If you are like most Christians, you have a desire to know all you can about Heaven. This is a normal desire to want to know about the place you are planning to go. However, the truth about Heaven will only come from God’s word. I have had many people tell me things about Heaven, and I later found out they heard it from someone else. They were listening to others instead of reading God’s word. This caused them to have wrong information about Heaven.
The first truth we will nail down is who is in Heaven. First and foremost, God himself is there; He created it and is the ruler of it. As God of creation and ruler of everything, He determines who is allowed to be there. When His creation of man, made in His image, sinned, the fellowship between them was broken. Now, because God cannot be in the presence of sin, those He had designed to spend eternity with Him were no longer qualified to be with Him. Sin separated all of mankind from God.
In God’s infinite wisdom and His love for us, He made a plan to buy us back. The word for this is redeemed. He would send His Son to earth to die on a cruel cross for our sins. All of our past, present, and future sins would be poured out on Jesus. This redemption cost God greatly, but He offers it to us as a free gift. In Ephesians 2:8-9, Paul teaches us that we cannot work for our salvation. God gives it freely. If we could work for it, it would be about us, but salvation is all about Jesus. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”
Salvation, the entrance ticket to Heaven, is for anyone who will believe and repent of their sins. It is for those who surrender control of their lives to the authority of God. We are all sinners in need of a Savior. Sin without repentance forfeits any rights to Heaven. It brings eternal death, but God offers eternal life through the death of His Son.
Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;”
Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Heaven is an eternal place, and all who go there live forever. In Revelations 22:3, we find that Heaven will end the curse of sin. While there are many other aspects of Heaven, the focus will be on Jesus. He is the Lamb of God. He was the Lamb that was slain for our sins. We will be serving Him joyously forever. “And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him.”
At the end of time, as we know it, there will be a time of judgment and separation of the redeemed and the unrighteous. In Matthew 25:31-34, Jesus teaches about this time of separation. “When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” In the Bible, sheep represent those who follow the Shepherd. Jesus is the Shepherd. Goats represent those who do not follow the Shepherd, but as stubborn goats will do, they go their own way.
For those of us who have chosen to follow Jesus, this world is not our home. In Hebrews 13:14, the writer makes it crystal clear that we are not to anchor our roots here. We are to seek Heaven. This earth will pass away with fervent heat one day. It will not last forever, but Heaven does. “For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.”
I am so thankful for the assurance that those who have repented of their sins and lived their lives in obedience to their Savior will spend eternity in Heaven with Jesus. This is a place prepared for us by Jesus. He is there waiting for us. Jesus proclaims this in John 14:3: “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” I am ready to go, are you?
