ONLY IMPENITENCE CANNOT BE FORGIVEN
This is taken from QuickVerse 7.0 CONCISE THEOLOGY: A GUIDE TO HISTORIC CHRISTIAN
BELIEFS
by J.I. PACKER
Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
WHEATON, ILLINOIS
I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin.
MARK 3:28-29
When Jesus warned the Pharisees that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit was unpardonable both in this world and in the next (Matt. 12:32; Mark 3:29-30), it was because they were saying that he exorcised demons by being in league with Satan (Beelzebub). His warning revealed his view of their spiritual state.
He could, and later did, pray for the forgiveness of those whose blasphemy against himself was the fruit of ignorance: �Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing� (Luke 23:34). But that was not how he saw the Pharisees.
It is possible for people to be enlightened to the point of knowing inwardly that Jesus is the divine Savior he claims to be, and still not be willing to admit it publicly, because of all the behavioral changes that such an admission would make necessary. It is possible to try to make oneself feel good about one�s own moral dishonesty by inventing reasons, no matter how absurd, for not treating Jesus as worthy of one�s allegiance. Jesus evidently perceived that in calling him Satan�s servant the Pharisees were doing exactly that. They were not ignorant; they were stifling conviction and smothering real if unwelcome knowledge; they were resolutely shutting their eyes to the light and callousing their conscience by calling it darkness. The madness that Jesus exposed in what they were saying (Matt. 12:25-28) was an index of the pressure of conviction that they were feeling; irrational reasoning is a regular sign of conviction being resisted.
By attributing exorcisms wrought through the Holy Spirit (Matt. 12:28) to Satanic power, the Pharisees were blaspheming (speaking impiously) against the Spirit. Such a sin would become unforgivable when the conscience had been so calloused by calling good evil that all sense of the moral glory of Jesus� mighty works (which were in a real sense his credentials: Matt. 11:2-6; John 10:38; 14:11) was destroyed. This hardening of heart against Jesus would preclude any remorse at any stage for having thus blasphemed. But nonexistence of remorse makes repentance impossible, and nonexistence of repentance makes forgiveness impossible.
Callousing one�s conscience by dishonest reasonings so as to justify denial of God�s power in Christ and rejection of his claims upon one is, then, the formula of the unpardonable sin. Another version of it, this time in professed Christians who fall away from Christ, is described in Hebrews 6:4-8. Christians who fear that they may have committed the unpardonable sin show by their very anxiety that they have not done so. Persons who have committed it are unremorseful and unconcerned; indeed, they are ordinarily unaware of what they have done and to what fate they have sentenced themselves. Jesus saw that the Pharisees were getting close to committing this sin, and he spoke as he did in hope of holding them back from fully lapsing into it.
CHRISTIANS NEED NOT FEAR DEATH
This is taken from QuickVerse 7.0 CONCISE THEOLOGY: A GUIDE TO HISTORIC CHRISTIAN
BELIEFS
by J.I. PACKER
Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
WHEATON, ILLINOIS
For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.
PHILIPPIANS 1:21-24
We do not know how humans would have left this world had there been no Fall; some doubt whether they ever would have done so. But as it is, the separation of body and soul through bodily death, which is both sin�s fruit and God�s judgment (Gen. 2:17; 3:19, 22; Rom. 5:12; 8:10; 1 Cor. 15:21), is one of life�s certainties. This separating of the soul (person) from the body is a sign and emblem of the spiritual separation from God that first brought about physical death (Gen. 2:17; 5:5) and that will be deepened after death for those who leave this world without Christ. Naturally, therefore, death appears as an enemy (1 Cor. 15:26) and a terror (Heb. 2:15).
For Christians the terror of physical death is abolished, though the unpleasantness of dying remains. Jesus, their risen Savior, has himself passed through a more traumatic death than any Christian will ever have to face, and he now lives to support his servants as they move out of this world to the place he has prepared for them in the next world (John 14:2-3). Christians should view their own forthcoming death as an appointment in Jesus� calendar, which he will faithfully keep. Paul could say, �For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.... I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far� (Phil. 1:21, 23), since �away from the body� will mean �at home with the Lord� (2 Cor. 5:8).
At death the souls of believers (i.e., the believers themselves, as ongoing persons) are made perfect in holiness and enter into the worshiping life of heaven (Heb. 12:22-24). In other words, they are glorified. Some, not believing this, posit a purgatorial discipline after death that is really a further stage of sanctification, progressively purifying the heart and refining the character in preparation for the vision of God. But this belief is neither scriptural nor rational, for if at Christ�s coming saints alive on earth will be perfected morally and spiritually in the moment of their bodily transformation (1 Cor. 15:51-54), it is only natural to suppose that the same is done for each believer in the moment of death, when the mortal body is left behind. Others posit unconsciousness (soul sleep) between death and resurrection, but Scripture speaks of conscious relationship, involvements, and enjoyments (Luke 16:22; 23:43; Phil. 1:23; 2 Cor. 5:8; Rev. 6:9-11; 14:13).
Death is decisive for destiny. After death there is no possibility of salvation for the lost (Luke 16:26)�from then on both the godly and the ungodly reap what they sowed in this life (Gal. 6:7-8).
Death is gain for believers (Phil. 1:21) because after death they are closer to Christ. But disembodiment, as such, is not gain; bodies are for expression and experience, and to be without a body is to be limited, indeed impoverished. This is why Paul wants to be �clothed� with his resurrection body (i.e., re-embodied) rather than be �unclothed� (i.e., disembodied, 2 Cor. 5:1-4). To be resurrected for the life of heaven is the true Christian hope. As life in the �intermediate� or �interim� state between death and resurrection is better than the life in this world that preceded it, so the life of resurrection will be better still. It will, in fact, be best. And this is what God has in store for all his children (2 Cor. 5:4-5; Phil. 3:20-21). Hall
JESUS CHRIST WILL RETURN TO THE EARTH IN GLORY
This is taken from QuickVerse 7.0 CONCISE THEOLOGY: A GUIDE TO HISTORIC CHRISTIAN
BELIEFS
by J.I. PACKER
Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
WHEATON, ILLINOIS
Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, �Peace and safety,� destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief.
1 THESSALONIANS 5:1-4
The New Testament repeatedly announces that Jesus Christ will one day be back. This will be his �royal visit,� his �appearing� and �coming� (Greek: parousia). Christ will return to this world in glory. The Savior�s second advent will be personal and physical (Matt. 24:44; Acts 1:11; Col. 3:4; 2 Tim. 4:8; Heb. 9:28), visible and triumphant (Mark 8:38; 2 Thess. 1:10; Rev. 1:7). Jesus comes to end history, to raise the dead and judge the world (John 5:28-29), to impart to God�s children their final glory (Rom. 8:17-18; Col. 3:4), and to usher in a reconstructed universe (Rom. 8:19-21; 2 Pet. 3:10-13). His execution of this agenda will be the last phase and final triumph of his mediatorial kingdom. Once these things are done, the applying of redemption against Satanic opposition, which was the specific work of the kingdom, will be over. When Paul says that Christ then �hands over the kingdom� and becomes subject to the Father (1 Cor. 15:24-28), he is not implying any diminution in Christ�s subsequent honor, but is signifying the completion of the plan for bringing the elect to heaven that the risen Son was enthroned to carry through. The elect in glory, purified and perfected, will forever honor the Lamb as the one who was able to open the book of God�s plan for the accomplishing and applying of redemption in history, and make what was planned happen (Rev. 5). In the new Jerusalem, God and the Lamb are enthroned and reign together forever (Rev. 22:1, 3). But this reigning is the ongoing servant-Lord relationship between God and the godly that follows the era of the mediatorial kingdom, rather than the continuation of that kingdom as such.
In 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 Paul teaches that Christ�s coming will take the form of a descent from the sky, heralded by a trumpet fanfare, a shout, and the voice of the archangel. Those who died in Christ will already have been raised and will be with him, and all Christians on earth will be �raptured� (i.e., caught up among the clouds to meet Christ in the air) so that they may at once return to earth with him as part of his triumphant escort. The idea that the rapture takes them out of this world for a period before Christ appears a third time for a second �second coming� has been widely held but lacks scriptural support.
Though some of the details Paul gives have symbolic significance (the trumpet, like a military bugle, demands attention to God�s activity, Exod. 19:16, 19; Isa. 27:13; Matt. 24:31; 1 Cor. 15:52; the clouds signify God�s active presence, Exod. 19:9, 16; Dan. 7:13; Matt. 24:30; Rev. 1:7), he seems to be speaking literally, and the fact that what he describes is beyond our power to imagine should not stop us from taking his word that this is how it will be.
The New Testament specifies much that will take place between Christ�s two comings, but apart from the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 (Luke 21:20, 24) the predictions point to processes rather than single identifiable events and do not yield even an approximate date for Jesus� reappearance. The Gentile world will be summoned to faith (Matt. 24:14); Jews will be brought into the kingdom (Rom. 11:25-29, a passage that may or may not anticipate a national conversion); there will be false prophets and false Christs or antichrists (Matt. 24:5, 24; 1 John 2:18, 22; 4:3). There will be apostasy from the faith and tribulation for the faithful (2 Thess. 2:3; 1 Tim. 4:1; 2 Tim. 3:1-5; Rev. 7:13-14; cf. 3:10). A seemingly unidentifiable �man of lawlessness,� about whom Paul had told the Thessalonians in oral teaching that we do not have (2 Thess. 2:5), was or is due to appear (2 Thess. 2:3-12). If the thousand-year period of Revelation 20:1-10 is actually world history between Christ�s two comings, there will be a last climactic power struggle of some sort between the world�s anti-Christian forces and the people of God (vv. 7-9). No dates, however, can be deduced from this data; the time of Jesus� return remains completely unknown.
The return of Christ will have the same significance for Christians who will be alive when it happens as death has for Christians who die before it happens: it will be the end of life in this world and the start of life in what has been described as �an unknown environment with a well-known inhabitant� (cf. John 14:2-3). Christ teaches (Matt. 24:36-51) that it will be a tragic disaster if the parousia finds anyone in an unprepared state. Rather, the thought of what is to come should be constantly in our minds, encouraging us in our present Christian service (1 Cor. 15:58) and teaching us to live as it were on call, ready to go to meet Christ at any time (Matt. 25:1-13).
DEAD IN CHRIST WILL RISE IN GLORY
This is taken from QuickVerse 7.0 CONCISE THEOLOGY: A GUIDE TO HISTORIC CHRISTIAN
BELIEFS
by J.I. PACKER
Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
WHEATON, ILLINOIS
But someone may ask, �How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?� How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed.... So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body...
1 CORINTHIANS 15:35-37, 42-44
Jesus was the first to rise from the dead (Acts 26:23), and when he returns to this world he will raise his servants to a resurrection life like his own (1 Cor. 15:20-23; Phil. 3:20-21). He will, indeed, raise the whole human race; those who are not his through faith will be raised for sentencing (John 5:29). Christians alive at his coming will at that instant undergo a marvelous transformation (1 Cor. 15:50-54), while Christians who had died will experience a glorious re-embodiment (2 Cor. 5:1-5).
There will be continuity between the mortal and the immortal body, as there was in Jesus� case, for it was the body in which he had died that was raised. Paul compares the relation between the resurrection body and the mortal body to the relation between a seed and the plant that grows out of it (1 Cor. 15:35-44), a kind of continuity, we should note, that allows for great differences between the starting point and the end product. Also, says Paul, there will be in every case a contrast of quality. Our present bodies, like Adam�s, are natural and earthly, subject to all sorts of weakness and decay until finally they perish. But our resurrection bodies, like Christ�s, will be spiritual (created, indwelt, and sustained by the Holy Spirit) and will belong to the eternal, imperishable, immortal, heavenly order of things (1 Cor. 15:45-54).
However, as the risen Jesus was recognizable by his disciples despite the change that resurrection had wrought in him, and as the re-embodied Moses and Elijah were recognizable at the Transfiguration (Matt. 17:3-4), and as re-embodied Jewish saints were recognizable at the time of Jesus� rising (Matt. 27:52-53), so risen Christians will be recognizable to each other, and joyful reunions beyond this world with believers whom we loved and then lost through death are to be expected. That is implicit in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, which was written because persons who were alive in Christ feared they had finally lost those who had died in Christ; Paul wrote as he did about Christ�s return in order to assure them that they would certainly see their Christian loved ones again.
As Jesus� single-minded love and humility are the model to which God is conforming our regenerate characters, so his glorified body, the present form of the body through which he perfectly expressed these qualities when he was on earth, is the model for the remaking of our bodies (Phil. 3:21). The bodies that Christians have now are at best poor tools for expressing the desires and purposes of regenerate hearts, and many of the weaknesses with which the saints struggle�shyness, shortness of temper, lust, depression, coolness in relationships, and so on�are closely linked with our physical constitution and its patterning in our behavior. The bodies that become ours in the general resurrection will be bodies that perfectly match our perfected regenerate characters and will prove perfect instruments for our holy self-expression throughout eternity.
Glorification (so called because it is a manifesting of God in our lives, 2 Cor. 3:18) is the scriptural name for God�s completion of what he began when he regenerated us, namely, our moral and spiritual reconstruction so as to be perfectly and permanently conformed to Christ. Glorification is a work of transforming power whereby God finally turns us into sinless creatures in deathless bodies. The idea of our glorified final state includes (a) perfect knowledge of grace, through limitless extension of our powers of understanding (1 Cor. 13:12); (b) perfect enjoyment of seeing and being with the Father and the Son; (c) perfect worship and service of God out of a perfectly integrated nature and a heart set perfectly free for love and obedience; (d) perfect deliverance from all that is experienced as sinful, evil, weakening, and frustrating; (e) perfect fulfillment of all desires of which we are conscious (not sexual desire, Matt. 22:30; or hunger and thirst, Rev. 7:16; or desire for sleep, Rev. 22:5; but desires for more communion with God); (f) perfect completion of all that was good and valuable in this world�s life but that had to be left incomplete because desire outran capacity; and (g) endless personal growth in the encompassing of all these perfect things.
Paul ends his analysis in Romans 8:30 of the action whereby God saves his elect with a striking past tense: �Those he justified, he also glorified.� Glorification was in Paul�s day, and still is, future for everyone apart from Jesus himself, but Paul�s thought evidently is that since our glorification is here and now a fixed point in God�s sovereign plan, it is already as good as done. The past tense is meant to let us know that it is absolutely impossible for our glorification not to happen. Such is the sureness and certainty of the Christian hope.
GOD WILL JUDGE ALL MANKIND
This is taken from QuickVerse 7.0 CONCISE THEOLOGY: A GUIDE TO HISTORIC CHRISTIAN
BELIEFS
by J.I. PACKER
Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
WHEATON, ILLINOIS
Then he will say to those on his left, �Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.�
MATTHEW 25:41
The certainty of final judgment forms the frame within which the New Testament message of saving grace is set. Paul in particular stresses this certainty, highlighting it to the sophisticated Athenians (Acts 17:30-31) and spelling it out in detail in the first section of Romans, the New Testament book that contains his fullest exposition of the gospel (Rom. 2:5-16). It is from �the coming wrath� on �the day of God�s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed,� says Paul, that Jesus Christ saves us (1 Thess. 1:10; Rom. 2:5; cf. Rom. 5:9; Eph. 5:6; Col. 3:6; John 3:36; Rev. 6:17; 19:15). Throughout Scripture, God�s indignation, anger, and fury, which are often spoken of, are judicial; these words always point to the holy Creator actively judging sin, just as wrath does here. The message of coming judgment for all mankind, with Jesus Christ completing the work of his mediatorial kingdom by acting as judge on his Father�s behalf, runs throughout the New Testament (Matt. 13:40-43; 25:41-46; John 5:22-30; Acts 10:42; 2 Cor. 5:10; 2 Tim. 4:1; Heb. 9:27; 10:25-31; 12:23; 2 Pet. 3:7; Jude 6-7; Rev. 20:11-15). When Christ comes again and history is completed, all humans of all ages will be raised for judgment and will take their place before Christ�s judgment seat. The event is unimaginable, no doubt, but human imagination is no measure of what a sovereign God can and will do.
At the judgment all will give account of themselves to God, and God through Christ �will give to each person according to what he has done� (Rom. 2:6; cf. Ps. 62:12; Matt. 16:27; 2 Cor. 5:10; Rev. 22:12). The regenerate, who as servants of Christ have learned to love righteousness and desire the glory of a holy heaven, will be acknowledged, and on the basis of Christ�s atonement and merit on their behalf they will be awarded that which they seek. The rest will receive a destiny commensurate with the godless way of life they have chosen, and that destiny will come to them on the basis of their own demerit (Rom. 2:6-11). How much they knew of the will of God will be the standard by which their demerit is assessed (Matt. 11:20-24; Luke 11:42-48; Rom. 2:12).
The judgment will demonstrate, and so finally vindicate, the perfect justice of God. In a world of sinners, in which God has �let all nations go their own way� (Acts 14:16), it is no wonder that evil is rampant and that doubts arise as to whether God, if sovereign, can be just, or, if just, can be sovereign. But for God to judge justly is his glory, and the Last Judgment will be his final self-vindication against the suspicion that he has ceased to care about righteousness (Ps. 50:16-21; Rev. 6:10; 16:5-7; 19:1-5).
In the case of those who profess to be Christ�s, review of their actual words and works (Matt. 12:36-37) will have the special point of uncovering the evidence that shows whether their profession is the fruit of an honest regenerate heart (Matt. 12:33-35) or merely the parrot-cry of a hypocritical religiosity (Matt. 7:21-23). Everything about everybody will be exposed on Judgment Day (1 Cor. 4:5), and each will receive from God according to what he or she really is. Those whose professed faith did not express itself in a new life-style, marked by hatred of sin and works of loving service to God and others, will be lost (Matt. 18:23-35; 25:34-46; James 2:14-26).
Fallen angels (demons) will be judged on the last day (Matt. 8:29; Jude 6), and the saints will be involved in the process (1 Cor. 6:3), though Scripture does not reveal their precise role.
Knowledge of future judgment is always a summons to present repentance. Only the penitent will be prepared for judgment when it comes.
THE WICKED WILL BE BANISHED INTO ENDLESS MISERY
This is taken from QuickVerse 7.0 CONCISE THEOLOGY: A GUIDE TO HISTORIC CHRISTIAN
BELIEFS
by J.I. PACKER
Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
WHEATON, ILLINOIS
Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone�s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
REVELATION 20:14-15
The sentimental secularism of modern Western culture, with its exalted optimism about human nature, its shrunken idea of God, and its skepticism as to whether personal morality really matters�in other words, its decay of conscience�makes it hard for Christians to take the reality of hell seriously. The revelation of hell in Scripture assumes a depth of insight into divine holiness and human and demonic sinfulness that most of us do not have. However, the doctrine of hell appears in the New Testament as a Christian essential, and we are called to try to understand it as Jesus and his apostles did.
The New Testament views hell (Gehenna, as Jesus calls it, the place of incineration, Matt. 5:22; 18:9) as the final abode of those consigned to eternal punishment at the Last Judgment (Matt. 25:41-46; Rev. 20:11-15). It is thought of as a place of fire and darkness (Jude 7, 13), of weeping and grinding of teeth (Matt. 8:12; 13:42, 50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30), of destruction (2 Thess. 1:7-9; 2 Pet. 3:7; 1 Thess. 5:3), and of torment (Rev. 20:10; Luke 16:23)�in other words, of total distress and misery. If, as it seems, these terms are symbolic rather than literal (fire and darkness would be mutually exclusive in literal terms), we may be sure that the reality, which is beyond our imagining, exceeds the symbol in dreadfulness. New Testament teaching about hell is meant to appall us and strike us dumb with horror, assuring us that, as heaven will be better than we could dream, so hell will be worse than we can conceive. Such are the issues of eternity, which need now to be realistically faced.
The concept of hell is of a negative relationship to God, an experience not of his absence so much as of his presence in wrath and displeasure. The experience of God�s anger as a consuming fire (Heb. 12:29), his righteous condemnation for defying him and clinging to the sins he loathes, and the deprivation of all that is valuable, pleasant, and worthwhile will be the shape of the experience of hell (Rom. 2:6, 8-9, 12). The concept is formed by systematically negating every element in the experience of God�s goodness as believers know it through grace and as all mankind knows it through kindly providences (Acts 14:16-17; Ps. 104:10-30; Rom. 2:4). The reality, as was said above, will be more terrible than the concept; no one can imagine how bad hell will be.
Scripture envisages hell as unending (Jude 13; Rev. 20:10). Speculations about a �second chance� after death, or personal annihilation of the ungodly at some stage, have no biblical warrant.
Scripture sees hell as self-chosen; those in hell will realize that they sentenced themselves to it by loving darkness rather than light, choosing not to have their Creator as their Lord, preferring self-indulgent sin to self-denying righteousness, and (if they encountered the gospel) rejecting Jesus rather than coming to him (John 3:18-21; Rom. 1:18, 24, 26, 28, 32; 2:8; 2 Thess. 2:9-11).
General revelation confronts all mankind with this issue, and from this standpoint hell appears as God�s gesture of respect for human choice. All receive what they actually chose, either to be with God forever, worshiping him, or without God forever, worshiping themselves. Those who are in hell will know not only that for their doings they deserve it but also that in their hearts they chose it.
The purpose of Bible teaching about hell is to make us appreciate, thankfully embrace, and rationally prefer the grace of Christ that saves us from it (Matt. 5:29-30; 13:48-50). It is really a mercy to mankind that God in Scripture is so explicit about hell. We cannot now say that we have not been warned.
GOD WILL WELCOME HIS PEOPLE INTO EVERLASTING JOY
This is taken from QuickVerse 7.0 CONCISE THEOLOGY: A GUIDE TO HISTORIC CHRISTIAN
BELIEFS
by J.I. PACKER
Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
WHEATON, ILLINOIS
Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father�s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.
JOHN 14:1-3
Heaven, which in both Hebrew and Greek is a word meaning �sky,� is the Bible term for God�s home (Ps. 33:13-14; Matt. 6:9) where his throne is (Ps. 2:4); the place of his presence to which the glorified Christ has returned (Acts 1:11); where the church militant and triumphant now unites for worship (Heb. 12:22-25); and where one day Christ�s people will be with their Savior forever (John 17:5, 24; 1 Thess. 4:16-17). It is pictured as a place of rest (John 14:2), a city (Heb. 11:10), and a country (Heb. 11:16). At some future point, at the time of Christ�s return for judgment, it will take the form of a reconstructed cosmos (2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21:1).
To think of heaven as a place is more right than wrong, though the word could mislead. Heaven appears in Scripture as a spatial reality that touches and interpenetrates all created space. In Ephesians, Paul locates in heaven both the throne of Christ at the Father�s right hand (Eph. 1:20) and the spiritual blessings and risen life in Christ of Christians (Eph. 1:3; 2:6). �The heavenly realms� in Eph. 1:3, 20; 2:6; 3:10; and 6:12 is a literary variant for �heaven.� Paul alludes to an experience in the �third heaven� or �paradise� (2 Cor. 12:2, 4). No doubt the heaven of God�s throne is to be distinguished from the heavenly realms occupied by hostile spiritual powers (Eph. 6:12). A resurrection body adapted to heaven�s life awaits us (2 Cor. 5:1-8), and in that body we shall see the Father and the Son (Matt. 5:8; 1 John 3:2). But while we are in our present bodies, the realities of heaven are invisible and ordinarily imperceptible to us, and we know them only by faith (2 Cor. 4:18; 5:7). Yet the closeness to us of heaven and of its inhabitants, the Father, the Son, the Spirit, the holy angels, and the demonic spirits, must never be forgotten: for it is a matter of solid spiritual fact.
Scripture teaches us to form our notion of the life of heaven by (a) extrapolating from the less-than-perfect relationship that we now have with God the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, with other Christians, and with created things to the thought of a perfect relationship, free from all limitation, frustration, and failure; (b) eliminating from our idea of a life lived for God all forms of pain, evil, conflict, and distress, such as we experience here on earth; and (c) enriching our imaginings of that happy future by adding in every conception of excellence and God-given enjoyment that we know. The visions of heaven�s life in Revelation 7:13-17 and 21:1-22:5 draw on all three of these ways of conceiving it.
According to Scripture, the constant joy of heaven�s life for the redeemed will stem from (a) their vision of God in the face of Jesus Christ (Rev. 22:4); (b) their ongoing experience of Christ�s love as he ministers to them (Rev. 7:17); (c) their fellowship with loved ones and the whole body of the redeemed; (d) the continued growth, maturing, learning, enrichment of abilities, and enlargement of powers that God has in store for them. The redeemed desire all these things, and without them their happiness could not be complete. But in heaven there will be no unfulfilled desires.
There will be different degrees of blessedness and reward in heaven. All will be blessed up to the limit of what they can receive, but capacities will vary just as they do in this world. As for rewards (an area in which present irresponsibility can bring permanent future loss: 1 Cor. 3:10-15), two points must be grasped. The first is that when God rewards our works he is crowning his own gifts, for it was only by grace that those works were done. The second is that essence of the reward in each case will be more of what the Christian desires most, namely, a deepening of his or her love-relationship with the Savior, which is the reality to which all the biblical imagery of honorific crowns and robes and feasts is pointing. The reward is parallel to the reward of courtship, which is the enriching of the love-relationship itself through marriage.
So the life of heavenly glory is a compound of seeing God in and through Christ and being loved by the Father and the Son, of rest (Rev. 14:13) and work (Rev. 7:15), of praise and worship (Rev. 7:9-10; 19:1-5), and of fellowship with the Lamb and the saints (Rev. 19:6-9).
Nor will it end (Rev. 22:5). Its eternity is part of its glory; endlessness, one might say, is the glory of glory. Hearts on earth say in the course of a joyful experience, �I don�t want this ever to end.� But it invariably does. The hearts of those in heaven say, �I want this to go on forever.� And it will. There can be no better news than this.
CHRISTIANS MUST MANIFEST KINGDOM LIFE
This is taken from QuickVerse 7.0 CONCISE THEOLOGY: A GUIDE TO HISTORIC CHRISTIAN
BELIEFS
by J.I. PACKER
Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
WHEATON, ILLINOIS
Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, �The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, �Here it is,� or �There it is,� because the kingdom of God is within you.�
LUKE 17:20-21
The theme of the kingdom of God runs through both Testaments, focusing God�s purpose for world history. In Old Testament times God declared that he would exercise his kingship (his sovereignty, Dan. 4:34-35) by setting up his kingdom (his rule or reign over people�s lives and circumstances) under his chosen king (the Davidic Messiah, Isa. 9:6-7) in a golden age of blessing. This kingdom came with Jesus the Messiah as a worldwide relational reality, existing wherever the lordship of Jesus is acknowledged in repentance, faith, and new obedience. Jesus, the Spirit-anointed, Spirit-filled ruler-designate (Luke 3:21-22; 4:1, 14, 18-21, 32-36, 41), died, rose, ascended, and is now enthroned in heaven as ruler over all things (Matt. 28:18; Col. 1:13), King of kings and Lord of lords (Rev. 17:14; 19:16). The golden age of blessing is an era of present spiritual benefit (salvation from sin and fellowship with God) leading to a future state of unmixed joy in a reconstructed universe. The kingdom is present in its beginnings though future in its fullness; in one sense it is here already, but in the richest sense it is still to come (Luke 11:20; 16:16; 17:21; 22:16, 18, 29-30).
The kingdom came as not only mercy but also judgment, just as John the Baptist, its forerunner, had said it would (Matt. 3:1-12). Those who obediently received Jesus� Word and put their destiny in his hands found mercy, while the Jewish leadership, which would not do this, was judged. Strictly speaking, the Jewish leaders were self-judged, for they chose to live in darkness by retreating from the Savior (John 3:17-20).
The task of the church is to make the invisible kingdom visible through faithful Christian living and witness-bearing. The gospel of Christ is still the gospel of the kingdom (Matt. 4:23; 24:14; Acts 20:25; 28:23, 31), the good news of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit through entering a disciple�s relationship to the living Lord (Rom. 14:17). The church must make its message credible by manifesting the reality of kingdom life.
The coming of the kingdom meant a new stage in God�s redemptive-historical program. The Messiah arrived, redeemed, and withdrew to his throne with a promise that he would come again. All that was typical, temporary, and imperfect in the God-given arrangements for Israel�s communion with himself became a thing of the past. God�s Israel, Abraham�s seed, was redefined as the company of believers in Jesus (Gal. 3:16, 26-29). The Spirit was poured out, and a new way of life, namely life in Christ and with Christ, became a reality of this world. Thus the new internationalism of global church fellowship and global evangelism was born (Eph. 2:11-18; 3:6, 14-15; Rev. 5:9-10; 7:9; Matt. 28:19-20; Col. 1:28-29). Although these were great changes, none of them meant that a new set of moral standards emerged, as is sometimes supposed. The moral law for Christians, the law of God�s present kingdom, is the law found in the Ten Commandments and the prophets, now applied to the new situation. Jesus has not abolished that law but has merely filled out its meaning (Matt. 5:17-48).
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