Heaven (22 page)

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
delighted
that 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 God, 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
tabernacled
among 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

I
n 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

God's glory will be the air we breathe, and we'll always breathe deeper to gain more of it. In the new universe, we'll never
be able to travel far enough to leave God's presence. If we could, we'd never want to. However great the won­ders of Heaven,
God himself is Heaven's greatest prize. Father Boudreau writes, "The beatitude of Heaven consists essentially in the vision,
love, and enjoyment of God himself"
¹⁴⁷

In Heaven we'll at last be freed of self-righteousness and self-deceit. We'll no longer question God's goodness; we'll see
it, savor it, enjoy it, and declare it to our companions. Surely we will wonder how we ever could have doubted his goodness.
For then our faith will be sight—
we shall see God.

Many contemporary approaches to Heaven either leave God out or put him in a secondary role.
The Five People You Meet in Heaven,
a best-selling novel, por­trays a man who feels lonely and unimportant.
¹⁴⁸
He dies, goes to Heaven, and meets five people who tell him his life really mattered. He discovers forgiveness and acceptance.
It sounds good, but the book fails to present Jesus Christ as the object of saving faith. Instead, it portrays a Heaven that
isn't about God, but about us. A Heaven that's not about God's glory, but our healing. And a Heaven that's not about God's
unfathomable grace to undeserving sinners, but our good­ness and self-importance. Man is the cosmic center; God plays a supporting
role. This sort of Heaven, of which the Bible knows nothing, is a place of therapeutic self-preoccupation rather than preoccupation
with the person of Christ.

Jonathan Edwards said in a 1733 sermon, "God is the highest good of the reasonable creature, and the enjoyment of him is the
only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. To go to heaven fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most
pleasant accommodations here. Fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, children, or the company of earthly friends, are but shadows.
But the en­joyment of God is the substance. These are but scattered beams, but God is the sun. These are but streams, but
God is the fountain. These are but drops, but God is the ocean."
¹⁴⁹

HEAVEN RELOCATED TO EARTH

Not only will God come to dwell with us on Earth, he will also bring with him the New Jerusalem, an entire city of people,
structures, streets, walls, rivers, and trees that is now in the present, intermediate Heaven. If you've ever seen a house
being relocated, you appreciate what a massive undertaking it is. God will relocate an entire city—Heaven's capital city,
the New Jerusalem—from Heaven to Earth. It's a vast complex containing, perhaps, hundreds of millions of residences. He will
bring with it Heaven's human inhabitants and angels as well.

It appears that God has already fashioned the New Jerusalem: "He has pre­pared a city for them" (Hebrews 11:16). It doesn't
say that God
will
prepare a city or even that he
is preparing
it, but that he
has
prepared it. This suggests that the New Jerusalem, complete or nearly complete, is already there in the present Heaven. When
God fashions the New Earth, he will relocate the city from Heaven to the New Earth. It's possible that those in the present
Heaven are alread living in it. Or it may be set aside, awaiting simultaneous habitation by
all
its occupants when transferred to the New Earth. Imagine the thrill of beholding and exploring ing God's city together!

We are certain that when the mists of death are cleared away, the whole city will stand visible and proud. Our inheritance
is as sure as morning. .

CALVIN MILLER

God's new center of government will be the New Earth. This will be the ultimate answer to the Lord's Prayer,They will be done
in earth, as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10, Kjv). God's will shall be done on the New Earth as it now is in Heaven. In­deed,
the New Earth shall be a part of Heaven, for the veil between the worlds, first torn apart by the Cross and Christ's resurrection,
will be perma­nently removed. There will be no barrier between Earth and Heaven, or be­tween mankind and God.

BEING WITH GOD

Many books and programs these days talk about messages from the spirit realm, supposedly from people who've died and now speak
through channelers or mediums. They claim to have come from Heaven to interact with loved ones, yet almost never do they talk
about God or express wonder at seeing Jesus. But no one who had actually been in Heaven would neglect to mention what Scripture
shows is the main focus. If you had spent an evening dining with a king, you wouldn't come back and talk about the place settings.
When the apostle John was shown Heaven and wrote about it to the church, he recorded the details—but first and foremost, from
beginning to end, he kept talking about Jesus.

The 1998 movie
What Dreams May Come
portrays Heaven as a beautiful place, yet shows it as lonely because a man's wife isn't there. Remarkably, some­one else is
entirely absent from the movie's depiction of Heaven:
God.

Going to Heaven without God would be like a bride going on her honey­moon without her groom. A Heaven without God would be
like a palace with­out a king. If there's no king, there's no palace. If there's no God, there's no Heaven. Teresa of Avila
said, "Wherever God is, there is Heaven."
¹⁵⁰
The cor­ollary is obvious: Wherever God is not, there is Hell. As John Milton put it, "Thy presence makes our Paradise, and
where Thou art is Heaven."
¹⁵¹
Heaven will simply be a physical extension of God's goodness. To be with God—to know him, to see him—is the central, irreducible
draw of Heaven.

The presence of God is the essence of Heaven (just as the absence of God is the essence of Hell). Because God is beautiful
beyond measure, if we knew nothing more than that Heaven was God's dwelling place, it would be more than enough. The best
part of life on the New Earth will be enjoying God's presence, having him actually dwell among us (Revelation 21:3-4). Just
as the Holy of Holies contained the dazzling presence of God in ancient Israel, so will the New Jerusalem contain his presence—but
on a much larger scale—on the New Earth. The Holy of Holies in the Temple at Jerusalem was a perfect thirty-foot cube. The
New Jerusalem itself will be a perfect cube, one that stretches fourteen hundred miles in each direction (Revelation 21:16).

In the New Jerusalem, there will be no temple (Revelation 21:22). Everyone will be allowed unimpeded access into God's presence.
"Blessed are those who . . . may go through the gates into the city" (Revelation 22:14).

Heaven's greatest miracle will be our access to God. In the New Jerusalem, we will be able to come physically, through wide
open gates, to God's throne.

BEING WITH JESUS

Jesus promised his disciples, "I will come back and take you to be with me that you also maybe where I am" (John 14:3). For
Christians, to die is to "be pres­ent with the Lord" (2 Corinthians 5:8, NKJV). The apostle Paul says, "I desire to depart
and be with Christ, which is better by far" (Philippians 1:23). He could have said, "I desire to depart and be in Heaven,"
but he didn't—his mind was on being with his Lord Jesus, which is the most significant aspect of Heaven.

Samuel Rutherford said, "O my Lord Jesus Christ, if I could be in heaven without thee, it would be a hell; and if I could
be in hell, and have thee still, it would be a heaven to me, for thou art all the heaven I want."
¹⁵²
Martin Luther said, "I had rather be in hell with Christ, than be in heaven without him."
¹⁵³
A place with Christ cannot be Hell, only Heaven. A place without Christ cannot be Heaven, only Hell.

We'll worship Jesus as the Almighty and bow to him in reverence, yet we'll never sense his disapproval—because we'll never
disappoint him. He'll never be unhappy with us. We'll be able to relax in Heaven. The other shoe will never drop. No skeletons
will fall out of our closets. Christ bore every one of our sins. He paid the ultimate price so that we would be forever free
from sin—and the fear of sin. All barriers between us and him will be forever gone. He will be our best friend.

When Jesus prays that we will be with him in Heaven, he explains why: "Father, I want those you have given me to be with me
where I am, and
to see my glory,
the glory you have given me because you loved me before the cre­ation of the world" (John 17:24, emphasis added). When we
accomplish something, we want to share it with those closest to us. Likewise, Jesus wants to share with us his glory—his person
and his accomplishments. There's no contradiction between Christ acting for his glory and for our good. The two are synonymous.
Our greatest pleasure, our greatest satisfaction, is to behold his glory. As John Piper says, "God is most glorified in us
when we are most satisfied in him."
¹⁵⁴

Christ's desire for us to see his glory should touch us deeply. What an unex­pected compliment that the Creator of the universe
has gone to such great lengths, at such sacrifice, to prepare a place for us where we can behold and par­ticipate in his glory.

Jesus indwells us now, and perhaps he will then, but he will also physically reside on the earth with us. Have you ever imagined
what it would be like to walk the earth with Jesus, as the disciples did? Have you ever wished you had that opportunity? You
will
—on the New Earth. Whatever we will do with Jesus, we'll be doing with the second member of the triune God. What will it be
like to run beside God, laugh with God, discuss a book with God, sing and climb and swim and play catch with God? Jesus promised
we would eat with him in his Kingdom. This is an intimacy with God unthinkable to any who don't grasp the significance of
the Incarnation. To eat a meal with Jesus will be to eat a meal
with God.