Several years ago, while driving an elderly friend to an appointment, she turned to me with sadness in her voice and asked, “where do you think my husband is right now?” The man she had been married to for over 60 years had died several years earlier. Together, they had ministered to thousands throughout the world. Now, she was a bit uncertain. “Is he with Jesus?” “Is his lifeless body simply waiting for the resurrection?”
Her questions were understandable. Popular culture has a wide range of beliefs regarding “life after death” – from complete annihilation to reincarnation. At Princess Diana’s funeral, one message written as in Diana’s own voice stated, “I did not leave you at all. I am still with you. I am in the sun and in the wind. I am even in the rain. I did not die; I am with you all.”
Even Christians are somewhat perplexed. Does resurrection mean simply “going to heaven when I die”? Will believers be “raptured” to a spiritual, timeless existence, leaving this corrupt world to the cosmic ash heap? And what will heaven be like? Will we be like angels in heaven – or like the stars in the sky? And what about the many “heaven tourism” and near-death accounts?
The Bible has relatively little to say about what heaven will be like. Yes, we believe, with St. Paul, that to “be away from the body (is to be) at home with the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 2:8, ESV). Jesus himself promised this to the crucified thief at his side, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43). But what about bodily resurrection? How and “when” does that fit into our view of “life after death”? What is the “final destination” for believers?
A New Heaven and a New Earth
Both Old and New Testament point to a “new heavens and a new earth” as our ultimate destination; not to an ethereal “heaven” as our ultimate destination. Consider the vision of John in Revelation:
“And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “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. 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. And he who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’ Also he said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.’” (Revelation 21:2-5, ESV).
Here we see God’s presence and reign coming down to dwell with His creation; not disembodied souls going up to heaven. This leads to our first clue as to what our ultimate destination will be. The new heavens and earth will be “familiar” yet gloriously “unfamiliar”.
Creation as a Signpost of “Heaven”
A common error is to see biblical creation as simply an “origin” story rather than an “origin and completion” story. Viewing it as an “origin only” event easily leads to the idea that it was a failed project. But creation is not a “once and done” project. Genesis starts with God’s declaration that creation is “good” and the creation of man and woman to be “very good”. In Revelation we are told of creation’s “resurrection” and completion – not its annihilation.
How then is creation a signpost or clue to God’s ultimate purposes? The answer is two-fold. First, God’s gracious “let there be” gives existence to beings and beauty “other than himself” and not contained within Himself. In other words, creation is, and remains, the arena where God dwells with man.
Second, God creates man and woman to be His “image-bearers” – or vice-regents – to wisely steward creation and reflect the praises of creation back to Him. Of course, this human stewardship is supremely bestowed on the Son – through whom all things were created and are sustained – who then takes on human “createdness” in His incarnation. And it is through Jesus that believers share in His stewardship role.
“He chose us in him (Christ) before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. … making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” (Ephesians 1:4, 9-10)
We see in Scripture – and our own experience – that creation has become subject to corruption and dissolution. Yet rather than discarding creation as a failed project, God – through the Son and the Spirit – intends to bring creation to its intended completion. Consider St. Paul’s words to the Romans:
“For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.”(Rom. 8:19-22 ,ESV)
When we think of our ultimate destination as God’s people, it’s this view of completed – or “resurrected” creation that awaits – not a disembodied, purely “spiritual”, platonic existence.
So, what will “the new heavens and new earth” be like? Scripture offers several dazzling images: a “heavenly Jerusalem” coming down – shining pure like crystal and paved with pure gold “like transparent glass”. All tears will be wiped away. God’s glory and God’s perfect love will be on full display. These, and other glimpses offered in Scripture let us know that it will be beyond anything we could hope or imagine. But of what we can be certain is that, through Jesus Christ, our foreordained vocation of vice-regency over God’s New Creation will continue. Moreover, it will be the everlasting habitation where God dwells with His people.
“No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.” (Revelation 22:3-5, ESV).
Jesus’ Resurrected Body as a Signpost of “Heaven”
The resurrected body of Jesus Christ provides our second clue as to what “heaven”, or more precisely, the “new heavens and new earth” will be like.
“Indeed, (Jesus) appears as a human being with a body that in some ways is quite normal and can be mistaken for a gardener or a fellow traveler on the road. Yet the stories (in the Gospels) also contain – and this marks them out as among the most mysterious stories ever written – definite signs that this body has been transformed. It is clearly physical; it uses up the matter of the crucified body; hence the empty tomb. But, equally, it comes and goes through locked doors; it is not always recognized; and in the end it disappears into God’s space, that is, ‘heaven,” through the thin curtain that in much Jewish thought separates God’s space from human space.” (N.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope, p. 55)
“What God did for Jesus on the first Easter Day, he has promised to do for each one who is in Christ, each one indwelt by the Spirit of Christ”. (p. 80)
St. Paul, in reflecting on this, writes:
“…This decaying body must put on the undecaying one; this dying body must put on deathlessness. When the decaying puts on the undecaying, and the dying puts on the undying, then the saying that has been written will come true: Death is swallowed up in victory!” (I Corinthians 15:53-54, KNT)
So, what will our ultimate future be like? N.T. Wright writes:
“All our language about the future…is like a set of signposts pointing into a bright mist. The signpost doesn’t provide a photograph of what we will find when we arrive but offers instead a true indication of the direction we should be traveling in. What I am proposing is that the New Testament image of the future hope of the whole cosmos, grounded in the resurrection of Jesus, gives as coherent a picture as we need or could have of the future that is promised to the whole world, a future in which, under the sovereign and wise rule of the creator God, decay and death will be done away with and a new creation born, to which the present one will stand as a mother to child.” (NT Wright, p.107).
