Paul E Brown Lancaster
‘[He] felt he had had a foretaste of glory, and
from that time on he longed to go to heaven. Well, his desire has been
fulfilled. He is with Christ, which is far better.’ These words,
recently spoken at a service of thanksgiving for a servant of God,
express what we believe as Christians about the death of a believer.
Charles Wesley put it poetically like this:
Rejoice for a brother deceased
Our loss is his infinite gain
But more needs to be said about heaven than this.
Heaven on earth
To believe in Jesus Christ is to receive eternal
life: This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true
God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent (John 17:3). Becoming a
Christian is not simply a matter of having one’s sins forgiven,
glorious though that is. It is entering into a relationship with a
personal God. It is knowing Jesus Christ, and knowing the Father,
experiencing their love and loving in return. It involves a wonderful
union with Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit: At that day you will know
that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you (John 14:20).
Of course, our experience of Christ ebbs and flows in
this life. Our assurance and joy in the Lord may be greater at one time,
and seem almost lost at another. But to know and to love Christ is the
essence of heaven, and that begins now. Our desire should always be to
know him more.
The men of grace have found
Glory begun below
Heaven after death
Paul’s words in Philippians 1 leave us in no doubt
where our believing friends are – with Christ! For to me, to live
is Christ, and to die is gain… having a desire to depart and be with
Christ, which is far better (verses 21,23). And 2 Corinthians 5:6-8:
Knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the
Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well
pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the
Lord. This is the comfort we have which mitigates our sorrow when
those we love leave us for the presence of their Lord.
But what, someone might ask, does the Bible mean when
it talks about believers falling asleep? Doesn’t this suggest that
they enter into a period of unconsciousness, awaiting the resurrection
of the last day? Some have taught this, and some believe it in these
days, but this scarcely fits with the language of Paul that we have
already seen. Sleep as an image of death occurs frequently in the Old
Testament, the phrase, sleep with his fathers, occurring nearly
40 times in the books of Kings. Sleep as applied to death seems
to have two shades of meaning. Firstly, it refers to the body: many
bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep (Matthew 27:52).
Secondly, it suggests that death is not final; there is going to be an
awakening at the resurrection: And many of those who sleep in the
dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame
and everlasting contempt (Daniel 12:2).
This makes us realise that the present condition of
those who have gone to be with Christ is temporary and falls short of
what is needed. We were made with bodies and to be unclothed, as
Paul puts it (2 Corinthians 5:4), is unnatural. What we groan for is to
put on our heavenly dwelling (v2).
Heaven as final glory
So in the New Testament the great hope of the
Christian is not what lies immediately beyond death. It is the return of
our Lord Jesus; looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing
of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ (Titus 2:13), and the
glory we shall enter; [we] rejoice in hope of the glory of God
(Romans 5:2).
The return of Jesus Christ will usher in the
restoration of all things (Acts 3:21,22). The whole creation is groaning
and longing for the day when God will gather together in one all
things in Christ, both which are in heaven [ie the heavens] and
which are on earth (Romans 8:19-22; Ephesians 1:10). God will make
all things new (Revelation 21:5); salvation is cosmic in extent.
There will be new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness
dwells (2 Peter 3:13). The picture is grand and glorious.
And at that day those who sleep in Jesus will come
with him, their bodies will be raised incorruptible and we shall all –
whether we sleep or not – be changed; conformed to his glorious
body (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 1 Corinthians 15:42-57; Philippians
3:21). We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is (1
John 3:2).
This is the final and full experience of heaven. We
shall have new bodies, perfectly fitted for our new environment:
incorruptible bodies, immortal bodies, glorious bodies, spiritual bodies
(1Corinthians 15:42-44; 53). God himself will be with them and be
their God (Revelation 21:3); his servants shall serve him. They
shall see his face, and his name shall be on their foreheads
(22:3,4).
Then we shall be where we should be
Then we shall be what we should be
Things which are not now, nor could be
Then shall be our own.
