What will heaven be like?
Romans 5:5, Revelation 21
In this short devotional I want to give you a foretaste of heaven. As a new creation in Christ, your life can become more and more a journey of hope. I yearn for it to be such a journey because this world we are living in is drowning in a sea of hopelessness. People who do not know the grace of God through faith in Christ are said to be, “without hope and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12). It is a devastating thing to be hopeless, because human beings are wired to be essentially forward-looking in our outlook.
Heaven Awakens Hope Within Us
But to drink in a pure vision of heaven based on scripture will build within us a hope that does not disappoint. Romans 5:5 promises, “Hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” Heaven is dynamic and endlessly fascinating, just like our God is. As you grow in spiritual maturity and knowledge of the Bible you will also discover an electrifying view of heaven! This empowers us to grow in holiness and be energetic in sharing such a hope with desperately lost people all around the world.
Heaven Allures Us with God’s Glory
For the countless multitude of the redeemed, heaven will be an eternal education in the glories of God. The redeemed will drink from an endless river of his glory, eat from a delightful tree of glory, tour a vast museum of his glory, view a visionary theater of his glory, explore a limitless universe of his glory, bow before the throne of his glory, and stare unblinking and unblinded into the face of his glory.
Only an infinite subject can engage our perfected minds for an eternity of time.
This treasure trove of God’s glory has dimensions and details we have yet to ponder. Only an infinite subject can engage our perfected minds for an eternity of time. And the glory of God is that infinite subject. Heaven will consist in one brilliant moment of discovery after another. And that truly is a thrilling prospect! So, a great part of our heavenly experience of God’s glory will consist in his continual revelation of his mighty actions throughout history to redeem sinners from every nation on earth.
Heaven Reveals the Radiance of God’s Glory
The Book of Revelation makes it plain that heaven will be illuminated by the glory of God. The new universe, “Has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb” (Revelation 21:33). The New Jerusalem is designed to glow with the glory of God, for the city as a whole and the actual streets of the city are made of pure gold, like clear glass (Revelation 21:18, 21). This transparent gold will allow the glory of God to make it radiant, as will the varied jewels that make up the foundations of the walls and the pearls that make up the gates – everything in the city will be illuminated with the glory of God in Christ.
What is the “glory of God”? It is the radiant display of God’s attributes. The word attributes answers the question, What is God like? God’s attributes include his self-existence, perfection, holiness, love, omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, justice, mercy, patience, and wrath, among others. The “radiant display” of these attributes means that they shine before an audience; they are seen, savored, and celebrated. Sometimes the glory of God relates to bright light, as when the angel appeared to the shepherds to announce the birth of the Savior of the world, and his radiant light terrified them greatly (Luke 2:9).
Other times the glory of God is revealed without any unusual visible light, as when Jesus died on the cross in an eerie darkness (Matthew 27:45). Whenever the glory of God shines, some attributes of God are put on display before an audience – angels and/or humans, those whom God gave the ability to understand him and celebrate him for all he is worth.
Heaven Sings
This was the end, the reason, for which God created the world. Tragically, Adam led humanity into sin, so that instead of glorifying God, we “worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator” (Romans 1:25). Yet despite the devastation of Adam’s sin, God’s glory has triumphed, displayed in the rescue of a multitude of sinners from every nation and every era. No immense nebula in a distant galaxy, nor stretch of rocky cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean, nor salmon making a thousand-mile journey upstream, not even a heavenly chorus of a hundred million angels brings God more glory than the redemption of sinners who will stand before his throne in eternity singing his praise.
(Excerpt from The Glory Now Revealed by Andy Davis, pages 9-15)