Truth Unites - What is Heaven Like? 6 Things Christians Forget (or Don't Know)

Episode Date: January 4, 2024

In this video Gavin Ortlund explains 6 characteristics of heaven that most Christians forget about. Truth Unites exists to promote gospel assurance through theological depth. Gavin Ortlund (PhD, Fuller Theological Seminary) is President of Truth Unites and Theologian-in-Residence at Immanuel Nashville. SUPPORT: Tax Deductible Support: https://truthunites.org/donate/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/truthunites FOLLOW: Twitter: https://twitter.com/gavinortlund Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TruthUnitesPage/ Website: https://truthunites.org/

I want to make a video about how joyful heaven will be. My goal is by the end, if you watch at the end of this video, it will have encouraged you and lifted up your heart. And especially, I want to talk about six characteristics of heaven that we often neglect. Maybe we've never even thought of. Heaven is physical, communal, irreversible, healing, consummating, and progressive. I don't love those adjectives. The preacher in me wanted to go for alliteration, but I couldn't think of that.

I didn't want to force it. but if you missed all those, we'll go through them one by one. I'm excited to make this video because I think that having an accurate understanding of heaven is incredibly helpful and I would even say necessary to follow Jesus in this life. C.S. Lewis was on to something when he said that the Christians who do most for this world think most about the next world. I think he's right about that. It's when we stop thinking about the next world. We're less effective in this world. I want to start with a metaphor that has helped me think about this. Florence Chadwick was a swimmer. She tried to swim from Catalina Island

to the coast of California in 1952. She swam for 15 hours. That's a long time. Towards the end of it, a thick fog set in, and there's choppy waters. She can't see anything. She's getting discouraged, and she gives up. The boat that is next to her, she goes into the boat, they start going to the shore, and they were within a mile of the shore. She almost made it. Well, two months later, she tried again, and it was foggy again that day, but that time she made it. And in an interview afterwards, she was talking about what made the difference between the two times. And she said, the first time all I could see was the fog, the second time I kept a mental image of the shoreline in my mind while I swam. I've used that illustration before when preaching on heaven.

I think I came across that in Randy Alcorn's excellent book on heaven. I'll put up a picture of it. it's a great image, wonderful image of how heaven should function for those of us who are followers of Jesus. If you have that mental image in your mind, you have that reminder of where you're headed, you can make it through the fog and the fatigue and the struggle of life. And it's just amazing the difference that it makes on a daily basis. I've done an exercise before where I did sound vacation once where basically after my devotion, I'll think about heaven until it makes me happy.

Just think of something different each day. Some days it takes 30 seconds, some days it takes longer, but there's so much to think about. But if you're like me, a lot of us just don't think about heaven very much. A lot of my viewers, I know, don't believe in heaven. We kind of feel like people still believe in that stuff, you know? And if that's you, I hope watching this video would at least make you want to believe in heaven. But even among Christians, this is what I've discovered as a pastor. Christians have all kinds of doubts about heaven, all kinds of misconceptions about heaven that

make it harder to anticipate. That's, hence this video, but also I've discovered Christians are even afraid of heaven. Sometimes Christians, they don't know what to expect, and so they don't want to go there. So that's what I'm going to address in this video. Before diving in, I'll just mention, you probably notice it's a different background here, and as I have my last few videos, we're in the middle of a move. We just arrived here in Tennessee. We really miss our friends from Ohio. We loved our church there so much, but we're grateful to be here. God has been so good to us to bring us here. So glad to be near my parents. And there's just so much. We have a real peace about being here, a real sense of confirmation that we're following the Lord's direction. I've been overwhelmed

by the kindness of people. Many of you who watch my videos and who have sent supportive messages who have been supporting us. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I can't say thanks enough for those who are supporting me as I'm taking what honestly has felt like one of the most vulnerable things I've ever done in my life. Follow what I think God's calling me to do, and it makes sense, but it still feels vulnerable to step out into this new pathway. But I have so much joy about it, too. It's an interesting combination of things. I'm just so grateful to be here. But just note, just have patience for the backgrounds. I have a different room in this house that will, Lord willing, function as a studio. But right now it's just, I don't really know how to do that.

So I'm just asking for people to help me, like, hey, can you help me do this? So we'll get there eventually. In the meantime, thanks for your patience. And I'm excited about 2004 for Truth Unites. I have a patron meeting on Saturday. I'm going to go through all my plans. I've planned out videos through August. The big three topics for this first half of the year are arguments for the existence of God, apostolic succession, and slavery in the Bible. Those are three topics. I'm going to do some research on. Just started reading a book by Ed Faser on arguments for the existence of God. Really great book. So I'm excited about new research projects, and you can expect videos. if you want to know the detailed plan, you can join us on Saturday if you're a patron.

Okay, diving in. These six things, these are things that we, you know, lots of things we know about heaven or most people know, like, you know, you're not going to get sick anymore in heaven. Most people know that these are things that are neglected. First of all, heaven is physical. A lot of, these are things I've discovered as a pastor as well. Many Christians think of heaven as just this ethereal place. Your soul floats up to heaven.

It's kind of a quasi-nostic way of thinking about heaven. And I think this is just theologically incorrect. And it helps to think about this, even though it can be over-corrected sometimes. But in the Apostles' Creed, we celebrate the resurrection of the body. That is our ultimate hope as followers of Christ. So let's just think about that. It is helpful to think about this. Christ's resurrection body is our paradigm.

Paul calls Christ's resurrection, the first fruit. That's a farming metaphor. It's like the first batch of the crop that tells you what the rest will be like a representative sample. So our resurrection bodies will be like Christ's resurrection body. When Christ returns and he appears to the disciples in Luke 24, they're frightened. They think he is a spirit. And he says, touch me.

I love that. Can you imagine that? Jesus Christ risen, his physical body, he holds out. Oh my goodness. That's going to be talking about heaven. Can you imagine putting your thumb into the hole in his wrist when you get to heaven? Already, I probably get emotional during this video. Just thinking about heaven is so wonderful.

Then he says, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have. Bones. Jesus has bones. He has a skull. He is hair. He is eyes. He is a physical body. And then he eats, just to prove it.

He takes some fish and eats it. So apparently he's capable of digestion. you know, the food went into his stomach. Now, we have to be careful here because the nature of the resurrection body is different from our current body. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul speaks of a spiritual body. So it's, you know, the whole point here is contrast. Adam was one way. The second Adam is another way, but it's different, so it's a different kind of physical reality, but it's still a physical reality. Think of these two great turning points. Genesis 1-1, just colloquially to stay that verse. Creation. That's this qualitative change to reality. Now there's something other than God.

Easter morning is the second qualitative change. You know, here you have a new kind of reality for the first time on Easter morning. Jesus's body is the prototype of heaven. It's what physical, spiritual reality will be like. This new kind of thing that's both, it's physical, but it's a different kind of physical. So where are all these physical bodies going to go if you and I are going to have physical body? The physical bodies in heaven, yours and mind, if we're in Christ, aren't going to be floating around. Paul says in Romans 8 that all of creation will participate in the redemption of the people of God. So that fallen creation, this fallen world will be renewed and resurrected in some way. Jesus says, I'm making all things new when he comes in Revelation 21. So redemption is as wide

it is creation. It's wonderful to think about this. Now, that raises the question of the intermediate state. Randy Alcorn's excellent book addresses that. He, you know, he talks about maybe we'll have a temporary body, but I don't really know, I'm not 100% sure about that, but ultimately, after the final resurrection, what we ultimately look forward to is we will have a physical body in heaven. There will be ground that your feet can walk on in heaven. There will be visible objects that your resurrected eyeballs can see. Your hands can feel things. Your eardrums can take in noise. The angels will be singing, right? St. Anselm talked about the beatitudes of heaven. This comes up a lot in his sermons. And in proselyon 25, my favorite chapter ever written, it's all about heaven.

I'm going to quote it on almost all of these points. He's basically saying in this chapter, whatever you want, whatever your heart desires, it is in heaven in the enjoyment of God. It's all there. And he includes in those beatitudes things that involve physicality like music. He says the angels will be singing. He talks about pleasures, as long as they're pure pleasures, spiritual pleasures. And then he talks about even swiftness of body, which I love. You know, think about an narnia when they run as fast as they can and they never get tired, you know.

So here's the pastoral concern behind this point. If you love playing tennis, just to give an example, you're obsessed with tennis, you love playing tennis. Sometimes Christians have a tendency to act like, you know, physical activities aren't as spiritual or something like that. Not at all. Playing tennis is great. You can play tennis for the glory of God. I don't know exactly what heaven will be like, but I know that you and I will never sit around thinking, man, I wish I could go back to earth where I could play tennis.

You know, whatever you desire will be there in heaven. And if someone says, but won't we be worshiping God, I would say, yes, but worship is not the same as like a church service or singing praise songs. Worship can look like many different things. And so I want to be careful here and have fear and trembling, and I want to keep it God-centered. But I think we can think more expansively about heaven. I think the doctrine of creation is not more creative and wonderful than the doctrine of redemption. I don't think God created waterfalls and raspberries and musical harmony. in Genesis 1, only to destroy them in Revelation 21.

Now Jesus said, I'm making all things new. Redemption expands rather than contracts creation. Isn't that great? I mean, that's the longest point I wanted to say, but it's just wonderful. It thrills the heart. Here's a particular example. Because we'll all have a resurrected body, nobody will have like an aged body. So I knew my grandfather when he was in his early 80s and late 70s, mainly, most of my memories.

so I saw him with an aged body. But when I see my grandfather in heaven, I loved my grandfather, such a wonderful man of God. I've got a great family. I've got great people in my family. When I see my grandfather in heaven, he'll have a resurrected body. He won't look like an old man. Now here's the cool thought.

Lord willing, when my kids are all in heaven, all five of them, if you ever pray for me, you pray for that more than anything else, I'll get to introduce my kids to my grandfather as equals. They'll all have a resurrected body that looks like they're 21 years old. I don't know, 21, but you know what I'm saying? Nobody's going to look like a child or an aged man or something like that. I don't know how it's all going to work, but isn't that an interesting thought?

That's actually a great thing that helps you with your parenting to remember that you'll be equals with your kids in heaven in some ways. You know, you won't have that authority over them. Okay. Second, heaven is communal. This is another thing we tend to, just as we tend to oversteen, spiritualize heaven to make it not physical. I think we also intend to privatize heaven and make it just me and me and God. Now we'll talk about God, but heaven is also a shared, reverberating, multiplying joy among all the saints and angels bouncing around among the redeemed creatures.

And so this is one of the most amazing things. Jonathan Edwards preached a great sermon called Heaven is a world of love. And he talked about heaven is a place of perfect. charity. And so you'll obey the golden rule perfectly, and that leads to an infinite multiplication of joy. This is the great theme of proslogion 25, which I'll read for in a second. It's a long quote, but it's worth reading. And basically, but just think of it like this. So it looks like me. And then think of, think of somebody you love, another Christian that you love. It could be somebody who's dead or somebody who's alive, but another Christian in heaven. Now, you'll obey the golden rule perfectly in heaven. So that other Christian, you will be twice as happy because they're there. Because they're perfectly

happy, you love them as yourself. So now your joy just doubled. Well, now they're doing the same thing. So now their joy, see, this is why we call it a multiplication of joy through love. And now just add in all the saints and angels and you see where this is going. Here's how Anselm puts it, if any other whom you did love all together as yourself possess the same blessedness, your joy would be doubled because you would rejoice not less for him than for yourself. But if two or three or many more had the same joy, you would rejoice as much for each one as for yourself, if you did love each as yourself.

Hence, in that perfect love of innumerable blessed angels and saints, where none shall love another less than himself, everyone shall rejoice for each other, for each of the others as for himself. And then he goes on talking about if you love God more than yourself, it becomes an overflowing, uncontainable joy. You can see why, once you start thinking about heaven, it's like you never want to think about anything else. It's just so wonderful.

All right, number three, heaven is irreversible. Now, what I mean by that is not just that heaven will never end, that it's eternal, though that is true, but what I mean is we'll never be worrying that there might be a second fall. We'll be made unable to sin. We'll never have to worry that we're going to, you know, screw the world up again. Heaven is not like the Garden of Eden. The Garden of Eden was a probationary

time. Heaven is a permanent finalized state. We will be confirmed in our obedience before God, just as many theologians think the angels, the holy angels, were confirmed after they decided not to follow Satan. St. Augustine spoke of these four states of humanity in relation to sin. Before the fall, we were able to sin and able not to sin. After the fall, we were not able to sin. After the fall, we were not able not to sin. After the work of Christ is begun in us, we are able not to sin, but after the work of Christ is completed in us, we will be unable to sin. Now, just think about that. This is such happy news. Won't that just be wonderful? We often, again, these are things neglected. We often think of the suffering of heaven, and that's great. It'll be wonderful to

never suffer anymore, but won't it be wonderful to never sin? We will never betray Christ again. we will never displease him and will never be afraid that anything is going to change the perfect happiness that we're in. Some theologians have even spoken of this as a kind of participation in the omnipotence of God, because our will be conformed to God's will and God is omnipotent. So we will want everything that God wants, and God does all that he wants. So we'll have a kind of shared omnipotence. If you want more on that, you can read Anselm's first logion on 25. I'll put it up on the screen.

This is not my favorite translation. By the way, my favorite translation is Thomas Williams, but I just found this one on the Internet, and I'm trying to make this fast. You have no idea how busy life is when you're trying to unpack a house with five kids running all around. It's crazy.

Number four, heaven is healing. Some of us might say, my life in this world has been too painful, too broken, the wounds go too deep. I could never come out of that sadness into a permanent, perfect joy. And the more I've lived and the more I've pastored people, suffered myself, seen others suffer.

I can understand how people feel like this. This world can really beat you up. This world can really cut you deep down to the core. This world can leave you broken into two pieces. I mean, this world is brutal sometimes. But here's a happy thought. I like to put it like this. Not only will earthly sadness not enter heaven,

but heaven will enter our earthly sadness. That's my favorite way to put it. What do I mean? Revelation 214, I noticed this verse one time. It says, He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, talking about heaven. This is saying more than just there won't be any tears in heaven. It does seem to be the wiping away. I mean, think about that.

The Lord God Almighty, so to speak, puts his thumb under your eye and wipes the tears away. The image is consolation for not merely the cessation of earthly grief. heaven not merely ends our pain, it mends our pain. Tim Keller put it like this. Resurrection means every horrible thing that ever happened will not only be undone and repaired, but will in some way make the eventual glory and joy even greater. I've said a lot more about that elsewhere, but the point for now is just to think about this devotionally. This is more of a devotional video.

Just imagine this. You're newly arrived in heaven. God Almighty summons you. You stand trembling before him. he surgically draws up the deep wounds of your life and he heals and transforms them into glory. I mean, that's the kind of thing. Like, even if it's just, even if you're a skeptic, then you struggle to believe Christianity, I really have compassion on honest skeptics and I want my, I'm going to really try this year in

2024 to say things that will be helpful. But even if it's like 5% possibility, isn't that worth exploring? It's just unbelievable. All right, here's the next one. Fifth one, I think, consummating. Okay, here's this idea. This is a short one. Not only will heaven heal your earthly sorrow, but it will also recall and fulfill your

earthly happiness. When you have happiness on earth, it's not lost to you. It's not floating away so that, you know, the more time goes by, the further it is from you. It will return to you in some deeper form as part of that final settled happiness, which it was only at its best a mere anticipation. all happiness will come into its true form. It's like in the Narnia Chronicles, one of the characters makes it to heaven and says, this is the land I've been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now.

The reason we love the old Narnia is that it sometimes looked a little bit like this. Everything you love about this world is just anticipatory. And when you think about that, this is actually a wonderful way to live. It makes getting old not so bad. You know, if you don't believe in anything like heaven, getting old is nothing but, not nothing, but it's mainly just loss. It's like, you know, you're just, you're getting older, you know, some things might be getting better. That's true because I'm, you know, I'm actually like, for me, I'm 40. I'm looking forward to my 40s, more than my 30s, you know, I get that. So I'm not

trying to speak negatively of old age, I guess. I guess, but I can imagine, you know, certainly like your physical body. Like, you're never going to feel like you're 21 years old again. But it's okay. You know, as a Christian, you can kind of just embrace the seasons of life because it's all just anticipatory. Sometimes when I'm in a happy moment, I'll pray, Lord, store this up until heaven. And I think that's a valid prayer. Last one, progressive. I don't mean socially progressive, okay? I don't mean like progressive versus conservative. I just mean, this is the best word I could think of. I just mean it's going to keep getting better and better. It's part of the nature of joy and it's part of the nature of reality itself to be dynamic, not static. And theologians have spoken of this paradox of

heavenly joy that it's perfect and yet ever growing. That's a paradox. If it's perfect, how can it be ever growing? That's the mystery of the joy of heaven. It's a wonderful mystery. So think of it like this. The first moment that you're in heaven will not be lacking in anything. It won't be like, oh, that's only a little bit good. But the billionth moment of heaven will somehow have a richness and a quality that has expanded somehow. Now you might say, well, how can that go on forever? I mean, aren't finite creatures only capable of finite joy? Won't we run out at some point? This is why I save this best point for the end. I mean, push back if you think this is going too far, but I would say yes, I would say it won't run out and the answer is the infinity of God. God is infinite and therefore

we will never exhaust him, we'll never reach the back of him, so to speak. We'll never reach the back of him, so to speak, will never touch bottom. There will always be more, there will always be more divine truth that is yet to be discovered. There will always be more divine beauty that is yet to be enjoyed and so forth. In fact, not only will there always be more, the remainder itself will always be infinite. So you never have to worry that it's going to get boring after a while. think of it when you're on if you go on vacation and you stay in this huge mansion and it's so huge that every single day you walk through a new section and you find like a new room a new corner of this house it's like that's what heaven will be like you'll just constantly but it won't be overwhelming or stress you out because that's what i think of sometimes no it just be constant think of heaven as a progressive journey ever deeper into the being of god you'll bask in the glory of god forever ever more deeply this is why i talk about the beatific vision. See, I have a video on the beatific vision from a more theological angle. This is more devotional video. I love talking about the beatific vision. It's like, I'll just say it like this.

You will see God. Face to face with Almighty God. Direct communion with God. See my video on that for what that means. And that is just absolutely, again, if you know that's the shoreline that you're swimming toward, it helps you when it's foggy and crazy. hope this video just encourages somebody out there. Here's the final quote. C.S. Lewis, of course, captures it so good. End of the Narnia books. You know, you know this is coming, right?

And as he spoke, he no longer looked to them like a lion, but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us, this is the end of all the stories. And we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them, it was only the beginning of the real story, all their life in this world and all their address. adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page. Now at last they were beginning

chapter one of the great story, which no one on earth has read, which goes on forever, in which every chapter is better than the one before. Keep that in mind. If you're not a Christian, I hope you'd kind of at least think, man, pretty cool idea. Can you imagine if it was true? That'd be nice. Just that's at least a starting point, because then at least you want to study it a little more. If you are a Christian, just remember that. You know, if that's the shoreline you keep in your mind like Florence Chadwick swimming to the to the shore helps you you can really get through anything if you have hope that's actually I think the most important thing you need in this life is not freedom from suffering it's hope and that's what the gospel gives us that's what I hope my

YouTube channel gives people as you watch all right thanks for watching everybody God bless