The Glory Of Heaven

THE GLORY OF HEAVEN based on Rev. 21:22-27

By Glenn Pease

Try to picture in your mind a cake of ice one and a half mile square. Just imagine a total square mile of ice, and half of the next mile, and then imagine that enormous block rising into the sky, not just to the height of an ice cube, not even to the height of the Empire State Building, but rather, to the height of 93 million miles. In other words, from the earth to the sun. Scientists have calculated that this gigantic cake of ice could be completely melted in just 30 seconds, if the full power of the sun could be focused on it.

This is power so staggering that almost anything you can say about the sun is an understatement. It's like the guy who watched the first atomic bomb test, and said after the explosion, that stuff is dynamite. The sun is so powerful we do not have terms to describe it's energy. At it's core, where the temperature is 13 million degrees centigrade, 4 million tons of hydrogen explode every second. Man has not, since the dawn of civilization, used that much energy. The sun does this every second of every day, and has done so since God created it.

Believe it or not, the children of God will go on shining and radiating with even greater energy than the sun, even after the sun has passed away. John says in verse 23, that this great light will not be needed in the new Jerusalem-the heavenly city. The glory of God is so great that no created source of light is necessary. Neither sun nor moon are needed, for there will never be a night. There can be no darkness in the presence of God.

Here we see an example of how the final paradise is not a replica of the first paradise. We are not just getting back to Adam and Eve in Christ. Salvation is much more than mere restoration. The first paradise was far from perfect, for it had in it the potential for the fall. In Christ we go forward to perfection, and to the fulfillment of God's ideal plan. The first paradise did need the sun and moon, for God had not revealed His full glory, as He will in the final paradise. The poet has said,

No need for the sun in that glory-filled land,

The sun would itself there be dim!

That land where the shadows or twilight ne'r come,

Where the light and the glory are "Him."

This was the glory the prophet Isaiah promised to Israel in Isa. 60:19, "The sun shall be no more your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give light to you by night, But the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory." There will be no dark ages in the New Jerusalem, as there was in the old Jerusalem. Many of God's people have had to endure seasons of darkness, but never again in that city, for as verse 25 says, there shall be no night there.

He who is the Light of this world, and the Creator of all light, will be the lamp of the city. He is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, and thus, He becomes the Lamp of God that takes away the darkness forever. There can be no night in His presence.

There is no night of things unknown, uncertain,

Things which now try the heart to make it strong.

There is no night-there is no veiling curtain,

Just light, and bliss, and joy, and endless song.

Take away the sun from our solar system, and we are plunged into endless night. So will it be, for those who are not in the holy city. Hell is always pictured as a place of darkness, in contrast to heaven where there is only light. There are only two destinies-light and night. The persecuted Christians, who first read this book, and who lived in the darkness of Catacombs of Rome, would be so encouraged to know that their future would be one of never ending light and glory.

John lists all kinds of things that will not be heaven, for there is no way to describe the positives, except by the absence of their opposites. What will not be there is enough to boggle the mind, and give us endless motivation to speculate on what it must be like to be where no evil can ever be.

Not all that is absent from heaven is evil. There is nothing evil about the sun or the moon, and even night is a blessing in this world where we need sleep. It is not just the bad that is gone, but even the good, when it is not the best. Many good things will be absent just because the good is not necessary in the presence of the best. If you are in a dark room, because the storm has knocked out the lights, you are grateful for the candle. But when the lights come on again, you do not continue to burn the candle. It was good, but it was not the best. It goes back into the drawer, for when you have the best the good is not needed.