The Glory of Heaven
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The Glory of Heaven
by. Dr. C. Matthew McMahon
One of the most mysterious truths of the
Christian faith is the truth that there is a real heaven. It is a real
place, where real people, and real angels, and real glory and the real
and living God reside in eternity. The Bible both speaks about heaven,
and also shields our eyes from it so that we cannot see it as clearly as
we would like; just like the incident with Christian and Hopeful in John
Bunyan's Pilgrim Progress. They were on the Delectable Mountains with
the Shepherds and were invited to look at the Celestial City. The
Shepherds gave them a looking glass to peer through, and as they looked
through it with great eagerness it seemed somewhat fuzzy and unclear.
They were only seeing through a dim mirror (1 Cor. 13:12). But what
shall we, as Christians today, think about the glory of heaven? What
does the Bible say about it?
It is important at the outset to make it
plain and clear that heaven is not a place everyone goes when they die.
Heaven is reserved for those who are the redeemed children of Jesus
Christ. And people only become redeemed children when they receive the
transforming power of Christ and His cross into their lives. Not
everyone gets to heaven. Jesus spoke emphatically on Hell, and that it
was a real place too (Mark 9:35ff); it is the abode of all the wicked
who will be eternally tormented for their sin and rebellion against God
(Gal. 5:21; Ephesians 5:5; Rev. 22:15). Heaven is a place where the
faithful servants of God, who have been born again from above by the
Spirit, enter into their joy for all
eternity (Matthew 25:34, 46).
Probably the most frequently asked
question about heaven is this: "What will heaven be like?" The
first and most important aspect of heaven is that Jesus Christ is there.
Just as Hebrews 8:1 states, "Now this is the main point we are
saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of
the throne of the Majesty in the heavens..." Jesus is in heaven. We
long to be with Him. The presence of Jesus is what makes heaven heaven.
We long to see Him as He really is; in all His wonderful power and
glory. In theology, we call this the Beatific Vision. One day we shall
see God Face to Face. We will see the beautiful vision of His face
without any hindrance. His glory fills the heavens, and that is what we
long to see (Isa. 63:15). It is the same thing Moses wanted when he was
on Mount Sinai, "Lord, show me your glory (Exodus 33:18)." In
the New Testament, Philip wanted to see the glory of God when he said to
Christ, "Show us the Father and that will be enough (John
14:8)." Philip wanted to see the glory of God's face. And this is
the promise of Scripture, that in heaven, we will see God "face to
face (1 Cor. 13:12)." That is the blessed promise. This was
promised to us all the way back in Numbers 6:24-26, where the High
Priest said, "The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His
face shine upon you and be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His
countenance upon you and give you peace." We long for His face and
countenance to be placed upon us for all eternity. And it is a lofty
concept to think this: that when we see the face of God and His glory,
we will only see it once. We only see it once because the first time we
look upon it and see Him as He is, we will continually see Him forever
for He is everywhere—this is heaven. There will be no place in heaven
where the face of God and His glory will not be in full openness. When
we see Him for the first time, we will go on seeing Him for the first
time all through eternity-we only get one look which lasts forever (Isa.
6:1ff). Praise God that we cannot escape His beautiful face! Heaven has,
as its focus, the glory and honor of Christ.
Heaven is called many things in the
Bible; the Kingdom of Christ and of God (Eph. 5:5), The Father's House
(John 14:2), A Heavenly Country (Heb. 11:16), A Rest (Hebrews 4:9; Rev.
14:13), Paradise (2 Cor. 12:2, 4), Abraham's Bosom (Luke 16:22), and The
Holy Hill (Psalm 24:3). There are more, but I think the point is made;
heaven is the place of eternal bliss and rest in the presence of God. It
is the ultimate Sabbath Day where we will finally put down all our
earthly toil, and be in service to God forever. We will once and for all
put down our work and pick up His holy work, and bear much fruit (Rev.
22:3).
Some may ask, "Where is
heaven?" Many times we look up into the stars to see
"heaven." It is important to distinguish between the three
kinds of heaven that the Bible talks about. There is the heaven right
above us where the birds fly (Isa. 42:5) , then the heaven which the
sun, moon and stars hang (Psalm 8:3), and then finally, the throne room
of God, which is the third heaven (2 Cor. 12:2ff). When we ask
"where is the throne room of God?," we are referring to heaven
number 3. We cannot look "up" to the throne room of God. We
cannot look past the sun, into other galaxies and then into heaven
somewhere in outer space. We could travel all the way to the edge of the
universe and still not find it. Heaven is in another dimension. For
example, Ezekiel 1:1 states, "As I was among the captives by the
river Chebar, that the heavens were opened and I saw visions of
God." Ezekiel was standing on earth and saw heaven. He saw visions
of God. The earthly heavens were removed for a moment where he was, and
he saw into heaven. The same thing happened to Isaiah (Isaiah 6:1),
Micaiah (2 Chronicles 18:18) and Stephen (Acts 7:56). They saw heaven,
but they saw it in another dimension. So heaven is not up in the sky,
but is all around us in another dimension.
Some people have asked, "What will
happen to us when we get there? Will we float around on clouds all day
long?" First, God will change us. Just as a fish needs water to
live, we will need to be fitted just right to exist in heaven. 1 Cor.
15:51 says, "...we shall be changed..." We will be changed to
be able to exist in heaven. Our mortal bodies cannot exist there. These
corruptible, cursed bodies must be remade and renewed. So God will renew
us and we will be changed. We will have bodies just like Jesus Christ;
miraculous bodies which can do things that these bodies can't. They will
be special resurrection bodies which will be perfect for dwelling in
heaven. These new bodies will not experience anything that relates to
the Fall and curse of Genesis 3. Psalm 16:11 says, "In Thy presence
is fullness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures for
evermore." We will experience total bliss, and eternal joy in the
presence of Christ. God shall wipe away all our tears and there shall be
no more death; no sorrow, no crying, no pain, no hunger, and no
thirsting, for the former things will have passed away. And God will
make all things new for us (Revelation 7:15; 21:4ff). We will not even
be able to sin! God will have so changed us and made us perfect, that
the very essence of sin will be thrown into the deepest hell never to
torment us again. Though we struggle with sin now, we will be made
unable to sin when we reach heaven. Heaven will be eternal joy because
sin will be gone. We shall sing, "You are worthy to take the scroll
and to open its seals, for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God
by Your blood...(Revelation 5:9) We will have been truly renewed without
sin-redeemed by the Lamb! Our service in heaven is the worship, glory
and honor of Jesus Christ. Golfers will not go to golfer heaven.
Fishermen will not go t fisherman heaven. Heaven is not our fantasies
come to life. It is the Life of God in the soul of man empowering him
for the service of Christ which will be the aim of heaven’s bliss.
Some people say, "But if I am in
heaven, and my family is in hell, I will be sorrowful. I will not be
able to enjoy heaven." The reason people say this is because we are
still in these mortal bodies which have the capacity to cry and feel
sorrow. We think about how bad hell will be and then cannot possibly
think we will enjoy heaven knowing they are burning in hell forever.
But, when we are in heaven we will not even think those thoughts. We
will be transformed in such a way as to be perfectly holy before God. We
will be just and righteous, as Jesus is just and righteous. We will say
that all those people who are in hell deserve to be there because they
have acted wickedly against our Lord. And we will be so righteous and
just that God Himself, because of His trust in our just judgments, will
appoint us to judge wicked angels and sentence them accordingly. Paul
says to us in 1 Cor. 6:3, "Do you not know that we will judge
angels?" So those thoughts of sorrow will be nonexistent. We will
be righteous as He is righteous and will say "Sending them to hell
is the right thing to do." And though it may be hard to understand,
the redeemed in heaven will not love the wicked in hell at all. They
will love what Christ loves—the holiness of God. And everything that
is not holy, will not be loved. Those in hell will not be loved. Our
thoughts will only be filled with the joy resounding in holiness.
Many ask, "What will heaven look
like?" The realm in which we will live is called the "New
Heavens and New Earth (Rev. 21:1)." The New Earth will have no sea,
and the New Jerusalem will be the city in which we dwell. In Revelation
John the apostle saw in a vision that the city will descend from heaven
and be settled on the new heaven and earth which God will reconstruct.
The city is described in cryptic language. It is said to be 1500 miles
long, wide and tall. The idea expressed is that it will be a perfect
city. There will be no sun shining in the city because God lives with us
and His glory fills all the city giving it light. The walls of the city
are made form what looked like jasper, and the city was made from what
seemed to be pure gold. The streets were gold and all the foundations of
the city were made with precious jewels. There are twelve gates that are
never shut, for there is no night there, which are the entrances to the
city. Each gate is said to be made of one giant pearl. There is a river
of life, pure and undefiled proceeding out of the throne of God from the
center of the city out to the entire city. There is a river and trees of
life lining it. There is a sea of glass coming forth from the throne of
God. And forever and ever in holy service before His throne we will
serve Him (Rev. 21:1-27; 22:1-5). All of these visionary images are
imperfect representations of heaven. They are visionary ideas put in
humanistic terms so we may grasp something of the wonder of God. But all
the wonder of heaven cannot compare to spending eternity with God. We
will have all of eternity to experience God and learn more about him.
Heaven is the ultimate school, the eternal classroom, were we will come
to experience and know Christ forever. We are finite beings, and when we
get to heaven we will still be finite beings. We could never comprehend
the infinite God. But we have an eternity in heaven to try. This is
heaven: knowing God, in the very midst of God, for the glory of God.
How do we enter heaven? It is not as
simple as walking up to the pearly gates and getting a pass from St.
Peter. That fictitious nonsense is reserved for untheological and
blasphemous jokes. The only way anyone may enter into heaven is by the
grace of God. Jesus says, "Unless a man is born again...he cannot
enter the Kingdom of Heaven." (John 3:5). People must repent of
their sin, turn to Christ by faith, and receive Jesus Christ as Lord.
And when those people who are saved die, Jesus will say, "Come,
blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the
foundations of the earth." (Matthew 25:34).
Unless you exemplify heaven now, unless
Christ is seen in you in this life, unless heaven is seen in you now,
you will never see heaven then. |
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