“I shall rise from the dead…I shall see the Son of God, the Sun of Glory, and shine myself as that sun shines. I shall be united to the Ancient of Days, to God Himself, who had no morning, never began…No man ever saw God and lived. And yet, I shall not live till I see God; and when I have seen Him, I shall never die.”

John Donne (pg 165, Heaven by Randy Alcorn)

Reading Randy Alcorn’s book, Heaven, has stimulated my heart and mind about our eternal goal — letting my imagination began to focus on Heaven, as described in Scripture. And there is so much in Scripture that can illuminate this for us. I am thankful for my friend Rob Moore for recommending it.

(I am not here saying his book is infallible – but it does certainly stimulate our hearts to looking forward with tremendous anticipation to Heaven as a real and physical place, a place without sin and without the ‘Curse’ of fallen mankind, but holy relationships with those we love – instead of it being an uncertain place suspended somewhere, or as one pastor put it: “Like an eternal church service.” He backs his conclusions with lots of Scripture instead of just ‘isolated verses.’)

He says: In beginning with aspects of Heaven in the order of importance, it should begin with God and our eternal relationship with Him – and approaching it with the richness and vitality it deserves. As David penned: Ps 63:1, O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly; My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

Alcorn’s book says: we’ve seen, the expression “Heaven and Earth” is a biblical designation for the entire universe, so when Revelation 21:1 (see below) speaks of “a new heaven and an new earth,” it indicates a transformation of the entire universe. The Greek word kainos, translated “new,” indicates that the earth God creates won’t merely be new as opposed to old, but new in quality and superior in character. According to Walter Bauer’s lexicon, kainos means new “in the sense that what is old has become obsolete, an should be replaced with what is new. In such case the new is, as a rule, superior in kind to the old.”

Paul uses the same word, kainos, when he speaks of a believer becoming “a new creation” (2 Cor. 5:17, see below). The New Earth will be the same as the old Earth, just as a new Christian is still the same person he was before. Different? Yes. But also the same.

When a home is burned to the ground, the components of the house do not cease to exist, but take on another form. According to the first law of thermodynamics (conservation of energy), the fire doesn’t obliterate the wood but transforms it into different substances, including charcoal and carbon dioxide. What we consider annihilation in not what it appears.

Resurrection, however, goes beyond that. A new house is not made out of the materials of a house that burned, but out of new materials. Though it may be on the same ground, made according to the same blueprint, it is a different house. Resurrection, however, is about continuity – the same body that was destroyed is reconstructed into the new—–it will be made ‘better’ and ‘eternal.’

As God may gather the scattered DNA and atoms and molecules of our bodies, he will regather all He needs of the scorched and disfigured Earth. As our old bodies will be raised to new bodies, so the old Earth will be raised to become the New Earth. So, will the earth be destroyed or renewed? The answer is both - but the ‘destruction’ will be temporal and partial, whereas the renewed will be eternal and complete.

The doctrine of the new creation, extending not only to mankind, but to the world, the natural realm, and even nations and cultures, is a major biblical theme, though you would never know it judging by how little attention it receives among Christians.

In an important essay, theologian Greg Beale argues that “new creation is a plausible and defensible center for New Testament theology.” He states, “The Bible begins with the original creation which is corrupted (and cursed in Genesis 3:17, see below), and the rest of the Old Testament is a redemptive-historical process working toward a restoration of the fallen creation in a new creation. The New Testament then sees these hopes beginning fulfillment and prophesies a future time of fulfillment in a consummated new creation, which Revelation 21:1 – 22:5 portrays.

Hence we have seen from Isaiah and throughout the Old Testament, the doctrine of the new heavens and New Earth is not some late-developing afterthought but a central component of redemptive history and intention. And through Christ’s redemption of us: 2 Cor 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

Alcorn says: The earth’s death will be no more final than our own. The destruction of the old Earth in God’s purifying judgment will immediately be followed by its resurrection to new life. Earth’s fiery “end” will open straight into a glorious new beginning. And as we’ll see, it just keeps getting better and better.

What we really want is to live forever in a world with all the beauty and none of the ugliness – a world without sin, death, the Curse, and all the personal and relational problems and disappointments they create. To not look forward to this, he believes is ‘faulty theology’ accusing God of failure – assuming He will never accomplish a lasting state of righteousness on Earth. In the beginning, when God created the earth, He said ‘His creation was good.’ Do we think He will abandon that to His enemies and Satan? I do NOT!

Everything about ‘salvation’ is about: Reconcile. Redeem. Recover. Return. Regenerate. Resurrect. Each of these biblical words begins with the re-prefix, suggesting a return to an original condition that was ruined or lost. New in this sense – a restored and perfected version of our familiar bodies and familiar Earth and our family relationships.

A place with loved ones – that’s a central quality of home. Heaven will be like that – we’ll be with people we love, and we’ll love no one more than Jesus, who purchased with His own blood the real estate of the New Earth. In the words of Paul Marshall: “What we need is not to be rescued from the world, not to cease being human, not to stop caring for the world, not to stop shaping human culture. What we need is the power to do these things according to the will of God. We, as well as the rest of creation need to be redeemed.”

What we really want is the person we were made for, Jesus, and the place we were made for, Heaven. Nothing less can satisfy us. A Christian Alcorn once met in passing told him it troubled him that he really didn’t long for Heaven. Instead, he yearned for an Earth that was like God meant it to be. He didn’t desire a Heaven that was ‘out there’ somewhere, but an Earth under his feet, where God was glorified. He goes on to say that ‘his longing was biblical and right,’ in fact, the very place he’s always longed for, an Earth where God is fully glorified, is the place where we will live forever – the New Heaven and the New Earth.

Obstacles to ‘our seeing God’

Sin is the chasm, the barrier between mankind and God. As we see in the Garden of Eden before ‘sin entered the world’ and the ‘fall of mankind’ God ‘walked in the garden, and had direct relationship with Adam and Eve: Gen 3:8-9 They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. Then the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?”

From that time forward, no man has seen God – as even revealed in Moses encounter: Ex 33:18-20 Then Moses said, “I pray You, show me Your glory!” And He said, “I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the LORD before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.” But He said, “You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!”

And God’s holiness was observed and enforced: 2 Sam 6:6-7 But when they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out toward the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen nearly upset it. And the anger of the LORD burned against Uzzah, and God struck him down there for his irreverence; and he died there by the ark of God.

In the Tabernacle only the High Priest could enter the ‘Holy of Holies’ – and that once a year, and tradition says he entered with a rope tied to his ankle in case he died there, so they could drag him out without entering.

1 Tim 6:16 who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen.

Heb 12:14 Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.

But, He promises: Matt 5:8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Jesus Christ, our Savior and our Lord

As David penned revealing that innate need and desire within our hearts that only One can fill: Ps 27:4 One thing I have asked from the LORD, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the LORD And to meditate in His temple.

Jesus is God: Matt 1:23 “BEHOLD, THE VIRGIN SHALL BE WITH CHILD AND SHALL BEAR A SON, AND THEY SHALL CALL HIS NAME IMMANUEL,” which translated means, “GOD WITH US.”

John 1:14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

When in Heaven, we see Jesus, we see God: John 14:9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, “Show us the Father’?

Heb 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

When we are in Heaven, in our eternal bodies, without sin, we shall see God. Even now, those of us who have accepted the salvation provided in Jesus Christ, and washed by His blood, we are invited by prayer into the very presence of our Father God in Heaven, into His holy of holies:

Heb 10:19-22 Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus,  by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Heb 4:16 Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Seeing God: “One day both we and the universe will be forever cured of sin. In that day, we will see God.”

2 Cor 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

1 Cor 13:12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.

Rev 22:3-4 There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him; they will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads.

Job 19:25-27 “As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, And at the last He will take His stand on the earth. “Even after my skin is destroyed, Yet from my flesh I shall see God; Whom I myself shall behold, And whom my eyes will see and not another. My heart faints within me!

The essence of eternal life:

What is the essence of eternal life? John 17:3 “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

Our primary joy in Heaven will be knowing and seeing God. Every other joy will be derivative, flowing from the fountain of our relationship with God. Ps 73:25-26 Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail, But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Jonathan Edwards said, “God Himself is the great good which they are brought to the possession and enjoyment of by redemption. He is the highest good, and the sum of all that is good which Christ purchased…The redeemed will indeed enjoy other things…but that which they shall enjoy in the angels, or each other, or in anything else whatsoever, that will yield them delight and happiness, will be what will be seen of God in them.”

Augustine called God “the end of our desires.” He prayed, “you have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”

Alcorn uses this: Suppose you are sick and your friend brings you a meal. What meets your needs – the meal or the friend? Both! Of course, without your friend, there would be no meal; but even without a meal, you would still treasure your friendship. Hence, your friend is both your higher pleasure and the source of your secondary pleasure (the meal). Likewise, God is the source of all lesser goods, so that when they satisfy us, it’s God Himself who satisfies us. (In fact, it’s God who satisfies you by giving you the friend who gives you the meal.)

Some would say: “But our eyes should be on the giver, not the gift; we must focus on God, not on heaven.” This fails to recognize that because God is the ultimate source of joy, and all secondary joys emanate from Him, to love secondary joys on Earth, can be – and in Heaven always will be – to love God their source.

1 Tim 6:17 Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. If He provides us with everything for our enjoyment, we shouldn’t feel guilty for enjoying it, should we?

1 Tim 4:4-5 For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude; for it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer.

In Heaven we will have no capacity to turn people or things into idols. When we find joy in God’s gifts, we will be finding our joy in Him.

Ps 27:4 One thing I have asked from the LORD, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the LORD And to meditate in His temple.

Jer 31:34-35 “They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, “Know the LORD,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the LORD, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” Thus says the LORD, Who gives the sun for light by day And the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, Who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar; The LORD of hosts is His name:

God doesn’t want to be replaced or depreciated. He wants to be recognized as the source of all our joys, and He wants us to draw closer to Him through partaking of His creation. My taking pleasure in a good meal or a good book is taking pleasure in God. It is not a substitute for God, nor is it a distraction from Him. In the words of the Westminister Shorter Catechism, it’s what I was made for: “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.”

Theologian Sam Storms writes, “We will constantly be more amazed with God, more in love with God, and thus ever more relishing His presence and our relationship with Him. Our experience of God will never reach its consummation. We will never arrive, as if upon reaching a peak we discover there is nothing beyond. Our experience of God will never become stale. It will deepen and develop, intensify and amplify, unfold and increase, broaden and balloon.”

Beholding and knowing God, we will spend eternity worshipping, exploring, and serving Him, seeing His magnificent beauty in everything and everyone around us. Augustine wrote in The City of God, “We shall in the future world see the material forms of the new heavens and the new earth in such a way that we shall most distinctly recognize God everywhere present and governing all things, material as well as spiritual.” In the new universe, as we study nature, as we pursue science and mathematics and every realm of knowledge, we’ll see God in everything for He’s behind it all.

Many commoners in history would have thought it the ultimate experience to gain an audience with their human king, to meet him face-to-face. How much greater will it be to see God in His glory? There could be no higher privilege, no greater thrill! All our explorations and adventures and projects in the eternal Heaven – and I believe there will be many – will pale in comparison to the wonder of seeing God. Yet everything else we do will help us to see God better, to know and worship Him better.

To know Jesus is to ‘know God’ – and is God’s providence for our reaching Heaven to spend eternity with Him.

Do you know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord?

In Him,

Bill Watts

Jan 31, 2006

Additional Scriptures referred to in the devotional:

Rev 21:1-5 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.” And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.”

2 Cor 5:17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

Gen 3:17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, “You shall not eat from it’; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life.

All Mighty God, our Creator, our Father God in heaven, is an awesome God. He is a good God! He loves us so—-the full proof of that is Jesus Christ. And yes, I also totally subscribe to the Scriptures that reveal we, as mankind, will never ascribe to or reach His knowledge and understanding—because He is God. Isaiah 55: 8, 9 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts. (NASU)

But, the more I study His Word, I find how He is a God of logic and reason (from His position of who He is) and not a God of confusion for those who love Him and seek Him in His Word.

So often though, we are not ‘searching below the surface of our traditional ‘accepted’ dogma and ‘current understanding’—-and may miss out on an even fuller illumination recorded for us to find.

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And, as long as we as parents are still alive, it is hopefully not too late to tell them (our children) how much we love them, and how much we value them, and how sorry we are for the things we have said or done that has deeply hurt them. (And, we may not even remember—but they do.) And, when around children, or young people, remember the tremendous effect our words and actions have on that child—-even as adolescents or teen-agers. A dear friend of mine said concerning that children’s saying: “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” He said, “Your bruises, cuts and pain from being hit—–generally heal in a short time, but the deep pain caused by harsh, mean, belittling words from someone you respect or love—-or sometimes from even a stranger—–these scars you may carry for a lifetime.”

I am 66 years old, and still carry deeply imbedded, things that hurt me so badly from my childhood. I still have ‘behavioral mechanisms’ deep inside my subconscious to ‘protect me’ from pain and hurt—or the feeling that I do not ‘measure up’ to the expectations (often unrealistic expectations that even they could not have lived up to) imposed by someone I loved, or that was ‘in authority’ over me.

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You may ask, “What difference does it make to have ‘historical evidence of Jesus Christ as a living person’ as reported or ‘confirmed by a non-Christian source’ to a ‘follower of Jesus Christ,’ a ‘believer’ who accepts the Bible as infallible, authoritative and accurate?” (Remember, even Satan acknowledges Jesus as ‘the Son of God’—but he does not worship Him, nor has he received Christ’s salvation. It is NOT about ‘knowing who’ Jesus is ‘historically’—-rather ‘knowing—and acknowledging He is God,’ and that we are ‘lost in our sins against God the Father’—and ‘need a Savior’—-and that ‘Jesus is our Savior and Lord’ (John 14:6 and Acts 4:12) if we will but ‘repent, and accept His free gift of eternal salvation in Him, and be forever reconciled to God the Father.’)

Still, my response, since I have also written several times ‘why I believe the Bible to be accurate,’ and that I totally accept it as God revealing Himself to His creation in order ‘to have relationship with us’ (John 3:16) and to provide us His foundation for our moral and ethical choices—-is that when even ‘natural man’ (1 Cor. 2:14)—-those who are ‘spiritually dead’ (1 Cor. 1:18 and Romans 6:23) and have not yet been ‘reborn’ (Acts 16:30,31 and John 3:3)—-when they too have recorded that Jesus was real—a real person—-and further, when they record an event in His life—that He was crucified by Pontius Pilate in Jerusalem—-or that His brother, James, was executed, then each of these too becomes a ‘building block’ in the foundational evidence of validation of the Bible.

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As Christ cried out on the cross these words of David’s in Psalm 22, haven’t each one of us too also ‘cried out to God?’

Psalm 22:1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning.

In the ‘fullness of time’ as Christ endured being executed on a Roman cross—-and in that event while suffering more than any man—–before, present or after—-so that He could provide salvation for us—-but as perfect man and perfect God, knowing every word and action there would be preserved and analyzed by mankind for each one’s personal reasons—-He still fulfilled even more prophecy concerning Him, written centuries before His incarnation here on earth as He quoted Psalm 22:1.

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Recently, I was asked to be the speaker at a ‘memorial service’ for a departed friend. I was privileged to be asked, and feel it was in the Lord’s will so that I could be used as a ‘vessel for Him’ in this.

So, I spent the first part of this ‘personalizing’ my friend’s life and our friendship. Then, since I believe He is now with Christ—–I took the opportunity to speak to those present—-and these were my opening words to them in this………….

Now, let me speak to the living here:

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What do you know about Heaven? Can you describe it?

Or is your vision of it as a ‘never-ending church service?’

Is it a physical place, and will we have physical bodies?

Is there an ‘intermediate Heaven’ where we go when we die here on earth, to dwell until Christ comes again to Earth to rule, and resurrects all the bodies of those ‘dead in Christ?’

What is your vision of Heaven? Does it include the New Earth?

If someone asks you, how do you describe it?

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Most of us are what could be referred to as New Testament Christians. Thus when we are sharing Christ, it is from the New Testament.

However, we must remember, to share Christ it’s often best to share Him from a perspective that the person with which we are sharing is familiar, and will accept.

So, if we are sharing with an orthodox Jew, they read, believe, and follow the teachings of Moses and the prophets in the Old Testament.

And remember, when our Lord was here on earth, the ‘Scriptures’ that were written and ‘in use’ in the Jewish faith was the Old Testament, and Moses was revered as the Law Giver, and His 5 books as the basis for their law. Our Lord quoted from the OT all the time, because the NT was not yet written, it was ‘being lived.’

A Jew does not believe or accept our New Testament.

And remember, when immediately after the crucifixion, and prior to ‘their knowledge of His resurrection,’ the disciples, confused and afraid, were scattering and going into hiding. Remember, His appearing to two of them on their way to Emmaus? Here is that account:

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This is a personal understanding, by me, Bill Watts, (neither a theologian, nor Bible scholar, but a grateful sinner who believes with all my heart that I am saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ—-and if you ‘are not’—-you can be, its ‘your choice.’)

Many ‘know who Jesus is’—(‘or was’ if in their minds they do not accept Him as deity, and thus as a ‘historical figure’—in fact, Josephus, a Jewish Historian—NOT a Christian nor a follower of Christ, who was born around 37 AD—and eventually became a ‘turncoat’ to the Jews, and collaborated with Rome, becoming the Roman advisor on Jewish affairs, he wrote the history of that era, and wrote of Jesus historically. I’ll even paste an article from this website at the end of this for you—but his ‘third party’ validation of Jesus Christ in a historical sense, certainly validates Him being on history’s stage as the Bible states.)

But what I am speaking here of, is in relation to ‘knowing Jesus as God,’ His eternal divineness as deity, as our Savior, as our Lord. He was and is the only begotten Son of God, who came to save us from our sins—-to redeem us, and to reconcile us to God the Father, forever! He is our risen Savior. He lives! I have accepted Him into my heart and mind as Savior and Lord, and have accepted His free gift of salvation and eternal life with Him—my destination is Heaven. That is what I mean by ‘knowing Jesus.’ It is a ‘personal relationship’ that began the day, the moment I accepted Him into my heart, and will continue through this life, and then, eternally. This is my understanding of ‘what He did for us,’—-for you and me at Calvary. (This is my response to His love.)

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