Death’s Dark Vale – Part 3

In this article, we’re going to try and take a glimpse into heaven itself.

To recap, in part 1 we saw that everyone has faith when it comes to their own personal death. Faith is simply the tool that gives us the certainty that what we believe is true. The challenge is for each of us to ensure that what we base our faith on is true and real. After all, the one who will suffer the consequences of a faith based on fantasy and lies is yourself.

In part 2 we saw that there’s a barrier that restricts our understanding of death, heaven, and hell. Indeed, that barrier prevents our understanding of many of God’s ways. That barrier is the difficulty each of us has in realising that there is a whole different world beyond the four dimensions we live within while we are in this earthly realm.

We saw that even though there is almost endless evidence of other dimensions outside of our own four of height, width, length, and time, we don’t readily see them. Yet God is outside of those four dimensions, even though He has the capacity to inhabit them at His will.

Many of the things of God are so much more easily grasped if we expand our thinking outside of our earthly 4 dimensions. One example is eternity. Eternity is not a long time. Eternity is completely outside of time altogether.

Look what 2 Peter 3:8 says, “But don’t forget this one thing, dear friends: To the Lord, a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like a day.”

To view God only within our earthly dimensions of time and space is to limit God to nothing more than a man.

The great apostle Paul spoke of the death of the body as the dismantling of a tent. He said, “For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Corinthians 5:1). The building from God that Paul refers to here is the glorified body that awaits every believer after the earthly “tent” is no longer able to sustain the real us.

Tents deteriorate in the face of changing weather and storms and often need repairs. A tattered tent is a sign that we will soon have to move. Death takes us from the tent to the palace; it is changing our address from earth to heaven if we have accepted the saving grace freely available to us through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Heaven is Home

To speak of heaven as our home is not a figure of speech; heaven is our home.

Paul wrote that in this world we are “at home” in the body, but in the world to come we will be “at home” with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:6–8). And he left no doubt as to which home he prefers. “Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord” (verse 8). Understandably, he preferred the mansion to the tent.

Why should we fear death if it is the route to our final, everlasting home? Jesus assures us that there is nothing to fear; in fact, the knowledge that we shall die gives us the courage and hope to live triumphantly in this world!

Most of us find comfort when we’re told that we are going to go on living; Paul was comforted when he was told that he would soon die! He kept referring to death as that which was “far better.” The fact that we don’t look forward to death is usually because we think of death as taking us from our home rather than bringing us to our home!

We have become so attached to our tent that we just don’t want to move.

To die is to go home to heaven; to live is to exist in a foreign country on earth. Someday we’ll understand this distinction much better but for now, the future is ours by faith.

When we wonder how we will face death, we need only to remember that the same God who will be there to welcome us to our new, permanent home is the same God who guides us here on earth.

He is with us through death’s dark vale. He’ll be right there with us as He always is to escort us all the way to heaven. (Psalm 23).

Greif

Sorrow and grief are to be expected.

We feel the pain and loneliness when a friend or a loved one moves to live a new city so there’ll be genuine grief when that friend or loved one leaves us for heaven.

Dozens of passages in the Old and New Testaments tell how the saints mourned even though they were certain that those they mourned for were at home with the Lord.

Death wounds us, but wounds are meant to heal and there is a difference between tears of hope and tears of hopelessness.

Death is the vehicle our heavenly Father sends to bring us to Himself.

What can believers expect?

While our relatives and friends grieve here on earth, we’ll be in our new surroundings which are beyond our imagination from where we are now.

We will finally see the Lord face to face and exactly as He is. (1 Corinthians 13:12). He may even be standing to greet us as He did for Stephen in Acts 7:55.

We’ll see the nail prints in His hands, and the scars that were borne for us and if it wasn’t for His loving hand helping us to our feet, we’d be unable to stand up.

So much is different, yet we are very much the same.

We’ve entered heaven without a break in consciousness. Back on earth our friends will bury our body, but they can’t bury us.

The real us, the spirit, survives the death of the body. Just before Stephen died, he said, “Lord, receive my spirit.” He did not say, “Receive my body.” (Acts 7:59). Death for the believer is just to keep living somewhere else without so much as an interruption.

Our minds and our memories, that part of us we know as the soul, will be clearer than ever before.

In Jesus’ story of the rich man who went to hades in Luke 16:22 – 31, we see that his memory intact and he knew his family on earth. “I have five brothers”, He said.

Death won’t change our knowledge or our personalities. The information we’ve stored in our minds such as our background, our family and friends won’t change. We’ll remember all of this and more in heaven. It’s unthinkable that we’ll know less in heaven than we do on earth.

Once there we’ll soon get to meet those people known to us in this life along with those throughout church history and many others who are nameless in this world but honoured in the world to come.

On the Mount of Transfiguration, three of the disciples met Moses and Elijah. (Matthew 17).  There was no need for introductions or name tags.

In heaven, there will be a higher level of instinctive knowledge because our minds will be redeemed from the limitations that sin places on them.

Of course, we won’t know everything. Absolute knowledge belongs only to God. But we will “know fully,” even as we are “fully known” as we’re told in 1 Corinthians 13:12.

In heaven, we will have knowledge just like we do on earth, except more so. Only our desire to sin will no longer be a part of our being.

Personal Love Continues

Looking again at the of the rich man in Luke 16:22, we see he was concerned that his brothers might come to the same place of torment that he found himself.

He not only knew who his brothers were, but he was concerned about them. He loved them and was prepared to never see them again if only they would not join him in his place of torment.

The love for our family and friends continues in heaven, however, it is now a fonder, sweeter, purer love, purified by God. There is no more a break in love than there is in our thinking. Death breaks ties on earth but renews them in heaven.

We won’t marry in heaven or be given in marriage. (Matthew 22:30). However, we will retain our female or male gender. In heaven, our mother will be still known as our mother, our son or daughter will still be a member of our earthly family.

Our love for God will be intensified.

There are no distractions of sin and pride, and God can be loved, for we no longer need faith. That has given way to sight. We will keep loving whatever we loved on earth, apart from sin, except more so.

There is no evidence that those in heaven can actually see us on earth, though that might be possible. However, there is a severe warning that those who are in heaven cannot communicate with us.

God, through His Word, the Bible, strictly forbids any attempt to communicate with those who have died.

Fortune telling, mediums, card reading, and spiritualism hide many deadly traps. We should reject any attempt to receive “messages” from dead relatives or friends along with stories of those who have supposedly visited heaven or hell and returned.

Deception and seemingly harmless activities that sometimes appear beautiful and real can very easily lead from the narrow path that leads to life down the wide path which leads to destruction.

God has told us all we need to know about this life and the world to come. We need to entrust our loved ones into His loving care for both now and then.

Personal Feelings Continue

Think of your purest joy here on earth; then multiply that many times over and you might catch a glimpse of the euphoria that awaits us in heaven.

King David knew enough about heaven to write, “In your presence, there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11). Heaven is where the highest moments of our joy are perfected.

Knowledge, love, feelings, a desire for justice—all of these are the present experience of those who have gone ahead of us to heaven.

Personal Activities Continue

In heaven, we will rest, but it is not the rest of inactivity.

We will most probably continue many of the same kinds of projects we knew on earth. The artists will do art as never before; the scientist will continue his or her exploration of God’s magnificent creation. Musicians will do music and all of us will continue to learn.

Our love for God will continue, but it will be enhanced with a new purity and purposefulness.

The “real you” will be there.

What Kind of Body?

What kind of body do the saints have in heaven now, since the permanent, resurrection body is still the future?

As far as I’m aware, the Bible does not directly tell us anything about this period between arriving in heaven and receiving our glorified bodies.

It seems the soul has the ability to be recognised and to function in similar ways to our bodies. However, we can be certain that believers go directly into the presence of Christ at death. They are conscious, recognisable and in command of all of their faculties.

We will be the same people but our struggles with sin will be over and we will be aware of who we really are. There will be no doubt in our minds that we have just moved from one place to another without an intermediate stop.

The Resurrection Body

The Bible’s New Testament teaching of the resurrection tells us that we are spiritual and physical beings and that, after death, God intends to put us back together again. Although the spirit and soul are able to function separate from the body, this separation is only temporary.

To live forever, we must be brought together as a united human being—body, soul, and spirit.

The Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:42–44 about the differences that will occur to our body. “It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body; it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body”.

All of the chemical and material elements that make up our earthly bodies can be found anywhere on earth. What makes our earthly body unique to us is our DNA. DNA is the information that differentiates my body from everyone else’s.

God can easily reconstruct our earthly body, no matter how long it’s had to decompose, or over how far the particles have been scattered.

God needs only to apply your DNA, (which is readily available to Him) to any handful of dust and your body can be instantly recreated.

The resurrection body is not subject to material forces. Remember how Christ popped into our 4 dimensional world after the resurrection in Luke 24:36?

The reason the angel rolled the stone from Christ’s tomb was not to let Christ out, but to let the disciples in!

To speak of a “spiritual body” doesn’t mean that we will just be spirits.

Christ’s glorified body was so human that He invited the disciples to touch Him. In Luke 24:39 He invited the disciples to, quote, “See my hands and my feet, it is I myself. Touch me and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have”.

Our future body will be like Christ’s resurrection body. “We know that when He appears we will be like him because we will see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2).

The disciples recognized Him instantly, and He even ate fish with them at the seashore, but there were also radical changes.

He was able to travel from one place to another without physical effort and to simply appear in a physical location at will. He was able to operate completely outside of our earthly four dimensions of length, width, height, and time.

Evidently we too shall be able to travel effortlessly.

Of course, we’ll not be omnipresent or everywhere at once as God is. We’ll be limited to one place at one time. But travel will be fast and effortless.

To my delight, we’ll still eat, probably not because we’re hungry, but because we’ll taste of foods unimaginable to us now and we’ll love the fellowship dining together with those we love.

Why is death a blessing?

The Apostle Paul said 1 Corinthians 15:50, “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable”.

You and I simply can’t go to heaven as we are today. We’re not fit for heaven in our earthly, sinful state. You can’t have a decaying body in a permanent home.

Death rescues us from an endless existence of tears, frustration, illness, and pain. It’s the means by which those who love God are finally brought to Him.

Paul knew heaven was better than earth. He was itching to depart and to be with Christ, which, as he said, “is far better.”

Even our attempts to live one day longer with respirators and other high-tech equipment would seem unnecessary if we could just get a glimpse of what awaits us.

Death is our enemy only on this side of the curtain. Just beyond the curtain, it’s our friend. It reminds us that heaven is as near as a heartbeat, a car accident, or a doctor’s report. Death is not the end of the road; it is only a bend in the road.

We must always remember that Jesus will meet us on the other side of the curtain, but He walks with us on this side also and then guides us through the opening. We’ll meet Him there because we’ve met Him here.

Our permanent home is a city.

If you were to tell me you’re moving to America it would tell me very little about where you’ll actually be residing. I would need to know the state, city, suburb. street and house number if I were to locate you. In just the same way, “Going to heaven” is a very broad statement. Heaven and all its untold dimensions are too vast for us to begin to imagine. So where in heaven will we be?

Jesus said in John 14:2, “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.”

The original Greek word for mansion is Moni and it doesn’t mean a great big home. It means “abiding place.” “In my Father’s house are many abiding places.”

This place is different from any other in His universe. It’s a prepared place for prepared people.

The hope our Lord is giving believers today is that someday we’re to travel out into dimensions that we cannot see, feel or touch here on earth, to that place He has prepared.

Our permanent home will most certainly be in heaven, but it will be a specific place in heaven. It will be in a city and that city is called the New Jerusalem.

In the book of Revelation, we have the best description of the New Jerusalem, which is our permanent home.

Revelation 21:1–2 the Apostle John writes, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

This city has real location, even though It’s a location that cannot be determined by latitude and longitude. It’s outside of our earthly dimensions but it is still real and exists. One day the entire city will “come down” out of heaven and will exist eternally in full sight of the then redeemed earth and the people who will inhabit it. It will not necessarily be ON the earth but will be visible just as our sun and moon are currently, only much closer, and more accessible.

The true Church will be brought to this place. The true Church is the Body of Christ, that multitude of people through the ages who have believed Christ for their salvation.

Either each member of the Body of Christ will go to this permanent home when they cross from this life to the next or when they are snatched from the earth in the phenomenal, unmatched event called the Rapture. This will occur just prior to God’s judgment being released on this God rejecting world. Either way, the church will be brought to this place, our permanent home.

Notice that the city is a holy city. The inhabitants have been made holy in Christ and in no other way. He is there. That makes it a holy city.

The Size of the City

In Revelation 21:16, we are given the dimensions of the New Jerusalem. “The city is laid out as a square, and its length is as great as the width; and he measured the city with the rod, fifteen hundred miles; its length and width and height are equal”.

There’s plenty of room for all God’s redeemed but, unfortunately, the majority of the world’s population will not be there.

This city is a thing of exquisite beauty.

In Revelation 21:4, we are told that God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there will be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither will there be any more pain.

We’ll live in a city where no one sheds a tear, you’ll never know disappointment and you’ll never have cause to weep.

Also, of course, there shall be no more death. No death! There’ll be no cemeteries, funeral homes, crematoriums, or undertakers.

There’s a wall with 12 foundation stones surrounding the city with the names of the 12 Apostles on them and each is adorned with a different kind of precious stone.

In Revelation 21:12–21 we’re told there are twelve gates, each one a single pearl. Entrance into the city is restricted; only those who belong are admitted.

As for the main street, it will be of pure gold so pure it will be as glass.

Let’s look at the city’s lighting.

In Revelation 21:11 we read, “having the glory of God. And its light was like a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.

The jasper stone is evidently similar to our diamond. Include the twelve foundations, which would be the outer surface, with all their precious stones so pure they’re clear. The light that passes from the inside out through this abundance of precious stones will reflect every possible hue and tint of the colour spectrum.

There’s no need for the sun and moon. It originates light for the glory of God, the One who is the source of light will lighten it. (Revelation 21:23)

The city from the outside looks like a diamond flashing out through God’s vast universe.

A rainbow gives only a faint hint of the breathtaking beauty of the city of light. It will be the most thrilling sight. Nothing in all God’s universe will compare to it.

The Centre of the Universe

The New Jerusalem will be the centre of the universe. All activity and glory revolve about this city.

The nation Israel and the gentile nations of the earth will walk in the light of it and bring to it their glory and honour we are told in Revelation 21:24. They will not live in the city but will come, as the priests of old came to the holy place in the tabernacle and temple, for the purpose of worship.

This city has no temple because it is a temple Revelation 21:22 tells us. God is there, and Christ is there. There will be no need to bring a blood sacrifice, for the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world is there in person. It is The Holy Place, because Christ is present which is what makes it such a wonderful place.

The Lord Jesus said, “I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. “(John 14:2, 3)

We are to be with Him throughout eternity.

That will make it heaven – Christ will be there.

There are many other features of our new home that God has seen fit to reveal to us that are beyond the time given to this article.

I strongly suggest reading One Minute After You Die by Dr. Erwin Lutzer. It is available on Audio as well from this link .

I’ve also included J. Vernon McGee’s booklet “New Jerusalem: The Eternal Home of the Church” in a text file below this article.

I have borrowed from these sources for this article.

Thank you for listening and if you are unsure if you personally will experience the joy of eternity with Jesus Christ go to the article called “How to Know God”.