainly not be a servile form of work as it is accompanied by the words: “They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads…And they will reign for ever and ever” (22:4, 5).

There is one final point I would like to make before moving on. One of the greatest secrets of the Christian life is recognising our own failures and limitations in order to learn to depend on God. It is often our own pride and self-confidence that gets in the way of enabling God to do in us and through us those things he longs to do. Acknowledging our moral weakness is a necessary prerequisite to finding God’s forgiveness. Recognising our human emotional and physical limitations is part of the process of learning to depend on God’s strength. Jesus summed this principle up in the Sermon on the Mount when he declared, “Blessed are the poor in spirit [those aware of their spiritual needs] for theirs is the kingdom of God” (Matthew 5:3). Paul had learnt this through many painful experiences. “He declared, “I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong“ (2 Corinthians 12:9, 10).

Death is the ultimate sign and evidence of our moral and human frailty. But it is this that gives God his greatest opportunity. Peter Kreeft, in his very thoughtful book Making Sense out of Suffering,^{^[23]} has a perceptive passage on this:

Only when we are dissatisfied, only when we are weak, only when we are failures in ourselves, can God come in. Our failure is our success. Death is the supreme failure, the supreme weakness. And it is also God’s supreme opportunity and our supreme success, our entrance into heaven and God’s entrance into our deepest selves. Teilhard de Chardin sees this in The Divine Milieu: “We can set no limits to the tearing up of roots that is involved on our journey into God...There is a further step to take: the one that makes us lose all foothold within ourselves...What will be the agent of that definitive transformation? Nothing less than death...God must, in some way or other, make room for himself, hollowing us out and emptying us, if he is finally to penetrate into us. And in order to assimilate us in him, he must break the molecules of our being so as to re-cast and re-model us. The function of death is to provide the necessary entrance into our inmost selves.”

Footnotes

^{^[18]} Italics mine.

^{^[19]} Heaven is also called a "country" (Hebrews 11:15, 16) which speak of its vastness, a "kingdom" (Matthew 25:34) which speaks of God's rule and its orderliness, "paradise" (Luke 23:43) which speaks of its delights, and the "Father's House" (John 14:2) which speaks of its permanence.

^{^[20]} For the complete hymn see http: //www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/m/y/mysavior.htm

^{^[21]} Italics mine.

^{^[22]} The Parable of the Wedding Banquet, Matthew 22:1-14. The Parable of the Great Banquet, Luke 14:15-24. Matthew 8:11, 12; Luke 13:28-30.