I have looked at a number of aspects of Heaven in my previous posts, including who will be in Heaven, and what we will be like in Heaven. But next I would like to look briefly at Heaven itself – the new earth and universe presented to us in Revelation 21 and Revelation 22 with its capitol city, the holy Jerusalem, which will descend from God’s throne room, and be joined with the renewed physical earth and universe that Jesus will establish at His second coming.
We are told in Romans 8:18-23 that all of nature, now subjected to futility as a result of man’s sin, “groans and travails” as it awaits God’s revelation of His true sons and daughters who will be revealed at Jesus’ second coming (2 Thessalonians 1:6-10). At that time, the present earth and universe will be cleansed through a judgement of fire from all of the corruption of sin, and renewed once again to be the universal stage in which God will reveal His glory, His infinite beauty, wisdom, power and grace to and through His redeemed creation (2 Peter 3:10-13).
This restored and perfected earth and universe will be our eternal home, where we will live with our forever family, where we will finally and fully love God with all of our heart and soul and mind and strength and those around us as we love ourselves.
Heaven will be a place of eternal blessedness and satisfaction, represented by the river of life proceeding from God’s throne and the trees growing along that river (Revelation 22:1-2), as the curse of sin (Deuteronomy 28:15-68), which is responsible for all of the conflict, misery, pain, sorrow, suffering and death we experience in this present world, will be no more (Revelation 22:3). There will be nothing that can or will ever again separate us from or interfere with the perfect fellowship we were created to enjoy with God and one another ever again (Revelation 21:3-4).
Heaven will be a place of resplendent beauty and magnificence where everything and everyone there will manifest/display God’s glory – His infinite wisdom, goodness, power and creativity, just as was intended when God on the sixth day of the initial creation called everything He created very good (Genesis 1:31). All of creation will again exist in perfect harmony (Isaiah 11:6-9), no longer under the cursed dominion of fallen mankind (Genesis 3:17-19), but under the blessed dominion of King Jesus along with all of redeemed mankind who in union with Him are joint heirs of His eternal kingdom (Revelation 3:21).
Once again the earth will be filled as it was in the beginning with awesome wonders; majestic mountains, pristine lakes and rivers, colorful forests and gardens, all filled with unique forms of animal and plant life, some that we have never seen before in this age. The skies will proclaim the vastness of the universe, filled with colorful birds and flying animals of all sorts. Although there is some question as to whether there will be the large seas and oceans we have today with its innumerable forms of sea life (Revelation 21:1), we can only believe that our gracious God will sustain and enhance that life in some form, as well as provide for that which we presently enjoy about the seas and oceans today.
Heaven will be a place of eternal peace, safety and security where nothing gets in that can harm, defile, interrupt or diminish our eternal enjoyment of God and His infinite expression of love toward us, such as occurred in the Garden of Eden with the devil’s intrusion (Revelation 21:27). He (the devil) will be forever consigned to the Lake of Fire with all of his demons and unrepentant mankind (Revelation 20:10) (Revelation 20:15).
Such security will help to make Heaven for God’s people a place of eternal rest – our final rest that is spoken of in Hebrews 4:9. We will not rest in the sense of being inactive, where we will sit around on puffy white clouds playing golden harps all day. The rest it speaks of is an eternal rest from the trials, hardships and labors of our present existence.
In the new universe there will be planets and galaxies and constellations as there are now that will manifest/display magnificent aspects of God’s infinite power, wisdom and creativity, which we will likely spend much of eternity exploring, not through a telescope, but as true adventurers. I look forward to exploring other worlds and realms of beauty, wonder and excitement that will put the creative imaginations of Rodenberry, Lukas and Spielberg to shame.
The grand descriptions of the glory of Heaven, as represented by streets of gold, gates made of pearls and city walls made out of precious jewels and stones (Revelation 21:9-23) are given by God to help us gain some sense of the indescribable splendor and majesty, the exquisite beauty and the infinite value of all that we will gaze upon, experience, enjoy and possess as residents of Heaven and joint heirs of Christ’s Kingdom.
Heaven, in total, will thus be the eternal evidence of God’s perfect love for His people, proving forever that He alone is worthy to be loved passionately and supremely, trusted explicitly, obeyed perfectly, worshiped exclusively, glorified unashamedly and enjoyed eternally as the most glorious, most desirable, most awesome and most essential being in all of the universe. To Him be glory and honor, praise and thanksgiving both now and forever. Amen
Grace and Peace ×
Yes! Amen!