Heaven is Important…But it’s not the End of the World
“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 The creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. 22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved…” Romans 8:18-24
As shocking as it may seem, Christianity is not primarily about moral teaching as if what the world needs is more advice concerning how to live a good life. Christianity is not mostly about Jesus being a premier example of how to live well in relation with God and humanity, as if what the world needs is more models to follow. Christianity is neither about a new way to get to heaven when we die. Heaven indeed is important, but is not the end of the world, literally. Over and over in the Scripture we are told that God’s renewed creation is the final future of humanity. In the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6), Jesus instructs us to pray, not that we would be able to leave earth and go to heaven, but rather that God’s will would be done on earth as it is in heaven, that the earth would be transformed to embody heaven’s glory. In Revelation 21 and 22 our ultimate end is not heaven, but the new heavens and new earth. In Romans 8, our destiny is not escaping the fallen world to heaven, but the liberation of the world from its fallenness by the supernatural work of God. Throughout the New Testament, the Christian hope is not heaven (as great as it is!), but the resurrection of the dead in the renewed earth.
In the midst of this hope for the full restoration of life, justice, beauty and love, the shocking truth of Christianity is that this resurrection, this new creation that has been anticipated to come at the end of history, has now broken forth in the middle of history. Jesus is the firstborn from among the dead, the firstfruits of them that have fallen asleep. That end-time eschatological process of raising the dead and renewing all things has begun with the resurrection of Jesus. The Christian hope does not remove us from the earth, but attaches us more firmly and permanently to the earth calling us to experience and work for the renewal of the earth now, in all of its multifarious manifestations. So much could be (and will be) said about this subject but let me just give one passage from Isaiah and then a startling passage from Paul.
Isaiah 49:8-13 - “This is what the LORD says: “In the time of my favor I will answer you, and in the day of salvation I will help you; I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people, to restore the land and to reassign its desolate inheritances, 9 to say to the captives, ‘Come out,’ and to those in darkness, ‘Be free!’ “They will feed beside the roads and find pasture on every barren hill. 10 They will neither hunger nor thirst, nor will the desert heat or the sun beat down on them. He who has compassion on them will guide the and lead them beside springs of water. 11 I will turn all my mountains into roads, and my highways will be raised up. 12 See, they will come from afar— some from the north, some from the west, some from the region of Aswan. ” 13 Shout for joy, you heavens; rejoice, you earth; burst into song, you mountains! For the LORD comforts his people and will have compassion on his afflicted ones.
This passage from Isaiah describes the renewal of the people of Israel, a “new exodus” so to speak in which the community of God is restored and the captives are set free. This is God’s eschatological restoration, in which hunger and wearisome toil, desolation and darkness, captivity and estrangement are a thing of the past. Indeed verse 10 is quoted in Revelation 7 concerning the age to come. In 2 Corinthians 6, Paul makes a startling declaration:
“As God’s co–workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. 2 For he says, “In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” Behold, now is the time of God’s favor, behold, now is the day of salvation.”
In this passage, Paul directly quotes from Isaiah 49 and then with all the shock that requires a repeated “behold,” says “now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.” For so long, we have made this verse an evangelistic appeal for people to convert to a belief in the existence of God that we have missed allowing the dynamic of new creation, new exodus and eschatological restoration to break forth in our hearts and lives. The promises of God’s future for the world are not only for “then”, but for NOW. Paul’s urgent call that the people not receive the grace of God in vain is not merely about coming short in moral behavior but about failing to recognize and live in the reality of the dramatic event that has taken place in the death and resurrection of the Messiah Jesus whereby the life and power of God’s future for the world has actually rushed forward into the present for those who are in the Messiah.
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