THREE POSSIBLE SURPRISES IN HEAVEN

I am not interested in belaboring the question as to whether the believer really “goes to heaven.” Perhaps that is not scriptural terminology after all, but the Bible does refer to the “imperishable wreath” and the “crown of righteousness,” and even to “a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” And Jesus talks about “eternal life in the world to come.” If heaven turns out to be on this redeemed earth, and we don’t really “go to heaven,” that will suit me just fine. Like the apostle, I long for that “eternal weight of glory,” and I am willing for the sovereign God of the universe to put it all together as He will, however that may be. Even if we don’t “go” to heaven, we have glory beyond comparison awaiting us, and I am wondering if some of us are not in for some surprises.

The first grand surprise for many of our brethren will no doubt be that they made it to heaven. People who are unsure of their salvation are not likely to die with a firm hold on that “anchor that keeps the soul stedfast and sure while the billows roll, fastened to the Rock which cannot move, grounded firm and deep in the Savior’s love.” We all know enough to give lip service to the beautiful truth “By grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God,” but the carnal man within keeps many of us from fully embracing it. Our self-sufficiency insists that it is too our own doing, partly so at least. And so we try to be good enough, or right enough, or busy enough, or obedient enough that we will perchance make it to heaven.

This is a hard way to live, a way that offers little hope since none of us is good enough, or right enough, or busy enough, or obedient enough. We profess to believe that we can neither buy or earn salvation, but, like Peter, we are hesitant to step out into the depths of complete dependence upon God’s grace. Really, the story of Jesus blessing the sinful publican who could cry out, “God, be merciful to me a sinner!” rather than the self-sufficient Pharisees, makes no more sense to us than it did the Pharisees. Don’t we really believe that it is the “good church member” who prays right, gives right, worships right. and goes to the right church that will go to heaven by God’s grace of course! He certainly has a “better chance” than that poor cuss down at the tax office who hardly ever goes to anybody’s church, however anguished he may be in his sins.

Let’s face it. In the main our people have hardly cultivated that hunger for righteousness that God promises to satisfy. We do not have that poverty of spirit that knows the kingdom of God. We have too long depended on “sound doctrine,” which may be quite different from the healthful teaching of Jesus and his apostles, which is what sound doctrine ought to mean.

We have consequently nourished a people who do not really know Jesus, who are uncomfortable talking about him. We have made faith doctrinal (loyalty to our own set of interpretations) rather than trust in a Person. This can only lead to frustration, uncertainty, and despair, for no man is good enough or wise enough to put it all together on his own.

Rev. 21:8 says the fearful will have their place in the lake of fire, but this refers to the cowardly rather than those who are uncertain of their destiny. Those who really believe the promises and who can say “We know” with the assurance of the apostle John have more faith in the eternal salvation of the rest of us than we have ourselves. They will not be surprised to see us there, in spite of our own uncertainties. The true believer, the one who really has hope, wants all the church to have that peace and assurance that only Jesus can give. If we truly walk with him now, trusting God’s grace, we need not be surprised to find ourselves with him over there.

Now for the second surprise, which grows our of the first. Many of us will be surprised to see those there that we were sure would not be there. Jesus indicated that certain harlots would gain entrance before the self-righteous Pharisees, though there might well be some Pharisees there too. It is not likely to be a “Church of Christ heaven” or a “Southern Baptist Church heaven.” I recall one of our gatherings that heatedly debated whether Martin Luther was a Christian. Some of those involved would surely be surprised to see the likes of Luther in heaven, however dependent he was on God’s grace manifest in Jesus. I’ve been reading lately of those old circuit-riding Methodist preachers who blazed the trail for the gospel on our frontiers long before the Revolutionary War, suffering great hardship for Jesus’ sake. It is too bad that they all have to miss heaven because their level of understanding and obedience did not reach the sublimity of our own!

Then there will be the sad surprise of the absence of many that we expected to be there, if indeed we are ever sad in heaven. We may learn too late that it takes more than sectarian loyalty to enjoy eternal communion with God and His angels. Even more than good works. A damaging fallacy is to suppose “If she doesn’t make it, then nobody will,” as if people can really be good enough to go to heaven. The truth is, if she makes it, it will be by God’s grace, however good she is. And surely that grace will reach out to touch those who are not so good, like me!

Paul gives us the scope of heaven, just as he gives us the scope of fellowship, in his opening words to the Corinthians. They were “the church of God which is at Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” He goes on to say that God calls such ones into the fellowship of his Son. These are the ones who are or will be in heaven —“those sanctified in Christ Jesus” —and we have no way of knowing just who these are. There may well be many church members who only profess sanctification, who would be uneasy in heaven should they find themselves among the redeemed.

To the number who are saints of God, both before and since Jesus, there must be added those upon whom God bestows His grace because of the Christ, whether children, the infirm, the disadvantaged or whomever. Again we do not know, nor do we need to know, who all may be included here. It is well that we give sufficient room to the grace of God lest we be surprised overmuch. We do not want to be going around saying, “What are you doing here?” That may make it appear that we have no business being there! —the Editor