Maurice Roberts

One fundamental difference between the Christian's life and that of the unbeliever is their respective attitudes to the world to come. The unbeliever instinctively shrinks from all thought of what lies beyond this life. If he thinks of it at all, as at times he must, he is glad to turn away from the subject to find comfort in present things which are familiar to him: home, family, work and, especially, pleasure and happiness. The unbeliever's phil-osophy has always been 'carpe diem' ('enjoy life now while you have it') and leave discussion about the shadowy and uncertain things of a future world to sages and sour philosophers. That was the typical outlook of the ancient pagans whose writings have come down to us, and it is the typical outlook of the modern pagans whose songs we can hear sung any hour of the day.

This reluctance in the unbeliever to dwell long on a future life is under-standable. He has little joy at the thought of leaving this present life, and he has no good grounds for thinking that any future life, if future life there be, will prove half so good as this one. In moments of fleeting piety, perhaps at a funeral or beside a sick-bed, he can bring himself to speak respectfully of 'heaven', 'peace' and 'eternal rest'. But he knows at heart that he would far rather keep this present troubled life than have any future one, however 'peaceful'.

Just why the unbeliever is so unenthusiastic for the life to come is all too plain to see. He is in love with this present world. His heart is wrapped around its fleeting pleasures. His roots are all sunk in earth's present com-forts, however imperfect they are. The very word 'hope' means for him nothing higher than to get more of this world's good: more of its 'fun', more 'luck' in placing his bet on a winning horse or a winning team, a larger mouthful from the world's blissful cup of laughter and smiling mirth. The worldly man's 'hope' is not of good beyond the grave but good before it. His sights are set not on enjoying a fair land beyond this life, but on this life alone, and as long as he can, cling fast to it. His ambitions are carnal to the core, even when he may have had some smatterings of religion mixed with them; as a churchman once betrayed, when, at his retirement, he said: 'I have spent the last forty years pleasing God, and now I intend to please myself!' The worldly man's view of heaven is to enjoy the pleasures of sin without interruption. For him, everything to do with religion only gets in the way of what he really wants. Like Cain, he worships God, if ever, only with his second-best. The language of his heart is: 'Woe betide any who gets in between me and my happiness! He who preaches to me of life after death only spoils my present heaven here on earth!'

What are half the wars of history, but only so many angry protests of worldly men against the biblical view that the spiritual is above the natural and the heavenly life better than this earthly one? Earth's mighty men have, like Nimrod their father, striven to build their Babylons here below. When-ever God has broken down their works, as he did at the Flood, at the Tower of Babel and at countless times since, it has been in order to serve notice on mankind that he will in the end throw down all this world to bring in a better. But the Caesars, the Herods, the Napoleons and the Hitlers of history were never able to read this great lesson of history. Christless eyes see no kingdoms but of this world; and Christless rulers, like Pilate, suppose it to be a joke when they hear of a kingdom which is 'not of this world' (John 18:36).

What Christless eyes do not see, however, is what Christian men and women of all ages have deeply hoped for and believed in. They have done so when they have taken the Lord's Supper and 'shown forth the Lord's death till he come' (1 Cor. 11:26). They have done so in their Creed: 'I believe in . . . the life everlasting'. They have done so when they have buried their blessed dead out of their sight 'in sure and certain hope of life everlasting'. The Christian's hope, even on the admission of an apostle, is nothing if it is a this-worldly hope and nothing more: 'If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable' (1 Cor. 15:19). But it is infinitely more. The Christian's hope is the solid and certain confidence of seeing God at last.

Whereas the worldly man lives for this life, the believer lives for the life beyond this life. The believer's life is hid in God and is intertwined with Christ in all that he is. Religious conversion is both a crucifixion and a resurrection to a new life. At his conversion a believer dies to this world, is crucified to it, is taken out of it into a state of mortification to earthly things. His soul is knit to Christ in love. Christ is his righteousness, his ambition, his 'exceeding great reward'. He has been raised with Christ to a hope which is fed by mysterious streams of grace within him and which teach him daily to look for 'a better country, that is an heavenly' (Heb. 11:16). The current of a believer's hope is stronger than all earthly instincts. He is prepared to lose all the world that in the end he may gain Christ and so enjoy him forever.

The call of God within the believer's soul is a powerful but mysterious voice. Even the Apostle Paul, who had gone into the 'third heaven', must admit that in this life 'we see through a glass darkly' (1 Cor.13:12). The Spirit assures us by his Word and by his inward influence that the kingdom to which we travel is a most excellent place. But how we are persuaded so completely of something we have not yet seen cannot be explained to any who have not heard God's voice in their own hearts. The believer, however, is utterly convinced of the reality of heaven, and he is prepared 'with patience to wait for it' (Rom. 8:25).

'Thy kingdom come'. How many mouths have uttered this famous prayer since our Lord taught it to his disciples! It is a prayer which daily draws nearer to fulfilment. Like all true prayers, it is prophetic. The kingdom of Christ is nearer now than ever it was. Soon the trumpet of Jubilee will sound and the King will return to usher all true believers into their eternal state of glory! They will come from the north and from the south, from the east and from the west to 'sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven' (Matt. 8:11). All the Scriptures harmonise with this clear message: The Lord is coming soon!

Much as we have enjoyed feeding on Christ by faith in this life, we shall have vastly greater measures of this joy in us when his kingdom comes at last. Oh, what mysteries we shall have to satisfy our minds in that consummated state: the mystery of the Triune God, the mystery of the incarnate Lord, the mystery of our union with him and with all his! What secrets will be unveiled then for us to see 'face to face' (1 Cor. 13:12): the perfect wisdom of God's eternal decree, the perfect wisdom of his providence, the perfect wisdom of his way with every saint and every sinner!

The kingdom to which we are travelling will not be like the kingdoms we have known here on earth. All its inhabitants will be holy, faithful and good. They will all have a fair record of service to their King while they were here on earth. They will be filled with love to Christ and to one another. The kingdom which is coming soon will know neither the slightest stain of sin nor the slightest whisper of Satan. No funerals will be held. No inhabitant shall ever say, 'I am sick'. None shall hunger there and none shall thirst. The cry of pain will not be heard in that place, nor the din of battle But all her inhabitants will sing for joy. They will see God. They will be near him and be blessed by him in every way so that all the sorrows of this present life will be forgotten and all the sins of this present life forgiven forever.

If the Christian has enemies, no wonder they scheme day and night to stop him from entering so great a kingdom or enjoying such a full cup of God's love! However little non-Christians may believe in this heavenly kingdom, Satan and all the demons of hell believe it very well. If they did not, they would not be at such pains to deceive the wicked or to hinder our progress to this great kingdom above.

One evidence that heaven is a real place is that Satan works so hard to have men think it unreal. To the man in the street, heaven is just 'pie in the sky when you die'. To the clever scholar, heaven is only 'realised eschatology' and no more real than fairy-land. To the stern statesman, it is just so much 'opium of the people' to keep the masses happy.

To the Christian, heaven is a glorious reality where Christ, who is our hope, is already gone and where he waits for his own to join him - you, and even me.