Hi, again! This is the last post in the gospel basics series. We spend a lot of time looking in to our present lives and what the gospel means for us right here right now, and for good reason. Today, I wanted to take a step back and examine what eternity looks like for those who worship Jesus. It’s been a pleasure being with you all for the past few weeks!

- Steve

“I saw the dead, both great and small, standing before God’s throne. And the books were opened, including the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books. The sea gave up its dead, and death and the grave gave up their dead. And all were judged according to their deeds.” (Revelation 20:13)

Scripture tells us about the end of the world when all the people who have ever lived are gathered before God’s seat of judgment. As a current day judge sitting behind their bench, God will preside over the trial of every person. Each person’s deeds will be brought before God and judgment will be pronounced on them by Him. Every deed, whether good or evil, will be judged. None of us are good enough to earn a place in heaven on our own, but God will show us grace and reward us as though we had been good enough if our names are among those who are saved through Jesus and have His Spirit in them. For those people, they will be rewarded for their good deeds. Those whose names are not among the saved will be sentenced to the just punishment of all their evil deeds.

Because we are going to be judged for our good or evil deeds, the question is begged, “what are good and evil?” How do we recognize when we are doing good things and when we are doing evil things? More than that, we should recognize that good or evil is more than following rules written in a book or chosen by culture. Instead, they are opposite states of our hearts. When we allow ourselves to be influenced by the evil in our hearts, the evidence is the evil things we do. When we allow ourselves to be influenced by the good in God’s heart, the evidence is the good things we do.

“Once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true.” (Ephesians 5:8-9)

Jesus said this about Himself while teaching the Pharisee named Nicodemas who came to learn from Jesus, “God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.” (John 3:19)

Good and evil are compared to light and darkness in scripture. Just as darkness is the absence of light, evil is the absence of good. Good is those things that are from God’s nature and evil is those things that are opposed to God’s nature. All the things in our lives that are good are a gift from God. Believers and unbelievers both experience the goodness of God through the things He has created: family, friendship, light, music, joy, peace, beauty, and many other things.

When people choose to live a life in relationship with God, they are drawn toward doing things that please Him. Because God’s Spirit is in Christian believers, when we are submitted to Him, He moves through us to do good things. Those of us who have accepted the sacrifice of Jesus and are filled with God’s Spirit will be in the place He is forever. That doesn’t mean that Christian believers always do things that are good, however. We still live in human bodies that have human desires and can be tempted to do things that are inspired entirely by our own human nature. Sometimes, we fall short by doing what is contrary to God’s nature. When that happens, our actions are categorized as “sin”.

When people reject relationship with God, they are drawn toward doing the things that please themselves. Sometimes, people love their own desires so much, it is the reason they reject God in the first place. Because these people don’t have any desire to please God in any way, they are not inclined to please Him through their actions. Sometimes, these people do good things, but they do them because it can feel good to do what is good. They are motivated by the pleasure that is a God-created response to participating in His nature. However, without accepting the sacrifice of Jesus, their sins will be brought under judgment regardless of the number of good things they have done.

Once people who have rejected the sacrifice of Jesus are judged by God, they spend eternity in a place without Him. Jesus talks about this in the book of Matthew when He describes someone who is ejected from a wedding banquet (this is a reference to the wedding supper of the Lamb talked about in the book of Revelation). “Then the king said to his aides, ‘Bind his hands and feet and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’” (Matthew 22:13) The amazing thing about this state is that God doesn’t prevent people who are constrained to this absence of God’s nature from creating their own good, he simply removes Himself. However, the result of humanity’s attempts to create good apart from God is described in the Bible as “weeping and teeth grinding”.

The place of reward is called heaven and the place of punishment is called hell. Most people are aware of the names of these places, but there are a lot of competing ideas about what these places actually are. Some will say that heaven and hell are mental states and can be experienced here and now as the result of positive or negative attitudes. Some people will say that neither exists at all. Scripture tells us that they are real places, but that they are not yet complete.

Heaven

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone.” (Revelation 21:1)

“But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will not all die, but we will all be transformed! It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed. For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies.” (1 Corinthians 15:51-53)

Reading assignment: It’s too long to place here in a blog post, but read Revelation 21. It’s amazing!

So heaven is a place but what is it about heaven that makes it “heaven” and not just another place like Cleveland, Ohio or London, England? One difference is location. Heaven is not a place that we can visit by taking a car ride or an airplane flight. Currently, heaven is contained in the spiritual dimension. That means it is only accessible by the spiritual part of us. The Bible promises us a new heaven and new earth which will combine both the physical and spiritual dimensions. That will happen after all the humans who will ever live have experienced physical death and been judged by God. This new creation will be the ultimate location of God’s throne, also called the kingdom of Heaven or the kingdom of God.

In the new heaven and earth, our weak and failing bodies will also be remade. Our new bodies will be perfectly balanced physical and spiritual bodies that never grow old, tired, sick, or broken. Many are interested in the age of people while they are in heaven, but scripture doesn’t tell us anything about that. It’s my personal belief that everyone is ageless in heaven, being neither young nor old but only complete and right.

“Our earthly bodies are planted in the ground when we die, but they will be raised to live forever. Our bodies are buried in brokenness, but they will be raised in glory. They are buried in weakness, but they will be raised in strength. They are buried as natural human bodies, but they will be raised as spiritual bodies. For just as there are natural bodies, there are also spiritual bodies. 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.” (Corinthians 15:42-46)

In the same way, plants and animals will not grow sick or old; neither will they die. There will be no sadness, death, or rot in heaven. No stink of decay or littered waste will offend any of our senses. No one will lack anything they need. Human ideals of utopia are evidence that God has placed the knowledge of His nature in our hearts. However, all human ideals fall short of the true wonder and joy of heaven.

As good as a new and uncorrupted heaven and earth filled with eternal good health sounds, what really makes it heaven is even better. All who are brought into heaven are those who have God’s Spirit in them and all will be without the sin nature found in frail human bodies. The best part is that heaven is the place where only God’s good nature exists. Heaven is a place where there is only love, joy, peace, happiness, and unity. In heaven, there is no pain, sadness, or discontent. However, because only good can be in heaven, it is necessary to remove anything that would cause evil.

So, heaven has spiritual characteristics that sound good for those of us who love God and embrace His nature, but what about its physical characteristics? Revelation 21 and 22 describe a part of the new heaven and earth, specifically, the new city of Jerusalem. It’s important to keep in mind that the current city of Jerusalem, in Israel, is only a representation of the true eternal city of Jerusalem which is the city of God. The description of the coming city of Jerusalem is described as shining with precious stones. It has 12 gates in the outer walls, each made from a single pearl with the streets made from gold so pure that it is as clear as glass. There is no sun or moon and no night because God’s glory provides continuous light. These chapters also mention that all the nations will bring their honor and glory into the city and the kings of the world will enter the city. With nations and kings, the bigger picture seems to be that the new heaven and earth are much larger than the new Jerusalem, but that the new city of God holds a special place in the new creation as the place where God’s throne resides.

Many people imagine floating on fluffy clouds with chubby babies playing harps in some kind of hazy soup, but what do we actually do in heaven? We live as suitable partners and helpers with God. There aren’t a lot of specifics in scripture, but we were given dominion over the living creatures on Earth now and scripture tells us that we will reign with Jesus for eternity. This seems to indicate that the recreated heaven and Earth will be populated with many other created beings so some of us may cultivate plants and tend to animals. There are also cities mentioned along with their infrastructure. Imagine a gifted gardener who can sculpt plants into any shape they desire or an artistic architect who can oversee the construction of any building they imagine without physical or financial limitations. It may not be exactly these things, but whatever we do, it will fill us with joy and contentment.

Hell

“Then death and the grave were thrown into the lake of fire. This lake of fire is the second death. And anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire.” (Revelation 20:14-15)

“And God will provide rest for you who are being persecuted and also for us when the Lord Jesus appears from heaven. He will come with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, bringing judgment on those who don’t know God and on those who refuse to obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with eternal destruction, forever separated from the Lord and from his glorious power.” (1 Thessalonians 1:7-9)

If heaven is the place where only things that are compatible with God’s nature exists, what is hell? Hell is the place where God removes Himself and the only things that are left are the things that are without God’s nature. Despite popular cultural notions about hanging out with friends and drinking beer while listening to rock music, in hell there is no good thing. That means there are no friends, family, music, light, or fun. There is only loneliness, darkness, and anguish.

One question often asked about God and hell, goes something like this, “If God loves everyone, how could He send anyone to hell?” There are two primary reasons. Firstly, if people reject God’s person and nature, it would be unloving for Him to force them into His presence and under His rule forever. Because hell is the only place where God and His kingdom won’t be, it is the only place where those who reject Him can be. Secondly, God is not only loving, but He is also just. When the grace offered to everyone through the sacrifice of Jesus is rejected, God’s justice demands that the consequence of people’s sin be death.

If hell is what happens after people die, how is hell considered death? We live in and experience both physical and spiritual dimensions and we can live or die in each. Physical death occurs when someone’s spirit becomes separated from their body. Spiritual death occurs when someone’s spirit becomes separated from God. It’s possible to experience spiritual death while our physical bodies are still alive, and it can be temporary. However, hell is eternal spiritual death and always comes after physical death.