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Hopefully you will clearly see based on the following examination.
The apostle
John gave relevant insight about this to the believers of his time, by telling them that they had already
"passed out of death and into life".
Notice
John was speaking about something that happened in the readers' past. We can easily
deduce that this past occurrence was the point in time each believer was born of God by believing in Jesus. John was the most prolific biblical writer on the subject of being born
again. We can also make these statements because of the many other scriptures telling believers on earth that their entrance to heaven was technically in the past tense.
The
apostle Paul had many things to say about this. In his letter to the Colossians,
he wrote that God "has delivered us from the power of darkness and
transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have
redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins."
Paul
wrote many things that showed how he assumed eternal life began at the
point of believing in Jesus. For example, he said about believers living at the time, "For our citizenship is in heaven".
Citizenship
in heaven is good. Even better is "inheriting heaven,'' also called ''our inheritance
with the saints in light." Paul taught us that we inherit the kingdom,
not just become citizens, when we truly believe in Jesus.
We
inherit because when we are born again, we are experiencing the "spirit
of adoption, by which we call out Abba, Father." Abba means "Daddy".
Paul
talks about this spiritual adoption by using the word-picture of a branch
being grafted into a tree. Jesus earlier had said "I am the vine
and you are the branches". Grafting
is a similar word-picture for our new birth, and our relationships
with God. We stand to inherit all the goodies of heaven.
Paul
also wrote:
"after
you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; . . . having
believed (in Jesus), you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,
who is the guarantee of our inheritance".
We
were sealed into heaven when we first believed. This "guarantee of
our inheritance" is another way of saying believers will receive
their inheritance as adopted sons and daughters.
In Paul's time, the word our Bibles translate as "guarantee" was also used similar to our concept of an engagement ring. We receive entrance into heaven in the beginning. When I use the phrase "go to heaven", I am referring to the phase following physical death. The words "go to heaven" do not occur in the Bible as a phrase. They are a modern way of indicating arrival after life on earth.
In
the same chapter of his letter to the Ephesians, Paul elaborated:
"Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with
every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ",
and
"the eyes of your understanding being enlightened;
that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches
of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding
greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working
of His mighty power"
You
might have noticed that none of these amazing promises to believers were
in the future tense. John
also said that whoever is born of God overcomes the world. Even on a daily basis,
our heavenly citizenship leads to God's help through the struggles
and challenges we face.
Earlier
I used the word "technically" when referring to how we enter
heaven when we are born again. Please allow me to give examples
that might help. If
you walk into the embassy of your home country, situated within a foreign
land, you are technically on your own country's soil. Similarly, if you
walk into a foreign country's embassy in your own land, you are technically
no longer in your own country.
The
word "technically" means "according to fact". When
you are in a nearby foreign embassy, it is a fact that you are on the
ground of a far-away foreign country. Citizenship
in heaven while physically living on earth is a fact than can be real to us now, though the full
experience awaits us.
Another example is dual citizenship. If your parents are
from a foreign country, and they gave birth to you in this country, both countries can consider you to have dual
citizenship based on your birthplace, and your parents' nationality. This is the law in many nations.
You
may have never been to your parents' home country. But you are a citizen
there. When you travel there, you will be
accepted with all the rights of a natural born citizen. When
you are born again, you are given another citizenship. You have citizenship
on earth and in heaven. When we are done with the earthly citizenship,
we can enjoy all the privileges of heavenly citizenship.
Jesus
told His disciples "you are not of this world." He understood
that His disciples were "of heaven" in eternal fact, and no
longer of their earthly locale. When
we know our primary citizenship is of heaven, we start to develop a heart
to seek heaven. Jesus said, "Seek first the
kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added
to you."
The
letter to the Hebrews touches on this when it says about believers: "But
now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country." God can confirm to our hearts that He is real, heaven is real, and
we are really adopted for citizenship, and inheritance, from God our Father.
We
often get hung up on the issue of seeing time as a line - a timeline. Eternal
life is far more dynamic, in my opinion. God created time, and lines, and nearly everything else. He knows more about it all than we do. He knows what the facts really are.
It might be useful to think, "Because I am saved, I am positionally in heaven, while experientially I am on earth until my body dies." If that doctrinal explanation does it for you, then fine. We can start our experience of heaven here on earth, not just positionally, but experientally at times. We do this by seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
Paul wrote: ''If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.'' (Colossians 3)
That
passage is part of a much larger discussion, but you can see it appears
to say an earth-based believer's life is hidden (present tense) in heaven
with Christ, and believers living on earth have already died, and been raised
from the dead.
In
his letter to the Romans, Paul explained how physical baptism symbolizes
spiritual baptism in which the Holy Spirit indwells us. It involves God spiritually merging the power of the death and resurrection
of Jesus into the believer. Paul graphically depicted this:
"Or
do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus
were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through
baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the
glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life."
It
seems logical that Paul was explaining to the readers in Rome the concept
we just saw in Colossians, when he wrote, "you died, and your life is hid with Christ."
I can interpret this as meaning, God sees you right here, right now, and simultaneously sees you as who you will be long into the future in heaven. Everything about that is good.
About
heaven, the Bible says things like:
''Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart
of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.''
The
apostle Peter wrote,
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according
to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible
and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you,
who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to
be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now
for a little while, if need be, you have been in heaviness because of
various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith, being much more
precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be
found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom
having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing,
you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end
of your faith—the salvation of your souls.
When Peter wrote about the genuineness
of his readers' faith, he was being very positive. He was telling us that genuine faith is cause for great rejoicing.
The testing by fire is referring to physical gold as an object lesson. It is an analogy associated
with the experience of heaviness and pain during the trials we encounter living on earth. The promise is that each believer will be seen as one
who praises, honors, and glories at seeing Jesus revealed. He was in a sense telling us to cheer up because the trials that seemed fiery did not, and will not, succeed
in bringing us down.
Paul
writing from a more "here and now" perspective said:
"For
I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to
be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest
expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons
of God."
Perseverance
through suffering leads to the blessings of heaven, thereby validating
to everyone that we are adopted by God. Earthly suffering experienced by believers is a faint downside
compared to the magnificent upside of heaven forever. Once Jesus saves
a person, they have been rescued from death and into life. Glory will
someday be revealed in the sons and daughters of God. This revelation
is expected and eagerly awaited.
When we who are alive on earth today talk about heaven, we tend to look forward to it as if it is a picture of something beautiful. We call everything that will happen in eternity heaven, as if we are looking at one canvas of art. From what we read in the Bible, our life in eternity appears much more dynamic and changing. Our life on earth is also that way for most people, so we can guess heaven won't be boring! It is best to look at eternity as an ongoing adventure, rather than a painting.
We see glimpses in the Bible translated into limited human terms, but still seeming mysterious to most readers. The apostle Paul said, we now see through a glass darkly (dimly), but after this life, we will see face to face. I like to think that means we will have clarity. Things we wondered about will fit into place. We will see Jesus face to face. And then the awesome adventure takes off from there. Heaven will be filled with righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. It is a place of God's power manifested to people. Seeing that believers already have citizenship there, we have access to many blessings from heaven as we each grow in our relationship with Jesus. |
