Why is Heaven Necessary?

Why does Heaven exist?

That’s a challenging question with no easy answer. Nonetheless, it’s what we’re gonna tackle today.

So, let’s see why this paradise is so necessary in the first place.

The Dwelling Place of God

The big conflict in the Bible is the separation sin causes between God and man.

You see, God is holy, that is, set apart, perfect, and sinless. But as we see in Genesis 3, humanity isn’t. And that’s a problem because God, being holy, cannot be joined with sin.

Sin burns up in the fullness of God’s presence. Meaning, if that fullness was present over the whole planet, reality itself would shrivel into nothingness.

And that would suck.

So Heaven, being perfect, is the place God’s fullness resides as He continues to reform the world through the work of Jesus and the Church.

But that’s just one dimension of Heaven’s importance. The other involves its relevance to us.

The Trajectory of Hope

In the opening of his letter to the church in Colossae, Paul writes the following:

We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people— the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel that has come to you.

Here we see how Heaven functions as an important motivation in the Christian life.

Christians go to Heaven after they die. This is because Jesus redeems our souls, once bound by sin, when we receive the work He did on the Cross.

This stops death from claiming us and allows us to be joined with God in His perfect dwelling we just talked about.

That’s why Heaven is important for us.

It reminds us that this life is building to something, eternity with our Lord.

Or, as the writer and minister Frederick Buechner said:

“But the proclamation of Easter Day is that all is well… Death is not the end. The end is life. His life and our lives through him, in him… Christ our lord is risen.” 

So, why is Heaven necessary?

Because it gives God a place to dwell in the fullness of His holiness while also giving us a destination to join Him after this life fades away and our sins with it.

But all too often, well-meaning Christians embrace this heavenly hope at the expense of the world we’re in now.

And this simply isn’t the vision God has for Heaven and Earth.

Because more than just a cushy place we go to when we die, Heaven will, when Jesus returns, actually come to Earth itself.

And that makes a load of difference.

More on that tomorrow.

For now, be blessed.

Jon,

Theophilus Newsletter