WHERE BELIEVERS SPEND ETERNITY

Theme: “Those who receive Jesus Christ become children of God and will have the privilege of living with Him forever in a new earth.”

John 1:12-13:
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become the children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

While everyone is a creation of God, only Christians are children of God. If we were all children of God in His eyes, the Scripture above would be a lie, because it says that those who receive Jesus Christ become the children of God.  If I were a doctor, it would be senseless to tell me that I could do something to become a doctor. There is no need to become what you are already are.

As you can see, John is talking about being born again in the passage above. Just being born on the earth is not enough to make you a child of God – you must be born again – born of God.

The world in general likes to propagate platitudes about us all being children of God, and this same theme usually results in some nonsense about all religions being equally valid. As we saw in the previous lesson, there is only one true religion, and it is Christianity. Every other religion is a Christ-denying lie that sends its adherents to hell.

If you are not a Christian, you are not a child of God.  You are a child of the devil and he has the right to lord it over you. This doesn’t mean that the devil created you, but it means that he has the rights to your life because of your sin. There is no middle ground. If you have not chosen to follow Jesus, you have by default chosen to be under the sway of the wicked one. It is like a Windows dialog box where one choice is the default.  The choices are Life and Death, but Death is the default, and that is the selection you get unless you explicitly choose Life.

1 John 5:19: We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.

Jesus told the Pharisees:

John 8:44:
You are of your father the devil…

So we see that Jesus did not consider all men to be children of God either.  He taught about a loving heavenly Father, but according to the Bible, you do not have the Father if you deny the Son:

1 John 2:23:
Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.

Once you have received Jesus Christ, it is important to understand that your standing with God is based on who you are, not what you do. You have a relationship with Him because He is your Father.

When I was younger, I did things that brought embarrassment and shame to my dad. However, I did not cease being his son just because I did those things. My “fellowship” with him was broken at times when I was spanked and sent to my room, but my relationship was never changed.  What I did never changed who I was – I was his son.

There are things you can do that affect your fellowship with God that don’t change your relationship with God. If you go out and sin on purpose, you will not be able to pray effectively until you repent.  But that does not stop God from being your Father.  Unless you reject Christ after receiving Him, God is still your Father.

The prodigal son’s father was just as much his father when he lived loose in another place as when he lived at home. He was out of communication with his father, but that did not change who he was.

Your admittance to heaven and your eternal life is based solely on who you are – part of God’s family – not on what you do. You do not have to worry about whether or not God will give you eternal life when you die because God isn’t going to give you eternal life when you die! You have it now if you are a Christian.

John 5:24:
Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgement, but has passed from death to life.

If you know Jesus, you go to heaven, and then you go somewhere else! While it is not a catastrophe to refer to “living forever in heaven with the Lord,” the statement is theologically inaccurate.  You actually spend eternity with the new earth as your home, not “heaven”. Heaven is somewhere you visit after you die or get raptured. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.  There is no “soul sleep” or any other such thing between the time you die and time you see the Lord where He is.

The new earth will look a lot like the current one, except there will be no sin, wars, devil, death, and so on. You will not spend eternity bored out of your mind sitting on a cloud playing a harp.  The new earth will be the most exciting place you could be!  Actually, it’s the alternative that’s boring because there’s nothing to do there!

2 Corinthians 5:6-8:
So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord.  For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.

Philippians 1:23:
For I am hard pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.

The earth as we know it will be replaced with a better one.  Your final home will be the new Jerusalem, the new holy city, not the place we call heaven today.

Revelation 21:1:
Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away.  Also there was no more sea.

Revelation 21:2-4:
Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people.  God Himself will be with them and be their God.  And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying.  There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.

This new city is the bride of Christ.  You may have been taught that the Body of Christ is the Bride of Christ, but Scripture says otherwise. You get to go to the marriage supper, but you are not the bride.

Revelation 21:9-10:
Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me and talked with me, saying, “Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife.  And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God…

Revelation 22:17:
And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!”  And let him who hears say, “Come!”  And let him who thirsts come.  Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.

If you (one of the “him who hears”) were the bride, the verse above doesn’t make much sense.

Now I wouldn’t “go to the mat” with another believer on this issue; if someone wants to believe that the Church is the bride of Christ, that’s not going to result in anyone going to hell over it, so no big deal. In fact, if someone says you’ll be in heaven forever, that’s not really worth starting World War III over either, since you would both agree that you will be living forever in paradise with no sickness, pain or sorrow.

However, to be technically correct, this new earth and its city are where you will be forever.

Revelation 21:23-24:
The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it.  The Lamb is its light. And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it.

Revelation 22:3:
And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him.

Revelation 22:19:
And if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

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