If you ask a Bible study or Sunday School class of either adults or children “Who here wants to go to Heaven?”, you can almost always expect all hands to enthusiastically be raised. However, when you ask about the primary reason why they want to go to heaven, the answers are not as enthusiastically given, nor is there consensus among them as to why Heaven is a desirable place to go upon our passing from this world.
Many will say it is because they will be reunited with their loved ones, family and friends who have already passed from this world. Others will cite the joys and pleasures they expect to experience in what they imagine to be an eternal paradise (which it is), free from the pain and sorrows of this world. And then there are those who want to go to Heaven because they see it as greatly preferable to the Bible’s alternative, namely Hell. Now all of these are good and right considerations as to why one should want to go to Heaven. However, if any of these are our primary reason, it is likely Heaven will not be our ultimate destiny. Why might I make such a daunting conclusion?
A few years ago, I was teaching a kids Bible Study at my church and put the why question to a group of children 9-12 years old. I was brought to tears when one of the younger girls in the class answered with childlike enthusiasm and certainty, “Because Jesus will be there”. I immediately wanted to run over and hug her, which would not have been appropriate in that setting, but she certainly blessed my heart.
She understood, on a childlike level (Matthew 18:3) that the reason we go to Heaven is based on the reason we want to go to Heaven, namely, to be with the One who has loved us with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3) (1 John 4:10), the One whom we have come to love above all else in this world (1 John 4:19), namely the eternal God who has revealed Himself in the person and saving work of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus made this clear in His response to a certain Jewish lawyer in Luke 10:25-28, when the lawyer asks Jesus what He must do to inherit eternal life, which was to the Jews the same as asking what I must do to go to Heaven. Jesus’ answer was, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind” (the totality of your being), and your neighbor (who is created in the image of God) as yourself”.
This would suggest that if our longing for Heaven is something other than a longing for greater intimacy with God, greater knowledge of God, greater service to God, greater enjoyment of God, we will likely not be going there, because that other something is evidence that we are an idolater, one who does not love God above all else. And we are told in multiple scriptures that idolaters will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven (1 Corinthians 6:9) (Revelation 21:8).
The Apostle Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 16:22 that those who do not love the Lord Jesus Christ above all else and long for His presence are cursed, dedicated to destruction, “away from the (gracious) presence of God” (2 Thessalonians 1:6-10).
Jesus tells us in Matthew 7:21-23, that there are many who will on the day of their judgement expect to be welcomed into Heaven on the basis of their good works, but who will instead hear from His lips “I never knew you, depart from me…” 1 Corinthians 8:3 tells us that anyone who truly does love God, is known by God, and will be welcomed into His presence.
If we are to go to Heaven, we must come to understand that Christianity is not a religion wherein we spend our lives in a never-ending attempt to gain God’s approval and acceptance, and ultimately entrance into Heaven through law keeping and religious rituals, or by doing enough good works to make up for our sins. Christianity is a love relationship (Jeremiah 31:3) we enter into with the eternal, infinitely glorious God, through faith in Jesus Christ (Galatians 2:20) who created us for His glory (Isaiah 43:7), such that we would have eternal joy, pleasure and fulfilment in knowing, loving and being loved by Him. He is to be the desire of our heart and the delight of our soul, the object of our deepest love and source of our greatest joy. All other love relationships that God graciously grants to us while in this world are to take a distant second place in our affections for and our relationship with Him (Matthew 10:37-39) (Luke 14:25-26).
In Heaven Jesus, God the Son, will appear as a man in a glorified physical body, through which He will display/manifest all of the infinite perfections of His divine glory (John 17:24-26); the beauty of His holiness, the excellence of His infinite wisdom, the awesomeness of His majestic power, the splendor of His abundant goodness and amazing grace etc., all of which makes Him worthy of our deepest love and devotion now, all of which will be communicated and displayed then for the eternal and ever increasing joy, pleasure and satisfaction of His people in relationship with Him. We will know Him intimately and personally as our closest friend, sharing in His glorious existence and enjoying his abundant goodness. Every righteous desire, every noble longing we have ever had in this world and will ever have throughout eternity will be perfectly satisfied, perfectly fulfilled in Him, and by Him and through Him (Psalm 37:4) (Romans 11:33-36).
So, is Jesus Christ, the eternal Lord of Glory (Psalm 24:7-10), the preeminent reason you want to go to Heaven? If not, I pray that you would begin to pursue Him as such today (Isaiah 55:6-7) (John 6:37).
Grace and Peace ×
This was a good reminder of what our priorities need to be in this life time Jesus is the center of my joy and longing he is the true source of my attention and longing