INTRODUCTION
It has sometimes been said that some people are so heavenly minded they are not any earthly good, but this is a malicious slander. The fact is that Christians are commanded to be heavenly minded so that they can be the most earthly good.
Heaven is the end toward which all things on earth are bending, growing up into. So, to focus on Heaven, where Christ is seated, is to focus on what you and all things are becoming in Christ. Heaven is not an escape. Heaven is the future. In this sense, Heaven is the most practical thing there is.
The Text: “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God…” (Col. 3:1-10).
SUMMARY OF THE TEXT
If we have been raised with Christ, Scripture says we ought to be seeking everything that is heavenly, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God (Col. 3:1). We ought to think about those things which are in Heaven because to be a Christian means that we have already died, and our true lives are hidden with Christ in God in Heaven (Col. 3:2-3). When Christ appears, who is our life, then we will finally and fully appear glorified (Col. 3:4). Therefore, put to death your old, earthly ways (Col. 3:5). These “things of earth” are what God is destroying, and those are the things you used to live in (Col. 3:6-7). But since you don’t live in them anymore, put them off with all the deeds of the old man, and put on the new man who is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of the One in Heaven who made man (Col. 3:8-10).
WHAT IS HEAVEN LIKE?
The Bible teaches that Heaven is where God dwells: He is “our Father in heaven” (Lk. 11:2). Heaven is where Christ is seated on a great throne in all majesty (Mk. 16:19). Heaven is our Father’s house, full of many mansions prepared by Jesus for His people (Jn. 14:2-3). And since it is our Father’s house, Heaven is truly going home. If you are in Christ, Heaven is where your heart is. Heaven is described as a new heaven and a new earth, with a new capital city, a resplendent garden-castle coming down out of heaven (Rev. 21:1-2).
Heaven is that place where there is no death, no dying, no sin, no curse (Rev. 21:4, 22:3). And the God who has kept a record of all our tears, will personally wipe every tear away (Ps. 56:8, Is. 25:8, Rev. 21:4). This means that every sad thing will be completely undone, and we will have a fullness of joy that only grows and pleasures that only increase (Ps. 16:11).
The Bible says that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:8), but to be absent from the body is to be “unclothed” and therefore, the fullness of Heaven will be when our bodies are raised from the dead and we are given new immortal bodies (2 Cor. 5:2-5). It’s possible that there is an intermediate state, but since time need not work the same way in Heaven, it’s also possible that when we die, we are immediately taken to the resurrection at Christ’s second coming (1 Cor. 15:20-26). Since even creation groans for our redemption (Rom. 8:19-22), and Heaven includes a new earth, we are invited to believe that all of creation (including animals and stars) will be raised to incorruption, which could certainly include beloved family pets (1 Cor. 15:38-44).
All of this of course means that we will have plenty to do with our new and perfect bodies in this new creation: good work and games, inventions and discoveries, cheetah and dragon rides, the loveliest arts and architecture, and the best adventures forever and ever. But it will always be without the burdens of pain and anxiety, and full of perfect rest (Heb. 4:10).
In that place, we will be reunited with our believing families: “gathered to our people,” as it was said of the patriarchs (Gen. 25:8, 35:29, 49:33). We will be with our fathers and mothers, grandparents, spouses, children, and dear friends who have died in the Lord. We serve the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the God of the living, the God of generations and families, and therefore, while marriage will not be the same, we will know and love one another even better there than we ever did here (Mt. 22:29-32). We will be with all the saints, all the angels, and there will never be any sad goodbyes again.
And at the center of it all will be the greatest Wedding Feast, the Marriage Supper of the Lamb (Rev. 19:7-9), full of the best food, a feast of wine and fat things, full of marrow and the finest wines (Is. 25:6). And there will singing and music like we’ve never heard, vast choirs and orchestras and bands, from all the nations, with all their instruments and distinctive languages and styles and rhythms, praising the Lamb who was slain, the King of kings (Rev. 5:8-9, 7:9-12, 14:2-3, 15:2-4). And every one of us will see His face (Rev. 22:4). And we will cast our crowns before Him, and He will give us lavish rewards that we don’t deserve and put crowns on our heads that defy all reason (2 Tim. 4:8).
APPLICATIONS
Since all of this is true, put to death your sin. As the old hymn says, “Fading is the worldling’s pleasure, all his boasted pomp and show; solid joys and lasting treasure none but Zion’s children know.”
Your wrath and anger and lust and envy are weights holding you down, bending you down, deforming your life into nothing. But Jesus Christ died so that you might die, so that your sin might die in Him, and He rose from the dead so that you might rise with Him from the dead (without your sin) now in this life and rise in a new body in the Resurrection of Heaven.
Heaven and Hell begin here in this life. Either you are being pulled down into increasing selfishness and pettiness and bitterness and idolatries and fading, or else you are being set free to love and forgive one another as true human beings, real men and women, and beginning to enjoy creation as it was meant to be enjoyed and gathered to the Heavenly Mt. Zion to worship the King forever.