There is this popular myth out there that we are all going to heaven!
This is just one myth among many surrounding our ideas of heaven. It’s as if heaven is this place way out there, a long way from us, and one day we’re all ending up there. Some add: ‘If you’re good enough’ to the myth. If you’re a golfer, you’ll be out on the green with Jesus, a fisherman – out by the lake, a gardener . . . and so on.
The Bible doesn’t really say much about heaven. There are references to a new heaven and a new earth, a heavenly throne – especially in Revelation. But the Word of life focusses more on Eternal Life. Heaven is where Jesus is. If you are in Jesus – that is, a baptized child of God, then you are not simply in the presence of Jesus, but in the presence of heaven.
The question might be, how can that be? Do I deserve to be there given my sin? What do I have to do to get into that place with Jesus?
This verse assures us that Christ has brought heaven to us:
Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ or the spiritual blessings that Christ has brought us from heaven!
What are those spiritual blessings? Faith! Assurance of Salvation! Life with Jesus!
All those questions are answered by Jesus himself who says: I came to seek and to save you! My death, my mercy, my grace is enough for you. And so we can confidently say we are saved by grace. Or, we are in the presence of God, by Grace. We are there, but we don’t yet have the full and clear picture. We are still marred by sin – but saved by grace. At our death our entry into heaven will be fully completed.
For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
1 Corinthians 13:12 (NIV)
