88. Benefits Of Heaven Series

IN GOD'S IMAGE 88 - BENEFITS OF HEAVEN

This message is part of a series of 90 sermons based on the title, “In God’s Image – God’s Purpose for humanity.” This series of free sermons or the equivalent free book format is designed to take the reader through an amazing process beginning with God in prehistory and finishing with humanity joining God in eternity as His loving sons and daughters. It is at times, a painful yet fascinating story, not only for humanity, but also for God. As the sermons follow a chronological view of the story of salvation, it is highly recommend they be presented in numerical order rather than jumping to the more “interesting” or “controversial” subjects as the material builds on what is presented earlier. We also recommend reading the introduction prior to using the material. The free book version along with any graphics or figures mentioned in this series can be downloaded at www.ingodsimage.site - Gary Regazzoli

We have finally reached that point in the narrative where God has achieved His goal of creating “man in His image” and as a consequence, God and man can dwell face to face in the New Jerusalem.

• God through His work has created for Himself a holy people within whom he can come and dwell (Revelation 21:3).

We have been looking at what insights we can discern from scripture on what life will be like in heaven.

• 1. We saw that the new heavens and the new earth will replace the old heaven and earth of decaying time.

• As the purpose of the decaying four-dimensional world of time and space is now redundant, it is no longer necessary for a humanity that has passed from mortality to immortality.

• God has provided His saints with a glorious spiritual body especially designed to inhabit the eternal dimension of heaven.

• So God puts the sad decaying period of rebellion to the torch and replaces it with the new heavens and the new earth.

• 2. We then asked the question, “What kind of body will this new heavenly creature have?”

• We saw there is a time coming when we will have the same type of glorious immortal body as the risen Christ.

• Incredibly, humans will be infused with the very spiritual life of the Godhead so we can share in their existence as their children.

• Although it will not be a flesh and blood body, the spiritual body we will have still retains an important connection to our discarded physical bodies.

• When Jesus appeared out of nowhere to His disciples in the upper room after His resurrection with His new spiritual body, He was still recognisable as Jesus (John 20:19-20).

We also saw there is an important reason why we need “bodies” and it goes back to God’s purpose for us – to be created in the image of God.

• In other words, to be a true human in God’s image is to have the same nature and character of the Trinity.

• The Father, Son and Holy Spirit share a deep, intimate personal relationship based on a shared mutual love between them.

• This is ultimately what love is, and why God describes Himself as love (1 John 4:8).

• But love is a medium or expression that necessitates separate entities or persons without which it cannot exist.

• God too, is a trinity of three persons for this very reason, to be able to express love to one another.

• So if we are to love, praise, serve and live with God, we will need a body to express these characteristics in the spiritual dimension of heaven.

• It is with these new spiritual bodies in relationship that we will reflect and participate with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the inner life of the triune God, or to put it another way, we will enjoy Holy Communion with one another.

• 3. Another benefit of this remarkable spiritual body is it will be incapable of sin.

• Right now as we sit here we have leaders of governments around the world plotting the demise of other nations they regard as enemies.

• There are spy agencies committed to undermining their opponents through subversive activities.

• We have opposing political parties openly fabricating the truth in order to discredit their opponents to score a few political points.

• Business leaders sit around boardrooms calculating how they can achieve a few more extra dollars in profit from unwitting customers.

• We have drug lords, criminal masterminds, petty thieves, plotting all sorts of devious, illicit activities undermining our society.

• There is a darkness that exists in the fallen human soul that at times is terrifyingly evil.

• As the prophet Jeremiah, wrote, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).