Living in the Light of Heaven
As I begin to write this article my family and I are counting down the days to our summer holiday. We have never been to this place before, but it’s been highly recommended by friends. We have never sampled the accommodation, but we’ve seen the photographs. Our holiday has been booked for many months, but now we’re longing for the time when we’ll actually be there. It’s been the exciting topic of conversation: ‘What do you think you’ll enjoy the most? Won’t it be great? What does it look like?’ – then out come the pictures and maps…again! Of course there have been other matters to attend to, such as school and work, but never far away has been the consciousness that our holiday is getting closer. It’s helped us to keep going!
The more I consider this, the more I believe it provides an apt parable for the Christian’s living and longing for heaven. This hope for the future is like adrenalin pumping through the pages of Scripture. As God’s people we have been given plenty of pictures to stir our hearts – pictures that haven’t been left and forgotten at the bottom of a drawer, but placed prominently around the home as regular reminders of where we are heading: ‘heaven’, or ‘glory’, or ‘resurrection’, or ‘eternal life’, or ‘rest’ or ‘the age to come’, or ‘a new heaven and a new earth’. And this place comes with the highest recommendation from our dearest Friend:
In my Father’s house are many rooms…I am going there to prepare a place for you…that you also may be where I am (John 14:2-4).
But how can this hope make a real and practical impact on our lives as Christians? Let me suggest a few scenarios from Scripture.
‘I’m not afraid of dying’, quipped Woody Allen, ‘I just don’t want to be there when it happens!’ Perhaps the humour masks the fear. But for the Christian, although death remains the final enemy, the fear factor can be removed because death is the gateway to a desirable destination: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far (Philippians 1:23). Although we are not told much about what is sometimes called the ‘intermediate state’ of the soul, I am convinced of its reality. Jesus promised it to the dying thief (Luke 23:43), and the apostle clearly taught that to be absent from the body meant being present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8). I cannot harmonise these passages with the view that the soul ‘sleeps’ until the day of resurrection.
So, however good life may be in this world - and by God’s mercy it can be - death opens the door to something, and more significantly, someone far better! This ought to have a massive impact when you consider your own death, and when you may be tempted to fear leaving this world. You counteract those fears by faith in the promises of Christ!
This hope also holds immeasurable comfort for those who mourn the loss of believing relatives or friends. My wife and I have had personal experience of this, having lost our eldest daughter, Megan, last year. Although only ten, she had shown clear signs of saving faith in Christ. Our grief remains sharp, and we often long for her to be back with us. The conviction that Megan is now with Christ, does not remove our sorrow, but it helps us not to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13). I do not find warrant in Scripture for the attitude that sometimes prevails amongst Christians: ‘Your loved one’s in heaven so everything’s OK!’ However, in our better moments we console ourselves with the conviction that our daughter, given the choice, would not want to return to this sin-spoiled world, that she is happier there than she ever could be here, and that one day we shall be reunited, and be with the Lord forever. So we try to encourage each other with these words (1 Thessalonians 4:17-18). Living in the light of heaven has made a difference, and without this hope life would be very bleak indeed.
As I write, athletes will be completing their final, disciplined preparations for the Athens Olympics. What has sustained them through the hard slog of daily training routines? Those who win will tell us in their track-side interviews, as they clasp their medals: ‘This was worth all the effort!’ Our Lord warned us that following him would mean taking the narrow way. He never glossed over the cost of discipleship in a hostile world: If the world hates you keep in mind that it hated me first (John 15:18). So what incentives does he give us to keep going? The narrow road leads to life! (Matthew 7:14). Recalling this is vital when we feel the pressure to give up the faith because living for Christ is difficult and costly, and the godless world around us seems so much more attractive. Without the hope of heaven we grow weary and lose heart. That’s why Peter begins his letter to suffering Christians by praising God for their living hope through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead and for that inheritance that can never perish, spoil of fade - kept in heaven for you. That’s why the writer to the Hebrews exhorts believers to run the race with perseverance, as Jesus did: Let us fix our eyes on Jesus…who for the joy set before him endured the cross…(Hebrews 12:2). Living in the light of heaven is an essential incentive to perseverance – in holy living and urgent evangelism - because of the promise of life and joy to come.
But the hope of heaven also includes even more! To die and be with Christ is certainly far better than life here on earth, but it is not the best! There are two things we should be longing for, and both are bound up with the appearing of Christ. The first is resurrection: We eagerly await a Saviour from [heaven], the Lord Jesus Christ, who…will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body (Philippians 3:20-21). The second is renewal: But in keeping with his promise, we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness (2 Peter 3:13). We should be eagerly awaiting and looking forward to these things. That is the challenge. We count down the days to our holidays but how much more should we, by faith, count down the days to glory and the promise of perfection: perfect fellowship (with God and his people), perfect worship, a perfect body in a perfect universe, forever! At the end of each day we can go to sleep with the thought that we are one day nearer home; that the best is yet to come! Little wonder that the Bible ends with the prayer, Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!