***
The popular view of heaven as part
utopia, part family reunion, is not entirely unbiblical. But it tends to make personal wish
fulfillment the focus of salvation instead of Christ. In fact, we could go so far as to say that for some, Christ is
little more than the means by which their wishes will be fulfilled in the
afterlife. Heaven is also presented as
a reward for good behavior, a place where we are finally free from
suffering. In the world to come, we
will be freed from all forms of suffering caused by the effects of sin in this
fallen world (Rev. 21:4). But we will
not be freed from glory, from the self-sacrificing, other-centered fellowship
that is the divine nature.
Participating in the divine nature IS salvation (2 Peter 1:4). If we haven’t had self-motivation eradicated
but have only behaved until our desires are finally gratified in
heaven, from what have we been saved?
By contrast, God has much more in mind than simply rewarding us. He wants all things to be full of glory, to
be permeated by that selfless inter-relating—“For the earth will be filled with
the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk
2:14).
What do we mean when we talk of all things being full
of glory? Let’s put it this way:
imagine a world where every last thing is Christ: every river, every stone,
every blade of grass. This is something
like what Ezekiel’s third vision shows us.
Christ is the temple, the altar, and the offering. He is the priest
presenting the offering, He is the sacrificial flesh eaten by those who
minister. He is the land and each
inheritance marked out. He is the 12
tribes and the nation of Israel. His
Spirit is the river that makes everything live as it flows past trees of all
kinds, which trees He is. “Christ is
all, and is in all” (Col. 3:11). There
is nothing in what Ezekiel sees that is not Christ. And this is where God has placed us. This is the One into whom we have been baptized (1 Cor. 1:30,
12:13). Despite the conditions through
which we sojourn, despite the lack of Christ we see around us and in us every
day, God would have us know that our reality, the place where we live and move
and have our being, is precisely this place where there is nothing but Christ,
where Christ is the elemental composition of everything, where He is the
length, the height, the breadth, and the depth (Eph. 3:18).
