Read John 14:1-6
Orthodox Christian teaching has maintained
that, upon death, the righteous have an immediate entrance into the presence of
God. We often refer to the place as heaven for, among other reasons, the
Apostle called it the third heaven (2
Cor 12:2). Earlier we noted the Biblical
use of the word heaven (the Hebrew
term literally means spaces when it
refers to the heavens). There is the atmospheric heaven (clouds, birds; Deut. 11:11; 3:28), the planetary heaven (planets, stars; Gen.
1:1; 2:1) and the paradise heaven
(the dwelling place of God; 1 Kings 8:39,43,49).
As
God’s dwelling place we see in Scripture that it is …
·
The location of His throne (Rev. 4-5).
·
The location of His temple (Rev. 21-22).
·
Evident in many of His titles:
o Creator
of Heaven and Earth, Gen. 14:19,22; Ps 134:3
o God
of Heaven, Gen. 24:3,7
o Lord
of Heaven, Mt. 11:25
o King
of Heaven, Dan. 4:37
o Father
in Heaven, Matt. 5:16
o Heavenly
Father, Matt 18:35
If
we add to the clear connection of God with Heaven
the teaching from Scripture that, upon death, the righteous enter into His
presence, then the conclusion is that the righteous go to heaven when they
die. Consider …
·
Old Testament saints, upon death, went to
Abraham’s Bosom (in Hades) as we have taught earlier. But at the death of Christ when their hope of
a Savior became reality, they then entered His presence.
·
The souls of the righteous enter God’s presence,
perhaps in some type of temporary clothing. All are awaiting the still future resurrection
of the body.
·
Paul taught in two significant passages that
upon death the righteous enter into God’s presence. In Phil. 1:23-24 he stated his only two
options as: remaining with the Philippian on earth, or departing to be with
Christ. He is most clear on the subject
in 2 Cor. 5:1-10. Our eternal home is in the heavens (v1). And again, there are only two options. Either we are at home in the body and absent
from the Lord (v6) or we are absent
from the body and … present with the Lord (v8). And note that not once but twice he says, we are always confident … we are confident
of this (v6,8).
Is this important? Yes, it is!
It is the strong encouragement for us as believers to live our lives on
earth in a way that pleases God (v9).
This is fundamental to the fact that we walk by faith and not by
sight. Someday we will be with Christ,
as He himself promises (John 14:1-4).
No comments:
Post a Comment