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What do you long for? When – if ever – will that longing be satisfied?
We all long for things – it’s as if we’re wired to long for something more. And whilst some of what we long for will vary from person to person, there will be significant overlap. For example: Being secure in the knowledge that we’re loved, with nothing to remove or threaten that; no more broken relationships, or misunderstanding, or loss; being free to love without fear. Being satisfied; being able to see clearly and truly – to see ultimate reality and ultimate beauty, which will satisfy us forever.
Ultimately, what we’re longing for, often without realising it, is heaven: the place of ultimate beauty and love.
In a series of posts on the subject of Beauty we’ve seen that there is a ‘Cycle of beauty that begins with the Lord, extends to creation, takes personal bodily form in Christ, is displayed corporately by the Church, and culminates in heaven.’ (Strachan and Sweeney, 72).
We’ve seen that when we think of beauty we might naturally think of physical beauty, but actually this is pointing to a deeper beauty – beauty in relationships – particularly love. We’ve seen that the climax of beauty is the love between the persons of the Trinity: between the Father and the Son in the bond of the Holy Spirit. In other words, we’ve already seen that beauty and love go hand in hand: Love is the ultimate beautiful thing to which all other beauties point. We’ve seen that in the period before Christ returns, we can see beauty in the person and work of Christ; and in the Church. In this post we come finally to the return of Christ – the end of this age and the final climax of all things. And as we’ll see, heaven is the fulfilment and completion of all that we’ve seen so far; it is the consummation and completion of all our longings; it is the place where beauty and love are experienced perfectly forever.
The key to the beauty and love of heaven – God is there
Why is heaven the place we long for, and where beauty and love are experienced perfectly? It’s not primarily because our loved ones who were following Jesus will be there; it’s not because our favourite pet will be there; it’s not because it’s better than this world – ‘the great cricket ground in the sky’ (or whatever your preferred past-time might be). Rather it’s because God is there.
It’s worth noting that I’m using ‘heaven’ as short-hand for the glorious future that God will bring about for his people. We’re told in Revelation 21:1-4 that when Christ returns – after the final judgement of all – heaven will come down to earth and heaven and earth will be reunited as they were in the beginning (Genesis 1 and 2). There will be a renewed heaven and earth, united together; and we will have renewed, earthly bodies. our life will be physical as well as spiritual. So as you read this post please don’t imagine disembodied spirits floating around: that is very far from the truth.
We’re going to spend much of our time considering Jonathan Edwards’ famous sermon ‘Heaven a world of love.’ An outline of the sermon can be found below; and it’s well worth reading slowly and in full.
Under the first point entitled ‘The cause and fountain of love in heaven’, Edwards writes:
The God of love himself dwells in heaven. Heaven is the palace or presence-chamber of the high and holy One, whose name is love, and who is both the cause and source of all holy love. Heaven is a part of creation that God has built for this end, to be the place of his glorious presence, and it is his abode forever; and here will he dwell, and gloriously manifest himself to all eternity.
Edwards, Heaven a world of love
God has built heaven as the part of creation in which he dwells. He is the source and cause of love – and therefore heaven is a world of love. Edwards goes on:
And this renders heaven a world of love; for God is the fountain of love, as the sun is the fountain of light. And therefore the glorious presence of God in heaven, fills heaven with love, as the sun, placed in the midst of the visible heavens in a clear day, fills the world with light. The apostle Paul tells us that ‘God is love;’ and therefore, seeing he is an infinite being, it follows that he is an infinite fountain of love. Seeing he is an all-sufficient being, it follows that he is a full and over-flowing, and inexhaustible fountain of love. And in that he is an unchangeable and eternal being, he is an unchangeable and eternal fountain of love.
Edwards, Heaven a world of love
Because ‘God is love’, heaven is a world of love. Think of the impact of the sun in our world. The sun comes up and it fills the world with light; and in the same way God who is love fills heaven with love.
And God is infinite and over-flowing and unchanging. There’s nothing in our world that completely reflects those aspects of God, but perhaps the mighty oceans are the closest we get. As we stand on a headland looking out to sea it appears infinite, over-flowing and unchanging. And so it is with God. And because God is in heaven, therefore heaven is a place of infinite and over-flowing and unchanging love.
Do you not want to be part of such a place? All of us have experiences in this life of rejection, misunderstanding and loss. Even our best experiences of love are tainted. But Edwards says heaven is a place where love is experienced perfectly – because God is there, and he is the source of an ocean of undamaged, never-ending love.
The question then becomes – how does the beautiful God of love who dwells in heaven meet our deepest longings? And how therefore does being in heaven meet our deepest longings? We will now explore two inter-connected ways.
Seeing God’s beauty – The ‘Beatific vision’
The Beatific vision is a phrase that Christian thinkers have used for centuries to describe the glorious experience of seeing God’s face in all its beauty, which is part of what we long for. King David writes
One thing I ask from the Lord,
this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the Lord
and to seek him in his temple.Psalm 27:4
David wants to see God’s face so he will be satisfied. But the problem is, in this life we can’t see God’s face. Moses experienced this: When God was going to reveal himself to Moses, he had to hide himself in the cleft of a rock and wait until God passed by; he could only see the back of God and hear his voice (Exodus 33:18-23, 34:5-7). And it was a wonderful thing to hear his voice – indeed, we live our Christian lives hearing God’s voice and trusting and following him by faith and we’re grateful for that – but how much more wonderful to see him! Again, it’s a wonderful thing as New Testament believers to have God’s final revelation – Jesus Christ – given to us in the pages of Scripture so that we can know him by the Spirit and follow him. But again, how much more wonderful to see him, so that faith is no longer needed.
As we gaze on God as revealed in Christ we become more like him (2 Corinthians 3:18); and in heaven that process will be completed. The apostle John tells us:
Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
1 John 3:2
In heaven the process will finally be complete. Seeing his face and being like him – perfect in every way – go hand in hand. Elsewhere John writes:
They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.
Revelation 22:4
We will see beauty – which is the first stage of what CS Lewis was talking about when he wrote
We do not want merely to see beauty… We want something else, to be united to the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it.
CS Lewis, Weight of Glory
And part of what we see will be the true and complete revelation of the beautiful character of Father, Son and Holy Spirit and how they interact with each other. Edwards writes:
There, even in heaven, dwells the God from whom every stream of holy love, every drop that is, or ever was, proceeds. There dwells God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit, united as one, in infinitely dear, and incomprehensible, and mutual, and eternal love. There dwells God the Father, who is the father of mercies, and so the father of love, who so loved the world as to give his only-begotten Son to die for it. There dwells Christ, the Lamb of God, the prince of peace and of love, who so loved the world that he shed his blood, and poured out his soul unto death for men. There dwells the great Mediator (Christ), through whom all the divine love is expressed toward men, and by whom the fruits of that love have been purchased, and through whom they are communicated, and through whom love is imparted to the hearts of all God’s people. There dwells Christ in both his natures, the human and the divine, sitting on the same throne with the Father. And there dwells the Holy Spirit — the Spirit of divine love, in whom the very essence of God, as it were, flows out, and is breathed forth in love, and by whose immediate influence all holy love is shed abroad in the hearts of all the saints on earth and in heaven.
Edwards, Heaven a world of love
We will see ultimate beauty and we will be satisfied. Kyle Strobel writes:
The beatific vision is the radically complete knowledge of God and his glory. It is a sight of who God is, and who God is for you. This sight happifies (makes us completely happy) because it fulfils the purpose of human persons – to know God and love him. It is the endpoint of salvation where God pulls his children to himself and communes with them for eternity.
Kyle Strobel, Formed for the glory of God
Perfectly receiving and giving love
The second way in which our deepest longings will be satisfied is that we will perfectly receive and give love.
We need first to be clear what we mean by love – it’s a word that’s used often, but with many different meanings. What does the Bible mean by ‘love’? I’ve written more fully on this question here. This is my definition, based on the Bible’s teaching:
Happy, joyful, other-focused, faithful, sacrificial, active, life-giving, overflowing.
What is love?
We’ve already considered how we will receive love from God who is the fountain of love: The life of the Trinity is a life of love, and through our faith union with Christ in heaven we will be caught up into this life of love. Truly, as CS Lewis put it, we will be ‘united to the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it.’
We will also give love perfectly. But what will it be like to experience this giving and receiving love from and to one another and God? In section 5 of his sermon (entitled ‘The excellent circumstances in which love shall be exercised and blessed, and enjoyed in heaven’) Edwards outlines ten features of the world of love. I’d recommend reading it in full and thinking about what he writes; but here are a few highlights to whet your appetite:
Love in heaven is always mutual (1)
(Love) is always met with returns that are proportioned to its exercise. Such returns, love always seeks; and just in proportion as any person is beloved, in the same proportion is his love desired and prized. And in heaven this desire of love, or this fondness for being loved, will never fail of being satisfied. No inhabitants of that blessed world will ever be grieved with the thought that they are slighted by those that they love, or that their love is not fully and fondly returned.
Edwards, Heaven a world of love
Don’t we long for that? I wonder if like me you sometimes hold back from showing care or affection towards someone because we worry about how they’ll respond? And haven’t we been rejected and mistreated – causing some of us to retreat. Many of us have been wounded by experiences from our childhood. In heaven all of that will be ancient history: Instead we will long to love, show concern for and bless others; when we do it will be received rightly; and they will do the same to us.
Love is never dampened by jealousy (2)
The saints shall know that God loves them, and they shall never doubt the greatness of his love, and they shall have no doubt of the love of all their fellow inhabitants in heaven. And they shall not be jealous of the constancy of each other’s love. They shall have no suspicion that the love which others have felt toward them is abated, or in any degree withdrawn from themselves for the sake of some rival, or by reason of anything in themselves which they suspect is disagreeable to others.
Edwards, Heaven a world of love
There will be no doubting the love of others, or jealousy that someone who did love us now loves someone else more than us. Elsewhere in the sermon he writes that those who are ‘lower’ in heaven will not envy those who are ‘above them in glory’ – rather they will rejoice in their position; and those who are higher will not be proud because the higher you are the more humble you are, and the more you love and are concerned for those lower than you.
There is nothing to clog or hinder God’s people in expressions of love (3)
In this world the saints find much to hinder them in this respect. They have a great deal of dullness and heaviness. They carry about with them a heavy-moulded body — a clod of earth — a mass of flesh and blood that is not fitted to be the organ for a soul inflamed with high exercises of divine love; but which is found a great clog and hindrance to the spirit, so that they cannot express their love to God as they would, and cannot be so active and lively in it as they desire.
Edwards, Heaven a world of love
In this life we long to love God and others more, but we are held back – by our sin or our tiredness or some other weakness. But in heaven none of those hindrances will be there.
The saints in heaven shall have no difficulty in expressing all their love. Their souls being on fire with holy love shall not be like a fire pent up, but like a flame uncovered and at liberty.
Edwards, Heaven a world of love
Know the love will continue forever (10)
In this life we’re held back by the knowledge that those we love will eventually be separated from us before or through death. But not so in heaven.
They shall know that God and Christ shall be forever with them as their God and portion, and that his love shall be continued and fully manifested forever, and that all their beloved fellow-saints shall forever live with them in glory, and shall forever keep up the same love in their hearts which they now have.
Edwards, Heaven a world of love
We and those we love and our love will continue forever. In fact our love will strengthen and deepen as the lover and the beloved know one another more deeply forever.
So what?
We’ve seen that ultimately we’re all longing for heaven – a place where beauty and love are supremely experienced. We long for it because God is there – Father, Son and Holy Spirit; it will meet our longings because we will see God face to face; and because we will receive and give love perfectly. Let’s consider what this might mean for us reading this post:
See where your longings point to
What is it that you long for? Can you see that what you are ultimately longing for is heaven with God and his people – the ultimate home, identity and purpose? If not, why not take some time to ask how is that longing pointing you beyond itself to God and heaven?
Get in the habit of thinking about heaven
Thomas Cranmer, sometime Archbishop of Canterbury, wrote:
What the heart loves, the will chooses and the mind justifies.
Thomas Cranmer
In other words, what we live for is what the heart loves and the imagination longs for. So we should take time to cultivate a love for heaven, and for the God who dwells there. We could begin by thinking about some bible verses about heaven, or by reading the sermon ‘Heaven a world of love’ and imagining what Edwards writes about.
A word for anyone not yet following Jesus
As we consider how wonderful heaven will be, it should make us long to be there – and to ensure that we will be there. Because contrary to the popular view in our culture, not everyone will be there. As we’ve seen, the most fundamental aspect of heaven is that God will be there; and there are countless human beings who do not love God and therefore would be miserable if they were there, and who would stop heaven from being the place of beauty and love that it is.
How can we know we will be there? If we are those who love God. We know we love God if we love Jesus, who he sent; if we are trusting in Jesus for our place in heaven; and if we are turning from our sins – our God-hating ways. If you’re not yet doing that can I urge you to do so, even today. Don’t miss out on this glorious future.
Get into practice for heaven
If heaven is a world of love, then we should get into practice at loving.
All of us hope to have part in the world of love hereafter, and therefore we should cherish the spirit of love, and live a life of holy love here on earth. This is the way to be like the inhabitants of heaven, who are now confirmed in love forever. Only in this way can you be like them in excellence and loveliness, and like them, too, in happiness, and rest, and joy. By living in love in this world you may be like them, too, in sweet and holy peace, and thus have, on earth, the foretastes of heavenly pleasures and delights.
Edwards, Heaven a world of love
Do we believe that heaven is a world of loving – of ‘happy, joyful, other-focused, faithful, sacrificial, active, life-giving, overflowing’ giving to others – our spouses, our children, our families, our church family, our work colleagues, our neighbours, above all God? How can we get into practice this week?
Taking it further
‘Heaven a world of love’ – Jonathan Edwards – freely available online
‘Jonathan Edwards on Beauty’ – Owen Strachan and Doug Sweeney
Imperfect Pastor 