The first question in the Westminster Catechism is, “What is the chief end of man?” In other words, what is the meaning of life? Why are we here? What is the ultimate purpose of living? The answer given is, “to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.” We live our lives to give glory to God and to spend eternity in a loving relationship with Him. Our Christian faith teaches us that this begins now but will be carried through to perfection
for all eternity.
Heaven is where we dwell in God’s presence and enjoy the tremendous blessings encompassed by being with Him. Jesus went so far as to promise that He has prepared a place for us to be with Him there. This truth is what we all look forward to, because we know that it was made possible by Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross and confirmed by His resurrection. What is required of us is to receive His gift of grace in faith. However, the Bible teaches us that believing in Jesus is more than merely agreeing with a set of propositions; it is this saving faith that transforms us more and more into His likeness, shaping who we are and how we live.
The apostle Paul says that we are justified by faith (Romans 5:1); James adds that the way we live through faith is our testimony to the reality of that faith (James 2:17).
How we live our lives reveals the natural result of our faith in Him. It is not an obligatory list of rules or tasks that we grudgingly force ourselves to live up to. Instead, it is a loving, joyous, and holy life that naturally flows from a transformed heart.
We must ask ourselves: Are we merely willing to agree with a set of beliefs, or are we truly disciples of Jesus? Is He the Lord of our life? Is He the One who shapes us, directs what we believe, what we do, what we hope and dream? Is He the One who establishes our worldview and the One in whom we place our ultimate trust?
Our hope of heaven depends on how we answer these questions. We must always see our life in a more comprehensive way than simply the number of years given to us to live on this earth. Our very existence depends on living life on this earth with a heavenly view in mind. Our story does not end with our mortality; indeed, it is only the beginning!
Never underestimate the importance of this life when contemplating the next.
Of course, while we hope for a blessed and meaningful life here on earth, I worry that many feel burdened by the fear of not being good enough to get to heaven. Christians recognize that God is holy and just and does not tolerate sin in His presence. Like the young man who approached Jesus in Matthew 19:16, we also ask, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” The answer, of course, is nothing. We cannot ever be good enough. But we know that Jesus is. It is not a matter of what we do to earn our way into heaven; it is a question of what Jesus has already done! Because of Him, our assurance of heaven has been secured. Jesus paid the price for sin, which we are not able to pay. This is the reason His death was necessary. Jesus faced our sin for us, and now we are washed in the blood of the Lamb. As Jeremiah’s prophecy assured us so long ago, “For I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more” (Jeremiah 31:34, NRSV).
This heaven is something we do not want to miss! So, what is heaven like? How does one describe the indescribable? Theologians, preachers, musicians, visual artists, and poets have wrestled with this challenge for centuries. The problem is that our imagination is limited to the reality of this fallen world in which we live, so our language is finite. The Bible offers glimpses of heaven, but even there, we learn more with metaphors of what heaven means and what it might look like than with a literal description. We do know that heaven is where God is. Since there is nothing more holy, good, awesome, beautiful, majestic (and every other positive attribute we can come up with!) than Almighty God, it must be the most indescribably wonderful place!
A few years ago, I was asked to write an answer to a typically straightforward yet challenging question by a child: “What is heaven like?” This is what I wrote:
The Bible doesn’t tell us much about what heaven looks like because it is so wonderful that we do not have words good enough to describe it. But what we do know is that heaven is where we live forever with God Himself! And since God lives with us, everybody lives God’s way, so nothing bad ever happens there, unlike the world we live in now. People do not hurt anyone anymore, nobody gets sick, and nobody is ever sad. In heaven, everyone is safe, loved, and happy. Heaven is the place where there is always peace and joy. Try to think of the most joyful life you can possibly imagine, and heaven is even more incredible, infinitely more wonderful, than that!
Jesus is our hope and our salvation. Put your trust in Him. Receive Him in faith as your Savior and Lord. Live your life, as the Holy Spirit enables you, as a disciple of One who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Then, together, we will all spend eternity with God in that place where “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:4, ESV).
by Pastor Steven Grant
