Luke 23:39-43, 1 Corinthians 15:46-49
When we think about the things that are absolutely foundational to our faith in Jesus, anticipating eternity in Heaven is a biggie. The Bible tells us that we are to live life on this earth with a Heavenly perspective which sounds easy, but in fact is a challenging proposition because the reality is, we know precious little about Heaven. Over the centuries man has concocted visions of what Heaven is like and the stereotypical image we’ve arrived at is more cartoonish than spiritual. From haloed angels flying around strumming on harps to Peter sitting outside a set of pearly gates with some kind of ledger book we’ve given it our best shot when it comes to bringing Heaven into some sort of earthly focus.
We’ve just never done a very good job at it.
For those who participate regularly in One Step you may be wondering why in the world we’re investing time exploring this particular topic. “What about my addictions and my brokenness and my darkness? My life is coming undone! I need a word from Jesus to help ease all this pain but here we go, off on this crazy tangent.”
Well, here’s my answer to you. Nothing will help you overcome the trials you face in this life quicker or more effectively than having as deep an understanding of Heaven as you can have. There is, for the believer, no greater illustration of God’s love than what He has waiting for you in Heaven. A permanent home that’s so profound in its beauty and its joy and its comfort there should be no greater motivation for getting over your ongoing sin and surrendering it to Jesus than the realization that doing so carries you over the threshold of that spectacular new home.
In His teachings Jesus gives us some clues as to the nature of Heaven, but no intricate details. That’s okay because these precious clues serve as a great source of comfort, lessening our fears over what exactly happens to us when we die.
And that’s the one thing we know for sure about Heaven. In order to get there, we have to die here and for even the most devout among us, the word, “death” will always stir up some degree of anxiety. In an attempt to ease that anxiety a bit, consider this remarkable scene that takes place moments before Jesus dies. He’s on the cross, hanging there between two thieves. One thief mocks Jesus for not saving Himself if He is in fact the Christ. But the other thief? Different story. Look at this from Luke’s gospel, chapter 23:39-43.
“One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation. And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.”
And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
In this encounter, Jesus provides two major implications as it relates to life after death. One is that when we die, we’ll be joined to Him immediately in some way. He tells the thief, “Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.” And that’s the other important clue. As it’s used by Jesus here, the word paradise comes from a Persian word meaning “walled park” or “enclosed garden”. What Jesus is indicating is that when we die, we will be with Him and we will be with Him in some beautiful, defined place. Not a cloud, no pearly gates but a genuine paradise of some kind. In the weeks ahead we’ll dig deeper into this.
In 1 Corinthians 15:46-49 the Apostle Paul gives us this understanding of Heaven’s place is our lives.
The Scriptures tell us, “The first man, Adam, became a living person.” But the last Adam—that is, Christ—is a life-giving Spirit. What comes first is the natural body, then the spiritual body comes later. Adam, the first man, was made from the dust of the earth, while Christ, the second man, came from heaven. Earthly people are like the earthly man, and heavenly people are like the heavenly man. Just as we are now like the earthly man, we will someday be like the heavenly man.
I get that Paul’s writing stye is tough to follow at times, but if we boil these verses down to their core meaning it’s this. Adam, like you and me, was a human created by God. Jesus, the personification of God is the Creator. Adam was a man of dust, Jesus a Man of Heaven. If we believe in Him, one day the corruptible body made from dust that we now inhabit will be transformed and we will then bear the image of the Man of Heaven, of Jesus. But the key here is that there’s a clear delineation between the earthly being and the Heavenly being. Someday, we will be like the Heavenly man. That’s a reference to our glorified, resurrected selves that will come about when Jesus comes back. More on that in two weeks.
The bottom line for all of us who follow Jesus is this. It’s okay for death to weigh on us a bit because it holds so many unknowns but…you will find that the more you dig into what Jesus has to say about Heaven, anxiety turns to what Paul refers to as the “hopeful expectation” of eternal life in this place called Heaven. A place of such unimaginable joy and beauty that living on this side of it, we can, like the song says, only imagine.
Let me encourage you all to take a deep dive into 1 Corinthians 15. The apostle Paul gives us some beautiful insights into the life that is to come. I would also encourage you to pick up the book, Heaven, by Randy Alcorn. It’s a great resource for studying this topic in greater detail from a deeply biblical perspective. Stay tuned because next week we’ll take a look at a subject that Jesus speaks to with great specificity – hell.