Heaven

by Randy Alcorn

  What is the essence of eternal life? "That they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent" (John 17:3). Our primary joy in Heaven will be knowing and seeing God. Every other joy will be derivative, flowing from the fountain of our relationship with God. Jonathan Edwards said, "God himself is the great good which they are brought to the possession and enjoyment of by redemption. He is the highest good, and the sum of all that good which Christ purchased.... The redeemed will indeed enjoy other things . . . but that which they shall enjoy in the angels, or each other, or in anything else whatsoever, that will yield them delight and happiness, will be what will be seen of God in them."136

  Asaph says, "Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I de­sire besides you" (Psalm 73:25). This may seem an overstatement—there's noth­ing on Earth this man desires but God? But he's affirming that the central desires of our heart are for God. Yes, we desire many other things—but in desir­ing them, it is really God we desire. Augustine called God "the end of our de­sires." He prayed, "You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you."137

  Suppose you're sick. Your friend brings a meal. What meets your needs—the meal or the friend? Both. Of course, without your friend, there would be no meal; but even without a meal, you would still treasure your friendship. Hence, your friend is both your higher pleasure and the source of your secondary plea­sure (the meal). Likewise, God is the source of all lesser goods, so that when they satisfy us, it's God himself who satisfies us. (In fact, it's God who satisfies you by giving you the friend who gives you the meal.)

  When I speak elsewhere in the book of the multifaceted joys of the resur­rected life in the new universe, some readers may think, But our eyes should be on the giver, not the gift; we must focus on God, not on Heaven. This approach sounds spiritual, but it erroneously divorces our experience of God from life, relation­ships, and the world—all of which God graciously gives us. It sees the material realm and other people as God's competitors rather than as instruments that communicate his love and character. It fails to recognize that because God is the ultimate source of joy, and all secondaryjoys emanate from him, to love secondary joys on Earth can be—and in Heaven always will be—to love God, their source.

  Though Christoplatonism frowns upon the pleasures of the physical world, mistaking asceticism for spirituality, Scripture says we are to put our hope not in material things but "in God, who richly provides us with everything for our en­joyment" (1 Timothy 6:17). If he provides everything for our enjoyment, we shouldn't feel guilty for enjoying it, should we?

  Paul says it is demons and liars who portray the physical realm as unspiritual, forbid people from the joys of marriage, including sex, and "order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer" (1 Timothy 4:3-5).

  Because of the current darkness of our hearts, we must be careful not to make idols out of God's provisions. But once we're freed from sin and we're in God's presence, we'll never have to worry about putting people or things above God. That would be unthinkable. (Were we thinking clearly, it would be un­thinkable to us now.)

  God isn't displeased when we enjoy a good meal, marital sex, a football game, a cozy fire, or a good book. He's not up in Heaven frowning at us and say­ing, "Stop it—you should only find joy in me." This would be as foreign to God's nature as our heavenly Father as it would be to mine as an earthly father if I gave my daughters a Christmas gift and started pouting because they enjoyed it too much. No, I gave the gift to bring joy to them and to me—if they didn't take pleasure in it, I'd be disappointed. Their pleasure in my gift to them draws them closer to me. I am delightedthat they enjoy the gift.

  Of course, if children become so preoccupied with the gift that they walk away from their father and ignore him, that's different. Though preoccupation with a God-given gift can turn into idolatry, enjoying that same gift with a grateful heart can draw us closer to God. In Heaven we'll have no capacity to turn people or things into idols. When we find joy in God's gifts, we will be finding our joy in him.

  All secondary joys are derivative in nature. They cannot be separated from God. Flowers are beautiful for one reason—God is beautiful. Rainbows are stunning because God is stunning. Puppies are delightful because God is de­lightful. Sports are fun because God is fun. Study is rewarding because God is rewarding. Work is fulfilling because God is fulfilling.

  Ironically, some people who are the most determined to avoid the sacrilege of putting things before God miss a thousand daily opportunities to thank him, praise him, and draw near to him, because they imagine they shouldn't enjoy the very things he made to help us know him and love him.

  God is a lavish giver. "He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?" (Romans 8:32). The God who gave us his Son delights to graciously give us "all things." These "all things" are in addition to Christ, but they are never instead of him—they come, Scripture tells us, "along with him." If we didn't have Christ, we would have nothing. But because we have Christ, we have everything. Hence, we can enjoy the people and things God has made, and in the process enjoy the God who designed and provided them for his pleasure and ours.

  God welcomes prayers of thanksgiving for meals, warm fires, games, books, relationships, and every other good thing. When we fail to acknowledge God as the source of all good things, we fail to give him the recognition and glory he deserves. We separate joy from God, which is like trying to separate heat from fire or wetness from rain.

  The movie Babettes Feast depicts a conservative Christian sect that scrupu­lously avoids "worldly" distractions until a woman's creation of a great feast opens their eyes to the richness of God's provision. Babettes Feast beautifully il­lustrates that we shouldn't ignore or minimize God's lavish, creative gifts, but we should enjoy them and express heartfelt gratitude to God for all of life's joys. When we do this, instead of these things drawing us from God, they draw us to God. That's precisely what all things and all beings in Heaven will do—draw us to God, never away from him.

  Every day we should see God in his creation: in the food we eat, the air we breathe, the friendships we enjoy, and the pleasures of family, work, and hob­bies. Yes, we must sometimes forgo secondary pleasures, and we should never let them eclipse God. And we should avoid opulence and waste when others are needy. But we should thank God for all of life's joys, large and small, and allow them to draw us to him.

  That's exactly what we'll do in Heaven . . . so why not start now?

  SEEING GOD IN EVERYTHING GOOD

  They feast on the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights. For with you is the fountain of life. (Psalm 36:8-9)

  This passage portrays the joy that God's creatures find in feasting on Heaven's abundance, and drinking deeply of his delights. Notice that this abundance and the river of delights flow from and are completely dependent on their source: God. He alone is the fountain of life, and without him there could be neither life nor joy, neither abundance nor delights.

  God doesn't want to be replaced or depreciated. He wants to be recognized as the source of all our joys, and he wants us to draw closer to him through par­taking of his creation. My taking pleasure in a good meal or a good book is tak­ing pleasure in God. It's not a substitute for God, nor is it a distraction from him. In the words of the Westminster Shorter Catechism, it's what I was made for: "Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever."138

  In Jeremiah 31:34, God describes his future Kingdom: "No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' be cause they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest." There will always be more to see when we look at G
od, because his infinite character can never be exhausted. We could—and will—spend countless millennia explor­ing the depths of God's being and be no closer to seeing it all than when we first started. This is the magnificence of God and the wonder of Heaven.

  Theologian Sam Storms writes, "We will constantly be more amazed with God, more in love with God, and thus ever more relishing his presence and our relationship with him. Our experience of God will never reach its consumma­tion. We will never finally arrive, as if upon reaching a peak we discover there is nothing beyond. Our experience of God will never become stale. It will deepen and develop, intensify and amplify, unfold and increase, broaden and balloon."139

  Beholding and knowing God, we will spend eternity worshiping, exploring, and serving him, seeing his magnificent beauty in everything and everyone around us. Augustine wrote in The City of God, "We shall in the future world see the material forms of the new heavens and the new earth in such a way that we shall most distinctly recognize God everywhere present and governing all things, material as well as spiritual."140 In the new universe, as we study nature, as we pursue science and mathematics and every realm of knowledge, we'll see God in everything, for he's behind it all.

  Many commoners in history would have thought it the ultimate experience to gain an audience with their human king, to meet him face-to-face. How much greater will it be to see God in his glory? There could be no higher privi­lege, no greater thrill. All our explorations and adventures and projects in the eternal Heaven—and I believe there will be many—will pale in comparison to the wonder of seeing God. Yet everything else we do will help us to see God better, to know him and worship him better.

  Eden's greatest attraction was God's presence. The greatest tragedy of sin and the Curse was that God no longer dwelt with his people. His presence came back in a small but real way in the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle and the Temple. After the Exile, Ezekiel saw God's shekinah glory—his visible pres­ence—leave the Temple and the city, a sad day for Israel (Ezekiel 11:23).

  God's shekinah glory returned in Christ, who tabernacledamong us (took up temporary residence); "We have seen his glory" (John 1:14). God's glory resides now in his people, the temple he indwells (1 Corinthians 3:17). But one day Christ will come and make a new people, a New Earth, and a new universe in which he will dwell among his people, fully and freely.

  God promised Simeon, a "righteous and devout" old man who lived in Jeru­salem at the time of Christ's birth, that he would not die until he had seen the Messiah. The culminating joy of Simeon's life was to see Jesus when Joseph and Mary brought him to the Temple (Luke 2:25-32). We too have been promised that we'll see Jesus. As Simeon lived his earthly life in anticipation of seeing Jesus, so should we. All else—in this world and the next—will be secondary to beholding our Lord. To see Jesus—what could be greater? "We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is" (1 John 3:2).

  The apostle John was Christ's dearest friend on Earth. But when John saw Jesus in Heaven, he "fell at his feet as though dead" (Revelation 1:17). We will see Christ in his glory. The most exhilarating experiences on Earth, such as white-water rafting, skydiving, or extreme sports, will seem tame compared to the thrill of seeing Jesus.

  Being with him. Gazing at him. Talking with him. Worshiping him. Em­bracing him. Eating with him. Walking with him. Laughing with him. Imagine it!

  Will we ever tire of praising him? Augustine writes, "God himself, who is the Author of virtue, shall be our reward. As there is nothing greater or better than God himself, God has promised us himself. God shall be the end of all our desires, who will be seen without end, loved without cloy, and praised without weariness."141

  THE BLIND BOY AND THE KING

  In The Happiness of Heaven, published in 1871, Father J. Boudreau tells of a kindhearted king who finds a blind, destitute orphan boy while hunting in a forest. The king takes the boy to his palace, adopts him as his son, and provides for his care. He sees that the boy receives the finest education. The boy is ex­tremely grateful, and he loves the king, his new father, with all his heart.

  When the boy turns twenty, a surgeon performs an operation on his eyes, and for the first time he is able to see.

  This boy, once a starving orphan, has for some years been a royal prince, at home in the king's palace. But something wonderful has happened, some­thing far greater than the magnificent food, gardens, libraries, music, and wonders of the palace. The boy is finally able to see the father he loves. Boudreau writes, "I will not attempt to describe the joys that will overwhelm the soul of this fortunate young man when he first sees that king, of whose manly beauty, goodness, power, and magnificence he has heard so much. Nor will I attempt to describe the otherjoys which fill his soul when he beholds his own personal beauty, and the magnificence of his princely garments whereof he had also heard so much heretofore. Much less will I attempt to picture his exquisite and unspeakable happiness when he sees himself adopted into the royal family, honored and loved by all, together with all the pleasures of life within his reach. . . . All this taken together is a beatific vision for him."142

  The boy's rescue by his father is analogous to our conversion. We come to know God's love and enjoy his presence. When we die, we'll be with the Lord, and that will be wonderful, though it's uncertain whether we will yet fully see God's face. The great day we await is the establishing of the new heavens and New Earth, where, we are told, as resurrected beings we will ac­tually see God's face.

  "The vision of God has a transforming power," writes Boudreau. "Thus the soul, because she only sees God as He is, is filled to overflowing with all knowl­edge; she becomes beautiful with the beauty of God, rich with His wealth, holy with His holiness, and happy with His unutterable happiness."143

  CHAPTER 18

  WHAT WILL IT MEAN FOR GOD TO DWELL AMONG US?

  If the goodness, beauty, and wonder of creatures are so delightful to the human mind, the fountainhead of God's own goodness (compared with the trickles of goodness found in creatures) will draw excited human minds entirely to itself.

  Thomas Aquinas

  In Eden, God came down to Earth, the home of mankind, whenever he wished (Genesis 3:8). On the New Earth, God and mankind will be able to come to each other whenever they wish. We will not have to leave home to visit God, nor will God leave home to visit us. God and mankind will live together forever in the same home—the New Earth.

  God declares this truth in Scripture:

  I will put my dwelling place among you, and I will not abhor you.

  I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people.

  (Leviticus 26:11-12)

  My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people. (Ezekiel 37:27)

  I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people. (2 Corinthians 6:16)

  THE MARRIAGE OF GOD AND MAN, HEAVEN AND EARTH

  The marriage of the God of Heaven with the people of Earth will also bring the marriage of Heaven and Earth. There will not be two universes—one the pri­mary home of God and angels, the other the primary home of humanity. Noth­ing will separate us from God, and nothing will separate Earth and Heaven. Once God and mankind dwell together, there will be no difference between Heaven and Earth. Earth will become Heaven—and it will truly be Heaven on Earth. The New Earth will be God's locus, his dwelling place. This is why I do not hesitate to call the New Earth "Heaven," for where God makes his home is Heaven. The purpose of God will at last be achieved: "To bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ" (Ephesians 1:10).

  In fact, there may not be two universes even now. In The Divine Conspiracy, philosophy and theology professor Dallas Willard argues that there is only one universe, and it's where we'll live forever:

  We can be sure that heaven in the sense of our afterlife is just our future in this universe. There is not another universe besides this one. God created the heavens
and the earth. That's it. And much of the difficulty in having a believable picture of heaven and hell today comes from the centuries-long tendency to "locate" them in "another reality" outside the created universe.

  But time is within eternity, not outside it. The created universe is within the kingdom of God, not outside it. And if there is anything we know now about the "physical" universe, it surely is that it would be quite adequate to eternal purposes. And given that it has been produced, which is not seriously in doubt, all that one might require of an utterly realistic future for humanity in it is surely possible.144

  It might be better, then, if we think of the location of the present Heaven as not in another universe but simply as a part of ours that we are unable to see, due to our spiritual blindness. If that's true, when we die we don't go to a different uni­verse but to a place within our universe that we're currently unable to see.

  Just as blind people cannot see the world, even though it exists all around them, we are unable to see Heaven in our fallen condition. Is it possible that be­fore sin and the Curse, Adam and Eve saw clearly what is now invisible to us? Is it possible that Heaven itself is but inches away from us? Does death restore a visual acuity we once had? Willard says, "When we pass through what we call death, we do not lose the world. Indeed, we see it for the first time as it really is."145

  THE JOY OF A GOD-CENTERED HEAVEN

  Consider this statement: "God himself will be with them" (Revelation 21:3). Why does it emphatically say God himself? Because God won't merely send us a delegate. He will actually come to live among us on the New Earth. As Steven J. Lawson explains, "God's glory will fill and permeate the entire new Heaven, not just one centralized place. Thus, wherever we go in Heaven, we will be in the immediate presence of the full glory of God. Wherever we go, we will enjoy the complete manifestation of God's presence. Throughout all eternity, we will never be separated from direct, unhindered fellowship with God."146