Jesus’ Heaven
Personal Matters
Last Friday a brother shared about reading Jonathan Edwards on how in heaven we will delight forever in new facets of the glory of God. This is the picture given us in Revelation of the ceaseless praise of the heavenly assembly around the throne of God (Rev 4). Compare this image with a recent conversation with a godly pastor, whilst empowered by a recent visit to minister overseas he is finding the self-satisfied state of the Australian Church leaving him bored. What has happened to the awe of the “marvellous light” in which the Church is called to walk, constantly enlightened by the eternal light of the facets of God’s glory (1 Pet 2:9)? Beyond the Church, the only saving antidote for a darkened society that needs constant enlivening through drugs, sex and extreme sports is the revelation of the marvels of Christ (Matt 21:42; 2 Thess 1:9-10). We need the glories of heaven to be manifested in our midst now. This will require a release from thinking that heaven has relevance only after death; we need a revelation that the world above is the true pattern for the present world below because Christ is Lord of all (Gal 4:26; Heb 12:22-24).
Why Both Heaven and Earth?
The answer is that “all things…in heaven and on earth…were created through Jesus and for Jesus…” (Col 1:16). Heaven and earth equally exist for the revelation of Christ to the glory of God the Father; Jesus is the interconnectedness of heaven and earth. Paul lifts us above our linear thinking by teaching, “If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body… “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit…. as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven.” (1 Cor 15:45, 48). Because of Jesus heaven was always the appointed destiny of earth. From the beginning the Lord’s “delighting in the children of man” was ultimately his joy in the coming “man from heaven” (Prov 8:31; 1 Cor 1:24, 30; Col 2:3). Creation is a “very good” “theatre of glory” (Calvin) designed to radiate all the excellent virtues of Jesus, by whom it is upheld and carried forward to its eternal destiny in him (Gen 1:31; Heb 1:3). Our eternal delighting in the Father of heaven will be a share in his delights in the glory of the Son revealed in their saving history with the world. This was always God’s purpose from the beginning, one sadly rejected by our race.
Outside Eden: Abortion and the University
Adam and Eve were called to marvel in the wisdom and goodness of God’s Word above all temporal pleasures (Gen 2:17; 3:6). If they had obeyed the Word it would have revealed to them where the Visitor to Eden came from and being illuminated with heavenly light they would have lived forever in God’s incorruptible joy (cf. 1 Pet 1:8). Human disobedience was an attempt to expel God from the Garden, to break through the boundary between heaven and earth and to set up their own heaven on earth ruling over a dominion closed to the Creator. Instead however of bathing in the light of eternity they fell and plunged into terrible spiritual darkness (Rom 1:21). Although God’s “eternal power and divine nature are clearly perceived in the things which have been made” who today gives thanks and glory to the Creator (Rom 1:20-21)? The depth of such rejection is seen in a negative prophetic sign that has been normalised in our culture – abortion.
In the plan of God every mother was to delight and marvel in their enwombed child “fearfully and wonderfully made” by the Lord (Ps 139:14). Mary’s praise for the conception of Jesus stands as a true prophetic type to be carried by the enlightened Church in its thanks towards God for all the wonders of creation; ““My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,”” (Luke 1:46-47). A humanity thankful to be in the image of God was called to discern and marvel at God’s wisdom in all the elements of the world. This is the spiritual truth of the university.
Tragically, today’s universities are devoid of delight in the divine gift of justice, the beauty of the body in the divine likeness, scientific discovery of God’s order in creation and so on. Instead of being centres of illumination into God’s character reflected in the cosmos, centres of higher learning are hubs of death to a sense of God’s beauty and glory. Contrast this to the spiritual experience of a fellow biology student of my day. Viewing a plant embryo through a microscope he was overcome with a sense of God’s presence and goodness. All the disciplines of human knowledge have as their true purpose insight into the reflected glory of a world created for Christ (Col1:16). But how does all this become a real earthly experience?
It’s for You
The psalmist contrasts heaven as the realm of God and the earth as the possession of man.; “The highest heavens belong to the Lord, but the earth he has given to the human beings.” (Ps 115:16). These words are no longer true because a glorified human declared, “All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me…” (Matt 28:18). Every person “born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God” should sense they are a sort of “re-incarnation” (1 Pet 1:23). The marvel of God living in mortal flesh has taken place once again. Today, Jesus inhabits not only heaven but his Bride on earth (John 17:23). Already, if partially, heaven and earth are united in the “great mystery” of the eternal Marriage. If you love Jesus you will not only love his help here on earth but love heaven as his home. Why then is heaven so unreal to most of us?
Which Treasure
“(Moses) choosing to be mistreated with the people of God…considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt…endured as seeing him who is invisible.” (Heb 11:25-27). Moses saw into the heavenly world because he chose it above worldly wealth. As Jesus counselled, ““Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth… but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven””. He warned those who do otherwise turn “the light in you” into “great darkness!”” (Matt 6:19-20, 22-23). It is usual for Australian Christians to prioritise earthly possessions, to regard here on earth rather than there in heaven as first priority. Instead of looking forward to sharing the world above created for Christ we want the way things were below in Eden before the Fall. Our dullness about the reality of heaven is a direct consequence of our idolatries. But the crucified “light of the world” was darkened to the marvels of his Father so we might never lose a first love constantly illuminated with delighted appreciation of all the wonders of God (Mark 15:34; John 8:12). Much as the first married couple kept the Lord out of their wedded state in Eden a Bride dominated by immediate interests acts to keep her Lord out of her earthly affairs. A Church that divides heaven and earth in her thinking already lives out a sort of “great divorce”; no wonder the thought of hell no longer has substance anywhere in our land.
Today we need a new vision of Jesus, that “all things”, heaven and earth, were made for him and us in fellowship together. Nothing created above or below is simply temporal, everything is being called to an eternal destiny in Christ (Eph 1:10). For those who sense this upward call of Christ in their own hearts heaven is as real as earth – for their Jesus is Lord of all (Phil 3:14). Perhaps it is time for most of us to confess that this is not how we experience things.