Written by Dawn Rutan
It occurred to me recently how incredible it is that we live in a society that is relatively moral and self-controlled. Having witnessed firsthand the rebellion that leads some people to do stupid things (in this case, a reckless driver endangering pedestrians), it’s actually amazing that the vast majority of people are usually law-abiding citizens. I think that’s why it is so often hard to convince people that “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23 ESV). People who are outwardly “good people” don’t want to be told they are sinners. People wonder how God could send “good people” to hell when they can come up with a long list of things that they think justify their entrance to heaven. We can all think of people who “deserve” hell far more than the average moral person.
The irony is that many of the same people who think they deserve heaven would be appalled to think that they’d spend eternity praising God and growing in knowledge of Him. If you aren’t interested in a relationship with God in this life, why would you want to spend eternity with Him? The church has not always done a very good job of explaining what eternal life is all about. We’ve adopted images of heaven that have more in common with Islam than with the Bible. (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaven.) We don’t even know how to deal with stories of near death experiences or how they relate to the real afterlife as described in Scripture. Scot McKnight writes, “It seems to me in the flourishing of these [near death experiences], many Christians will want once again to take a whole new look at what the Bible says about heaven. What they will find, in almost all cases, is a view of heaven that is quite unlike what is experienced in the [near death experiences].”
C.S. Lewis wrote:
“God, who has made us, knows what we are and that our happiness lies in Him. Yet we will not seek it in Him as long as He leaves us any other resort where it can even plausibly be looked for. While what we call ‘our own life’ remains agreeable we will not surrender it to Him. What then can God do in our interests but make ‘our own life’ less agreeable to us, and take away the plausible sources of false happiness?” (The Problem of Pain, 96–97)
Many people want eternal happiness on their own terms, apart from any relation to the God who created us. They want to edit Romans 8:21-23 to say “the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain freedom,” and conveniently ignore the fact that it is the “children of God” who “wait eagerly for adoption as sons.” Only those who know God as Father want the kind of life that He offers. Some preachers try to convert people by saying in essence, “Do you want to avoid hell and go to heaven? Then just believe in Jesus.” What they leave out is a biblical description of eternity as children of God who love and glorify Him.
“But according to His promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:13). Many who long for what they call heaven are completely uninterested in the dwelling place of righteousness. They’d rather have a place of free license to do whatever they want. People want the promises of Revelation 21:4: “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away;” but they don’t care about the presence of God described in 21:3: “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God.” We can’t one without the other.
The older I get and the more I see the brokenness of this world, the more I long for the Second Coming of Christ, not just so the brokenness will be fixed and the earth made new, but so I can enjoy the presence of the One I’ve come to know and love. I’m coming to understand what John Piper calls the “superior pleasure” of knowing God, or as Thomas Chalmers called it, “The expulsive power of a new affection.” One day the true desires of our hearts will be revealed and either fulfilled in Christ or destroyed in judgment.
“‘Surely I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev. 22:20).
© 2017 Dawn Rutan. The views stated may or may not reflect the beliefs of the pastor or leadership of Dulin’s Grove Church.
