We Will See Him
We will see Him. We will “behold His face” (Matt. 18:10). We will see Him “as He is” (1 John 3:2) without any separation. We will bow before Him (Phil. 2:10).
To Be with God
Our eternal life is where He—His holiness, sovereignty, goodness, mercy, and more—is experienced and proclaimed. Angelic beings, called seraphim, proclaim His holiness in the heavenly places (Isa. 6:3), showing us that He will be the One we want to speak of. He will be stunning to us. We will call to one another that He is holy and glorious. As people who have experienced the greatest possible magnificence and cannot keep it within, we will exchange with one another awed words and glances, enthralled with Him.
This will be our home. It will feel like home—the never-want-to-leave, has-everything-we-want, we-found-where-we-belong sort of home. We will be satisfied there because God Himself will be our dwelling place. We will be His people. He will be our God—purely: without our struggle, without our hesitation, without our worry, without our vain striving, without our self-promotion, without our pride, and without our fear. He will simply be our God and we will simply be His. We will have arrived home (Rev. 21:3).
Our eternal life is a place of treasures (Matt. 6:20). It is where we have, prayerfully, deposited our resources over and over again. We have stored up treasures for this place—the kind of investments that likely do not seem lucrative here on earth. These investments come from choices to glorify God even when not all of our circumstances are understandable from this side of eternity. These are the kind of investments not for personal gain or momentary pleasure, but for eternal gain that makes much of Him. They are the kind of investments that put Christ first, that put His gospel first, that put His glory first, and that see this life in view of the one to come.
We will be rewarded for how we have thus served Him with what we have been given (Matt. 19:28-39; Matt. 16:27; 1 Cor. 3:11-15; Prov. 24:12; 1 Cor. 15:41-42). Eternal rewards are not salvific, as Christ alone has saved us. Yet, real rewards will be granted. They will be given according to His own perfect measure that serves His ultimate glory. In view of His surpassing magnificence, I can hardly imagine that there would be any honor higher that being enabled to bow lower, or have more to lay at His feet (Rev. 4:10).
To Be Completely Redeemed
There in His presence, our bodies will be completely redeemed. In this place, we will be our whole person (1 Cor. 15:50). We will experience an element of sameness; we will be recognizable to each other in form. But the substance of us will be different or changed. Scripture indicates that our resurrected bodies will be like Jesus’ resurrected body. When interacting with the world—at least with the present world—He ate, spontaneously appeared, passed through walls, and was able to be known in relationships (Luke 24:36-39; Rom. 8:11, 23; 1 Cor. 15:53).
While it is unclear what a resurrected body’s precise interaction with the future world will be, our bodies will be glorified (Phil. 3:20-21); we will be free from any decay or pain. We will be able to relate with others, and build full, lasting relationships with people and our God, grown from the roots of this side of eternity. We will continue our relationships with our children, growing relationships with them from the roots of having had them in our wombs. We will have endless opportunities to build and enjoy new relationships as well. We will be free from sin. So, our wildest hope for freedom will come true—we will be sons and daughters of God who are enabled to reflect and represent and know Christ perfectly. We will be like Him (1 John 3:2).
Our world will also be completely redeemed. This present earth will be consumed by fire (2 Peter 3:10). Either the earth will be destroyed by this fire and replaced, or it will be refined by this fire and redeemed. I tend to believe the latter—that we will have a new (redeemed) earth as we will have new (redeemed) bodies. Redemption can be understood as the release from bondage for the payment of a price. The present earth has been dearly in need of redemption because of the curse placed upon it when Adam and Eve sinned—the fall. Christ’s death and resurrection redeems; it removes the bondage, freeing us and His creation to glorify Him again. So, each glorious and eternal redemptive activity—of our bodies, our souls, and of the earth—centers around Him and His praise (Col. 1:20).
Scripture speaks of the present earth as a garment that fades and the new earth as a garment we will put on—perhaps as the completed fulfillment of how we as Christians have put off our former ways to be clothed in Christ (Heb. 1:11; Ps. 102:26; Gal. 3:27; Rom. 13:14). The coming of the new heavens and the new earth is something for which the world is preparing, experiencing birth pangs (Matt. 24:8). One cannot help but think of how we believers have been spiritually born again when we read that the earth will be born again too. This birth will usher us into an eternal era finally devoid of all misery. Praise God that the concluding birth of this world will be only and purely redemptive—renewing us and restoring life unending.
Isaiah 65:17 encourages us that our new dwelling place will certainly not hold sorrow. Having lived here on earth in sin with the curse of death upon us, should we fear that any aspects of sin and its manifestations will continue in the new earth? By no means! Instead, the former things, the former order of life, will not even be remembered. It will not come to mind. 2 Peter 3:10 concludes that the earth and the works that are done on the earth will be exposed through that final, purifying fire. Every person and every work will be seen for what and who they have been. So, whether the new earth comes by a re-creation or a restoration, the it will be purely good and wonderful because everything present will have been required to survive His thorough refining work to remain.
Praise God that we believers have already been marked with the blood of Christ such that God’s righteous judgment of sin passes us over. Because of Christ, we will survive that fire and, even further, come through it glorified. All will be pure and in conformity to His holiness—including us. I cannot help but think of the foreshadowing in Jesus’ prayer, the prayer He teaches us to pray, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). Finally, we will see all things work in perfect, complete, and holy obedience to Him on earth just as it now is in heaven. Our purity and the new earth’s purity is our future, promised freedom.
- Lianna
Hope Mom to Noelle
Lianna (@liannadavis) is wed to Tyler and mom of two dear daughters. She is author of Made for a Different Land: Eternal Hope for Baby Loss (Hope Mommies, 2019). More of her writing can be found at her website.
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