Edgework

“…we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, and especially of those who believe” (I Timothy 4:10).

Once we catch a vision that the purpose of God is nothing short of cosmic redemption, we begin to see it everywhere in the biblical text. Jesus begins his ministry by proclaiming that “…the kingdom of God is near” (Matthew 4:17). As he goes about his ministry he loosens the grip of the principalities and powers that have kept the world in captivity – healing the sick, stilling the storm, casting out demons and raising the dead. And he taught his disciples to pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10).

Paul waxes eloquent about this cosmic hope again and again. “…That power is like the working of his mighty strength which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way” (Ephesians 1:19-23).

Is this grand vision not the template through which we must interpret the biblical narrative and the appropriate context in which to ask questions about our personal redemption as believers?

The story line in much of evangelicalism, as I have heard it repeatedly, goes something like this: If I have accepted Jesus as my Savior during my life time, at the moment of my death my soul goes to live with Jesus in heaven. Here the streets are paved with gold and we participate in an endless worship service of praise to God. Our physical bodies, in the moment of death, have been resurrected as spiritual bodies. And that is that. Period. End of story. But is it really?

The story line is much broader than that! At one point, when Paul spoke about conversion he stated, “That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you are saved” (Romans 10:9). To enter the kingdom we must align ourselves with the values of the Kingdom in which Jesus is Lord, and accept the fact that he was raised from the dead. And to push that out a little – place our own personal hope in the resurrection of our bodies as was Christ’s (I Corinthians 15).

And so our creed becomes: Jesus is Lord of the kingdom I have embraced. Since he was raised from the dead I also have hope for personal resurrection when that kingdom comes to fruition in the future. It is not really about my flying away to God’s eternal home someday. It is more about embracing the life of the kingdom now, believing that one day I will participate in the great resurrection event when God’s kingdom comes to fruition in the future.

It is true that there are a few references in the New Testament informing us that when we die we go to be with Jesus. While hanging on the cross, Jesus told the repentant thief beside him, “…today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). On one occasion Paul spoke of believers having fallen asleep in Jesus (I Corinthians 15:18). When he was approaching his own death he declared that “…I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far…” (Philippians 1:23).
And the apostle John refers to many rooms Christ has reserved for those who love him. The King James Version would have us think that these are “mansions.” Actually the word used denotes more of a temporary place of lodging than a permanent home. So what we can say with certainty is that at our death we can hope to be in the presence of Christ, resting and waiting for the great resurrection. Paradise, perhaps; but not heaven in the way it is usually portrayed.

But the notion of a temporary lodging is a problem for the common understanding that at death we either go to heaven or hell to stay there forever. Recognizing this, some more thoughtful people have created a “rapture” theology, based mostly on I Thessalonians 4:16-17. When Christ returns the second time, it is said, both the dead (whose souls already are at home in heaven) and believers living at the time, will be resurrected – that is obtain new bodies – and then all fly away together to God’s heaven.

However, in this text, we are dealing with the Greek term, “parousia.” People of Paul’s day understood what it meant. Basically it referred to the arrival of a supreme power, like an emperor, in an outlying city, for example. The custom was that when such an important person came to visit a city, the people would go out to meet him and accompany him back to their city. It did not contain the idea of going out to meet him and then leaving to return to the emperor’s home. No, they were welcoming the important person to be present among them in their own city.

So when we look at the larger narrative, does it not seem more appropriate to think of the believers’ future to be right at the center of the new heaven and new earth as depicted in Revelation 21 and 22? Our Christian hope is to be very much alive – in resurrected bodies – living out the fullness of the cosmic vision God has for the whole world.

But the question remains of what happens to those who have not believed or followed Christ in life. We will explore that question in a following article using this grand scenario as a backdrop.