"Is Christ a means to get us to Heaven, or is Heaven a means to get to Christ?"How you and I answer that question can have a big impact on how we come to faith and how we live in the space between our "conversion" and death.
If I am looking forward to Heaven just for the "streets of gold and no more suffering," then I have missed the main purpose of Heaven. Those are great things, but Jesus didn't die just so we could have those things. He said in John 17:3 that eternal life is "that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." That speaks about relationship and knowing Him and He us.
That's the point of Heaven - we won't have to suffer anymore and nothing will hinder our worship of Him. We will finally be free from all the junk that keeps us from seeing Him as He really is. Then, we will worship forever and ever with Him, unhindered by sin and suffering.
David Platt talks about this in his book Follow Me. As believers, Jesus is the only one who can satisfy our souls. It's about a love relationship - two ways - him to me and me to him:
Being a disciple involves emotional affection for Christ...To come to Jesus is to taste and see that he is good and to find in him the end of all your desires. To believe in Jesus is to experience an eternal pleasure that far outweighs and outlasts the temporal pleasures of this world...Followers of Christ are tempted to miss this altogether. We view Jesus as the only one who can save us from our sins, but we forget that he is also the only one who can satisfy our souls. As a result, we put our faith in Jesus and trust in his forgiveness, yet we lack the feeling for Jesus that comes through fulfillment in him...When we truly come to Christ, our thirst is quenched by the fountain of life and our hunger is filled with the bread of heaven.A love for Jesus on earth, then turns to an eternal love relationship in Heaven. So often we shrink Jesus down to a "means to an end." I know I've done it. I have prayed often for God to tear down any "idols" that keep me from fully loving and worshiping Him, as He wants and deserves.
A friend once told me a story about Heaven that always got me emotionally. It put everything in proper perspective about death, Heaven and Jesus. He told me about a friend of his who died of cancer. It was a long, tough battle, but at the end of her time, he got to sit and talk with her. They talked about all sorts of things, reflecting back on life, etc. Before he left from his visit that day, he told her, "When you get to Heaven, tell Jesus hello for me."
Not long after that she passed away. I bet she kept her promise to say hello to Jesus. No more cancer, no more suffering, but a whole lot of worshiping and being with Jesus. Now that's something to look forward to! That's a proper perspective on Heaven no doubt.
1 John 3:1-3 (NASB)
3 See [a]how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
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