By Kenneth B.E. Roxburgh, Ph.D.
Chair and Armstrong Professor of Religion, Samford University
What Happens Next?
Revelation 21:1–8
The hope of heaven for the Christian is not merely “pie in the sky when you die” but is the controlling perspective of the people of God as they live in a world of suffering and sin, and long for the day when they shall see the one who loved them and gave himself for them on the cruel cross of Calvary. Christians ought to suffer from nostalgia — homesickness — longing to be at home with the Savior in Father’s house.
We will live in God’s presence. (1–3)
The ultimate joy of heaven is that it is where we will experience the presence of a triune God of love and grace. God’s presence will fill the place, and as David knew “in your presence there is fullness of joy … (and) pleasures forevermore” (Ps. 16:11). So God gives the water of life which flows from his throne and the fruits of the tree of life which satisfies all our needs. His presence will take away all our tears.
Eternity will undoubtedly last forever, but the most wonderful aspect of all is not that of perpetual future but of perpetual presence. Never once will we sense the absence of God because of sin or suffering. He will come down and stay with us. We will never hear Jesus to us, “I am leaving you for a short time” as he told his disciples in the upper room. He will dwell with his people for ever and ever. This means that the worship of God will consume his people forever.
We will live in a perfect place. (4–5)
The biblical story began with creation and in the cross of Calvary there was a new creation, and here we have the final act of God in bringing into being the eternal state of glory. The sin-ruined creation of Genesis is restored in the sacrifice-renewed creation of Calvary.
There will be no tears, death, sorrow, crying or pain. All that robs life here and now of being a fulfilled, joyful and vibrant life will be absent from eternity. There will be no barbed wire, bullets or bombs in heaven. Concentration camps and refugees will not exist. The tyrant weapons of sin and suffering will be no more and thus God “will wipe away (all) tears from (all) eyes” (Rev. 21:4). Mary’s tears of sorrow at the cross, Peter’s tears of conviction of sin and John’s tears of seeing evil triumph will all be wiped away. The tears of the Belfast widow and the African orphan will be dried. The tears of the abandoned lover, the bitter tears of the unemployed, the tears of a black child snubbed in a white school, the tears we cry in secret and the tears we cry in our hearts, all of them will be wiped away.
Our eternity is based on our relationship with Christ. (6–8)
Within the new Jerusalem there is the water of life and the tree of life to satisfy and enrich the experience and enjoyment of God’s people. There will be no frustration only fulfillment in living and serving the living God. Commenting on the picture offered by Revelation, Paul Fiddes speaks of how this metaphor, “unlike the temple, is an image of busy activity and creativity as well as fellowship…. There will be journeys to made, adventures to be had.”
At the center of it all will be the Lord Jesus: the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last in all things, now the focus of all our attention and adoration.
Even so come, Lord Jesus!
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