Teaching Resources International

The Glorious State of Believers in Heaven by John Gill

January 17, 2010 by ADMIN

To describe this glorious state I confess is a task fitter for an angel than a man or for a glorified saint in heaven than for a poor, frail, mortal, sinful creature on earth. However, I shall make an attempt, though it be but a feeble one, under the direction and guidance and with the assistance of the sacred scriptures.

First, By observing those images by which the heavenly glory is represented; images which are taken from things the most grand and striking, of the greatest worth, value, and esteem among men.

1. It is represented by a house; but such an one as is not to be found any where on earth, a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens (2 Corinthians 5:1). It is not of this building, or of man’s; it is built by him that built all things; it is a house whose builder and maker is God, and not man. There have been many men that have been famous for their skill in architecture and many fine buildings have been erected by them which have perpetuated their memory to many ages such as the temple built by Solomon, rebuilt by Zerubbabel, and repaired by Herod; concerning which the disciples said to Christ, Master, see what manner of stones, and what buildings are here (Mark 13:1)!

But, alas, what were those buildings to this we are speaking of! They were the holy places made with hands which were the figures of the true. This the true holy places themselves, not made with hands (Hebrews 9:23); not with the hands of men, but with the hands of God; not an erection of men’s works, but the effect of divine grace, the pure, free-grace-gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. This house is in the heavens, and is opposed to the earthly house of our tabernacle; to these houses of clay which have their foundation in the dust; and it is called our house which is from heaven (2 Corinthians 5:2), being entirely of an heavenly kind and nature, and it is eternal. Some men build their houses here on earth in such manner, that they fancy they will continue forever to all generations (Psalm 49:11), but these, either through length of time, fall to decay, or are demolished by an enemy, or consumed by fire, or tumbled down by an earthquake; but this heavenly house always abides, and all the apartments in it are everlasting habitations (Luke 16:9): to which may be added, that this is Christ’s Father’s house, in which are many mansions (John 14:2); not only which he has built, but in which he dwells, and where he will have all his children; and it is our Father’s house as well as Christ’s, which makes it still more endearing. And a roomy one it is; there are many mansions, dwelling-places of rest, peace and joy in it; many, for the many ordained to eternal life; for the many justified by the obedience of Christ; for the many for whom his blood was shed for the remission of sins; for the many sons he brings to glory; yea, here is room enough for the innumerable company, chosen, redeemed, and called out of every kindred, tongue, people, and nation.

2. It is called an inheritance. This enlarges the idea: for though, with some an inheritance may be but a single house, a mean cottage, a small pittance yet with others, it is an assemblage of wealth and riches: it consists of many houses, farms, estates, and possessions, of gold and silver, jewels and precious stones. Heaven is often spoken of as an inheritance, in allusion to the land of Canaan, which was distributed by lot for an inheritance to the children of Israel. Hence, says the apostle, in whom, speaking of Christ, we have obtained an inheritance, or a lot (Ephesians 1:11); an inheritance by lot; not that it is a casual thing, since it follows, being predestinated according to the good purpose of him, who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will; but because every saint has his lot, part, and portion in it; for it is an inheritance of the saints in light, and among all them which are sanctified (Colossians 1:12; Acts 20:32). There are many things in which Canaan and the heavenly glory agree, I have not time to attend to now, but only would observe, that the Israelites were brought into the possession of their inheritance, not by Moses, but by Joshua; so the saints are brought to heaven, not by the works of the law, or their obedience to that, but by Jesus, the great captain of their salvation.

Heaven is also called an inheritance, in allusion to inheritances among men, which are not acquired by labor and diligence, nor purchased with money, but bequeathed by relations and friends, and are transmitted from father to son. So the heavenly glory is not obtained by the works of men, though they naturally think they must do some good thing to inherit eternal life; nor is it to be purchased. If a man would give all the substance of his house for it, it would utterly be contemned: it is bequeathed, to saints by their heavenly Father, whose good pleasure it is to give them the kingdom (Luke 12:32). And this he gives by will, by testament, and which comes to them by, upon, and through the death of the testator Jesus Christ. And it solely belongs to children, if children, then heirs (Romans 8:17); not to servants, no not the ministering spirits, who minister for them who shall be, or rather who are heirs of salvation, or shall inherit it (Hebrews 1:14); much less to the children of the bondwoman, or to strangers; only to those who are predestinated to the adoption of children, or are fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God.

This is an inheritance which is incorruptible, whereas all earthly inheritances are corruptible things; but this cannot be corrupted by any thing, by sin, or anything else. And none but incorruptible persons shall enjoy it. It is undefiled and will ever remain so and none that defileth, or is defiled shall ever possess it. It fadeth not away, nor the glory of it, as earthly inheritances through length of time do. It is reserved in the heavens, safe and secure for all the heirs of it and they are kept by the power of God for it (1 Peter 1:4). It is an eternal inheritance (Hebrews 9:15) out of the possession of which the right heirs will never be ejected.

3. The glory of the saints in heaven is expressed by a city which still more enlarges the idea of it. [It is] a city whose builder and maker is God, and so infinitely beyond any thing of this kind on earth; a city which has foundations (Hebrews 11:10), more than one, the everlasting love of God, the unalterable covenant of grace, and the rock of ages, Jesus Christ; so that it stands firm and immovable and cannot be shaken and thrown down, as some cities of late have been by earthquakes: here no city is continuing, but in length of time falls to ruin; but this always abides. The glory of it cannot be expressed and described by men; the description of the city of the new Jerusalem seems to be hyperbolical and to exceed belief; the figures by which it is set forth are bold and strong; as that its wall is of jasper, its foundations precious stones, its gates of pearl, and the streets thereof of pure gold, transparent as glass (Revelation 21:18-21); and yet as bold and strong as these figures are, they fall short of setting forth the true and real grandeur of it.

4. The heavenly state is signified by a kingdom; which carries the idea of it higher still and gives a more exalted notion of it. Saints are kings, not titular and nominal ones; they have a kingdom now which cannot be moved and which lies in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost (Hebrews 12:28;Romans 14:17); and they are heirs of another, a kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world; a kingdom and glory, or a glorious kingdom, to which they are called and fitted for in effectual vocation; an everlasting kingdom, into which they will be introduced when time shall be no more with them (Matthew 25:35; 1 Thessalonians 2:12; 2 Peter 1:11); a kingdom that has all the regalia belonging to it.

The glory of this state is sometimes expressed by a crown, and is called a crown of life, even of eternal life and will be enjoyed forever; a crown of righteousness, which will be given by the righteous judge in a way of righteousness and according to the rules of justice; a crown of glory that fadeth not away; not like the garlands or crowns given to conquerors in the Olympic games, to which the allusion is, which were made sometimes of flowers and herbs, that soon withered away; they ran, they strove to obtain a corruptible crown, we an incorruptible one (Revelation 2:11; 2 Timothy 4:8; 1 Peter 5:4; 1 Corinthians 9:25).

The same is also expressed by a throne, another ensign or emblem of the glory of a kingdom; a throne of glory, or a glorious throne to which the saints are raised from the dunghill (1 Samuel 2:8) to sit upon and inherit, even the same throne Christ himself sits upon; for, says he, to him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father on his throne (Revelation 3:21). How glorious and magnificent must this state be!

5. It is set forth by everything that is pleasing and grateful to the mind, or striking to the senses; and by such things as exceed all the enjoyments of them in this world. Here the saints will sit down with Christ at his table and drink new wine with him in his Father’s kingdom. Here they will pluck and eat of the fruit of the tree of life which stands in the midst of the paradise of God; that tree of life which bears twelve manner of fruits, yielded every month, the leaves of which are for the healing of the nations. Here they will drink of the river of divine pleasure that pure water of life proceeding out of the throne of God and the Lamb (Luke 22:18, 30; Revelation 2:7; 22:1-2).

Here they will see what eye hath not seen, hear what the ear hath not heard, nor have entered into the heart of man (1 Corinthians 2:9). The eye of man has seen many things on earth very grand and illustrious and what have been very entertaining to it, but it never saw such objects as will be seen in heaven. The ear of man has heard and been entertained with very pleasing sounds, very delightful music, vocal and instrumental, but it never heard such music as will be heard in heaven. The heart of man can conceive of more than it has either seen or heard, but it never conceived of such things as will be enjoyed in the world above.

Secondly, Our conceptions of the heavenly glory, at least of the greatness of it, may be aided and assisted by considering the epithets given unto it.

It is represented as an unseen glory, as consisting of things not seen (2 Corinthians 5:8) which are eternal; which faith and hope for the present have only concern with: faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1). We have not so much as a glimpse of this glory but by faith; and hope is waiting for it as something yet unseen: “hope that is seen is not hope, for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? but if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it” (Romans 8:24, 25).

This glory is also future. Nothing as yet enjoyed is that; it is something to come, greater than ever has been possessed in this world; it is a glory that shall be revealed; it is grace, or that glory to be which is the perfection of grace, that is brought unto us, at the revelation of Christ when the saints shall appear with him in glory. At present, it does not appear what they shall be, but when he shall appear, they shall be like him, and see him as he is (Romans 8:18; Colossians 3:4; 1 John 3:2).

Moreover, this glory is an incomparable one. There is nothing in this world to be compared to it. All the wealth, riches and grandeur of it are trifling and empty things in comparison of it. The apostle has a strange expression at first sight upon this subject: “I reckon,” says he, “that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18). One would rather have thought he should have said, that all that can be desired and enjoyed in the present state are not to be compared or made mention of with the glory of the other world. But he instances in the sufferings of the saints, the purest part of their services, if they may be called so; and asserts that these are far from being meritorious of this glory, fall infinitely short of it, there being no proportion between them and that; they are light afflictions, this a weight of glory; they are for a moment, this eternal; and this is what supports the saints in their suffering circumstances and makes them choose affliction with the people of God, and to esteem reproach for Christ’s sake greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, having respect to the recompense of reward (Hebrews 11:25-26); which is of grace, and not of works; and causes them to take joyfully the spoiling of their goods, for the sake of Christ, knowing that they have in heaven a better and an enduring Substance (Hebrews 10:34).

Likewise, this glory is always the same. The glory of this world passes away, but the glory of the world to come never will: is it a crown of glory? It is a never-fading one. Is it an inheritance? It is an inheritance that fadeth not away. When kingdoms, crowns and scepters are no more, and all that is great and glorious in this world, this will endure; for it is eternal glory (1 Peter 5:10). The God of all grace calls his people to [this] and will put them in the possession of [it]. The epithet is joined to all the images by which it is expressed. Is it a house? Is it eternal in the heavens? Is it a city? It is what continues forever. Is it a kingdom? It is an everlasting one. It is a being forever with the Lord and which raises and aggrandizes the idea of it.

Thirdly, We may obtain some further knowledge of the glory of heaven by considering what will be the enjoyment of the saints, both in the separate state of the soul before the resurrection and in its state with the body after it.

1. In its separate state before the resurrection. The soul of a saint as soon as separated from the body, as has been observed, will be immediately with Christ, and happy; it will enter into and enjoy the presence of God and Christ. And if the gracious presence of God is so desirable by his people now that they choose not to go any where without it, but say with Moses, “if thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence” (Exodus 33:15); if this gives more joy and gladness than the increase of all worldly enjoyments; what will the glorious presence of the Lord be, in which presence is fullness of joy and at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore (Psalm 16:11), not to be conceived of? If the presence of Christ in his church is such as makes his tabernacles amiable and a day in his courts better than a thousand (Psalm 84:2, 10) elsewhere; if the enjoyment of him by his disciples at his transfiguration upon the mount was such as caused them to say, it is good for us to be here (Matthew 17:4); how glorious and happy must it be, to be forever with him in a state where there will be no more a separation from him nor interruption of communion with him? For in this state, the separate soul shall enjoy uninterrupted communion with Father, Son, and Spirit. If fellowship with the Father and with the Son causes saints now to exult and glory when they enjoy it; and if the communion of the Holy Ghost is so desirable and is prayed and wished for now, what will all this be in a state of perfection? If to sit with Christ at his table, when our spikenard sends forth the smell thereof and to be brought into Christ’s banqueting house, where his banner over us is love (Song of Solomon 1:12; 2:4), under which we sup with him, and he with us, are so exceeding delightful and entertaining now; what will it be to sit down with him at his table in his kingdom and glory?

To which may be added, that there will be in this state not only communion with God, but conformity to him. Saints will be like him, as well as see him. If every view of the glory of Christ by faith is assimilating now and changes into the same image from glory to glory (2 Corinthians 3:18); what will a full view of him, a clear sight of him, do? Then will the great end of predestination, to be conformed to the image of the Son of God (Romans 8:29), be completely answered with respect to the soul; which in all its powers and faculties will bear a resemblance to Christ and be wholly swallowed up in him.

Its understanding will have a clear and unclouded discernment of him. The bias of the mind will be wholly towards him. The will will be entirely submitted to him. The affections will be in the strongest manner set upon him and things above; and the memory will be fully stored with divine and heavenly things. There will be nothing irregular and disagreeable in the soul in its motions, thoughts, and actions.

Besides all this, there will be a converse in this separate state with angels and the spirits of just men made perfect. How angels communicate their thoughts to and converse with each other, we know not; but no doubt they have ways and means by which they do and in the same way can communicate and converse with the souls of men, spirits like themselves; and these also one with another, which will be a considerable branch of the happiness of this separate state: in which also there will be perfect knowledge in the soul; perfect knowledge of God in his attributes, persons, and works, so far as a creature is capable of; perfect knowledge of the Son of God in his person, offices, and grace; perfect knowledge of the blessed Spirit; perfect knowledge of angels; perfect knowledge of one another, of which more hereafter; perfect knowledge of the providences of God, which have been intricate and obscure here, but now will be manifest; perfect knowledge of the doctrines of the gospel, of the mysteries of grace. Now we know and prophecy but in part, but then shall we know as we are known (1 Corinthians 13:9, 12).

There will be also perfect holiness. The soul will be entirely free from the being of sin as well as from the guilt and pollution of it. It will be wholly delivered from the body of sin and death, under which it now groans, and be without spot, or blemish, or any such thing – No sinful thought, no impure desire, nor any evil inclination or bias in it. And so there will be perfect peace of mind: if perfect peace is given to such as believe now, much more hereafter the end of such will be peace; when they die they enter into it, even into the joy of their Lord (Psalm 37:37; Isaiah 57:2; Matthew 25:21), which will be full, everlasting, and without interruption.

2. At the resurrection there will be a glory upon the body, as well as upon the soul; a glory equal to that of the sun, moon, and stars. This body, which is sown in the earth in corruption; a vile body, corrupted by sin, and now by death, and laid in corruption and dust, shall be raised in incorruption (1 Corinthians 15:41-44, 53, 54); no more to be corrupted by sin, or by diseases, or by death. This corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality, and death shall be swallowed up in victory; an entire conquest being obtained over it: and what is sown in dishonor and has lost all its beauty and glory and become nauseous and fit only to be the companion of worms shall be raised in glory; in the utmost perfection, beauty, and comeliness, fashioned like to the glorious body of Christ, and shine like the sun in the firmament of heaven. And what is sown in weakness, having lost all its strength and carried by others to the grave, shall be raised in power; strong and hale, able to subsist without food and to move itself from place to place, and will attend the service of God and the Lamb without weakness and weariness. There will be no more complaint of this kind: the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak (Matthew 26:41): and what is sown a natural body, or an animal one, which while it lived was supported with animal food, and when it died, died as animals do, shall be raised a spiritual body; not turned into a spirit, for then it would not have flesh and bones, as it will have; but it will subsist as spirits do, without food, and the like, and no more die. Then it will be no encumbrance to the soul, as now, in spiritual services, but aiding and assisting to it in them, and be fitted for spiritual employments and to converse with spiritual objects; and thus will it continue forever.

3. In this conjunct state, when soul and body will be united together, there will be a fresh accession of glory to the whole man and new enjoyments possessed in a more large and sensible manner.

A. There will be what is commonly called the beatific vision; which though in part enjoyed before, will be now enlarged and will be both intellectual and corporal, according to the diversity of objects it will be concerned with.

(1) There will be the vision of God: now we walk by faith, then by sight; we shall see his face in righteousness, yea face to face, and even see him as he is (2 Corinthians 5:7; Psalm 17:15; 1 Corinthians 13:12; 1 John 3:2); not his essence and nature, so as to comprehend it; but shall have a clear and unclouded apprehension of his perfections and glory. We shall see God in all his persons; we shall see the Father of Christ and ours, who loved us with an everlasting love; who chose and blessed us with all spiritual blessings in his Son; who made a covenant with him and us in him, ordered in all things and sure; who laid help on him the mighty One, and sent him in the fulness of time, to be our Redeemer and Savior.

We shall see the Son of God himself, who became our surety, and is the Mediator between God and man; who assumed our nature, suffered and died in our room and stead; who rose again, ascended to heaven, is set down at the right hand of God, and will judge the world in righteousness. We shall see the glory of his divine person, with the eyes of our understanding fully enlightened and his glory as mediator of which we have little knowledge now, but then we shall have a clear understanding and discernment of it; yea in our flesh shall we see God, as Job says (Job 19:26, 27), and with our corporal eyes behold the glory of Christ’s human body. We shall see that beautiful face that was once besmeared with sweat and blood, shine like the sun in its full strength; and those blessed temples that were crowned with thorns, crowned with glory and honor; and him whose hands and feet were pierced with nails, and covered with gore blood, holding the scepter of his kingdom, or walking in stately majesty, or sitting on his throne of glory.

We shall see the blessed Spirit, who convinced us of sin, righteousness, and judgment, and was our quickener and comforter; who led us into truth, and took of the things of Christ and showed them to us; who witnessed to our spirits that we were the children of God, and often assisted us in our prayers to him; was the earnest of our inheritance, and by whom we were sealed unto the day of redemption. We shall see him who began, and carried on, and perfected the work of grace in us; and that with the greatest pleasure and thankfulness.

(2) Saints will see all the holy angels in their shining forms, ranks, and orders; those thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers made by Christ, and subject to him: we shall see those sons of God, those morning-stars that sung together when the foundation of the earth was laid; those ten thousands of holy ones that made such a considerable figure in the apparatus at mount Sinai, when from the Lord’s right hand went a fiery law; that multitude of the heavenly host that descended at Christ’s incarnation, and sung “glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, and good-will to men;” that numerous company of them that attended our Lord at his ascension, and will be with him when he comes a second time to judge the world in righteousness. We shall see them bowing their heads while they adore the divine being and celebrate the perfections of his nature and clapping their wings while the heavenly arches resound their praises [with] those of glorified saints.

(3) The saints will see and know one another in this perfect state. The question was asked Luther a little before his death, whether we should know one another in the other world? To which he answered, by observing the case of Adam who knew Eve to be flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone, whom he had never seen before how did he know this? Says he, by the Spirit of God, by revelation; so, added he, shall we know parents, wives, children, in the other world, and that more perfectly. Besides, how did the apostles know Moses and Elias on the mount with Christ whom they had never seen before but by revelation? So the saints shall know one another in heaven; how otherwise can those whom gospel-ministers have been the instruments of their conversion and edification be their “joy and crown of rejoicing at the last day?” And indeed it seems necessary to the felicity of society to know one another; we are never quite free and easy in company when a stranger is in it we know not.

And it will undoubtedly give a pleasure not to be expressed to see and know those persons as then we shall. There we shall see the first man that was in the world, the head and representative of all mankind, and the figure of him that was to come, with Eve the mother of all living; we shall see this happy pair in a more exalted station than when in a state of innocence in Eden’s garden. There we shall see the first martyr whose blood was shed in the cause of religion, who by faith in the sacrifice of Christ, at that distance from it, offered a more excellent one than his brother. There we shall see the man that saw two worlds, the old world that then was, and the present world that now is; who built an ark for the saving of himself and family, when the world of the ungodly was swept away with the deluge. There we shall see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob with the rest of the patriarchs, both before and after the flood; and sit down with them in the kingdom of heaven. There we shall see Moses the meekest of men by whom the Lord did such wonders in the land of Ham and in the fields of Zoan, the lawgiver of Israel, who led them through the Red Sea and wilderness, to the border of Canaan’s land. There we shall see the man after God’s own heart, the sweet Psalmist of Israel, striking his harp to a higher note, to a better tune and to better purpose than when here on earth. There we shall see the evangelic prophet Isaiah, with the rest of his brethren the prophets, who prophesied beforehand of the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow.

There we shall see the forerunner and harbinger of Christ who prepared his way by preaching and baptizing and who so clearly pointed him out as “the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world.” There we shall see the apostles of Christ, the companions of our dear Redeemer, who heard his doctrines, saw his miracles, and were witnesses of his sufferings, death, resurrection, and ascension to heaven; and were the instruments of spreading the Gospel through the several parts of the world and sealed it with their blood. There we shall see the wondrous man that was caught up into the third heaven, who heard words unspeakable, not lawful for a man to utter; who preached the gospel from Jerusalem round about to Illyricum and was the means of converting so many thousands of souls and of planting so many churches in the Gentile world. There we shall see all the confessors and martyrs of Jesus that have been in all ages; yea, “the general assembly and church of the first born, whose names are written in heaven;” the bride the Lamb’s wife, with the glory of God upon her; even the whole innumerable company of the chosen, redeemed, and called ones, clothed in white robes, and palms in their hands.

B. As in this state there will be an enjoyment of all that is good, so a freedom from all that is evil. There will be an entire deliverance from sin; the saints will no more groan, being burdened with it; the Canaanite will be no more in the land; or such sins and corruptions in the heart which are now thorns in the flesh and pricks in the eyes and sides of good men. There will be no more a pricking briar, or grieving thorn, through the heavenly land or any temptations of Satan to disturb and molest; the people of God will be out of the reach of his fiery darts. He found ways and means to get into the earthly paradise, to seduce our first parents: but he will never be able to get into the heavenly paradise; he is cast out and fallen from thence and will never reassume his place any more there. Nor will wicked men any more oppress them, there the wicked cease from troubling (Job 3:17); nor will their ears be offended any more with their oaths and blasphemies, or grieved with their filthy conversation; they will then be shut up in the pit of destruction and a vast chasm, a great gulf fixed between them, so that there will be no passing from one to the other. Nor will there be any afflictions attending the saints in this state. They will now be come out of great tribulations and shall hunger and thirst no more nor be annoyed and distressed with any outward calamity whatever. There will be no more pain or sorrow, diseases and death; nor will there be any inward distresses; no more fightings without, or fears within (2 Corinthians 7:5), about their state and condition; no more doubts nor questioning, nor misgivings of heart, nor unbelief; no more darkness and desertion, but “everlasting joy shall be upon them and sorrow and sighing shall flee away;” and there will be nothing but perfect rest, ease and peace.

C. The employment of the saints in this state deserves notice and will be no small part of their happiness, as their bodies will be raised and united to their souls, they will spend the happy hours and days of eternity in conversing with each other, in sitting, walking, and talking together about divine, spiritual, and heavenly things, and that in an audible manner. What language they will speak is not for us to say; it is highly probable, since tongues will cease (1 Corinthians 13:8), that the jargon of speech introduced at Babel will be no more, but that one language will be spoken by all, but what that will be, cannot be determined; perhaps a language more pure, more perfect, more elegant, more refined than ever was spoken by man on earth the saints will now be employed in serving the Lord continually, not by preaching, or hearing, or reading, or praying, or attending on ordinances as now, which will be no more, but in praising the Lord for all the benefits of his grace and goodness; they will sing the song of Moses and the Lamb; the songs of electing, redeeming, justifying, adopting, calling, sanctifying, and persevering grace; and this will be their work throughout an endless eternity.

Posted in John Gill |

Home At Last! by J. C. Ryle

January 17, 2010 by ADMIN

There shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life. —Rev. 21:27

Brethren, there can be no question about the place described in our text: it is heaven itself, that holy city, the new Jerusalem, which is yet to be revealed.

I begin this my last Sunday among you by speaking of heaven. Before I depart and leave you in the wilderness of this world, I would dwell a little on that Canaan God has promised to them that love Him; there it is the last and best wish of my heart you may all go; there it is my consolation to believe I shall at all events meet some of you again.

Brethren, you all hope to go to heaven yourselves. There is not one of you but wishes to be in happiness after death. But on what are your hopes founded? Heaven is a prepared place; they that shall dwell there are all of one character. The entrance into it is only by one door. Brethren, remember that.

And then, too, I read of two sorts of hope: a good hope and a bad hope; a true hope and a false hope; a lively hope and a dead hope; the hope of the righteous and the hope of the wicked; of the believer and of the hypocrite. I read of some who have hope through grace, a hope that maketh not ashamed, and of others who have no hope and are without God in the world. Brethren, remember that.

Surely it were wise and prudent and safe to find out what the Bible tells you on the subject, to discover whether your confidence is indeed well founded; and to this end I call your attention to the doctrine of my text.

The Lord grant you may consider well your own fitness for heaven. There must be a certain meetness for that blessed place in our minds and characters. It is senseless, vain, and absurd to suppose that all shall go there, whatever their lives have been. May God the Holy Ghost incline you to examine yourselves faithfully while you have time, before that great day cometh when the unconverted shall be past all hope and the saints past all fear.

The Place Itself

There is such a place as heaven. No truth is more certain in the whole of Scripture than this: “There remaineth … a rest to the people of God” (Heb. 4:9). This earth is not our rest; it cannot be; there breathes not man or woman who ever found it so.

Go, build your happiness on earth, if you are so disposed; choose everything you can fancy would make life enjoyable. Take money, house, and lands; take learning, health, and beauty; take honor, rank, obedience, troops of friends; take everything your mind can picture to itself or your eye desire. Take all, and yet I dare to tell you even then you would not find rest. I know well that a few short years, and your heart’s confession would be, it is all hollow, empty, and unsatisfying; it is all weariness and disappointment; it is all vanity and vexation of spirit. I know well you would feel within a hungering and famine, a leanness and barrenness of soul; and ready indeed would you be to bear your testimony to the mighty truth: This earth is not our rest.

Oh, brethren, how faithful is that saying, “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable” (1 Cor. 15:19). This life, so full of trouble and sorrow and care, of anxiety and labor and toil; this life of losses and bereavements, of partings and separations, of mourning and woe, of sickness and pain; this life of which even Elijah got so tired that he requested he might die; truly I should be crushed to the very earth with misery, if I felt this life were all. If I thought there was nothing for me beyond the dark, cold, silent, lonely grave, I should indeed say it would be better never to have been born.

Thanks be to God – this life is not all! I know and am persuaded there is a glorious rest beyond the tomb; this earth is only the training-school for eternity, these graves are but the stepping-stone and half-way house to heaven. I feel assured this my poor body shall rise again; this corruptible shall yet put on incorruption, and this mortal immortality, and be with Christ forever. Yes, heaven is truth and no lie. I will not doubt it. I am not more certain of my own existence than I am of this: There does remain a rest for the people of God.

And, brethren, what sort of a place shall heaven be? Before we pass on and consider its inhabitants, let us just pause an instant and think on this. What sort of a place shall heaven be? Heaven shall be a place of perfect rest and peace. They who dwell there have no more conflict with the world, the flesh, and the devil; their warfare is accomplished, and their fight is fought; at length they may lay aside the armor of God; at last they may say to the sword of the Spirit, “rest and be still.”

They watch no longer, for they have no spiritual enemies to fear; they fast and mortify the flesh no longer, for they have no vile earthy body to keep under; they pray no more, for they have no evil to pray against. There the wicked must cease from troubling; there sin and temptation are forever shut out; the gates are better barred than those of Eden, and the devil shall enter in no more. Oh, Christian brethren, rouse ye and take comfort; surely this shall be indeed a blessed rest.

There faith shall be swallowed up in sight, and hope in certainty, and prayer in praise, and sorrow in joy. Now is the school-time, the season of the lesson and the rod; then will be the eternal holiday. Now we must endure hardness and press on, faint yet pursuing.

Then we shall sit down at ease for the Canaanite shall be expelled forever from the land. Now we are tossed upon a stormy sea, then we shall be safe in harbor. Now we have to plough and sow, then we shall reap the harvest; now we have the labor, but then the wages; now we have the battle, but then the victory and reward. Now we must needs bear the cross, but then we shall receive the crown. Now we are journeying through the wilderness, but then we shall be at home. Oh, Christian brethren, well may the Bible tell you, “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord” (Rev. 14:13). Surely you must feel that witness is true.

But again. Heaven shall be a place of perfect and unbroken happiness. Mark what your Bible tells you in the very chapter which contains my text, “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” (Rev. 21:4). Hear what the prophet Isaiah says:

He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the Lord hath spoken it. And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation. Isa. 25:8–9

Brethren, think of an eternal habitation in which there is no sorrow. Who is there here below that is not acquainted with sorrow? It came in with thorns and thistles at Adam’s fall; it is the bitter cup that all must drink; it is before us and behind us; it is on the right hand and the left; it is mingled with the very air we breathe. Our bodies are racked with pain, and we have sorrow; our worldly goods are taken from us, and we have sorrow; we are encompassed with difficulties and troubles, and we have sorrow; our friends forsake us and look coldly on us, and we have sorrow; we are separated from those we love, and we have sorrow; those on whom our hearts’ affections are set go down to the grave and leave us alone, and we have sorrow. And then, too, we find our own hearts frail and full of corruption, and that brings sorrow; we are persecuted and opposed for the Gospel’s sake, and that brings sorrow; we see those who are near and dear to us refusing to walk with God, and that brings sorrow. Oh, what a sorrowing, grieving world we live in!

Blessed be God! There shall be no sorrow in heaven. There shall not be one single tear shed within the courts above. There shall be no more disease and weakness and decay; the coffin, and the funeral, and the grave, and the dark-black mourning shall be things unknown. Our faces shall no more be pale and sad; no more shall we go out from the company of those we love and be parted asunder—that word, farewell, shall never be heard again. There shall be no anxious thought about tomorrow to mar and spoil our enjoyment, no sharp and cutting words to wound our souls; our wants will have come to a perpetual end and all around us shall be harmony and love.

Oh, Christian brethren, what is our light affliction when compared to such an eternity as this? Shame on us if we murmur and complain and turn back with such a heaven before our eyes! What can this vain and passing world give us better than this? This is the city of our God Himself, when He will dwell among us Himself. The glory of God shall lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. Truly we may say, as Mephibosheth did to David, “Yea, let [the world] take all, forasmuch as my lord the king is come again in peace unto his own house” (2 Sam. 19:30).

Such is the Bible heaven, there is none other; these sayings are faithful and true, not any of them shall fail. Surely, brethren, it is worth a little pain, a little laboring, a little toil, if only we may have the lowest place in the kingdom of God.

Who Shall Not Enter Heaven?

Let us now pass on and see that great thing which is revealed in the second part of our text. You have heard of heaven, but all shall not enter it. And who are the persons who shall not enter in?

Brethren, this is a sad and painful inquiry, and yet it is one that must be made. I can do no more than declare to you Scripture truth. It is not my fault if it is cutting and gives offense. I must deliver my Master’s message and diminish nothing. The line I have to draw is not mine, but God’s. The blame, if you will lay it, falls on the Bible, not on me. “There shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie” (Rev. 21:27). Verily these are solemn words; they ought to make us think.

“Nothing that defileth.” This touches the case of all who are defiled with sins of heart, and yet feel it not, and refuse to be made clean. These may be decent persons outwardly, but they are vile and polluted within. These are the worldly-minded. They live to this world only, and they have no thought of anything beyond it. The care of this world, the money, the politics of this world, the business of this world, the pleasures of this world, these things swallow up their whole attention—and as for St. James’ advice to keep ourselves unspotted from the world, they know not what it means.

These are the men who set their affections on earthly things. They each have their idol in the chamber of their imagination, and they worship and serve it more than God. These are the proud and self-righteous, the self-honoring and the self-conceited. They love the praise of men, they like the good opinion of this world, and as for the glorious Lord who made them, His honor, His glory, His house, His Word, His service—these are all things which in their judgment must go down, and take the second place. Such people know not what sorrow for sin means. They are strangers to spiritual anxiety. They are self-satisfied and content with their condition. And if you attempt to stir them up to zeal and repentance, it is more than probable they are offended.

Brethren, you know well there are such people. They are not uncommon; they may be honorable in the eyes of men, they may be wise and knowing in this generation, admirable men of business; they may be first and foremost in their respective callings, but still there is but one account of them; they bring no glory to their Maker; they are lovers of themselves more than of God, and therefore they are counted as defiled in His sight and nothing that is defiled shall enter heaven.

But again: “Nothing that worketh abomination.” This touches the case of all who practice those sins of life which God has pronounced abominable and take pleasure in them and countenance those who practice them. These are the men who work the works of the flesh, each as his heart inclines him. These are the adulterers, fornicators, and unclean livers; these are the drunkards, revelers, and gluttons; these are the blasphemers, swearers, and liars. These are the men who count it no shame to live in hatred, variance, wrath, strife, envyings, quarrelings and the like. They throw the reins on the neck of their lusts; they follow their passions wherever they may lead them. Their only object is to please themselves.

Brethren, you know well there are such people. The world may give smooth names to their conduct. The world may talk of them as light and affable, and loose and wild, but it will not do. They are all abominable in the sight of God and, except they be converted and born again, they shall in no wise enter heaven.

Once more: “Nothing that maketh a lie.” This touches the case of hypocrites. These are the false professors; the lip-servants. They say that they know God, but in works they deny Him. They are like barren fig-trees, all leaves and no fruit. They are like tinkling cymbals, all sound, but hollow, empty and without substance. These have a name to live while they are dead, and a form of godliness without the power. They profess what they do not practice; they speak what they do not think; they say much and do little; their words are most amazing; their actions are most poor. These men can talk most bravely of themselves. No better Christians than they are, if you will take them at their own valuation. They can talk to you of grace, and yet they show none of it in their lives. They can talk to you of saving faith, and yet they possess not that charity which is faith’s companion. They can declaim against forms most strongly, and yet their own Christianity is a form and no more. They can cry out loudly against Pharisees, and yet no greater Pharisees than they are themselves. Oh, no; this religion is of a sort that is public, and not private; plenty abroad, but none at home; plenty without, but none within; plenty in the tongue, but none in the heart. They are altogether unprofitable, good for nothing, they bear no fruit.

Brethren, you must know well there are such miserable persons. Alas! The world is full of them in these latter days. They may deceive ministers; they may deceive their neighbors; they may even deceive their friends and family; they may try hard to deceive themselves; but they are no better than liars in God’s sight, and except they repent, they shall in no wise enter heaven.

Brethren, consider well these things: The sin-defiled, the abominable, the hypocrite, shall in no wise enter into heaven. Look well to your own souls. Judge yourselves that ye be not judged of the Lord. I call heaven and earth to witness this day, they that will live these bad lives, whether they be Churchmen or dissenters, old or young, rich or poor, they shall in no wise enter in. Go, cleave to the ways of the world if you are so determined; stick to your sins if you must needs keep them. But I warn you solemnly this hour, they that will have these things shall in no wise enter into heaven.

Oh, blame me now for speaking sharply to you—think I am too particular if you like it. But, oh! remember if you ever stand outside the gates, crying, “Lord, open to us,” in vain. Remember there was a time when I told you, the worldly-minded and the evil livers shall in no wise enter in. Brethren, I have told you before, and I tell you now again for the last time: If you cling to the things God hates, you shall in no wise enter into heaven.

Who Shall Enter Heaven?

Brethren, we must pass on. The text has told you who shall not enter heaven. Oh! what a mighty crowd those words shut out! But, it tells you something more: Who are they that shall.

Short is the account and simple: “They only that are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” And who are written in this precious book? I do not know their names, but I do know their characters, and what those characters are I will endeavor to tell you shortly, for the last time.

They are all true penitents. They have been convinced of their own unworthiness in God’s sight; they have felt themselves to be sinners in deed and in truth; they have mourned over their sins, hated their sins, forsaken their sins—the remembrance of them is grievous, the burden of them intolerable. They have ceased to think well of their own condition and count themselves fit to be saved. They have confessed with their whole heart: “Lord, we are indeed unclean.”

Again: they are all believers in Christ Jesus. They have found out the excellency of the work He did to save them, and cast on Him the burden of their souls. They have taken Christ for their all in all: their wisdom, their righteousness, their justification, their forgiveness, their redemption. Other payment of their spiritual debts they have seen none; other deliverances from the devil they have not been able to find. But they have believed on Christ and come to Christ for salvation; they are confident that what they cannot do Christ can do for them and, having Jesus Christ to lean on, they feel perfect peace.

Once more: they are all born of the Spirit and sanctified. They have all put off the old man with his deeds, and put on the new man, which is after God. They have all been renewed in the spirit of their minds; a new heart and a new nature has been given to them. They have brought forth those fruits which only are the proof of the Spirit being in them. They may have slipped and come short in many things. They may have mourned over their own deficiencies full often. But still, the general bent and bias of their lives has always been toward holiness—more holiness, more holiness, has always been their hearts’ desire. They love God and they must live to Him.

Such is the character of them that are written in heaven. These, then, are the men whose names are to be found in the Lamb’s book of life. Once they may have been as bad as the very worst—defiled, abominable, liars. What matter? They have repented and believed and now they are written in the book of life.

They may have been despised and rejected of this world, poor and mean and lowly in the judgment of their neighbors. What matter? They had repentance and faith and new hearts and now they are written in the glorious book of life.

They may have been of different ranks and nations. They may have lived at different ages and never seen each other’s faces. What matter? They have one thing at least in common: they have repented and believed and been born again, and therefore, they stand all together in the Lamb’s book of life.

Yes, brethren, these are the men and women that enter heaven. Nothing can keep them out.

And now, men and brethren, in conclusion, let me press upon you my old question. How is it with yourselves? What? No answer? Are you ready to depart? Again, no answer? Is your name written in the book of life? Once more, have you no answer?

Oh, think! Think! Unhappy man or woman, whoever thou art, think what a miserable thing it is to be uncertain about eternity. And then consider, if you cannot give your heart to God now, how is it possible you could enjoy God’s heaven hereafter? Heaven is unceasing godliness; it is to be in the presence of God and His Christ for evermore. God is the light, the food, the air of heaven. It is an eternal sabbath. To serve God is heaven’s employment; to talk with God is heaven’s occupation.

Oh, sinners! Sinners! Could you be happy there? To which of all the saints would you join yourselves? By whose side would you go and sit down, with whom of all the prophets and apostles would you love to converse? Surely it would be a wearisome thing to you; surely you would soon want to go forth and join your friends outside. Oh, turn ye, turn ye while it is called today! God will not alter heaven merely to please you; better a thousand times to conform to His ways while you can. You must love the things of heaven before your death, or else you cannot enter heaven when ye die.

Christian, look up and take comfort. Jesus has prepared a place for you, and they that follow Him shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of His hands. Look forward to that glorious abode He has provided. Look forward in faith, for it is thine.

Oh, Christian brethren, think what a glorious meeting that shall be! There we shall see the saints of old, of whom we have so often read. There we shall see those holy ministers whose faith and patience we have admired. There we shall see one another round the throne of our common Savior and be parted and separated no more. There we shall labor and toil no more, for the days of mourning shall be ended. Oh, but my heart will leap within me, if I see there faces I have known among you; if I hear the names of any of yourselves! The Lord grant it, the Lord bring it to pass. The Lord grant we may, some of us at least, come together in that day, when there shall be one fold and one Shepherd and with one heart and voice join that glorious song,

Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing … Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. —Rev. 5:12–13

Posted in J. C. Ryle |

The Heaven of Heaven by C. H. Spurgeon

January 17, 2010 by ADMIN

“And they shall see his face.” Revelation 22:4

The Italians so much admire the city of Naples, that their proverb is: “See Naples and die;” as if there remained nothing more to be seen after that fair bay and city had been gazed upon. To behold the far fairer sight mentioned in the text men might well be content to die a thousand times. If it shall please God that we shall depart this life before the Master’s appearing, we may laugh at death and count it to be gain, seeing that it introduces us to the place where we shall see his face. “Thou can not see my face and live,” said the Lord of old. But that was true of mortals only, and refers not to immortals who have put on incorruption. In yonder glory-land, they see the face of God and yet live; yea, the sight is the essence and excellence of their life. Here that vision might be too overpowering for the soul and body and might painfully separate them with excess of delight, and so cause us death. But up yonder the disembodied spirit is able to endure the blaze of splendor, and so will the body also when it shall have been refined and strengthened in its powers by resurrection from the dead. Then these eyes, which now would be smitten with blindness should they look upon the superlative glory, shall be strengthened to behold eternally the Lord of angels, who is the brightness of his Father’s glory and the express image of his person.

Brethren and sisters, regard the object of our expectations! See the happiness, which is promised us! Behold the heaven, which awaits us! Forget for awhile your present cares: let all your difficulties and your sorrows vanish for a season; and live for awhile in the future which is so certified by faithful promises that you may rejoice in it even now! The veil which parts us from our great reward is very thin: hope gazes through its gauzy fabric. Faith, with eagle eyes, penetrates the mist which hides eternal delights from longing eyes. “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him; but he hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit, for the Spirit searcheth all things, even the deep things of God.” And we, in the power of that Spirit, have known, believed, and anticipated the bliss which every winged hour is bringing nearer to us.

It would have been no small joy to have seen the face of Jesus of Nazareth in the years of his maturity, when his countenance beamed with joy. “At that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, Father, I thank thee.” One would like to have basked in the radiance of a sinless smile: it was a vision fit only for the pure in heart to have traced the fair marks of joy upon the face of Jesus; and such a joy, so spiritual, so refined, so heavenly, so divine! “Father, I thank thee:” blessing God for that eternal decree of election by which he has hidden the things of the kingdom from the wise and prudent, and has revealed them unto babes, and saying, “Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight.” Equally rare must have been the vision which Peter, James and John beheld, when they looked into that Savior’s face and saw it transfigured, beams of light flashing from its every feature, and his whole person made to glow with a superhuman splendor. The favored spectator might well be content to die upon that mount; it was enough to have lived to have beheld his glory so divinely revealed.

Beloved, have you not sometimes felt as I have, that you could have wished to have seen the Well-beloved’s face even in its grief and agony? It was not long before the beauty of Jesus began to be marred by his inward grief’s and his daily hardships. He appears to have looked like a man of fifty when he was scarcely thirty. The Jews said, “Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?” His visage was more marred, we are told, than that of any man, and his form more than the sons of men; for he took upon himself our sickness and bare our sorrows, and all this substitutionary grief ploughed deep furrows upon that blessed brow, and made the cheeks to sink, and the eyes to become red with much weeping. Yet fain would I have gazed into the face of the Man of Sorrows. Fain would I have seen those eyes which were “as the eyes of doves by the rivers of waters, washed with milk and fitly set,” those founts of pity, wells of love, and springs of grief. Fain would I have adoringly admired those cheeks which were as beds of spices, as sweet flowers, and those lips like lilies, dropping sweet-smelling myrrh; for all the suffering that he suffered could not take away from that marred visage its majesty of grace and holiness, nor withdraw from it one he of that mental, and moral, and spiritual beauty which were peculiar to the perfect man. O how terribly lovely that beloved face must have looked when it was covered with the crimson of the bloody sweat, when the radiant hues of his rosy sufferings suffused the lily of his perfection! What a vision must that have been of the Man of Sorrows, when he said, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death!” What must it have been to have looked into his face, when his brow was girt about with the crown of thorns, when the ruby drops followed each other adown those bruised cheeks which had been spit upon by the shameful mouths of the scorners? That must have been a spectacle of woe indeed!

But, perhaps, yet more ghastly still was the face of the Redeemer when he said, “I thirst!” when, in bitterest anguish, he shrieked, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me! “Then, indeed, the sun of the universe suffered a horrible eclipse; then the light of heaven for awhile passed under a black tempestuous cloud. That face in such a condition we have not seen, nor shall see; yet, beloved, we shall see his face. I could have wished to have been with Mary, and the holy women, and Joseph, and Nicodemus, when they took his blessed body from the cross and laid it in the tomb. O for one gaze into that poor pale dead face-to have seen how death looked when mirrored in that matchless clay; and how Jesus appeared when conquered and yet conquering, vanquished and yet victor, yielding up his body to the spoiler, to be laid for awhile in the treasure-house of the tomb, and yet bursting all the bars of the spoiler’s den!

But, brethren, there was a glorious change no doubt, in the face of our Lord when it was seen by divers brethren after the resurrection. It was the same face, and they knew him to be the same Christ. Did they not put their fingers into the nail-prints and thrust their hand into his side? Did they not know him to be veritable flesh and bone as they saw him eat the piece of fish and of an honeycomb? But the face was restored to its former majesty and radiance, for I suppose it to have beamed with the dawn-flashes of that light which now flames forth from it, of which John says, “His face was as the sun shining in its strength.” There were, we believe, some soft unveilings of that unexampled glory which glorified saints, day without night, are perpetually beholding in heaven. That face was for the last time seen when he ascended and the clouds concealed him. Then, gazing downward, and scattering benedictions with both his hands, he appointed his disciples to be his witnesses, and bade them go and preach his gospel, for he would be with them always, even unto the end of the world. Such was the face of Christ on earth, and the remembrance may serve to inspire in us a holy panting after the beatific vision which the Lord hath promised us, and of which we are now about to speak as the Holy Ghost may graciously give us utterance.

First, this morning, I purpose, brethren, to bring before your minds the beatific vision itself –”They shall see his face;” then secondly, we shall dwell for a moment upon the surpassing clearness of the vision – “They shall see his face”— in a sense more than usually emphatic; then thirdly, upon the privileges, choice and precious, which are involved in the vision; and lastly, we shall have a word or two upon those favored ones who shall enjoy the sight –“They shall see his face.”

I. First, then, THE BEATIFIC VISION.

“They shall see his face.” It is the chief blessing of heaven, the cream of heaven, the heaven of heaven, that the saints shall there see Jesus. There will be other things to see. Who dare despise those foundations of chrysolite and chrysoprasus and jacinth? Who shall speak lightly of streets of glassy gold and gates of pearl? We would not forget that we shall see angels, and seraphim, and cherubim; nor would we fail to remember that we shall see apostles, martyrs, and confessors, together with those whom we have walked with and communed with in our Lord while here below.

We shall assuredly behold those of our departed kindred who sleep in Jesus, dear to us here and dear to us still – “not lost, but gone before.” But still, for all this, the main thought which we now have of heaven, and certainly the main fullness of it when we shall come there, is just this: we shall see Jesus. We shall care little for any of those imaginary occupations, which have such charms for a certain class of minds that they could even find a heaven in them. I have read fanciful periods in which the writer has found celestial joys to consist in an eternal progress in the knowledge of the laws of God’s universe. Such is not my heaven. Knowledge is not happiness, but, on the contrary, is often an increase of sorrow. Knowing, of itself does not make men happy nor holy. For mere knowing’s sake, I would as soon not know as know, if I had my choice: better to love an ounce than to know a pound; better a little service than much knowledge. I desire to know what God pleases to teach me; but beyond that, even ignorance shall be my bliss. Some have talked of flitting from star to star, seeing the wonders of God throughout the universe, how he rules in this province of his wide domain, how be governs in that other region of his vast dominion. It may be so, but it would be no heaven to me.

So far as I can at present judge, I would rather stop at home, and sit at the feet of Christ forever than roam over the wide creation.

The spacious earth and spreading flood

Proclaim the wise and powerful God,

And thy rich glories from afar

Sparkle in every rolling star.

Yet in Christ’s looks a glory stands,

The noblest wonder of God’s hands;

He, in the person of his Son,

Has all his mightiest works outdone.

If Jesus were not infinite we should not speak so; but since he is in his person divine, and as to his manhood, so nearly allied to us that the closest possible sympathy exists between us, there will always be fresh subjects for thought, fresh sources for enjoyment, for those who are taken up with him.

Certainly, brethren and sisters, to no believer would heaven be desirable if Jesus were not there, or, if being there, they could not enjoy the nearest and dearest fellowship with him. A sight of him first turned our sorrow into joy; renewed communion with him lifts us above our present cares, and strengthens us to bear our heavy burdens: what must heavenly communion he? When we have Christ with us we are content on a crust, and satisfied with a cup of water; but if his face be hidden the whole world cannot afford a solace, we are widowed of our Beloved, our sun has set, our moon is eclipsed, our candle is blown out. Christ is all in all to us here, and therefore we pant and long for a heaven in which he shall be all in all to us forever; and such will the heaven of God be. The Paradise of God is not the Elysium of imagination, the Utopia of intellect, or the Eden of poetry; but it is the heaven of intense spiritual fellowship with the Lord Jesus – a place where it is promised to faithful souls that “they shall see his face.”

In the beatific vision, it is Christ whom they see; and further, it is his face which they behold. They shall not see the skirts of his robe as Moses saw the back parts of Jehovah; they shall not be satisfied to touch the hem of his garment, or to sit far down at his feet where they can only see his sandals, but they “shall see his face!” By which I understand two things: first, that they shall literally and physically, with their risen bodies, actually look into the face of Jesus; and secondly, that spiritually their mental faculties shall be enlarged, so that they shall he enabled to look into the very heart, and soul, and character of Christ, so as to understand him, his work, his love, his all in all, as they never understood him before. They shall literally, I say, see his face, for Christ is no phantom; and in heaven though divine, and therefore spiritual, he is still a man, and therefore material like ourselves. The very flesh and blood that suffered upon Calvary is in heaven; the hand that was pierced with the nail now at this moment grasps the scepter of all worlds; that very head which was bowed down with anguish is now crowned with a royal diadem; and the face that was so marvel is the very face which beams resplendent amidst the thrones of heaven. Into that selfsame countenance we shall be permitted to gaze. O what a sight! Roll by, ye years; hasten on, ye laggard months and days, to let us but for once behold him, our Beloved, our hearts’ care, who “redeemed us unto God by his blood,” whose we are, and whom we love with such a passionate desire, that to be in his embrace we would be satisfied to suffer ten thousand deaths! They shall actually see Jesus.

Yet the spiritual sight will be sweeter still. I think the text implies that in the next world our powers of mind will be very different from what they are now. We are, the best of us, in our infancy as yet, and know but in part; but we shall be men then, we shall “put away childish things.” We shall see and know even as we are known; and amongst the great things that we shall know will be this greatest of all, that we shall know Christ: we shall know the heights, and depths, and lengths, and breadths of the love of Christ that passeth knowledge. O how delightful it will be then to understand his everlasting love; how without beginning, or ever the earth was, his thoughts darted forward towards his dear ones, whom he had chosen in the sovereignty of his choice, that they should be his for ever!

What a subject for delightful meditation will the covenant be, and Christ’s surety-ship engagements in that covenant when he undertook to take the debts of all his people upon himself, and to pay them all, and to stand and suffer in their room! And what thoughts shall we have then of our union with Christ – our federal, vital, conjugal oneness! We only talk about these things now, we do not really understand them. We merely plough the surface and gather a topsoil harvest, but a richer subsoil lies beneath.

Brethren, in heaven we shall dive into the lowest depths of fellowship with Jesus. “We shall see his face,” that is, we shall see clearly and plainly all that has to do with our Lord; and this shall be the topmost bliss of heaven. In the blessed vision the saints see Jesus, and they see him clearly. We may also remark that they see him always; for when the text says “They shall see his face.” It implies that they never at any time are without the sight. Never for a moment do they unlock their arm from the arm of their Beloved. They are not as we are – sometimes near the throne, and sometimes afar off by backslidings; sometimes hot with love, and then cold with indifference; sometimes bright as seraphs, and then dull as clods – but for ever and ever they are in closest association with the Master, for “they shall see his face.”

Best of all, they see his face as it is now in all its glory. John tells us what that will be like: In his first chapter he says, “His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow,” to mark his antiquity, for he is the Ancient of days. “And his eyes were as a flame of fire; and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.” Such is the vision which the redeemed enjoy before the throne; their Lord is all brightness, and in him there is nothing to weep over, nothing to mar his glory. Traces there doubtless are upon that wondrous face, of all the grief’s he once endured, but these only make him more glorious. He looks like a lamb that has been slain and wears his priesthood still; but all that has to do with the shame, and the spitting, and slaughter, has been so transformed that the sight is all blissful, all comforting, all glorious; and in his face there is nothing to excite a tear or to beget a sigh. I wish my lips were unloosed and my thoughts were free, that I could tell you something more of this sight, but indeed it is not given unto mortal tongues to talk of these things; and I suppose that if we were caught up to see his face and should come back again, yet should we have to say like Paul, that we had heard and seen that which it was not lawful for us to utter. God will not as yet reveal these things fully to us, but he reserves his best wine for the last. We can but give you a few glimpses, but O beloved, wait a little, it shall not be long ere you also shall see his face!

II. Secondly, we turn to another thought-THE SURPASSING CLEARNESS OF THAT VISION.

“They shall see his face.” The word “see” sounds in my ears with a clear, full, melodious note. Methinks we see but little here. This, indeed, is not the world of sight; “we walk by faith, not by sight.” Around us all is mist and cloud. What we do see, we see only as if men were trees walking. If ever we get a glimpse of the spirit-world, it is like yonder momentary lightning-flash in the darkness of the tempest, which opens for an instant the gates of heaven, and in the twinkling of an eye they are closed again, and the darkness is denser than before, as if it were enough for us poor mortals to know that there is a brightness denied to us as yet.

The saints see the face of Jesus in heaven, because they are purified from sin. The pure in heart are blessed: they shall see God and none others. It is because of our impurity which still remains that we cannot as yet see his face, but their eyes are touched with eye-salve, and therefore they see. Ah, brethren, how often does our Lord Jesus hide himself behind the clouds of dust which we ourselves make by our unholy walking? If we become proud, or selfish, or slothful, or fall into any other of our besetting sins, then our eye loses its capacity to behold the brightness of our Lord; but upyonder they not only do not sin, but they cannot sin; they are not tempted, and there is no space for the tempter to work upon, even could he be admitted to try them; they are without fault before the throne of God; and, surely, this alone is a heaven – to be rid of inbred sin, and the plague of the heart, and to have ended for ever the struggle of spiritual life the crushing power of the fleshly power of death. They may well see his face when the scales of sin have been taken from their eyes, and they have become pure as God himself is pure.

They surely see his face the more clearly because all the clouds of care are gone from them. Some of you while sitting here today have been trying to lift up your minds to heavenly contemplation, but you cannot; the business has gone so wrong this week; the children have vexed you so much; sickness has been in the house so sorely; you yourself feel in your body quite out of order for devotion – these enemies break your peace. Now they are vexed by none of these things in heaven, and therefore they can see their Master’s face. They are not cumbered with Martha’s cares; they still occupy Mary’s seat at his feet. When shall you and I have laid aside the farm, and the merchandise, and the marrying, and the burying, which come so fast upon each other’s heels, and when shall we be for ever with the Lord –

Far from a world of grief and sin,

With God eternally shut in?

Moreover, as they have done with sins and cares, so have they done with sorrows. “There shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away.” We are none of us quite strangers to grief, and with some of us pain is an inseparable companion; we dwell in the smoky tents of Kedar still. Perhaps it is well that we should so be tried while we are here, for sanctified sorrow refines the soul; but in glory there is no affliction, for the pure gold needeth not the furnace. Well may they then behold Christ when there are no tears to dim their eyes, no smoke of this world to rise up between them and their Beloved, but they are alike free from sin, and care, and sorrow. They see his face right gloriously in that cloudless atmosphere, and in the light, which he himself supplies.

Moreover, the glorified see his face the more clearly because there are no idols to stand between him and them. Our idolatrous love of worldly things is a chief cause of our knowing so little of spiritual things. Because we love this and that so much, we see so little of Christ. Thou canst not fill thy life-cup from the pools of earth, and yet have room in it for the crystal streams of heaven. But they have no idols there-nothing to occupy the heart; no rival for the Lord Jesus. He reigns supreme within their spirits, and therefore they see his face. They have no veils of ignorance or prejudice to darken their sight in heaven. Those of us who most candidly endeavor to learn the truth are nevertheless in some degree biased and warped by education. Let us struggle as we may, yet still our surroundings will not permit us to see things as they are. There is a deflection in our vision, a refraction in the air, a something everywhere which casts the beam of light out of its straight he so that we see rather the appearance than the reality of truth. We see not with open sight; our vision is marred; but up yonder, among the golden harps, they “know, even as they are known.” They have no prejudices, but a full desire to know the truth: the bias is gone, and therefore they are able to see his face. O blessed thought! One could almost wish to sit down and say no more, but just roll that sweet morsel under one’s tongue, and extract the essence and sweetness of it.

“They see his face.” There is no long distance for the eye to travel over, for they are near him; they are in his bosom; they are sitting on his throne at his right hand. No withdrawals there to mourn over: their sun shall no more go down. Here he stands behind our wall; he showeth himself through the lattices; but he hides not himself in heaven. O when shall the long summer days of glory be ours, and Jesus our undying joy for ever and ever? In heaven they never pray –

Oh may no earthborn cloud arise

To hide thee from thy servant’s eyes,

but for ever and for aye, they bask in the sunlight, or rather, like Milton’s angel, they live in the sun itself. They come not to the sea’s brink to wade into it up to the ankles, but they swim in bliss forever. In waves of everlasting rest, in richest, closest fellowship with Jesus, they disport themselves with ineffable delight.

III. The third part of the subject is THE MATCHLESS PRIVILEGE WHICH THIS VISION INVOLVES.

We may understand the words “they shall see his face” to contain five things. They mean, first, certain salvation. The face of Jesus Christ acts in two ways upon the sons of men: with some it is a face of terror – “Before his face heaven and earth fled away.” It is written concerning him, “Who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? For he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap.” A sight of Christ’s face will be to the ungodly eternal destruction from the presence of the Lord. But if there are some men who shall see his face, who shall sit down and delight themselves in gazing upon the face of the great Judge upon the throne, then those persons are assuredly saved; they are abiding the day of his coming; they are dwelling with the eternal flame without being consumed; they are resting on the bosom of our God who is a consuming fire; and yet, like the burning bush of old, though glowing with the glory they are not consumed by the heat. O happy men, who can live where others must expire; who can find their heaven where a carnal world must eternally find its hell! This is the first thing in the text. “They shall see his face;” then they are everlastingly safe.”

The second privilege is, they shall have a clear knowledge of him. I have dwelt upon that thought before, and merely mention it to complete the summary. To look into the face of Christ signifies to be well acquainted with his person, his office, his character, his work. So the saints in heaven shall have more knowledge of Christ than the most advanced below. As one has said, the babe in Christ admitted to heaven discovers more of Christ in a single hour than is known by all the divines of the assemblies of the church on earth. O yes, our catechisms and our creeds, and even our Bible – all these reveal but very little of what we shall discover when we shall see his face.

Our text implies also conscious favor. Was not that the old benediction, “The Lord lift up his countenance upon you?” He has lifted it up upon the glorified, and they see it world without end. Here it is our joy of joys to have the Lord smiling upon us, for if he be with us who can be against us? If we know that he loves us, and that he delights in us, it matters not to us though earth and hell should hate us, and men cast out our names as evil. In heaven, then, they have this to be their choice privilege. They are courtiers who stand always in the monarch’s palace, secure of the monarch’s smile. They are children who live unbrokenly in their father’s love, and know it, and rejoice to know it evermore.

The fourth privilege involved in the text is that of close fellowship. They are always near to Jesus. They are never hoping that they are with him, and yet fearing that they are not; they have none of those inward struggles which make life so unhappy to some of us; they never say – “Tis a point I long to know.” But they see his face and are in hourly communion with their Lord. Perfect spirits are always walking with the Lord, for they are always agreed with him. In glory, they are all Enochs, walking with God. There forever and forever they lie in the bosom of Jesus, in the nearest possible place of communion with him who redeemed them with his blood.

And this involves a fifth privilege, namely, complete transformation – “They shall be like him, for they shall see him as he is.” If they see his face they shall be “changed from glory to glory” by this face-to-face vision of the Lord. Beholding Christ, his likeness is photographed upon them; they become in all respects like him as they gaze upon him world without end.

Thus have I very briefly mentioned the privileges involved in seeing Christ face to face.

IV. We must conclude by noting WHO THEY ARE TO WHOM THIS CHOICE BOON IS AFFORDED BY THE DIVINE MERCY.

“They shall see his face.” Who are they? They are all his elect, all his redeemed, all his effectually called ones, all the justified, all the sanctified. They are the tens of thousands and myriads who have died in Jesus, of whom the Spirit saith, “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord.” Thank God we are not strangers to those who now behold his face. As we look back to the associations of our youth, and to the friendships of our manhood, we remember many whose privilege it has been to precede us, and to know long before us the things, which we desire and expect so soon to learn. Some are taken away to see his face while yet young. We bless God that our babes shall have the same heaven as our holy sires; they shall not be placed in the back settlements of Canaan, but they shall with equal clearness see the face of Jesus. Those dear boys and girls who learnt to love Christ and made a profession of his name in their youth, were never spared to reach the ripeness of manhood and womanhood, but they shall equally see his face with the gravest and most reverend fathers of the church. I read of no secondary joys. Whoever may have invented the doctrine of degrees in heaven I do not know, but I believe there is as much foundation for it in Scripture as there is for the doctrine of purgatory, and no more. All the saints shall see their Master’s face. The thief dying on the cross was with Christ in paradise, and Paul could be no more. I like sometimes to think of heaven in the same way as old Ryland did when he wrote his rhyming letter from Northampton –

They all shall he there,

The great and the small:

For I shall shake hands

With the blessed St. Paul.

Doubtless so we shall. Whether dying young or old, whether departing after long service of Christ, or dying immediately after conversion as with the thief, of all the saints shall it be said in the words of the text, “They shall see his face.” What more can apostles and martyrs enjoy? Do you regret that your friends have departed? Do you lament that wife, and husband, and child, and father, and grandparent, have all entered into their rest? Be not so unkind, so selfish to yourself, so cruel to them. Nay, rather, soldier of the cross, be thankful that another has won the crown before you, and do you press forward to win it too. Life is but a moment: how short it will appear in eternity. Even here hope perceives it to be brief; and though impatience counts it long, yet faith corrects her, and reminds her that one hour with God will make the longest life to seem but a point of time, a mere nothing, a watch in the night, a thing that was and was not, that has come and gone.

So we will close our sermon by observing that they who see his face already make only a part of the great “they” who shall see his face, for many of us here below are on the way to the same reward. So many as have felt the burden of sin, and have come to the foot of the cross and looked to Jesus; so many as can say, He is all my salvation and all my desire;” so many as can serve him feeling that for them to live is Christ; so many as shall fight day by day against sin, and shall overcome through the blood of the Lamb; so many as by the eternal Spirit’s power shall be kept by faith unto salvation – so many shall see his face. It is mine to hope to see it, and it is yours too. Beloved, the hope shall not be disappointed, it maketh not ashamed; we shall see his face, and that vision shall yield us perfect bliss.

I fear my text is not true of all here assembled. Just this word with the unconverted: I am afraid you may almost say with Balaam, “I shall see him but not now, I shall behold him but not nigh.” For every eye shall see him, and they also which crucified him; and what will they say when they see him? These ungodly ones what will they do? They shall cry to the rocks, “Hide us;” and to the mountains, “Cover us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne.” Ah, my dear hearer, what a dreadful thing it will be if that very face which is the heaven of your mother, and the heaven of your husband, or the heaven of your wife and of your child, should be the hell to you from which you shall desire to be hidden. Now it must be the case unless first of all you seek his face on earth. Certain Greeks said to the disciples, “Sir, we would see Jesus.” I wish you bad that same desire this morning in a spiritual sense, for he himself has said, “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.” If you see him now by simple faith as your Savior, you shall see him at the last as your King, your Friend, your Beloved; but you must first see him to trust him here, or you shall not see him to rejoice in him hereafter.

Ye sinners, seek his grace,

Whose wrath ye cannot hear:

Fly to the shelter of his cross,

And find salvation there.

May God, even our own God, bless you for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Posted in C. H. Spurgeon |

The “Rest” of Heaven by Richard Baxter

January 17, 2010 by ADMIN

Let us draw near and see from the pure fountain of the Scriptures what excellencies the saints’ everlasting rest affords. May the Lord hide us in the clefts of the rock and cover us with the hands of indulgent grace while we approach to take this view. And may we put off from our feet the shoes of irreverence and fleshly thoughts while we stand upon this holy ground. These truths are like jewels in the Christian’s heavenly crown:

Heaven Will Be a Seasonable Rest. A further excellency is this: it will be unto us a seasonable rest. He who expects the fruit of His vineyard in season and makes His people as trees planted by the waters, fruitful in their season, He will also give them the crown in season. He that will have the words of joy spoken to the weary in season will sure cause that time of joy to appear in His perfect time.

They who knew the season of grace and did repent and believe in season shall also, if they faint not, reap in season. If God will not miss the season of common mercies, even to His enemies, but will give both the former and the latter rain in their season, and the appointed weeks of harvest in its season, and by inviolable covenant has established day and night in their seasons, then sure, the harvest of the saints and their day of gladness shall not miss its season.

He who has given the stork, the crane, and the swallow to know their appointed time will surely keep His time appointed. When we have had in this world a long night of sad darkness, will not the day breaking and the rising of the Sun of Righteousness be then seasonable? When we have endured a hard winter in this cold climate will not the reviving spring be then seasonable? When we have sailed (as Paul) slowly many days, and much time spent, and sailing now grown more dangerous; and when neither sun nor stars in many days appear, and no small tempest comes on us and all hope that we shall be saved is almost taken away—do you think that the haven of rest is not seasonable then?

When we have passed a long and tedious journey and that through no small dangers, is not home then seasonable? When we have had a long and perilous war, and have lived in the midst of furious enemies, and have been forced to stand on a perpetual watch, and received from them many a wound, would not a peace with victory be now seasonable? When we have been captivated in many years’ imprisonment, and insulted over by scornful foes, and suffered many pinching wants, and hardly enjoyed bare necessaries, would not a full deliverance to a most plentiful state, even from this prison to a throne, be now seasonable?

Surely, a man would think, who looks upon the face of the world, that rest should seem seasonable to all men. Some of us are languishing under continual weakness and groaning under most grievous pains, crying in the morning. “Would God it were evening!” and in the evening, “Would God it were morning!”—weary of going, weary of sitting, weary of standing, weary of lying, weary of eating, weary of speaking, weary of walking, weary of our very friends, weary of ourselves. Oh! how often has this been mine own case! And is not rest yet seasonable? Some are complaining under the pressure of the times; weary of their taxes, weary of their dwellings, weary of crime, weary of their fears and dangers, weary of their poverty and wants. And is not rest yet seasonable?

Where can you go and into what company can you come, where the voice of complaining does not show that men live in a continual weariness—but especially the saints, who are most weary of that which the world cannot feel? What godly society can you fall into, but you shall hear by their moans that something ails them? Some are weary because of a blind mind, doubting the way they walk, unsettled in almost all their thoughts. Some are weary because of a hard heart, some because of pride, some because of passion—and some from all these and much more. Some are weary because of their daily doubtings and fear concerning their spiritual estate; some because of a shortage of spiritual joys; and some because of the sense of God’s wrath. And is not rest now seasonable?

When a poor Christian has desired and prayed and waited for deliverance many a year, is it not then seasonable? When he is ready almost to give up, and saith, “I am afraid I shall not reach the end, and my faith and patience will not hold out,” is not this a fit season for rest? If the voice of the king were seasonable to Daniel, early in the morning calling him from his den, that he might advance him to more than former dignity, then surely that morning voice of Christ our King, calling us from our terrors among lions, to possess his rest among His saints, should be to us a very seasonable voice.

Now we are often grudging that we have not a greater share of comforts; that our deliverances are not more speedy and eminent; that the world prospers more than we; that our prayers are not presently answered. But our portion is kept to a fitter season. When the winter comes we shall have our harvest. We grudge that we do not find a Canaan in the wilderness or cities of rest in Noah’s Ark and the songs of Zion in a strange land; that we have not a harbor in the main ocean, or find not our home in the middle way, and are not crowned in the midst of the fight, and have not our rest in the heat of the day, and have not our inheritance before we are at age, and have not heaven before we leave the earth: and would not all this be very unreasonable?

I confess, in regard of the church’s service, the removing of the saints may sometimes appear to us unseasonable. I must confess it is one of my saddest thoughts, to reckon up the useful instruments, whom God has lately called out of His vineyard, when the loiterers are many, and the harvest great and very many congregations desolate, and the people as sheep without shepherds, and yet the laborers called from their work, especially when a door of liberty and opportunity is open. We cannot but lament so sore a judgment, and think the removal, in regard of the church, unseasonable.

But whatever it is to those that are left behind; yet the saints’ departure, to themselves, is usually seasonable.

Heaven Will Be a Suitable Rest. A further excellency of this rest is this: as it will be seasonable, so a suitable rest, suited to the natures, to the desires, and to the necessity of the saints.

To their natures. If suitableness concur not with excellency, the best things may be bad to us; for it is that which makes things good in themselves to be good to us. In our choice of friends, we often pass by the more excellent, to choose the more suitable. Every good agrees not with every nature. To live in a free and open air, under the warming rays of the sun, is excellent to man because suitable; but the fish, which is of another nature does rather choose another element; and that which is to us so excellent would quickly be to it destructive.

In heaven, suitableness and excellency will finally be conjoined. The new nature of saints suits their spirits to this rest; and indeed their holiness is nothing else but a spark taken from this element, and by the Spirit of Christ kindled in their hearts, the flame whereof, as mindful of its own divine original, ever mounts the soul aloft, and tends to the place from whence it comes. It works toward its own center, and makes us restless, till there we rest. Gold and earthly glory, temporal crowns and kingdoms, could not make a rest for saints. As they were not redeemed with so low a price, so neither are they endued with so low a nature. As God will have from them a spiritual worship, suitable to His own spiritual being, so will He provide them a spiritual rest, suitable to His people’s spiritual nature. As spirits have not fleshly substances, so neither delight they in fleshly pleasures; these are too gross and vile for them. A heaven of the knowledge of God and His Christ; a delightful contentment in that mutual love; an everlasting rejoicing in the fruition of our God; a perpetual singing of His high praises; this is heaven for a saint, a spiritual rest suitable to a spiritual nature. Were not our own nature in some sort divine, the enjoyment of the true divine nature could not be to us a suitable rest.

It is suitable also to the desires of the saints. As their natures, so will be their desires; and as their desires, so will be their rest. Indeed, we have now a mixed nature; and from contrary principles, do arise contrary desires; as they are flesh, they have desires of flesh; and as so they have sinful desires. These are not the desires that this rest is suited to for they will accompany them to their rest. But it is the desires of our renewed natures, and those which the Christian will ordinarily own which this rest is suited to. While our desires remain uncorrupted and misguided, it is a far greater mercy to deny them, yea, to destroy them, than to satisfy them; but those which are spiritual are of His own planting, and He will surely water them and give the increase. Is it so great a work to raise them in us, and shall they after all this vanish and fail?

He quickened our hungering and thirsting for righteousness, so that He might make us happy in a full satisfaction. Christian, this is a rest after your own heart. It contains all that your heart can wish; that which you long for, pray for, labor for, there you shall find it all. You would rather have God in Christ than all the world. There you shall have Him! What would you not give for assurance of His love? There you shall have assurance beyond suspicion. Nay, your desires cannot now extend to the height of what you shall there obtain.

The rest is very suitable to the saints’ necessities also as well as to their natures and desires. It contains whatsoever they truly wanted. It was Christ and perfected holiness which they most needed, and with these shall they here be principally supplied. The rain which Elijah’s prayer procured was not more seasonable, after the three years’ drought, than this rest will be to this thirsty soul.

Heaven Will Be Perfect in Every Way. Another excellency of our rest will be this, that it will be absolutely perfect and complete; and this both in the sincerity and universality of it. We shall then have joy without sorrow, and rest without weariness. As there is no mixture of corruption with our graces, so no mixture of sufferings with our solace. There are none of those waves in that harbor, which now so toss us up and down. There will be a universal perfecting of all our parts and powers, and a universal removal of all our evils. And though the positive part be the sweetest, and that which draws the other after it, even as the rising of the sun excludes the darkness; yet is not the negative part to be slighted, even our freedom, from so many and great calamities.

Heaven excludes nothing more directly than sin; whether original and of nature, or actual and of behavior. For there enters nothing that defiles, nor that works abomination, nor that makes a lie. When they are there, the saints are saints indeed. He that will wash them with His heart-blood, rather than suffer them to enter unclean, will now perfectly see to that; He who has undertaken to present them to His Father, “not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but perfectly holy, and without blemish,” will now most certainly perform His undertaking.

I know if it were offered to your choice, you wouldst rather choose to be freed from sin than to be made heir of all the world. Wait till then, and you shall have that desire: your hard heart, those vile thoughts that lay down and rose up with you, which accompanied you to every duty, which you could no more leave behind you than you could leave yourself behind, shall now be left behind forever. They might accompany you to death, but they cannot proceed a step farther.

Your understanding shall nevermore be troubled with darkness. Ignorance and error are inconsistent with this light. Now you walk like a man in the twilight, always afraid of being out of the way; but then will all this darkness be dispelled, and our blind understandings fully opened, and we shall have no more doubts of our way. We shall know which was the right side, and which the wrong; which was the truth, and which the error. What would we not give to see all dark Scriptures made plain, to see all seeming contradictions reconciled! When glory has taken the veil from our eyes, all this will be known in a moment; we shall then see clearly into all the controversies about doctrine or discipline that now perplex us. The poorest Christian is presently there a more perfect divine than any is here.

When our ignorance is perfectly healed, then we shall be settled, resolved men; then shall our reproach be taken from us, and we shall never change our judgments more. Oh! that happy, approaching day, when error shall vanish away forever; when our understanding shall be filled with God Himself, whose light will leave no darkness in us! His face shall be the Scripture, where we shall read the truth; and Himself, instead of teachers and counsels, to perfect our understandings, and acquaint us with Himself, who is the perfect truth. No more error, no more scandal to others, no more disquiet to our own spirits, no more mistaking zeal for falsehood; because our understandings have no more sin. Many a godly man has been a means to deceive and pervert his brethren, and when he sees his own error, cannot again tell how to undeceive them; but there we shall all conspire in one truth, as being one in Him who is that truth.

And as we shall rest from all the sin of our understandings, so of our wills, affection, and conversation. We shall no more retain this rebelling principle, which is still withdrawing us from God. Doubtless, we shall no more be oppressed with the power of our corruptions, nor vexed with their presence; no pride, passion, slothfulness, senselessness, shall enter with us; no strangeness to God, and the things of God; no coldness of affections, nor imperfection in our love; no uneven walking, nor grieving of the Spirit; no scandalous action, or unholy living. We shall rest from all these forever. Then shall our understandings receive light from the face of God, as the full moon from the open sun, where there is no earth to interpose between them; then shall our wills correspond to the divine will, as face answers to face in a glass; and the same, His will shall be our law and rule from which we shall never swerve again.

Heaven Is a Rest from Suffering. Heaven is a perfect rest from suffering. When the cause is gone, the effect ceases. Our sufferings were but the consequences of our sinning, and here they both shall cease together.

We shall rest from all our perplexing doubts and fears. It shall no more be said that doubts are like the thistle, a bad weed, but growing in good ground; they shall now be weeded out, and trouble the gracious soul no more. No more need of so many sermons, books, and signs to resolve the poor doubting soul. The full fruition of love itself will resolve all doubts forever.

We shall rest from all that sense of God’s displeasure, which was our greatest torment, whether manifested mediately or immediately. Sorrowful complaints will be turned into admiring thankfulness. All sense of God’s displeasure will be swallowed up in that ocean of infinite love when sense shall convince us that fury dwells not in God (cf. Isa. 27:4). Though for a little moment He hides His face, yet with everlasting compassion will He receive and embrace us.

We shall rest from all the temptations of Satan whereby he continually disturbs our peace. What a grief is it to a Christian, though he yield not to the temptation, yet to be still solicited to deny his Lord. That such a thought should be cast into his heart; that he can set about nothing that is good, but Satan is still dissuading him from it, distracting him in it, or discouraging him after it! What a torment as well as a temptation is it to have such horrid motions made to his soul!

Here we are too prone to entertain cruel thoughts of God, undervaluing thoughts of Christ, unbelieving thoughts of Scripture, injurious thoughts of Providence. We are so easily tempted to turn to present things, to play with the baits of sin, to venture on the delights of the flesh, and to consider atheism itself! We know the treachery of our own hearts that they are as tinder and gunpowder, ready to take fire, as soon as one of these sparks shall fall upon them. How the poor Christian lives in continual disquietness, to feel these motions! But more that his heart should be the soil for this seed and the too-fruitful mother of such an offspring. And, most of all, he is disquieted by the fear that they will at last prevail and these cursed motions should procure his consent.

But here is our comfort; as we now stand not by our own strength and shall not be charged with any of this; so when the day of our deliverance comes, we shall fully rest from these temptations. Satan is then bound up; the time of tempting is done. Now we do walk among his snares and are in danger of being circumvented with his methods and wiles; but then we are quite above his snares, and out of the hearing of his enticing charms. He has power here to tempt us in the wilderness, but he enters not into the Holy City. There will be no more work for Satan then.

We shall rest also from all our temptations which we now undergo from the world and the flesh, as well as Satan; and that is a number inexpressible, and a weight, were it not that we are beholden to supporting grace, utterly intolerable. Every sense is a snare; every member a snare; every creature a snare; every mercy a snare; and every duty a snare to us. We can scarce open our eyes, but we are in danger. If we behold them above us, we are in danger of envy; if below us, we are in danger of contempt. If we see sumptuous buildings, pleasant habitations, honor and riches we are in danger to be drawn away with covetous desires; if the rags and beggary of others, we are in danger of self-applauding thoughts and unmercifulness. If we see beauty, it is a bait to lust; if deformity, loathing and disdain.

We can scarcely hear a word spoken but contains to us a matter of temptation. How soon do slanderous reports, vain jests, wanton speeches, by that passage creep into the heart! How strong and prevalent a temptation is our appetite and how constant and strong a watch does it require! Have we comeliness and beauty? What fuel for pride. Are we deformed? What occasion of repining! Have we strength of reason, and gifts of learning? How hard it is not to be puffed up! To seek ourselves; to hunt after applause; to despise our brethren; to dislike the simplicity that is in Christ. Both in the matter and manner of Scripture, in doctrine, in discipline, in worship, and in the saints; to affect a pompous, specious, fleshly service of God, and to exalt reason above faith. Are we unlearned and of shallow heads and slender parts? How apt then to despise what we have not and to undervalue that which we do not know; and to err with confidence, because of our ignorance. Conceitedness and pride become a zealous enemy to truth and a leading troubler of the church’s peace, under pretenses of truth and holiness. Are we men of eminence and in place of authority? How strong is our temptation to slight our brethren, to abuse our trust, to seek ourselves, to stand upon our honor and privileges; to forget ourselves, our poor brethren, and the public good. How hard it is to devote our power to His glory from whom we have received it! How prone we are to make our wills our law and to cut out all the enjoyments of others, both religious and civil, by the cursed rules and model of our own interest and policy! Are we inferiors and subject? How prone to judge at others’ pre-eminence, and to take liberty to bring all their actions to the bar of our incompetent judgment; and to censure and slander them, and murmur at their proceedings! Are we rich and not too much exalted? Are we poor and not discontented, and make our worldly necessities a pretense for robbing God of all His service?

But forever blessed be omnipotent love which saves us out of all these and makes our straits but the advantages of the glory of His saving grace. In heaven the danger and trouble is over; there is nothing but what will advance our joy.

As we rest from the temptations, so also from all the abuses and persecutions which we suffer at the hands of wicked men. We shall be scorned, derided, imprisoned, banished, and butchered by them no more. The prayers of the souls under the altar will then be answered and God will avenge their blood on these that dwell on the earth. This is the time for crowning with thorns, buffeting, spitting on; that will be the time for crowning with glory.

Now we must be hated of all men for Christ’s name’s sake, and the gospel; then will Christ be admired in His saints that were thus hated. Now because we are not of the world, therefore doth the world hate us; then, because we are not of the world, therefore will the world admire us. Now, as they hated Christ, they will also hate us; then, as they will honor Christ, so will they also honor us. When their flood of persecution is dried up, and the church called out of the wilderness, and the New Jerusalem come down from heaven, and mercy and justice are fully glorified, then shall we feel their fury no more. We leave all this behind us when once we enter the City of our Rest: the names of Lollard, Huguenots, Roundheads are not there used; the inquisition of Spain is there condemned; the statute of the Six Articles is there repealed. There are no Bishops’ or Chancellor’s Courts; no visitations nor High Commission judgments; no censures to loss of members, perpetual imprisonment, or banishment. Christ is not there clothed in a mock robe and blindfolded. Nor is truth clothed in the robes of error and smitten for that which it most directly contradicts. Nor is a schismatic wounded, and a saint found bleeding; nor our friends smite us, mistaking us for their enemies. There is none of all this blind, mad work there.

Till then possess your souls in patience; bind all reproaches as a crown to our heads; esteem them greater riches than the world’s treasures; account it a matter of joy when you fall into tribulation. You have seen in these days that our God can deliver us; but this is nothing to our final conquest. He will recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; and to you who are troubled rest with Christ.

We shall then also rest from our sad divisions, and unchristian quarrels with one another. There is no contention, because none of this pride, ignorance, or other corruption. Paul and Barnabas are now fully reconciled. There they are, not every man conceited of his own understanding and in love with the issue of his own brain, but all admiring the divine perfection, and in love with God and one another. Luther and Zwingli will be agreed. There shall be a full reconciliation between Calvinists and Lutherans; Remonstrants and Contra-remonstrants; Conformists and Nonconformists. Antinomians and Legalists are terms there not known: Presbyterians and Independents are perfectly agreed. There is no discipline erected by state policy, nor any disordered popular rule; no government but that of Christ!

And is it not shame that our course is now so contrary? Is it not enough that all the world is against us, but we must also be against one another? Did I ever think to have heard Christians so to reproach and scorn Christians; and men professing the fear of God to make so little conscience of censuring, vilifying, slandering and disgracing one another? Alas! Once discernment has been perverted and error has possessed the supreme faculty, where will men go and what will they do? Nay! What will they not do? Oh, what a potent instrument for Satan is a misguided conscience! Today they may be orthodox, unanimous, and joined in love, and perhaps within a few weeks will be divided, and at bitter enmity, through their doting about questions that tend not to edify.

Oh happy day of the rest of the saints in glory when as there is one God, one Christ, one Spirit, so we shall have one judgment, one heart, one church, one employment forever! When there will be no more circumcision and uncircumcision, Jew and Gentile, Anabaptist, Paedobaptist, Brownist, Separatist, Independent, Presbyterian, Episcopal: but Christ is All in All. We shall not there scruple our communion, nor any of the ordinances of divine worship. There will not be one for singing and another against it. But even those who have jarred in discord shall all conjoin in blessed concord and make one melodious choir.

We shall then rest from all the sorrowful hours and sad thoughts we now undergo, by participating with our brethren in their calamities. Alas! If we had nothing upon ourselves to trouble us, yet what heart could lay aside sorrows that live in the sound of the church’s sufferings? The church on earth is a mere hospital. Whichever way we go, we hear complaining, and into whatsoever corner we cast our eyes, we behold objects of pity and grief. Who weeps not when all these bleed? As now our friends’ distresses are our distresses, so then our friends’ deliverance will be part of our own deliverance. How much more comfortable to see them perfected than now to see them wounded, weak, sick and afflicted? Our day of rest will free both them and us from all this.

Oh, the sad and heart-piercing spectacles that my eyes have seen in four years’ space! In this fight [The English Civil War], scarce a month, scarce a week, without the sight or noise of blood. Surely there is none of this in heaven. Our black raiment and mourning attire will then be turned into the white robes and garments of gladness. How hardly can my heart now hold when I think of such, and such, and such a dear Christian friend slain or departed! How glad must the same heart needs be when I see them all alive and glorified!

But a far greater grief it is to our spirits, to see the spiritual miseries of our brethren; to see our dearest and most intimate friends to be turned aside from the truth of Christ; to see many near us in the flesh continue their neglect of Christ and their souls. Oh, what continual sorrows do all these sad sights and thoughts fill our hearts with from day to day! And will it not be a blessed day when we shall rest from all these? What heart is not wounded to think on Germany’s long desolations [from the Hundred Years Wars–wars between the Catholics and Protestants after the Reformation]? Look on England’s four years’ blood, a flourishing land almost made ruined! Look to Scotland, look to Ireland; look almost everywhere! Blessed be that approaching day, when our eyes shall behold no more such sights nor our ears hear any more such tidings!

We shall rest also from all our personal sufferings, whether natural or ordinary, or extraordinary, from the afflicting hand of God. And though this may seem a small thing to those who live in continual ease, and abound in all kind of prosperity, yet, to the daily afflicted soul, it should make all thoughts of heaven delightful. As all our senses are the inlets of sin, so are they become the inlets of our sorrow. Grief creeps in at our eyes, at our ears, and almost everywhere. Fears do devour us, and darken our delights, as the frosts nip the tender buds, our cares consume us, and feed upon our spirits, as the scorching sun withers the delicate flowers. What tender pieces are these dusty bodies! What brittle glasses do we bear about us; and how many thousand dangers are they hurried through, and how hardly cured if once cracked!

Whatever it is to the sound and healthful, to such as myself this rest should be acceptable, who in ten or twelve years’ time have scarce had a whole day free from some sorrow. Oh, the weary nights and days; oh, the unserviceable, languishing weakness; oh, the restless working vapors; oh, the tedious, nauseous medicines, beside the daily expectation of worse! Will it not be desirable to rest from all these? Oh, the blessed tranquility of that region where there is nothing but sweet continued peace! Our lives will be but one joy, as our time will be changed into one eternity. For it shall come to pass, that in that day the Lord shall give us rest from our sorrow, and our fear, and from the hard bondage wherein we served. The poor man shall no more be tired with his incessant labors: no more use of the plough, or flail, or scythe, or sickle; no stooping of the servant to the master, or the tenant to the landlord; no hunger, or thirst, or cold, or nakedness; no pinching frosts or scorching heats. No more parting of friends asunder, nor voice of lamentation heard in our dwellings; no more breaches nor disproportion will be in our friendship, nor any trouble accompanying our relations.

Then shall the “the ransomed of the Lord … return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away” (Isa. 35:10). Hold out then a little longer, oh, my soul; bear with the infirmities of thine earthly tabernacle. It will be thus but a little while; the sound of our Redeemer’s feet are even at the door and your own deliverance nearer than many others. And you who have often cried shall then feel that God and joy fill all your soul. The fruition of heaven, with your freedom from all these sorrows, will more sincerely and feelingly make you know, and to His eternal praise acknowledge, that you live.

We shall rest also from all the trouble and pain of duty. The conscientious magistrate now cries out, “Oh, the burden that lies upon me!” The conscientious parents, who know the preciousness of their children’s souls and the constant pains required to their godly education, cry out, “Oh, the burden!” The conscientious minister when he reads his charge and views his pattern; when he has tried awhile what it is to study, and pray and preach; to go from house to house, and from neighbor to neighbor, and to beseech them night and day with tears, and, after all, be hated and persecuted for so doing—no wonder if he cries out, “Oh, the burden!”

And seldom does a minister live to see the ripeness of his people. But one sows and plants, another waters, and a third reaps and receives the increase. To inform the old ignorant sinner, to convince the stubborn and worldly wise, to persuade a willful, resolved wretch, to prick a stony heart to the quick, to make a rock to weep and tremble, to set forth Christ according to our necessity and His excellency, to comfort the soul whom God dejects, to clear up dark and difficult truths, to oppose with convincing arguments all gainsayers, to credit the gospel with exemplary conversations, when multitudes do but watch for our halting. Oh, who is sufficient for these things? So that every conscientious Christian cries out, “Oh, the burden! Oh, my weakness that makes it so burdensome!” But our eternal rest will ease us of the burden.

Lastly, we shall rest from all those sad affections which necessarily accompany our absence from God. We shall no more look into our cabinet and miss our treasure; look into our hearts and miss our Christ; nor no more seek Him from ordinance to ordinance, and inquire for our God of those we meet. Our heart will not lie in our knee, nor our souls be breathed out in our request, but all conclude in a most full and blessed fruition.

Heaven Is an Eternal Rest. The last jewel in our crown and blessed attribute of this rest is that it is an eternal rest. This is the crown of our crown without which all were comparatively little or nothing. The very thought of once leaving it would else embitter all our joys; and the more would it pierce us because of the singular excellencies which we must forsake.

Mortality is the disgrace of all sublunary delights. It makes our present life of little value—were it not for the reference it has to God and eternity—to think that we must shortly lay it down. Surely, were it not for eternity, I should think man a silly piece; and all his life and honor but contemptible; a vain shadow. I can value nothing that shall have an end, except as it leads to that which has no end; or as it comes from that love which has neither beginning nor end.

What do I say when I talk of eternity? Can my shallow thoughts conceive at all what that most high expression contains? To be eternally blessed, and so blessed! Why, surely this, if anything, is the resemblance of God: eternity is a piece of infiniteness. Oh, then, my soul, let go thy dreams of present pleasures and loose thy hold of earth and flesh. Fear not to enter that estate where thou shalt ever after cease thy fears. Sit down and think about this eternity. Study frequently, study thoroughly, this one word: eternity. And when you have learned thoroughly that one word, you will never look on books again! What! live, and never die? Rejoice, and ever rejoice! Oh, what sweet words are those, never and ever.

Oh, that the gracious soul would believingly study this word everlasting. That should revive him in his deepest agony! Must I, Lord, thus live forever? Then will I also love forever. Must my joys be immortal; and shall not my thanks be also immortal? Surely, if I shall never lose my glory, I will also never cease Thy praises. If Thou wilt both perfect and perpetuate me and my glory, as I shall be Thine, and not my own, so shall my glory be Thy glory. And as all did take their spring from Thee, so shall all devolve into Thee again; and as Thy glory was Thine ultimate end in my glory, so shall it also be mine when Thou hast crowned me with that glory which has no end. And unto Thee, “eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.” (1 Tim. 1:17).

Posted in Richard Baxter |

Many Mansions by Jonathan Edwards

January 17, 2010 by ADMIN

In My Father’s house are many mansions. John 14:2

In these words may be observed two things,

1. The thing described, viz. Christ’s Father’s house. Christ spoke to his disciples in the foregoing chapter as one that was about to leave them. He told them, John 13:31, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him,” and then goes to giving of them counsel to live in unity and love one another, as one that was going from them. By which they seemed somewhat surprised and hardly knew what to make of it. And one of them, Peter, asked him where he was going, John 13:36, “Simon Peter said unto him, Lord whither goest thou?” Christ did not directly answer and tell him where he was going, but he signifies where in these words afterwards; in John 14:12, he tells them plainly that he was going to his Father.

2. We may observe the description given of it that in it there are many mansions. The disciples seemed very sorrowful at the news of Christ’s going away, but Christ comforts them that in his Father’s house there was not only room for him, but room for them too; there were many mansions. There was not only a mansion there for him, but there were mansions enough for them all. There was room enough in heaven for them. When the disciples perceived that Christ was going away, they manifested a great desire to go with him, particularly Peter. Peter in the latter part of the foregoing chapter (John 13:36-38) asked him [if] he might follow him. Christ told him that whither he went he could not follow him now, but that he should follow him afterwards. But Peter, not content with Christ, seemed to have a great mind to follow him now. “Lord,” says he, “why cannot I follow thee now?” So that the disciples had a great mind still to be with Christ, and Christ in the words, of the text, intimates that they shall be with him. Christ signifies to them that he was going home to his Father’s house, and he encourages them that they shall be with him there in due time for there were many mansions there. There was a mansion provided not only for him, but for them all; and not only for them, but for all that should ever believe in him to the end of the world. And though he went before, he only went to prepare a place for them that should follow.

The text is a plain sentence; ’tis therefore needless to press any doctrine in other words from it: so that I shall build my discourse on the words of the text. There are two propositions contained in the words:

I. That heaven is God’s house, and

II. That in this house of God there are many mansions.

Proposition I. Heaven is God’s house. A house of public worship is a house where God’s people meet from time to time to attend on God’s ordinances and that is set apart for that and is called God’s house. The temple of Solomon was called God’s house. God was represented as dwelling there. There he has his throne in the holy of holies, even the mercy seat over the ark and between the cherubims.

Sometimes the whole universe is represented in Scripture as God’s house, built with various stories one above another: Amos 9:6, “It is he that buildeth his stories in the heaven;” and Psa. 104:3, “Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters.” But the highest heaven is especially represented in Scripture as the house of God. As to other parts of the creation, God hath appointed them to inferior uses; but this part he has reserved for himself for his own abode.

We are told that the heavens are the Lord’s, but the earth he hath given to the sons of men. God, though he is everywhere present, is represented both in Old Testament and New as being in heaven in a special and peculiar manner. Heaven is the temple of God. Thus, we read of God’s temple in heaven, Rev. 15:5. Solomon’s temple was [only] a type of heaven. The apostle Paul in his epistle to the Hebrews does from time to time call heaven the holy of holies, as being the antitype not only of the temple of Solomon, but of the most holy place in that temple, which was the place of God’s most immediate residence: Heb. 9:12, “He entered in once into the holy place;” verse 24, “For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true, but into heaven itself.”

Houses where assemblies [of] Christians worship God are, in some respects, figures of this house of God above. When God is worshipped in them in spirit and truth, they become the outworks of heaven and as it were its gates. As in houses of public worship here there are assemblies of Christians meeting to worship God; so in heaven there is a glorious assembly, or Church, continually worshipping God: Heb. 12:22, 23, “But ye are come unto mount Zion, [and unto] the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, that are written in heaven.”

Heaven is represented in Scripture as God’s dwelling-house; Psa. 113:5, “Who is like [unto] the Lord our God, who dwelleth on high,” and Psa. 123:1, “Unto thee I lift up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens.” Heaven is God’s palace. ’Tis the house of the great King of the universe; there he has his throne, which is therefore represented as his house or temple; Psa. 11:4, “The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord’s throne is in heaven.”

Heaven is the house where God dwells with his family. God is represented in Scripture as having a family; and though some of this family are now on earth, yet in so being they are abroad and not at home, but all going home: Eph. 3:15, “Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.” Heaven is the place that God has built for himself and his children. God has many children and the place designed for them is heaven. Therefore the saints, being the children of God, are said to be of the household of God, Eph. 2:19: “Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God.” God is represented as a householder or head of a family and heaven is his house. Heaven is the house not only where God hath his throne, but also where he doth, as it were, keep his table, where his children sit down with him at his table and where they are feasted in a royal manner becoming the children of so great a King: Luke 22:30, “That ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom;” Mat. 26:29, “But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”

God is the King of kings and heaven is the place where he keeps his court. There are his angels and archangels, as the nobles of his court, do attend upon him.

Proposition II. There are many mansions in the house of God. By many mansions is meant many seats or places of abode. As it is a king’s palace, there are many mansions. Kings’s houses are wont to be built very large, with many stately rooms and apartments. So there are many mansions in God’s house.

When this is spoken of heaven, it is chiefly to be understood in a figurative sense, and the following things seem to be taught us in it.

First, there is room in this house of God for great numbers. There is room in heaven for a vast multitude, yea, room enough for all mankind that are or ever shall be; Luke 14:22, “Lord it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room.”

It is not with the heavenly temple as it often is with houses of public worship in this world, that they fill up and become too small and scanty for those that would meet in them, so that there is not convenient room for all. There is room enough in our heavenly Father’s house. This is partly what Christ intended in the words of the text, as is evident from the occasion of his speaking them. The disciples manifested a great desire to be where Christ was, and Christ therefore, to encourage them that it should be as they desired, tells them that in his Father’s house where he was going were many mansions, i.e., room enough for them.

There is mercy enough in God to admit an innumerable multitude into heaven. There is mercy enough for all; and there is merit enough in Christ to purchase heavenly happiness for millions of millions, for all men that ever were, are, or shall be. And there is a sufficiency in the fountain of heaven’s happiness to supply and fill and satisfy all. And there is in all respects enough for the happiness of all.

Second, there are sufficient and suitable accommodations for all the different sorts of persons that are in the world: for great and small, for high and low, rich and poor, wise and unwise, bond and free, persons of all nations and all conditions and circumstances, for those that have been great sinners as well as for the moral, for weak saints and those that are babes in Christ, as well as for those that are stronger and more grown in grace. There is in heaven a sufficiency for the happiness of every sort; there is a convenient accommodation for every creature that will hearken to the calls of the Gospel. None that will come to Christ (let his condition be what it will) need to fear that Christ will provide a place suitable for him in heaven.

This seems to be another thing implied in Christ’s words. The disciples were persons of very different condition from Christ: he was their Master, and they were his disciples; he was their Lord, and they were the servants; he was their Guide, and they were the followers; he was their Captain, and they the soldiers; he was the Shepherd, and they the sheep; [he was, as it were, the] Father, [and they the] children; he was the glorious, holy Son of God, and they were the poor, sinful, corrupt men. But yet, though they were in such different circumstances from him, yet Christ encourages them that there shall not only be room in heaven for him, but for them too; for there were many mansions there. There was not only a mansion to accommodate the Lord, but the disciples also; not only the head, but the members; not only the Son of God, but those that are naturally poor, sinful, corrupt men: as in a king’s palace there is not only a mansion or room of state built for the king himself and for his eldest son and heir, but there are many rooms, mansions for all his numerous household, children, attendants and servants.

Third, it is further implied that heaven is a house that was actually built and prepared for a great multitude. When God made heaven in the beginning of the world, he intended it for an everlasting dwelling-place for a vast and innumerable multitude. When heaven was made, it was intended and prepared for all those particular persons that God had from eternity designed to save: Mat. 25:34, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” And that is a very great and innumerable multitude: Rev. 7:9, “After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and peoples, and tongues, stood before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes.” Heaven being built designedly for these was built accordingly; it was built so as most conveniently to accommodate all this multitude: as a house that is built for a great family is built large and with many rooms in it; as a palace that is built for a great king that keeps a great court with many attendants is built exceeding great with a great many apartments; and as an house of public worship that is built for a great congregation is built very large with many seats in it.

Fourth, when it is said, “In my father’s house are many mansions,” it is meant that there are seats of various dignity and different degrees and circumstances of honor and happiness. There are many mansions in God’s house because heaven is intended for various degrees of honor and blessedness. Some are designed to sit in higher places there than others; some are designed to be advanced to higher degrees of honor and glory than others are; and, therefore, there are various mansions, and some more honorable mansions and seats, in heaven than others. Though they are all seats of exceeding honor and blessedness, yet some are more so than others.

Thus a palace is built. Though every part of the palace is magnificent as becomes the palace of a king, yet there are many apartments of various honor, and some are more stately and costly than others, according to the degree of dignity. There is one apartment that is the king’s presence-chamber; there are other apartments for the next heir to the crown; there are others for other children; and others for their attendants and the great officers of the household: one for the high steward, and another for the chamberlain, and others for meaner officers and servants.

Another image of this was in Solomon’s temple. There were many mansions of different degrees of honor and dignity. There was the holy of holies where the ark was that was the place of God’s immediate residence, where the high priest alone might come; and there was another apartment called the holy place, where the other priests might come; and next to that was the inner court of the temple, where the Levites were admitted: and there they had many chambers or mansions built for lodging-rooms for the priests; and next to that was the court of Israel where the people of Israel might come; and next to that was the court of the Gentiles where the Gentiles, those that were called the “Proselytes of the Gate,” might come. And we have an image of this in houses built for the worship of Christian assemblies. In such houses of God, there are many seats of different honor and dignity, from the most honorable to the most inferior of the congregation.

Not that we are to understand the words of Christ so much in a literal sense, as that every saint in heaven was to have a certain seat or room or place of abode where he was to be locally fixed. ’Tis not the design of the Scriptures to inform us much about the external circumstances of heaven or the state of heaven locally considered; but we are to understand what Christ says chiefly in a spiritual sense. Persons shall be set in different degrees of honor and glory in heaven, as is abundantly manifested in Scripture: which may fitly be represented to our imaginations by there being different seats of honor, as it was in the temple, as it is in kings’ courts. Some seats shall be nearer the throne than others. Some shall sit next to Christ in glory: Mat. 20:23, “To sit on my right hand and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father.”

Christ has doubtless respect to these different degrees of glory in the text. When he was going to heaven and the disciples were sorrowful at the thoughts of parting with their Lord, he lets them know that there are seats or mansions of various degrees of honor in his Father’s house, that there was not only one for him, who was the Head of the Church and the elder brother, but also for them that were his disciples and younger brethren.

Christ also may probably have respect not only to different degrees of glory in heaven but different circumstances. Though the employment and happiness of all the heavenly assembly shall in the general be the same, yet ’tis not improbable that there may be circumstantial difference. We know what their employment [is] in general, but not in particular. We know not how one may be employed to subserve and promote the happiness of another, and all to help one another. Some may there be set in one place for one office or employment, and others [in] another, as ’tis in the Church on earth. God hath set every one in the body as it hath pleased him; one is the eye, another the ear, another the head, etc. But because God has not been pleased expressly to reveal how it shall be in this respect, therefore I shall not insist upon it, but pass to make some IMPROVEMENT of what has been offered.

I. Here is encouragement for sinners that are concerned and exercised for the salvation of their souls, such as are afraid that they shall never go to heaven or be admitted to any place of abode there, and are sensible that they are hitherto in a doleful state and condition in that they are out of Christ, and so have no right to any inheritance in heaven, but are in danger of going to hell and having their place of eternal abode fixed there. You may be encouraged by what has been said, earnestly to seek heaven; for there are many mansions there. There is room enough there. Let your case be what it will, there is suitable provision there for you. And if you come to Christ, you need not fear that he will prepare a place for you. He’ll see to it that you shall be well accommodated in heaven.

But II. I would improve this doctrine in a twofold exhortation.

First, let all be hence exhorted earnestly to seek that they may be admitted to a mansion in heaven. You have heard that this is God’s house; it is his temple. If David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah and in the land of Geshur and of the Philistines, so longed that he might again return into the land of Israel that he might have a place in the house of God here on earth, and prized a place there so much, though it was but that of a door-keeper, how great a happiness will it be to have a place in this heavenly temple of God! If they are looked upon as enjoying a high privilege that have a seat appointed them in kings’ courts or in apartments in kings’ palaces, especially those that have an abode there in the quality of the king’s children, then how great a privilege will it be to have an apartment or mansion assigned to us in God’s heavenly palace, and to have a place there as his children! How great is their glory and honor that are admitted to be of the household of God!

And seeing there are many mansions there, mansions enough for us all, our folly will be the greater if we neglect to seek a place in heaven, having our minds foolishly taken up about the worthless, fading things of this world. Here consider three things:

1. How little a while you can have any mansion or place of abode in this world. Now you have a dwelling amongst the living. You have a house or mansion of your own, or at least one that is at present for your use, and now you have a seat in the house of God; but how little a while will this continue! In a very little while and the place that now knows you in this world will know you no more. The habitation you have here will be empty of you; you will be carried dead out of it, or shall die at a distance from it, and never enter into it any more, or into any other abode in this world. Your mansion or place of abode in this world, however convenient or commodious it may be, is but as a tent that shall soon be taken down, but a lodge in a garden of cucumbers. Your stay is as it were but for a night. Your body itself is but a house of clay which will quickly molder and tumble down, and you shall have no other habitation here in this world but the grave.

Thus God in his providence is putting you in mind by the repeated instances of death that have been in the town within the two weeks past, both in one house: in which death he has shown his dominion over old and young. The son was taken away first before the father, being in his full strength and flower of his days; and the father, who was then well and having no appearance of approaching death, followed in a few days: and their habitation and their seat in the house of God in this world will know them no more.

Take warning by these warnings of Providence to improve your time that you may have a mansion in heaven. We have a house of worship newly created amongst us which now you have a seat in, and probably are pleased with the ornaments of it; and though you have a place in so comely a house, yet you know not how little a while you shall have a place in this house of God. Here are a couple snatched away by death that had met in it but a few times, that have been snatched out of it before it was fully finished and never will have any more a seat in it. You know not how soon you may follow, and then of great importance will it be to you to have a seat in God’s house above. Both of the persons lately deceased were much on their death-beds warning others to improve their precious time. The first of them was much in expressing his sense of the vast importance of an interest in Christ, as I was a witness, and was earnest in calling on others to improve their time, to be thorough, to get an interest in Christ, and seemed very desirous that young people might receive council and warning from him, as the words of a dying man, to do their utmost to make sure of conversion; and a little before he died left a request to me that I would warn the young people in his room. God had been warning of you in his death and the death of his father that so soon followed. The words of dying persons should be of special weight with us, for then they are in circumstances wherein they are most capable to look on things as they are and judge aright of them, — between both worlds as it were. Still that we must all be in.

Let our young people, therefore, take warning from hence, and don’t be such fools as to neglect seeking a place and mansion in heaven. Young persons are especially apt to be taken with the pleasing things of this world. You are now, it may be, much pleased with hopes of your future circumstances in this world; [and you are now, it may be, much] pleased with the ornaments of that house of worship that you with others have a place in. But, alas, do you not too little consider how soon you may be taken away from all these things, and no more forever have any part in any mansion or house or enjoyment or happiness under the sun? Therefore let it be your main care to secure an everlasting habitation for hereafter.

2. Consider when you die, if you have no mansion in the house of God in heaven, you must have your place of abode in the habitation of devils. There is no middle place between them, and when you go hence, you must go to one or the other of these. Some have a mansion prepared for them in heaven from the foundation [of the world]; others are sent away as cursed into everlasting burnings prepared for the [devil and his angels]. Consider how miserable those must be that shall have their habitation with devils to all eternity. Devils are foul spirits; God’s great enemies. Their habitation is the blackness of darkness; a place of the utmost filthiness, abomination, darkness, disgrace and torment. O, how would you rather ten thousand times have no place of abode at all, have no being, than to have a place [with devils]?

3. If you die unconverted, you will have the worse place in hell for having had a seat or place in God’s house in this world. As there are many mansions, places of different degrees of honor in heaven, so there are various abodes and places or degrees of torment and misery in hell; and those will have the worst place there that [dying unconverted, have had the best place in God’s house here]. Solomon speaks of a peculiarly awful sight that he had seen, that of a wicked man buried that had gone [from the place of the holy], Eccl. 8:10. Such as have had a seat in God’s house, have been in a sense exalted up to heaven, set on the gate of heaven, if they die unconverted, shall be cast down to hell.

Second, the second exhortation that I would offer from what has been said is to seek a high place in heaven. Seeing there are many mansions of different degrees of honor and dignity in heaven, let us seek to obtain a mansion of distinguished glory. ’Tis revealed to us that there are different degrees of glory to that end that we might seek after the higher degrees. God offered high degrees of glory to that end, that we might seek them by eminent holiness and good works: 2 Cor. 9:6, “He that sows sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he that soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.” It is not becoming persons to be over anxious about an high seat in God’s house in this world, for that is the honor that is of men. But we can’t too earnestly seek after an high seat in God’s house above, by seeking eminent holiness, for that is the honor that is of God.

’Tis very little worth the while for us to pursue after honor in this world, where the greatest honor is but a bubble and will soon vanish away, and death will level all. Some have more stately houses than others, and some are in higher office than others, and some are richer than others and have higher seats in the meeting-house than others; but all graves are upon a level. One rotting, putrefying corpse is as ignoble as another; the worms are as bold with one carcass as another.

But the mansions in God’s house above are everlasting mansions. Those that have seats allotted them there, whether of greater or lesser dignity, whether nearer or further from the throne, will hold them to all eternity. This is promised; Rev. 3:12, “Him that overcometh I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out.” If it be worth the while to desire and seek high seats in the meeting-house, where you are one day in a week, and where you shall never come but few days in all; if it be worth the while much to prize one seat above another in the house of worship only because it is the pew or seat that is ranked first in number, and to be seen here for a few days, how will it be worth the while to seek an high mansion in God’s temple and in that glorious place that is the everlasting habitation of God and all his children! You that are pleased with your seats in this house because you are seated high or in a place that is looked upon honorable by those that sit round about, and because many can behold you, consider how short a time you will enjoy this pleasure. And if there be any that are not suited in their seats because they are too low for them, let them consider that it is but a very little while before it will [be] all one to you whether you have sat high or low here. But it will be of infinite and everlasting concern to you where your seat is in another world. Let your great concern be while in this world so to improve your opportunities in God’s house in this world, whether you sit high or low, as that you may have a distinguished and glorious mansion in God’s house in heaven, where you may be fixed in your place in that glorious assembly in an everlasting rest.

Let the main thing that we prize in God’s house be, not the outward ornaments of it, or a high seat in it, but the Word of God and his ordinances in it. And spend your time here in seeking Christ that he may prepare a place for you in his Father’s house, that when he comes again to this world, he may take you to himself, that where he is, there you may be also.

Dated December 25, 1737. The Sabbath after the seating of the New Meeting House.

Posted in Jonathan Edwards |

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