The hope of the Believer...No. 11  

WHAT PAUL'S VISIT TO HEAVEN MEANS TO US

He was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.  2 Cor. 12:4

Paul's description of his ascent into Paradise is both one of the most baffling and one of the most exciting parts of the New Testament. It is baffling because it is so foreign to human experience, either in or outside the Bible. How can we come anywhere near comprehending an account that takes a man to heaven and back? It is exciting because it relates facts that have to do with our own destiny. If we may conclude that we are to have experiences that will approximate what Paul only obliquely refers to in this text, then our hope is made all the more certain.

While Paul in this text recounts the most glorious experience of his life, it is one he might never have told. It was his "ace card' that he held in reserve to use against his enemies who questioned the integrity of his apostleship. Had they not pressed their case against him, even suggesting that their own "visions and revelations" were more impressive than Paul's, he might never have played his ace. The loss would have been ours, for this bit of Scripture is pregnant with living hope.

It is full of hope for us because Paul is not simply recounting a dream or a vision but an actual experience. He tells of being caught up to the third heaven, to the Paradise of God itself, where he had such an experience that he could only refer to it as indescribable. If we believe this was a real historical event, that the apostle actually left earth and went to heaven and then back again, then we have grounds for an ebullient hope. If we believe Paul's story, then we believe there is a real Paradise of God, and that if he went there while yet present in this world he certainly went there after death. And we can believe that while we may not have Paul's first experience we will certainly have his second. If Paul went to heaven and returned, we will go to heaven and stay!

We can only guess as to why Paul would be the only person in human history — insofar as we know — to go to heaven and return to this earth to finish out his life in this world. For some reason he had a need for such an experience, especially for the revelation he received while in Paradise, perhaps because of the sufferings he hid to endure. He said he "heard inexpressible words," which must have been some kind of revelation. He begins the narrative by identifying it as "revelations of the Lord," and yet he says the words were unutterable or ineffable. But perhaps not absolutely, for he also says it was unlawful for him to tell what he heard. So what he heard must have been intelligible to him, constituting some kind of message, and yet of such a nature as to be unutterable. It would be something like saying, "What I heard was so glorious that it defied expression." But still Paul understood it, and it must have wonderfully encouraged him, and it may well have made possible the remainder of his earthly ministry. While what he heard and understood was "too wonderful for words," it was not lawful for him to reveal - even if he could put it into words, which he says he couldn't!

That Paul refers to "a man in Christ" who had this experience shows how objective he was trying to be, as if to stand at a distance and look at it impersonally. But we know he was referring to himself and not someone else since he switches to first person as he continues to tell the story.

That he gives the time — "fourteen years ago" — shows that it was as real as anything else in Paul's life that could be dated. And it shows how long he had waited to tell about it. He might never have revealed it had it not proved vital in dealing with his opponents in Corinth. But the time element is of no help in determining exactly where Paul was on earth when he was "caught up" to the third heaven, and it does not matter. The "caught up" is the same as in 1 Thess. 4:17 where the saints are raptured to meet Christ in the air at his second coming. It seems certain that the apostle's rapture into Paradise was involuntary and not self-induced by some kind of rigid mystical discipline. It was an act of God, and was probably sudden and unexpected on Paul's part. This is a lesson within itself, for if God wants us to have some mind-boggling experience he has sufficient resources to bring it about on his own. We don't have to send up fire and smoke and incantations, or even shouts of glory, to get God to do what it is his will to do. We should keep ourselves open for his surprises, and this was surely a big surprise for the apostle.

It is remarkable that Paul did not know whether he was in his body or out of his body when he was raptured, which means it may have been either. While it was a "spiritual" experience, it might nonetheless have been corporeal. Did not our Lord ascend into heaven after his resurrection in his body? One could also surmise that both Enoch and Elijah, and perhaps Moses, were caught up to God in the body. To Paul his ascent to Paradise was as real as any experience he had on earth, for it may have been no different than any other experience in the body, only far more glorious. And yet he may have been disembodied or non-corporeal, a strictly "spiritual" experience. It is amazing that he could not tell the difference, which may suggest that there is no difference insofar as our awareness is concerned. The reality that this detail suggests is breathtaking. Even if we are but "souls" in heaven (which I am confident is not the case) it will be just as real as our bodily experiences here on earth.

While some scholars have concerned themselves with whether Paul is referring to two experiences (one when he was caught up to the third heaven and the other when he was caught up to Paradise) or but one, it is generally agreed that he is revealing a single experience. But there is ground for concluding that he is referring to two stages in that experience — that he was raptured first to the third heaven and then on to Paradise. But it is more likely that while the third heaven and Paradise might not be synonyms, Paradise is placed within the third heaven. Paul says he was caught up to the third heaven and into Paradise. We cannot know for sure how these two relate, but what matters is that Paul went to the third heaven, whatever that is, and even into Paradise itself, which we know to be the abode of the blessed dead and the dwelling place of God himself.

Paradise is heaven. Jesus thought of it as such when he said to the penitent thief in Lk. 23:43, "Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise." How comforting it is to all of us who believe that our Lord spoke of going to Paradise with such assurance, and of taking the (former) thief with him. He did not have to say, "Maybe I can put in a good word for you" or "I hope I may be able to help you." Jesus knew without any doubt that he would be in Paradise once the ordeal of the Cross was over — and that the penitent thief would be with him. We can be equally confident that Paradise is for real and that Jesus will see to it that we go there when we leave this world. How glorious it is to be a believer!

Paradise is also equated with heaven in Rev. 2:7: "To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God." This verse supports the tradition, long a part of both Jewish and Christian theology, that the tree of life that was once in the Garden of Eden is now in the Paradise of (the third?) heaven. There are numerous references to Paradise, which means a walled garden, in various non-Biblical Jewish and Christian texts, which, while interesting, add little to what we already have in the Bible.  One source, for example, the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, mentions Enoch, Elijah, and the penitent thief as being in Paradise, and they are joined by Adam and all the saints.

While we cannot be certain what Paul meant by the third heaven, it is probable that he thought of the first heaven as the clouds and the earth's atmosphere, the second heaven as the stars and all the celestial bodies, and the third heaven as spiritual, as the non-spatial and non-temporal home of God. In both Old and New Testaments heaven appears in the plural. The Scriptures speak of "heavens" and "the heaven of heavens," and Jesus is referred to as having passed through the heavens and having been made higher than the heavens. In non-Biblical Jewish sources there are numerous references to there being seven heavens, but it is unlikely Paul had any such idea, for he would not have referred to the third heaven the way he did had he believed there were four more. It is enough for us to say what appears apparent in our text, that Paul associated the third heaven with Paradise and the throne of God.

We might have expected Paul to tell us what he saw in heaven, but it is only what he heard. Perhaps he saw things too, but it is the unutterable things that he heard that accounts for his secret revelation, perhaps from God himself or from Christ upon his glorious throne. We may be curious about what Paul heard, but it is fruitless to speculate. I am more overwhelmed by the account than I am curious. I am awed by its mystery and feel a reverence for its significance, and my hope is buoyed up by its implications. We do not need to know what Paul heard in heaven. If God had wanted us to know he would have revealed it to the whole church. It was for Paul and Paul alone, and God had his reasons. I venture, however, that what Paul once heard in heaven we also will one day hear or see in all its glory.

It may be that Paul's ascent to heaven into the very presence of God and Christ undergirded much of what he said about the believer's ultimate victory. The apostle spoke with no uncertain authority of Christ's descent from heaven to claim his own, of the resurrection of the dead, and of the rapture of the redeemed into heavenly glory. lie spoke of Christians receiving a glorious body like unto Christ's heavenly body. He wrote with assurance that it is better to die and be with Christ, and that when the believer is absent from the body he is at home with the Lord. And as his earthly sojourn ended lie could write of "the crown of righteousness" that was laid up in heaven, not only for him but for all who love the Lord.

Who can better speak of heavenly hope than someone who has been there? And who can have a more joyous hope than those of us who believe Paul's testimony of his ascent into heaven where lie heard unutterable things?

Paul's ascent was so glorious and so out-of-this-world that God allowed Satan to buffet him with a thorn in the flesh, "lest I should be exalted overmuch by the abundance of the revelation," as the apostle put it in 2 Cor. 12:7. The thorn became so painful that Paul prayed again and again that it would be taken from him. That is when God said to him, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness."

So the ecstasy of Paradise and things unutterable was balanced by the agony of a thorn in the flesh. The thorn, as painful as it was, thus became the symbol of his hope and of ours. — the Editor  

Do we realize that as Christians we have within us the self-same Holy Spirit that was in the Son of God while He was on earth? The Father gives the Spirit and it is the same Spirit that was in the Son that is given to us. The Spirit that enabled Him will enable us.—Martyn Lloyd-Jones