If heaven is to be heaven ...

If heaven is to be heaven, then there can be no sin there, no anger or bitterness, no self seeking or pride, no manipulation or one upmanship, no punishing silences, no greed or hate, no unforgiveness, no selfishness or biting sarcasm, no insensitivity, no put downs, no judgementalism, no negativity etc., etc., etc. The problem is that this excludes each and every one of us. It is a problem that God has solved in and through His Son, but we do have to appropriate it. You see the only way we can be fit for heaven is if God changes us and purges all of what He calls sin from us. Now He will not do that if we do not cooperate with Him, if we do not give Him permission to change us. He will not force Himself on us. So then part of what it means to be a Christian is that we have surrendered to Him and have started to let Him deal with the garbage in our lives. We cannot fix ourselves, but He can and will fix us if we let Him, and in doing that He will (in the end) fit us for heaven. For most of us (me too) it takes a long time, because there is a lot of work to do. It starts with our accepting the substitutional sacrifice of the perfect son of God.

God is just so sin must be punished. Somehow, in a way that I do not fully understand, God's sense of justice is satisfied if somebody else (in this case Jesus) pays the price, receives the punishment for our sin. Christ's death enables God to pardon us, but we have to receive the pardon. It's not that hard, we do need to admit our need, to repent and turn from our sin and purpose, with His help, to live for Him. Then we get to enjoy Him forever. If we do not do this, we still live forever without Him, but to be honest that is scary.

Some people say that heaven and hell are here on earth. But if that were the case, God would not be just. Is death alone a sufficient punishment for the Hitlers and the Stalins and the Pol Pots of this world? Nevertheless I think there is some truth in the saying. In particular I think we get a glimpse of heaven and hell as follows. If we take away everything good in the world, the love, the joy, the peace, the hope etc., etc and leave everything bad, then I think that is a glimpse, a pale reflection, of hell. In other words I think it is much, much worse. Similarly if we take away all pain and fear, all the things I listed above and add the joy and hope and peace etc., etc. we catch a very pale reflection of heaven. But again it is much, much better. In fact as the scripture says “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard nor has it entered into the heart of man what God has prepared for those who love Him.”

What I want to emphasize is that God does not send anyone to hell. In the end we choose hell over heaven by refusing to accept His free gift of eternal life. Most people know John 3:16, but few know the next two verses 17 "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. 18 He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."