Songs can often strike a memory, and this is one that does for me. It’s a song that Gina would often play at the piano at home and sing along with during her days of suffering. It was particularly poignant then, and it is now to think on it—to hear her singing things like this: “My heart is filled with thankfulness to Him who reigns above, whose wisdom is my perfect peace, whose every thought is love.” Wonderful song.
We are finishing up, finally, this lengthy series on life and death and life after death. The series went on much longer than I originally planned, but I have been encouraged by your interest in it. Today we finally conclude, and to wrap it up, it’s going to be a bit different. It will be a purely topical look at some practical, curious kinds of questions that most of us have asked at one time or another. These are questions and issues related to our subject that we’ve studied over the last many months, but which perhaps I have not had occasion to address during the series.
Look at 2 Thessalonians chapter 1. We have had occasion to look at this passage briefly. My purpose here is not to expound the passage, but just to highlight one point made in it. You’ll remember in verses 5 and following, the apostle is speaking about the return of Jesus Christ and the attending events as it relates both to the redeemed and to the lost. Part of the gist or major thrust of this passage is that those who trouble you will then, at the return of Christ, themselves be troubled with great affliction at the coming of Christ.
But he draws a contrast. Verse 9 speaks of the suffering that they will experience: “They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.”
A couple of points here that I want to highlight before we get into our miscellany. Number one: Christ’s return is the occasion that we’re looking for to bring us finally to the final state. We looked at the nature of death, we’ve looked at the intermediate state, we looked at the resurrection, the nature of the resurrection body, and we’ve been looking at the nature of the eternal state or the final state. All of that—the final state and the resurrection—hinges on the return of Christ. He’s speaking of that here. What he emphasizes in verse 10 is that Christ’s return will be a return in unmistakable glory. Now, you know that, and that’s a point that Paul and the other biblical writers make at various times. The Lord Jesus makes that point in some passages as well, particularly in the Olivet Discourse. It is a wonderful point to contemplate that His return will be a return in unmistakable glory—a great reversal. At His first coming, He was opposed, rejected, and crucified. When He returns, He will come in triumph and in glory. And it says He’ll be marveled at.
The second point is what I want to focus on here: Not only will His return be a return in unmistakable glory, but specifically, it will be by His people that He will be glorified. There is something about that redeemed community that will make Christ appear glorious. Notice that’s what he says in verse 10: “…when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints and to be marveled at among those who have believed.” To be glorified in his saints. Or we could translate it to be glorified by his saints. The idea is that there’s something about that redeemed community itself that will enhance the appearance of Christ’s glory—will make Him appear glorious.
Now that’s a fascinating thing to consider. It’s not the way we normally think. We’ll think of Jesus coming in His resurrection glory, coming in His kingly glory, His messianic glory. Here’s the one who has accomplished His mediatorial task, who has been exalted to the right hand of God, who has taken the kingship that rightly He has earned, and He comes back in His divine and mediatorial glory. We think of that normally when we think of His returning in glory. But this is a curious thing: He’ll be glorified in His saints.
Isaac Watts, the great hymn writer, wrote a book on this verse. Obviously, I can’t go through the whole book, but he makes a series of observations about this. Let me read you just a little bit of it:
“How mean and contemptible soever our Lord Jesus Christ might appear heretofore on earth, yet there is a day coming when he will make a glorious figure in the sight of men and angels. How little so ever the saints may be esteemed in our day, and look poor and despicable in an ungodly world, yet there is an hour approaching when they shall be glorious beyond all imagination, and Christ himself shall be glorified in them. In that day shall the Lord our Savior be the object of adoration and wonder, not only among the sons of men that have believed on him, but before all the intelligent creation, and that upon the account of his grace manifested in believers.”
Then he goes on and says the natural inquiry arises here: “What particular instances of the grace of Christ and his saints shall be the matter of our admiration and his glory in that day?” Then he says, “To this I shall propose an answer under the following particulars.”
How Will Christ Be Admired In His Saints?
Here are the points that he highlights. How will Christ be admired in His saints?
- That persons of all characters should have been united in one faith.
- That so many wicked, obstinate wills of men and so many perverse affections should be bowed down and submit themselves to the holy rule of the gospel.
- That so many thousand guilty wretches should be made righteous by one righteousness, cleansed in one labor from all their iniquities, and sprinkled unto pardon and sanctification with the blood of one man, Jesus Christ.
- That a company of such feeble Christians should maintain their course toward heaven through so many thousand obstacles. (And that, of course, is the context here in 2 Thessalonians 1.)
- That so many dark and dreadful providences were working together in mercy for the good of the saints.
- That heaven should be so well filled out of such a hell of sin and misery as this world is.
- That so many vigorous, beautiful, and immortal bodies should be raised at once out of the dust with their old infirmities left behind them.
- That they shall appear in that day as so many images of His person and so many monuments of the success of His office.
Well, each of those eight points, of course, is worth expounding at some length. You can still find the book used on Amazon and various places like that if you’d like to look at it further. But I think that helps us as an introduction to our last study on this.
What will this final state be like? We have looked at it the last couple of times with regard to the personal aspect of it—what it will be like to each of us personally in that final state. We looked at the nature of the resurrection body and things like that. Then we looked at the cosmic perspective of the eternal state—what the new heaven and new earth will look like. And now, some related questions. I think these are questions that are common enough that most all of us, if not all of us, have asked them at some time or another.
1. Will We Know One Another?
Keep in mind, we often say, “Will we know one another in heaven?” That’s fine, but just remember what we mean by that. In the final state, it is not just heaven; it’s the new heaven and new earth. God has purposed in Christ not just to snatch us away to a spiritual realm, but He has purposed in Christ to restore the entire created order, including us. We’ll be redeemed body and soul in the resurrection state. In that state, will we know one another? And let’s go ahead and throw into it as well the intermediate state: Will we know one another in the intermediate state?
I have some general observations about that, first of all. I think this just collects generally from what the Scriptures teach us, and then we’ll look at some specific passages as well. We have seen that in that state we will be immortal. But our immortality will not be stripped of content. It’ll be stripped of all of the things that are marked by the fall and the curse, but it won’t be stripped of the content of our personhood—who we are, consciousness, self-consciousness, and relationships with one another. There’s no reason to think that at all. In fact, one aspect of being created in the image of God is that we have the capacity to enjoy fellowship with others. If we have self-consciousness, why not then would we have consciousness of others as well, whether in the body or otherwise?
What about the final state, first of all? By the way, there is a book written on this by one of the sons of Charles Hodge. J. Aspenwall Hodge wrote a book—it’s the only book I’ve ever seen written on this particular subject—entitled Recognition After Death. It was written back in the 1800s. Again, it’s a book you might enjoy getting.
Think about this in terms of passages that we’ve already observed in the Gospels. The great example we have of this is Jesus. In His resurrection body, He was recognized and recognizable. Now, there were occasions when it was withheld and it was suppressed, of course, but Jesus was recognized and He was seen of many and recognized to be who He was. There He was in His resurrected state, His glorified state, and we will be made like Him. We must assume that we will be similar.
In Matthew chapter 8, Jesus makes the statement that many will come from the east and west and sit with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the regeneration. The implication is we will know the other saints who are there. And one of my favorite passages in Jesus is just brimming with all kinds of wonderful expectations: in Jesus’ high priestly prayer in John chapter 17, verse 24, Jesus prays that they will be with me—that is, bring them to glory—that they will be with me and see my glory. There Jesus is anticipating the gathering of the saints in glory, recognizing Him, of course, but the implication is there we are together rejoicing in the admiration of Christ’s glory.
I can’t move on without making the observation—it’s something beyond an earthly illustration. When we have something wonderful that happens, we naturally want to share it with others. If an Olympic athlete wins an event, what’s the first thing you see? You see his family jumping around him, giving him hugs, sharing the moment. That’s something of what Jesus is saying: “I want these people whom I love to be with me in glory and to share the moment and share the glory.”
Another general statement is 1 Corinthians chapter 13, verse 12: “Now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face.” The idea is that we’ll know better then than we know now. The presumed continuity of the resurrection body in 1 Corinthians 15, I think, argues for the same.
Since we’re here in Thessalonians, look back a page to 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, verses 19 and 20: “For what is our hope, our joy, or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? For you are our glory and joy.” There the Apostle Paul is looking to the day of Christ’s return. Here’s the resurrection state, and he says my joy will be to see you—who have come to Christ through my ministry—in that day. Implicit in all of that is a recognition of one another.
I think that’s the same that’s implicit in 1 Thessalonians 4, verses 13 and following, where we have that wonderful passage about the coming of Christ and the catching up of believers. The concern there, you remember, is “What about those who have died?” Paul’s answer is they won’t miss a thing. They’ll be raised first, and then we’ll be caught up to be with them. The implicit idea in all of that is that there’ll be a joyful reunion.
In the intermediate state, we have the same kind of thing. You remember we saw in the Old Testament that expression: when a person died, he was “gathered to his people,” gathered to his fathers. The idea there is not just gone to the tomb, but it was an expression of what death is—gathered to his people. We saw that has some implications regarding life after death and, evidently, recognition of one another in life after death. We saw the same in 1 Samuel 28 with Samuel. Remember that strange experience when Samuel was called up from the dead and he was recognized for who he was?
Then there’s this curious statement in 2 Samuel chapter 12 where David’s infant son died and he says, “He will not come to me, but I will go to him.” It seems to me—it’s not explicit, but it seems to me—that is an anticipation of seeing his son again. We saw some other passages: Isaiah chapter 14, where we had the residents of Sheol who recognized the king of Babylon there. Perhaps more definitively is Matthew chapter 17, the Mount of Transfiguration. Moses and Elijah appeared there and were recognized for who they were. And then, of course, in Luke chapter 16, the rich man and Lazarus—there seems to be recognition there as well.
J. A. Hodge says, after surveying scores and scores of passages in this regard: “Indeed, every allusion in Scripture to the state of the soul after death, and especially the whole book of Revelation, assumes and declares that recognition is a fact and is essential to the enjoyment of the redeemed in heaven. It must be remembered that the faculties of perception still remain after the organs are destroyed. We shall see God, his angels, and his redeemed. We shall hear their calls and join in their praise. We shall experience happiness and the wicked shall suffer torments. We shall hold communion with each other as we now do on earth.”
Will we recognize one another in heaven? I think the overwhelming evidence is yes, although most of that evidence is indirect. I still think it is definitive.
2. What Relationships Will We Have Then?
I think the general answer is it’ll be generally the same. I’ll have to qualify that in a minute, but generally the same. Again, that’s implicit in 1 Thessalonians 2:19–20, where Paul’s hope is to see those who have been redeemed through his ministry. That will be his joy in that day of the return of Christ, and presumably their relationships will be the same.
The one question that comes up in this regard, of course, is the question of marriage. That was the question brought to Jesus in Matthew chapter 22 when the Sadducees brought the conundrum to Him. The woman’s husband dies, her brother marries her and he dies, another brother marries her and he dies—she’s got seven brothers. They’ve all died. They throw the question at Jesus: “Whose wife will she be in the resurrection?” Ha ha, gotcha. It seemed to be a conundrum for Jesus. The Sadducees didn’t believe in the resurrection of the dead, but they were arguing that if there is a resurrection, either we have this woman married to seven men at the same time (an incestuous relationship) or she somehow arbitrarily selects one of them to be her husband, which doesn’t follow reason, so there must not be any answer.
You remember Jesus’ answer to that was very perceptive. He pointed to Exodus chapter 3: “I am the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. God is not the God of the dead but of the living.” He points to life after death. Implicit in that is the resurrection. Also, it’s His covenantal title. I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and there’s the land promise and all of that. They went to their graves in hope of the resurrection. All of that is bound up in Jesus’ answer in anticipation of the resurrection. But His response was, “You don’t know—you don’t understand the scriptures or the power of God.” His answer from Exodus was His answer: You don’t know the scriptures or the power of God. I think the idea there is that we will be so transformed—and you underestimate God’s ability to do this—that God will deal with that problem well enough. That’s the short answer.
Don Carson comments, I think perceptively: “He could just as easily make the wife of the seven brothers capable of loving all, and the object of the love of all, as a good mother today loves all her children and is loved by them.” But still, implicitly, the marriage relationship has been changed in some way. I don’t think we’re given specific information on that. To be more definitive than that, I think the idea of what relationships will be then is that we’ll know one another as before with whatever adjustments are fitting to that state.
3. What Will We Do Then?
What will we do in the new heaven and new earth? Sit on a cloud and play our harps? There are some broad general answers to give in that regard. One that I really like is implicit here in 2 Thessalonians 1:10—this idea of Christ being admired by His saints. We have reflections of that in Ephesians: that throughout the ages to come (Ephesians 2:7), we will reflect the grace of Christ in such a way that He’ll be glorified by all of the angels, and even the demonic powers will see the display of Christ’s glory and grace in the redemption of all of His people. But that speaks more of what Christ is, and we serve as trophies of His grace.
But what will we do? If you want to look quickly, you remember we looked at Revelation chapter 7. In Revelation 7:15–16, we saw that—again, looking at the final state—they are before the throne of God and serve Him day and night in His temple. All right, there’s what we’ll do: we’ll serve Him day and night in His temple. What’s His temple? Remember what we saw in Revelation 22? The earth—the new heaven and new earth—is His temple. Remember the measurements of the New Jerusalem, the perfect cube symbolizing the presence of God, and that being emphasized: that this new heaven and new earth will be the temple. This is the presence of God there.
What we will do there is serve God. That’s still kind of broad. What does it mean to serve God? What does it mean to serve God now? In the New Testament, serving God is living for Him, fulfilling His commands, carrying out His interests, and functioning as we were called to function as His image bearers. Revelation chapter 22, verse 5, gives us another thing that we will do: “They will reign forever and ever.” Well, that fits with several of Jesus’ parables where we are told that in that day when Christ returns, He will assign areas of management and oversight to His people. You reign over seven cities, five cities, ten—whatever it is. However symbolic some of that may be, the idea is we are assigned areas of oversight and management.
What will that look like? Still, these are broad kinds of concepts. Now, you might remember last time when we worked through Revelation 21 and 22, we brought up the question of work in the eternal state. If you can just imagine work without the notion of toil—we may work in that day. How about in the garden before the fall? Was there work? Yes, but minus the idea of toil, minus the curse, minus the resistance of the created order—delight in working and serving God. We talked about some of that. That is a reflection of our being in God’s image: that we reflect His rule and administer His rule in the earth. Again, that’s the idea of reigning and serving God. So we will inherit a certain something as part of that great kingdom. Each of us is assigned some area of oversight or responsibility.
I think we have an anticipation of that in the Old Testament in the taking of the land. When Israel moved into their land, each of the tribes was assigned a particular inheritance. When we come to the New Testament, Peter and others tell us about the inheritance that’s been laid up in heaven for us. We will receive our inheritance, and we will occupy the land, as it were, and carry out our responsibilities. So we’ll inherit our plots of ground and reign with Christ.
Now remember too, Revelation 21:24–26 gives us just a little glimpse of the social life of the new heaven and new earth. It gives us a picture of the place just bustling with activity: “By its light the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. Its gates will never be shut by day. There will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and honor of the nations.” So we have nations as nations in the eternal state. Kings, rulers, and the nations will bring their glory into it—each of the nations contributing their glory to that eternal state.
This is worth some extensive thought and consideration. I wonder if this is telling us that in that perfected state, each of the nations will make their own contributions ethnically, culturally, and to the glory of that eternal state and that eternal kingdom. That’s not hard to imagine. That’s just barely hinted at here in Revelation 21, where the nations will bring their glory into the kingdom. What will that be like? We don’t know the details. But this does fit well with the idea of serving God, carrying out our responsibilities, and carrying out our areas of management and oversight. That’s the best I can tell you.
4. How Long Will Heaven Last?
Revelation 22, verse 5: “And night will be no more. They will need no light of sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.” I think when we see that, we are intended to think of that in contrast to every joy of this life. Not every suffering—every joy. Every joy of this life is marked by the temporary. Relationships, lives, people that we love—whatever occasions of happiness and joy—all of it is just temporary. In that day, all of it is forever, unending.
5. How Will We Be Happy When We Know Of Loved Ones Who Are Lost?
This is a particularly difficult question, and the Bible does not answer it directly. The most direct answer it gives us is in Revelation: that God will wipe away every tear from our eyes. As I’ve said before, that obviously does not mean that God has a big handkerchief and He’ll walk around to every eye and wipe away the tear and that’ll be that. Clearly, the idea is that there’ll be such a transformation of things, and such a transformation in us, that we’ll never cry again and there’ll never be those things that make us cry. We will see things as God sees them and be so transformed as to enter into His joy and rejoice with Him forever.
We see a glimpse of that in Revelation chapter 19. When Babylon falls, the people of God stand over it and say, “Hallelujah, for your judgments are true and just,” and they will suffer forever and ever. Jonathan Edwards makes a comment here: “Heaven will have no pity for hell, not because saints are unloving, but because they are perfectly loving.” They will see everything in conformity with God’s love, with God’s justice, and God’s glory. And thus, with both head and heart, we will worship the Lord without regret, without sorrow, and without any misgivings about our Father’s plans. How will we be happy then when we know of loved ones who have been lost? All we can say is that we will be so transformed then that God will make us see it as He sees it. Just as He will not spend eternity in regret, neither will we.
6. How Can We Be Sure That We Will Make It?
I’d love to spend time with you there on Romans 8:28 and following. God’s love for us in Christ stretches from eternity to eternity, and we’re secure in His saving purpose.
7. What About Infants Who Die?
I’ll tell you up front that I don’t think the Bible answers this in a direct way. I don’t think there’s an explicit statement anywhere that tells us. I am persuaded, however, that there are enough implicit statements in the Bible that we can say that infants who die will go to heaven. Why do I say that?
Let’s start here: Can God save an infant? Well, now, you’re Calvinists; you’re going to say, “Of course, God can save anybody He wants.” Do we have any biblical precedent for that? Two: Jeremiah called from his mother’s womb, and John the Baptist. Can God save an infant? Yes. Okay, that’s settled. Now the question is: Will He save or does He save those infants who die in infancy? Again, I think the incident with David points us in that direction. David’s infant son dies, and David takes encouragement in the fact that although “he cannot come to me, I will go to him.” That’s not a lot, but it seems to indicate that. It seems to me to indicate that all the more strongly when you contrast David’s response to the death of his infant son to the death of Absalom: “Oh, Absalom, Absalom, my son, Absalom, would God I had died for you.” There’s no comfort anywhere to be found. There’s some encouragement that he finds with the infant. I think that points us in that direction.
Beyond that, there are some passages in the Old Testament that indicate that God does treat people—although we recognize the doctrine of original sin—with what we can call relative innocence. Where? Jeremiah chapter 19, verse 4: when the prophet is condemning the pagan practice of child sacrifice, the statement is, “They have filled this place with the blood of the innocent.” There it is. Ezekiel chapter 16, verse 21, we have the same thing with reference to child sacrifice: “They have slaughtered my children,” God says. In Jonah chapter 4, you remember Jonah is kind of disgusted that God didn’t let Nineveh have it? “I knew you’d be merciful to them. You’re always that way.” And you remember what God said in response? “Jonah, what about all those people in there that don’t know their right hand from their left?” Young, innocent people. People are treated with relative innocence.
Add to that the fact that the final judgment will be according to works. All of that together, I am persuaded, indicates that those infants who die in infancy will be saved. The majority of the Christian church has always taught that, although much of Roman Catholicism has not. Over the centuries they have taught that only baptized babies go to heaven, but that is another matter.
You’re going to ask me then next: “How old?” I don’t know. I don’t know much about what I just said beyond what I told you. I certainly don’t know that. There is no definitive “age of accountability.” I have no idea how God sorts that out, but I think we can say that infants who die are saved. How old will they be in heaven? Again, I have no idea. The Bible doesn’t answer that. I suppose we can assume that they will not be infants intellectually, but they’ll grow up and be able to recognize the glory of the place and something like that.
8. What Is Limbo?
That’s Roman Catholic doctrine. Limbus Patrum is the place where the ancients before the time of Christ died, waiting for the death and resurrection of Christ to bring them to heaven. There’s no evidence for that. The Limbus Infantum is the place or the state of the unbaptized children who die. They die without personal sin, but they die in just limbo and are not able to go to heaven. Again, those are Roman Catholic doctrines. I don’t see support for them anywhere, but there it is.
9. Will The Lost Receive A Second Chance?
Again, the Bible doesn’t speak specifically to that in a direct way, but every indication is no. Hebrews 9:27, which we have seen, leads us to say that: “It is appointed unto man once to die and after that the judgment.” Death leads directly to reaping what is sown in this life. That seems to be the implication in Luke chapter 16 as well with the rich man and Lazarus—that after death, what we would call a “chance” is over.
10. What About Purgatory?
We did see a little bit about this when we talked about the intermediate state, particularly in reference to 2 Corinthians chapter 5, where Paul is talking about the glory of that state. What I’m looking for is not to be “naked”—that is, this bodiless existence in heaven. What I’m looking for is to be “clothed upon” with a new body in resurrection. That’s his great hope. But he does say about that intermediate state—about death—that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. No room for purgatory in that. Absent from the body, present with the Lord. We might say with that as well Philippians chapter 1, where Paul’s anticipation is to depart and be with Christ, which would be far better.
Now, I don’t have time—our time is up—but let’s just throw this question out for you to think on, and I think it’s worth our attention: How does all this help us shape our Christian worldview?
The Christian worldview takes very seriously that this life is not the whole of our existence. There is an afterlife. And in the afterlife, this life will have made a great difference in terms of our condition then. So this ought to shape our thinking regarding evangelism. It ought to shape our thinking regarding Christian faithfulness and Christian service, knowing, as Paul says, that your labor is not in vain in the Lord—that God rewards us for every good thing.
I think probably above all, this ought to fill us with a sense of hope as God’s people. This life is not the whole of our existence, and whatever joys and whatever health and happiness and wealth we have here, the life of the new heaven and new earth is going to be so far overwhelmingly glorious as to make this seem like nothing. It’s no wonder then, as I’ve said many times and as John Wesley says, “Our people die well.” We can die with hope.
So we can properly imagine, I think, the new heaven and new earth in these four ways:
- We can extrapolate or stretch out our understanding of Eden. What will the new heaven and new earth be like? Look back to Eden: pre-fall, pre-curse, and extrapolate on that. In fact, the Bible does that. For instance, in Isaiah chapter 11, you remember, the lion will eat straw like an ox. We have passages like that where the created order will be renewed. So look at what Eden was like before the fall and extrapolate on that.
- Extrapolate from the relationships we have with God and with other Christians and the creation, and look at that into the future in a perfected sense. Imagine it without the limitations of our frustrations or the limitations of our failures and our other imperfections and our sins. Can you imagine then we’ll be members of a perfect church? RBC is close—I love RBC. But there have been a few times I’ve rubbed some of you wrong, and there have been some times when some of you have rubbed others wrong (never me). We’ll never have those frustrations in heaven.
- Imagine the new heaven and new earth by eliminating from our minds all of our ideas of pain, evil, conflict, and distress. All those things we have now will be gone then.
- Extrapolate or stretch out every conception of happiness and joy that we have now and look at it in a perfected sense in the eternal state.
All of those four ideas are involved in Revelation 7 and Revelation chapter 21 that we’ve looked at. We could sum it up with the words of Habakkuk and Isaiah: “The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” Or 1 John 3:2: “We will be like him.”
In summary, there’ll be the presence of Christ, there’ll be the ongoing experience of love and ministry for Christ, there will be fellowship with loved ones and the entire company of the redeemed, and there’ll be continued growth, continued learning, enrichment, and no unfulfilled desire. “Neither shall they thirst anymore.”
I mentioned on Facebook this week—some of you probably saw it—a hymn that we used to sing years ago. I don’t think I’ve heard it sung in 10 or 15 years probably: “Praise the Savior, ye who know him.” The last stanza: “Then we shall be where we would be, then we shall be what we should be. Things that are not now, nor could be, soon shall be our own.” Amen.
Let’s stand and be dismissed in prayer. Pastor Greg, would you pray for us, please?