Heaven and Eternal Life Pt. 3

I am heading back into my study on eternal life this morning. As I was thinking through the Biblical history of eternal life, I thinks its important to distinguish between two things - heaven and eternal life. Heaven was a very old concept, and from Genesis 1:1, it was understood to refer to both the expanse of the heavens (stars and universe) and to the place God dwelled. Heaven is a place where God rules and reigns. Scripture speaks of God calling down from heaven, looking down from heaven, and dwelling there. There was communication from heaven, often angels, and the occasional prophet saw heaven in a vision. Heaven was the place where God stored all His provisions and blessings, where He lived in abundance. This verse from Malachi describes the common thought:

Malachi 3:10 NIV
Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.

Heaven, however was not the place where most people were able to go. If you were extremely holy, and called of God, you might be brought to heaven like Elijah, but Moses and Abraham, and all the other fathers died and were buried. Other than a strange set of verses where Saul seeks the wisdom of Samuel who was dead, by contracting a medium in 1 Samuel 28, I am not aware of any other verses indicating life after death. Even in this case, Samuel's ghost came up from the earth, not down from heaven.

The first real sense that there might be an opportunity to experience the reality of heaven is announced by John the Baptist in Matt 3:2 - when he says, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” He is announcing what appears to me be a monumental change in theology, described by Jesus in Matt 5, during His sermon on the mount, namely that we could experience the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth, and not just in the form of blessing being rained down from heaven - Matthew 5:3 - “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Not only that, but they even could experience rewards in Heaven - Matthew 5:12 "Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven..." Jesus continued teaching, that they should work to store up treasures in heaven - Matt 6;19-21.

I am no expert on rabbinical teaching or what the prevalent thought was of that day, but the way Jesus is talking about experiencing the Kingdom of Heaven and the way its described in the old testament seems to me to be significantly different. I try to imagine the people of the time, hearing what Jesus is saying and having no real grasp, because it's so different. I believe that is one of the primary reasons Jesus started His ministry with signs and wonders, healing, miracles, etc. He was demonstrating the reality that the Kingdom of Heaven was real, and was invading the earth. In fact ,Jesus said we should pray for exactly that - Matthew 6:9-10 “This, then, is how you should pray: “ ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, [10] your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." In other words, we want to see the same things here on earth, as happen in heaven.

Now, eternal life is not referring to a place, but rather an experience or character of life. When it is first introduced in Matt 19:16, in the question of the rich young man, the Greek literally translated means never ending life. This concept is also introduced at the very beginning of the Bible in Gen 1:1, for it speaks of God existing before the heavens and earth are created. He lives in heaven, but existed before He created it, and from this the were able to understand that God was outside of time, and eternal, having no beginning or end. When Jesus comes announcing that whoever believes in Him would have eternal life - John 3:15, this is a radical new thought, that everyone could have eternal life. This is the type of life that God lives! Wow - that should blow our minds.