Affirming the Apostles ’ Creed
Page 8
REVELATION 21: 1, 3; 22: 5
CHAPTER 18
The Life Everlasting
Skeptics like Fred Hoyle and Bertrand Russell have told us that the thought of an endless future life horrifies them; for (they said) it would be so boring! Evidently they have found this life boring and cannot imagine how human existence could be made permanently interesting and worthwhile. Poor fellows! Here we see the blighting effects of godlessness and the black pessimism to which it leads.
But not all moderns are like Hoyle and Russell. Some are anxious to survive death. Hence their interest in spiritist phenomena, supposed to give proof of survival. But three facts should be noted. First, “messages” from the departed are distressingly trivial and self-absorbed. Second, “messages” do not come from those who in this life walked close to God. Third, mediums and their “controls” are embarrassed by the name of Jesus. These facts give warning that the spiritist phenomena, whatever their true explanation, are a blind alley for investigating “the blessed hope of everlasting life” [The Book of Common Prayer].
JESUS’ PRESENCE MAKES HEAVEN
When the Creed speaks of “the life everlasting,” it means not just endless existence (demons and lost souls have that), but the final joy into which Jesus entered (Hebrews 12:2) and which he promised and prayed that his followers would one day share. “Where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.” “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory” (John 12:26; 17:24).
Being with Jesus is the essence of heaven; it
is what the life everlasting is all about.
Being with Jesus is the essence of heaven; it is what the life everlasting is all about. “I have formerly lived by hearsay and faith,” said Bunyan’s Mr. Stand-fast, “but now I go where I shall live by sight, and shall be with him, in whose company I delight myself.” What will we do in heaven? Not lounge around, but worship, work, think and communicate, enjoying activity, beauty, people, and God. First and foremost, however, we shall see and love Jesus, our Savior, Master, and Friend.
ENDLESS JOY
The everlastingness of this life was spelled out in the most vivid possible way by the anonymous benefactor who appended to John Newton’s “Amazing Grace” this extra verse:
When we’ve been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we first begun.
I have been writing with enthusiasm, for this everlasting life is something to which I look forward. Why? Not because I am out of love with life here—just the reverse! My life is full of joy, from four sources—knowing God and people and the good and pleasant things that God and men under God have created and doing things that are worthwhile for God or others or for myself as God’s man. But my reach exceeds my grasp. My relationships with God and others are never as rich and full as I want them to be, and I am always finding more than I thought was there in great music, great verse, great books, great lives, and the great kaleidoscope of the natural order.
As I get older, I find that I appreciate God and people and good and lovely and noble things more and more intensely; so it is pure delight to think that this enjoyment will continue and increase in some form (what form, God knows, and I am content to wait and see) literally forever. Christians inherit in fact the destiny that fairy tales envisage in fancy: we (yes, you and I, the silly, saved sinners) live, and live happily, and by God’s endless mercy will live happily ever after.
We cannot visualize heaven’s life, and the wise man will not try. Instead he will dwell on the doctrine of heaven, which is that there the redeemed find all their heart’s desire—joy with their Lord, joy with his people, and joy in the ending of all frustration and distress and the supply of all wants. What was said to the child—“If you want sweets and hamsters in heaven, they’ll be there”—was not an evasion, but a witness to the truth that in heaven no felt needs or longings go unsatisfied. What our wants will actually be, however, we hardly know, save that first and foremost we shall want to “always be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:17).
Often now we say in moments of great enjoyment, “I don’t want this ever to stop,” but it does. Heaven, however, is different. May heaven’s joys be yours and mine.
FURTHER BIBLE STUDY
Our destination:
Revelation 21:1-22:5
QUESTIONS FOR THOUGHT AND DISCUSSION
Why is Packer suspicious of spiritist phenomena?
Why will heaven be delightful? Do you personally expect and look forward to heaven? Why or why not?
What will the residents of heaven do?