What does the Bible tell us about heaven?

What says the Scripture? It is our only court of appeal. If it be silent as to these questions, our wisdom is to be silent also. But it is not silent. It speaks about all these matters with no uncertain voice. It says, “Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness” (2 Peter 3:13). The present heavens and the earth are defiled by sin, but their day of purification is coming, and when that day comes their nation will be thorough and complete; not a trace of sin will be left remaining in that scene where God shall be all in all. It is described by the prophet who, in the vision of God, says. “I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, … their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new” (Rev. 21). What a glorious prospect! What seasons of infinite felicity, boundless satisfaction, and unspeakable gladness of heart shall come to light in those regions where righteousness, and truth, and holiness, and peace, and divine love have their eternal home! What shouts of exultation, what songs of victory shall break forth from that countless host of blood-washed overcomers, who will then have reached the crown and summit of every desire, which had at any time been begotten in their souls by the Holy Spirit of God! What glory to the Lamb shall roll like thunder throughout the vast realm of the blessed God! What praise, what worship shall be there poured forth into the Father’s ear from every heart overflowing with infinite and supreme delight! How one longs to mingle in that throng; to breathe the atmosphere of that goodly land; to contemplate that glorious company of sons of God; to gaze with rapture upon Him who brought them in the might of His eternal love through all the wilderness journey safe to glory; to hear that heavenly melody which shall issue like the sound of many waters from every redeemed heart; to join in it to the praise of Him who loved us, and gave Himself for us that He might make us all His own! What a sphere of supreme blessedness—the best that the wisdom, and might, and love of God could invent! To see the creature in circumstances the best that God could provide, to contemplate him dressed in the very richest raiment that He could supply, to view him seated at the most sumptuous feast that the creation of God could furnish, and to have the ear regaled with music from the most wonderful instruments that could be conceived even by the Creator Himself, and to know that every soul shall rest there, for ever safe from the invasion of evil—hasten, O Lord, that glorious day!

If they look forward the glory awaits them. It beckons them heavenward with its brilliancy. In the brightness of that world to which they are called the glitter of this garish scene seems ghastly indeed. In that world of everlasting light there is fullness of joy and pleasures for evermore. It is the Father’s world, the invention of eternal love. Sin cannot enter there, sorrow has no admittance, death is unknown. There supreme satisfaction is realized by every heart, and the cup of every inhabitant runs over with joy unspeakable.

(Vv. 1-6.) Thus he passes on to speak of "visions and revelations of the Lord." He recounts a remarkable experience he had enjoyed 14 years previously. The carnally-minded Christian would doubtless at once, and again and again, have boasted of such an experience. But the Apostle, realising that it is not expedient to boast, had refrained from any allusion to this experience for fourteen years. He has just told us of a humiliating experience as in the body; now he tells us of a wonderful experience that had been his as "a man in Christ." The one who had known what it was to be "let down" in a basket upon earth, had experienced also the immense privilege of being "caught up to the third heaven." The third heaven speaks of the dwelling-place of God. There are the atmospheric heavens, then the starry heavens, and then the third heavens wherein is the throne of God. The Apostle speaks of the third heavens as paradise, indicating the blessedness of the third heavens as a scene of joy, and beauty, and glory — a garden of delights, where no shadow of death will ever come. He is careful to tell us that it was not as a man in the flesh that he was caught up, but as "a man in Christ." Of his natural advantages as a man in the flesh, he tells us, in another epistle, that he counts them but filth: but of position and privileges as a man in Christ he can rightly glory, for all the blessings of our place in Christ we owe to Christ. Caught up into paradise he was no longer conscious of the body, with its needs and weaknesses. There he had heard things of which it would be wholly out of place to speak, even to Christians while on earth and in these mortal bodies. Nevertheless, let us remember that though we have no such miraculous experiences, as being caught up into the third heavens, yet all that was revealed to the Apostle, when caught up, belongs to the simplest believer as being "in Christ."

Human language is evidently unable to convey to saints of God in their present mixed condition the bliss of the heavenly scene into which the Lord carried His servant. This enables us to understand that the saints of God in their “unclothed” state, who are now with Christ in the heavenly paradise, enjoy a wonderful order of things in the company of the One in whom they trusted while in the body here. Having been to Paradise, where Christ is, and where the departed saints are with Him, Paul was able to say that “to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better” (Phil. 1:23). The Apostle does not say, To depart and to be in Paradise is far better, but rather to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better. For the Apostle, and for every true saint of God, it is Christ’s presence in Paradise that makes it a place of heavenly delight and rest.

(V. 2). Second, for the comfort of our hearts the Lord discloses to us the new home, "In My Father's house are many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you." Not only have we Christ in the glory our unfailing resource, but we have the Father's house as our abiding home. For let us note that the word 'mansions' is really 'abodes' — a home which once it is reached will never more be left — there we shall abide. On earth we have "no continuing city." We are pilgrims and strangers here. Our abiding home is in the Father's house. Moreover in the Father's house there are "many" abodes. On earth there was no room for Christ, and little room for those who are Christ's, but in the Father's house there is room for all that are Christ's — the great and the small. If it were not so He would have told His disciples. He would not have gathered His disciples around Himself, and led them outside this world, were He not leading them into a scene of blessedness well known to Him as the Father's house. To this home the Lord was going. On the cross He prepared His people for the place; His presence in the glory prepares the place for His people. Thus we are lifted above the weakness and failure of all things earthly, carried beyond the changing scenes of time, to enter in spirit a better world, there to find a home prepared in the Father's house.

But in the eternal state neither in the new heaven nor on the new earth will there be sin to be kept out. No tears, no sorrow, no cry, no death—all speak of the complete absence of sin and the absolute purity of the eternal state, where God shall rest in the complacency of His love.

Suffice it to say that the only description of this wondrous scene is confined to telling us what is NOT there—no tears because there will be no sorrows; no pain because there will be no disease; no crying (crying meaning a cry of anguish, forced by mental grief) because there will be no such thing as mental distress; last of all, no death,

(Vv. 42-44). If, then, there are all these differences in bodies in the natural and material world, need we raise questions because there is a vast difference between our present bodies and the bodies we shall have in resurrection? The Apostle thus takes occasion by the folly of these reasoners to bring before us the character of the resurrection body and the resurrection state. In contrast to our present bodies, the resurrection body will be incorruptible, glorious, powerful and spiritual. Believers will not be disembodied spirits, but in resurrection they will receive spiritual bodies, little as, at present with our finite minds, we can comprehend either a spiritual existence or a spiritual body. We admit there is a natural body entirely suited to the conditions of the present life on earth. So we know believers will have a spiritual body entirely suited to heavenly conditions.

The last vision of Revelation is now before us: it is that of the city of God itself. But here, where one would desire above all to see clearly, we become most conscious of how feeble and dull is our apprehension of eternal things. They are words of an apostle which remind us that "we see through a glass darkly" — en ainigmati, in a riddle. Such a riddle, then, it is no wonder if the vision presents to us: the dream that we have here a literal description, even to the measurements, of the saints' eternal home, is one too foolish to need much comment. All other visions throughout the book have been symbolic: how much more here! how little need we expect that the glimpse which is here given us into the unseen would reveal to us the shape of buildings, or the material used! Scripture is reticent all through upon such subjects, and the impress to be left upon our souls is plainly spiritual, not of lines and hues, as for the natural senses. "Things which eye hath not seen" are not put before the eye.

With this second act of the Lord's coming, or His "day," is connected the appraisal of our service, and the assigning of reward for work that has been done. For all must be manifested before the judgment-seat of Christ, and each must receive the things done in the body, whether good or bad. Some find a difficulty in bowing to both truths; but if subject to the Word, we shall overlook neither the common blessedness of the saints in the full grace of the Saviour at His coming, nor the recognition of individual faithfulness, or the lack of it, in the rewards of the kingdom. When we read of the many mansions, we are not to dream of one being more glorious than another. The truth conveyed is that we are to be as near and dear as sons can be in the Father's presence, through the perfect love and work of the Son. In this point of view I see no difference whatever. All are brought absolutely nigh, all loved with the love wherewith Christ was loved, and having His portion, as far as can be for the creature. But am I therefore to deny that "every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour?" or that in some cases the work will abide, as in others it will be burnt? or that, as the parable teaches, one servant may receive ten cities, and another five?