James 1:17, Revelation 22:1-5
David Bruce Linn, Pastor-Teacher
6 July, 2003
All Rights Reserved
What happens the moment after you die? In our last study we saw that while there are some questions about the details of how God will usher us into eternity, there is no question about the fundamental facts of heaven. Using the metaphor that our physical bodies are like the earthly and heavenly temples of God, Paul wrote: “For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven” (2 Corinthians 5:1-2). When a believer in Jesus Christ goes through the door of death a permanent, perfect, and heavenly body awaits him or her. And the most important reality is that the believer goes directly into the presence and blessing of God: “...We are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8). We also saw that those who reject God and Christ go immediately after death to perpetual punishment (cf. Luke 16:19-31).
The question of how we end up in one destiny or the other is clear. What is not yet clear is the question of what those destinies are like. What does it feel like to be in heaven or hell? The Bible gives a variety of pictures, all partial, all merely pointing to the overwhelming realities of the afterlife. In this case, I think the best way to appreciate those realities is to camp upon a few verses and extract their meaning rather than trying to survey every Scripture and every theological opinion about heaven and hell. With a little good thinking the pictures of heaven and hell will become vivid.
I. HEAVEN, THE PLACE WHERE GOD IS
A little verse from James, which most do not think pertains to heaven, tells us a critical characteristic of heaven from which much can be discerned: “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow” (James 1:17). James gives the fundamental principle: every good and complete thing on earth is an expression of God above. This thought ought to revolutionize our awareness of God! For example, how can Scripture say that all people know about God and are without excuse when they refuse to believe in him (cf. Romans 1)? Because every good thing they have ever seen is a revelation of the character of God.
Under this awareness of what theologians call common grace the whole world begins to resonate with the natural revelation of God. Every bite of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, every coo from a baby, every kind act, every hug, every flower bed, every short story, every act of good government, every work of art, the design of every living thing, every intellectual achievement, every game of every sport, every molecule--in short, everything which is both good and has the mark of perfection upon it shouts out: this is what God is like! Of course, we are all born as people with blinders on whose normal mode of existence is to miss the fact that there are diamonds of God’s reality strewn all about. Paul explains this truth in Romans 1:20-21a: “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks...”
Every person born, because of sin, is on a jihad to “suppress the truth in unrighteousness” (Romans 1:18b). If you cannot see that the wheat, yeast, sugar, fruit, pectin, peanuts, and salt in every bite of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich are good and perfect gifts from God, then you are suppressing that truth, perhaps without knowing it. That’s one reason why the kingdom of Satan is called the kingdom of darkness, or ignorance. The human propensity to make bread, peanut butter, jelly, knives, and plates is also a revelation of God. And most important of all, the enjoyment of that sandwich was designed into us by God himself! Do you like sex, chocolate, a good game of golf, a great film, book, or piece of music, a sunrise or a sunset? God has not only given all good things, he has also created within us the intense enjoyment of those things! In the sense of general revelation, every person already knows all about God.
And that’s also why we should all want to go to heaven. All of these good and perfect things come from above, that is, the dwelling place of God. A familiar passage which is often read at funerals for comfort, Revelation 22:1-5, reveals many things about the dwelling place of God as the final destination for believers: “Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him; they will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. And there will no longer be any night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign forever and ever.”
We often focus on the fact that in heaven all the negatives associated with the curse will be removed, including sickness, pain, alienation, and sorrows of all sorts. That is true. But the presence of positives eclipses the removal of negatives. Because God, the very source of our eternal existence, is there, the river of the water of life is there. The tree of life, with twelve kinds of good fruit and healing leaves will be there. Will we be eating and drinking these things? The text does not say, but the pictures reveal the essential truth that we human beings, even when living eternally in heaven, do not have the eternal life principle in an independent way. We are and will forever be dependent upon our God who is self-existent. He alone has life in himself, and he shares it with us in a derivative way. That is part of the glory of God as the Author and Giver of Life.
When we are in in God’s very presence, we will never again experience darkness, and we will no longer need or have the light of any lamp, sun, or star. How can this be? Verse five says: “the Lord God will illumine them.” That light is the outshining radiance of God’s own character. It is, in fact, the sum of his good and perfect nature. This comprises what was called the Shekinah glory in the Holy of Holies in the Israelite tabernacle and temple. All of the things we enjoy as good and perfect gifts from God on earth are foretastes of the joy of heaven. As James said, God shines these good things down on all people of earth in a steady and infallible way as a revelation of who he is and a taste of what heaven will be like: “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow” (James 1:17).
The passage in Revelation also tells us that heaven will be filled with the most enjoyable perpetual activity. It says that we will “serve Him,” (v. 3), and that we “will reign forever and ever” (v. 5b). Serving and worshiping God are now and will forever be all of one piece. Loving our families now can be an act of worship to God, as can any worthy activity. So it will be in heaven. We will not merely be singing forever and ever. We will have the specific task of governing, and I believe that the full range of human endeavor which reveals the image of God in mankind on earth will be seen in heaven.
Thus it behooves all Christians, rather than retreating from the now-tainted world which God made and supports every instant, to rejoice in the good and perfect things which reveal him here. We should be crying out to those who are beholding God’s diamonds with spiritual blinders on: “Did you like that? Then you’ll love heaven! It‘s going to be much better there!” Who will want to go to heaven if we who know God do nothing but hide in our churches awaiting the rapture, trying to avoid the God-given pleasures all around us? We deny the God who gives all of the good and perfect things if we do not enjoy them now, and we obscure others’ view of the destiny to which all believers go. Heaven is the place where God is, and all of us already know a tremendous amount about the blessings of being in his presence.
II. HELL, THE PLACE WHERE GOD IS NOT
If the presence and goodness of God is the defining characteristic of heaven, then what is hell like? Jesus said: “So it will be at the end of the age; the angels will come forth and take out the wicked from among the righteous, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 13:49-50). The righteous are those who have their faith counted for them as righteousness (Romans 4:1ff), not those who have lived perfectly because no one does that. The wicked are not a special class of particularly bad sinners such as murderers or prostitutes, they are everybody who refuses to acknowledge God and trust him for salvation. Remember our previous point. Because of common grace, everyone on earth is drenched in precious gifts of God--even the poorest among us. And because of sin, every person is like a bratty child who wants his birthday gifts but refuses to thank the giver and wants him to go away. That’s wicked! One meaning of sin is that it is the reception of God’s good gifts and the simultaneous rejection of the Giver. That’s why we are all in danger of the punishment for this behavior which is being thrown into a furnace of fire where there will be perpetual “weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Thus far we have learned why some people go to hell and some do not, and saw that hell will be a place of perpetual suffering and sorrow. Jesus explained: “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS’” (Matthew 7:19-23). Jesus warns that a mere mental or verbal agreement with the good news of Christ will not save anyone, including those who claim to have performed service in his name. Only those who trust Christ for the forgiveness of sins and experience the new birth can “bear good fruit” and do the will of the Father in heaven.
Now look at the judgment: “Depart from Me.” No worse words could ever be spoken over any life. These are the words which provide the defining characteristic of hell: the place where God and his goodness are not. Let’s think about what that means. Every good thing that we know about on earth is a gift of God and a reflection of his character. Hell is the place where every good gift of the presence of God is withdrawn. No hugs, no tasty food, no companionship, no useful work, no thought life, no quenching of thirst, no satisfaction for hunger, no light of any kind, no play, no recreation, no joy, no hope--in fact, nothing related to God whatsoever except what is necessary for everlasting punishment. Do you enjoy sunrises or sunsets? There won’t be any. How about good music, art, literature, sporting events, hunting, sewing, or gardening? There won’t be any. Even the deeds of darkness which some enjoy greatly, such as rape, robbery, lying, murder, substance abuse, sexual immorality and perversion--even these things will be taken away because they are based upon the good of freedom. There is no freedom in hell because freedom is an attribute of God, and like all else which is related to him, it will be withdrawn.
The believer in Christ is resurrected to everlasting life and those who have rejected God are raised to what Revelation 20:14 calls “the second death.” I have heard people laugh off the good news of Christ by saying: “I’d rather go to hell, the parties are better,” or “I’d rather go to hell, all my friends will be there.” Nothing could be more disastrously wrong. Hell is a perpetual form of death because everyone there will be permanently cut off from God, the one true source of life in the universe.
III. THE RESPONSIBILITY OF GOD’S GIFT OF FREEDOM
C. S. Lewis argued that, in a restricted sense under God’s will, the freedom of mankind is the attribute in which we are most like God. Whatever your understanding of predestination may be, the responsibility of mankind to choose for or against God is essential. Moses put it to the Israelites this way: “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the LORD your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them” (Deuteronomy 30:19-20). Jesus placed the demand to choose in similar terms: “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life” (John 5:24).
Someone has said that the door of hell is locked on the inside. Actually, those in hell cannot lock or unlock anything, but it is a vivid way of saying that people go to hell because they want to. They want to take all the goodies of this life and pretend that it was not God who gave them all and that they have no responsibility to him. By refusing to thank and worship God they have cursed him, spit in his face, and left the most precious gift of his only Son on the ground unopened. To all such people God gives what they want: an environment in which he is utterly absent.
C. S. Lewis wrote an imaginative little book called The Great Divorce in which he considers what would happen if people from hell were allowed to meet people from heaven in a neutral location and discuss their respective fates. In the book the people from heaven are full of zeal to try to talk the people from hell into going to heaven after all, but in spite of every good argument, the inhabitants of hell remain steadfast. In the end, they do not want to have anything to do with God and God gives them what they want. Lewis was not saying that there is a second chance to accept Christ after death, he was saying that if those in hell were given a chance to reconsider, most would choose the same thing all over again. His point is that we receive in the afterlife what we chose in life. Of course, no one is given this chance. Once physical death has occurred the grace of freedom is withdrawn from the perishing, and all decisions about destiny are done. This is the responsibility of human freedom which is part of the image of God imprinted on every soul.
CONCLUSION
So let us leave behind any notion of God-rejectors getting a raw deal after death. The offense against God is as huge as the goodness which they are rejecting. For those of us who believe, let us not just yearn for the absence of earthly difficulties, but let us yearn for all of the good things of God, the greatest of which is himself. A psalm of Asaph says: “Whom have I in heaven but You? /And besides You, I desire nothing on earth. /My flesh and my heart may fail, /But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Psalm 73:25-26). Let us enjoy God and his goodness while we are on the earth, and tell others how wonderful God is. We may just help them develop a taste for heaven.