Tyler Johnson, MDiv
Tyler is a pastor and a former NASA engineer. He loves to explore truth through God’s word and God’s works. He lives in Iowa with his wife and four children and spends what little free-time he has pondering the mysteries of light.
We’ve spent some time looking at the idea of hell in the Bible and in popular culture. Now we turn to the idea of heaven. And oddly enough, heaven seems much harder to talk about. There is some tension here. On one hand, we should know more about heaven than we do about hell. If hell is the absence of God’s presence then heaven is a place suffused with God’s presence. We have never existed outside of God’s presence so our lives have more hints at what heaven is like than what hell is like (though no doubt hints of both are present). On the other hand, heaven is such a superlative that a mere extrapolation of the hints that we find here on earth are insufficient to paint the full picture. Whatever heaven is like, our language and our imagination fail to do it justice, even if they can point us in the right direction.
Any cogent discussion of heaven seems to involve navigating a tension. Heaven (or the New Heavens and the New Earth, or simply the New Creation) is the place that we were made to inhabit. It is our true Home, our natural environment. And yet, Jesus is emphatic that everyone doesn’t just end up there after death. He is quite clear that there are many hindrances or roadblocks on our path towards heaven. Why is this? What about heaven, or about us, makes it so hard for us to enter the place that we were created to enjoy? Or perhaps all the talk of heaven is just wishful thinking. Maybe no such place will ever exist. These are hard questions and tough challenges to the Christian hope of heaven. But such questions and challenges are were C.S. Lewis’ thought shines and so I will draw on his writings in what follows. (See especially The Great Divorce or The Weight of Glory or Transposition to start.)
For Lewis there are two main reasons for why it is so hard for humans to gain access to the world we were created for. Sure the main reason is sin, but that is such an abstract concept that it doesn’t really seem to get us very far. Both reasons have to do with the nature of heaven. If heaven is really going to be everything that it’s cracked up to be then that has some implications.
The first is that if heaven is heaven, then it cannot allow even the smallest bit, the tiniest tincture, the most modest mite of hell within it. Which means that if we are to enter the heavenly lands, we must let go of every tiny bit of hell within us. We can bring none of it with us. This is the idea Lewis explores in The Great Divorce. Entering heaven means leaving behind every bit of unforgiving, prideful selfishness that is so common to us here on earth.
The implications of this are wide-ranging and deep. There are no grudges in heaven. Or as Jesus says, if we will not forgive, we will not be forgiven. Heaven is about God, not about us. We bring nothing of value to heaven. It cannot be improved by our gifts, talents, accomplishments, etc. Nor will it admit any false aspect of yourself. So much of what we strive after on this earth has no place in heaven; it will have to be abandoned. Surely this will feel like death. Furthermore, heaven does not need you, or your loved one. Heaven cannot be diminished by the absence of one or one-million humans. Your joy in heaven could not be diminished one iota by the absence of your spouse or a child or a parent. This is almost beyond comprehension. Heaven is not about us getting together in a great family reunion. Instead, heaven is the real Family of which our best experiences of community and family are but a shadow. The redeemed form the Bride of Christ. We become true children of God, the Father. The metaphors conflict in part because the Reality they are pointing to is more than language can handle. They give us a taste of what it will be like.
The second reason Lewis emphasizes for why heaven is so hard to attain is simply because we are “far too easily pleased” with lesser goods. We are like children content to make mud pies in the slums because we cannot imagine what it means to take a vacation by the sea. God created us for infinite joy and we settle for sitting on the couch with a beer or climbing the corporate ladder, becoming an influencer or having as much sex as possible. The root of all these things is good. But we have been fooled into thinking that the goodness is inherent within them, when the truth is that they are nothing more than vehicles by which God conveys His Goodness to us. As Lewis writes, “Our Lord [Jesus] finds our desires not too strong, but too weak.”
The world in which we live is remarkable. It is filled with wonder, with pleasure, with joy, and with beauty. But all of that, all the best things we experience in this world, point beyond themselves. They are not the end. They are not the goal. The joy we seek is not found in them; it is found in the One they point to. The One who made everything and imbued it with hints of His glory. It is only in Him that we find what we are seeking. It is only in heaven that our longings will be satisfied. Our challenge is that we so easily lose sight of this. We treat the creation as if it is the Creator, and worship it instead.
It is almost as if we are afraid to hope too much. We are afraid of being let down, of being disappointed. We’ve all been there before. We’ve gotten our hopes up just to have them dashed by reality. How can we trust in such an extraordinary heaven when this world is often so disappointing? Maybe it is all wishful thinking.
Lewis answers this by asking why we have desires that nothing in this world can satisfy. Why do the rich and powerful and famous still long for something greater? Why is “having everything” still not enough? What purpose would such intractable longing serve? (This certainly must be a mystery to the materialistic, humanistic philosophy.) For the Christian, this longing is proof that we were made for something greater. Something more real. Something more fulfilling. It is proof that we were made for heaven. And if we were made for it, it surely must exist.