HEAVEN – Who and Why

In this post I will begin to look at who will be in Heaven, and why they will be there.

Let’s begin with who will not be there.  We are told in the book of Revelation that Heaven will not include Satan and his angels (Revelation 12:7-9), as well as all from mankind whom he was able to deceive into joining him in his rebellion against God’s purpose for and rule over their lives (Revelation 20:10-15).  Revelation 21:8 describes them as “the fearful and unbelieving, the abominable and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars”.  In 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, the Apostle Paul describes those men and women who will be excluded as the unrighteous. To be unrighteous is essentially to oppose the person and purposes of God, to reject His standards for human flourishing and individual happiness, which reflect His nature and character, and replace them with our own. Thus, Paul writes that “neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God”. He repeats this for emphasis in Galatians 5:19-21.

We have a passage in the New Testament book of Hebrews, Hebrews 12:22-24, that identifies for us who will be in Heaven.  Of course, it must include God – God the Father, God the Son (Jesus) and God the Holy Spirit, who without their presence, Heaven would not be Heaven.  In Heaven, all of the glory and beauty, all of the excellence and majesty of God’s eternal being will be manifested, from which all of the eternal joys and pleasures we will experience will emanate.

In verse 22, it speaks of an innumerable company of angels also being present.  In the ESV version of the Bible, it tells of these angels being in a festal gathering, indicating that they are also enjoying God and rejoicing with us in our enjoyment of God and all of His infinite blessings.  They are noted in Luke 15:1-10 as  participants in the heavenly rejoicing that takes place when someone on earth repents of their sin and turns to Jesus.

Angels are spirit beings created by God with great beauty, power and intelligence to serve God, by serving those made in the image of God, man, particularly those who would by faith become heirs of God’s salvation (Hebrews 1:14).  Angels act as messengers of God (Luke 2:8-14) (Matthew 28:5-7), guardians and rescuers of God’s people (Psalm 91:11) (Daniel 6:22), and executors of His divine judgment (Acts 12:21-23) (2 Thessalonians 1:7-8).

Angels, like man, were created to live in God’s presence, enjoying the blessedness of God’s infinite glory, (Matthew 18:10), though not to the extent man could, as they were not created in the image of God as was man (Genesis 1:27). The angels presently in Heaven are those who did not join the devil in his rebellion against God (Matthew 25:41) and are fully committed to doing God’s will throughout the ages (Psalm 103:20-21).

Finally, we see in Heaven – the Church – referred to here as the “general assembly of the first born”; those men and women who while in this world identified their lives with Jesus, who is the first born (Colossians 1:18), the heir of all things (Hebrews 1:1-2).  By receiving and putting their faith in Jesus as their Savior and Lord (John 1:10-13), they became the true children of God (Galatians 3:26) and thus joint heirs with Jesus of His eternal heavenly Kingdom (Romans 8:16-17) (Luke 12:32). We are told in Revelation 7:9-10, that this assembly consists of people “from all nations, tribes, ethnic groups, and tongues, from throughout human history who have been saved from God’s judgement by the shed blood of Jesus Christ, His death on the cross on their behalf (Revelation 1:5).

They are revealed in Hebrews 12:23 as the spirits of just or righteous men (and women) made perfect. The Bible makes it clear that for a man or women to be welcomed into Heaven, to live forever in the immediate presence of a holy and righteous God, they must be holy as God is holy (1 Peter 1:15-16) (Hebrews 12:14), perfectly righteous (Matthew 5:49), perfectly obedient to the laws and commandments of God which reflect His holy and righteous nature and character.

Now you might read this and say, “Well, nobody is perfect” and you would be right.  However, that is our ultimate problem as God requires that we must be if we are to live in His presence ((Psalm 24:3-5).  It only took one act of disobedience by one man, Adam, to bring death and corruption into the whole human race (Genesis 3:6) (Romans 5:12) and for God to cut off/exile Adam, and the sin-corrupted human race that would proceed from him, from His immediate presence (Genesis 3:23-24).

The Bible tells us that God is righteous (Deuteronomy 32:4) (Psalm 145:17), meaning that God always does what is right in regard to both upholding the worth, the infinite value of His glory (the infinite perfections of His being), and in promoting the good of His creation (Psalm 25:8) (Psalm 145:5-7).

King Solomon, in Ecclesiastes 7:29, tells us that God, in creating men and women in His image, made them upright or righteous, with the perfection of being necessary to know, love, glorify and enjoy God in every aspect of our being – which is the sole purpose for which we were created (Isaiah 43:7).  However, this passage in Ecclesiastes subsequently notes that mankind has gone his own way, choosing to pursue his goals and purposes in life independent of and in opposition to God. In doing so, we have become unrighteous – unfit to live in God’s glorious presence – no longer the objects of His love but the objects of His wrath and judgment (Ephesians 5:5-6).

The Bible asserts quite clearly that there is no man or women who in themselves, by their own efforts, can claim to be good, righteous or just in the eyes of God (Romans 3:9-12) (Romans 3:20); that we have all sinned and fallen short of the glorious beings that God created us to be (Romans 3:23), and that in doing so have brought ourselves individually and universally under the wrath and judgement of God (Romans 1:18), incapable in ourselves of doing anything about it (Isaiah 64: 5-6).

So, if this is the case, how do we have people in Heaven identified in Hebrews 12:23 as the spirits of just or righteous men (and women) made perfect, and why, on what basis are they there?  I will attempt to answer this more extensively in my next post.

Grace and Peace ×