I believe we all have a Heaven shaped vacuum in our hearts. From the time I was small, I remember feeling like I was waiting for something big, as if this life was not all there is. I had this knowing that I can’t describe, and I was little. One night, at the age of eight, I woke up in the middle of the night, and wide awake, I sat up and looked toward my closet. There was Jesus standing there with his long hair and white robe, with his hands folded in the prayer position. His eyes and mouth were closed, and He walked toward me until he disappeared. I told my mother about it the next morning. She told me my eyes were playing tricks on me. I knew better. I knew at the age of eight that I was wide awake and had just seen Jesus. There was not a doubt in my mind, and I know that God was telling me something even as a small child—that there is something more than this life.
This life is temporary, and we were made to live in Heaven. Growing up, I didn’t learn much about Heaven. My understanding of it was that it was the place where Jesus lived and that is where we go when we die. I didn’t learn anything about Heaven from church. Decades later, after attending Bible Study Fellowship (an intense Bible study) for eight years, and after attending seminary at Biola University for three years to earn my Masters Degree in Apologetics, and just being an avid reader, I have learned a lot about Heaven. I was blessed to take a class on the problem of evil by a professor named Dr. Clay Jones, who you have probably heard me mention more than once in my blogs and Facebook posts. In this “Why God Allows Evil” class, he spent a great deal of time teaching us about Heaven.
Recently, Dr. Jones was being interviewed livestream about his new book, Immortal: The Fear of Death that Drives Us and What We Can Do About It. You can watch it here. In fact, I wrote a book review on it, which you can go to my website and read here. During the interview, a question came through from a young lady with cancer. She said she was fearful and anxious because she is at high risk for Covid19 since she has cancer and she was told she wouldn’t get a ventilator if there is a shortage. The interviewer, Sean McDowell asked Dr. Jones, “What is something practical that she and we can do to Trust God amidst the anxiety that we may be feeling about catching Covid19?” Jones answered,
“What is lacking by the majority of Christians in the world is a robust view of eternal life in Jesus. Unfortunately, for most Christians, their view of eternal life is very small. Eternity is the P.S. to the Christian life. ‘Yeah, after we die, we get to go to Heaven.’ But if Christianity is true, we’re going to live for ever and ever, where there will be no more death, or crying, or pain, for the former order of life has passed away and we and our loved ones in Jesus will be able to enjoy each other for ever and ever. Most Christians are just about as afraid of death as non-Christians.”
There you have it. What is missing in our culture today in the lives of Christians, and non-Christians alike is a robust view of Heaven. Without that, the trials of this life are magnified, and central.
One of the biggest lies that atheists like to perpetuate is that if there is a Heaven, it would be boring, and not somewhere one would want to go to anyway. Let me set the record straight by sharing some of the things I learned about Heaven, and why we should have a robust view of it.
- Our suffering will purify us. Paul tells us in romans 5:3-4 that we also glorify in our suffering because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance produces character, and character produces hope. Therefore, suffering produces hope because it causes us to be more like Jesus.
- Our suffering will prove us. As we continue to go through suffering and continue to honor God, it proves that our faith is genuine, which results in praise and glory and honor to God. This will count us worthy in the kingdom of God. We suffer because we actively deny ourselves sinful pleasures in recognition of the glory that awaits us in Heaven. We also suffer because Christ suffered, and if we are to become Christ-like, we are called to suffer too.
- We will be resurrected. We will be raised in power and glory and have an imperishable, spiritual body. Before the resurrection, Jesus mother, the other women, and His disciples had all seen Jesus get crucified. They had all seen his disfigured and bloody body hanging on the cross. After the resurrection, when Jesus appeared to the witnesses, they report that His body was transformed and was anything but weak. John 20 tells us that He was now able to enter locked rooms. Luke 24:30 tells us that He could eat! This is what our bodies will be like when we are resurrected. Glorified and perfect. We won’t have that extra weight, that bald head, that terrible disease, or any of the physical ailments or disabilities that we have now. We will have the perfect, glorified body!! I’ll be the one eating the cheesecake because I can!
- We will be renown. We will hear God say, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.” When overcoming our suffering and maintaining our trust in God, God will give us the right to sit with Him on His throne. In fact, we are seated with Him right now because He is in us!!
- We will be resplendent. There’s a word we don’t hear too often! The dictionary defines resplendent as something attractive, impressive, brilliant, dazzling, and colorful. Daniel 12:3 promises that those who lead many to righteousness will be like stars forever and ever. Isn’t that amazing? God intends to make us beautiful and have glory that will last. We will be given dignity and honor. We will be glorious, brilliant, and magnificent. I’m in!!
- We will have eternal life. Romans 2:7 promises Christians that for those who by perseverance in doing good, (Remember, we are not saved by works. Works are an outworking, a result of our salvation because God loved us first. See Ephesians 2:8), seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life is promised.
- The suffering we experienced on earth will be dwarfed to insignificance in Heaven. This is because Heaven will be indescribable. I don’t know about you, but I think about this indescribable part every day, several times a day. More importantly, suffering will be over in Heaven. There won’t be any more death or sickness or suffering, and we won’t sin. Can you imagine that? Revelation 21:4 promises that “He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” Okay, the new body and the food will be great, but this is what I long for the most.
Romans 8:22-23 sums up the theology of suffering perfectly. It compares our sufferings on earth to childbirth. A mother’s pains of childbirth are painful but are in hopeful anticipation of the joy of holding her child. After the child is born, that pain is soon forgotten (I don’t know about that. It was pretty bad! But I get the point). In this same way, we groan inwardly as we “wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” So while we are suffering here on earth, and having labor pains while waiting for our new life in Heaven, once we get there, it will all be worth it and we won’t remember the suffering anymore. Verse 25 continues, “But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”
When suffering, we haven’t lost anything in this life that will be a deficit to us in eternity. None of the suffering we’ve endured on earth will be important once we get to Heaven. Now, does that sound boring to you? Keep your focus on Jesus and the life He has promised to us. While we have a job to do here on earth, it is temporary. Praise God for that!