Chapter 6: Heaven and Home

Consolation

Consolation is the dropping of a gentle dew from heaven on desert hearts below. It is one of the choicest gifts of divine mercy.

Self-Examination

"If indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious" (1 Peter 2:3). "If" — then there is a possibility that some may not have tasted that the Lord is gracious, and it is necessary to ask whether we are among those who know the grace of God by personal experience. There is no spiritual truth that may not become a matter of honest self-searching. At the very summit of holy delight we meet the challenge of the sentinel "if" — "If then you were raised with Christ" (Colossians 3:1) — and at the very bottom of the hill, even at the gate of repentance itself, we are met with a warrant to examine ourselves, to see whether our sorrow is the godly sorrow that leads to salvation (2 Corinthians 7:10). "If You are the Son of God" is not always a temptation of the devil, but often a very healthy question, fittingly raised by holy concern in those who would build securely upon the Rock of Ages.

At the Lord's Table itself it is right for us to pray, "Lord, is it I?" when there is a Judas in the company. And after the most intimate fellowship, Christ asked, "Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?" (John 21:16). Let no enjoyment of worship, let no exalted fellowship we may have known, excuse us from the great duty of proving ourselves whether we are in the faith. Examine yourselves, then, in this matter, and do not rest satisfied until you can say, "There is no 'if' about it — I have tasted that the Lord is gracious."

Heaven an Inheritance

"The inheritance of the saints." So then, heaven, with all its glories, is an inheritance. Now, an inheritance is not a thing bought with money, earned by labor, or won by conquest. If anyone has an inheritance in the proper sense of that word, it came by birth. And so it is with heaven. The person who receives this glorious heritage will not obtain it by the works of the law or by the efforts of human striving. It will be given as a matter of most gracious right, because he has been "born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" (1 Peter 1:3), and has thus become an heir of heaven by blood and birth.

Those who come to glory are sons, for is it not written, "bringing many sons to glory" (Hebrews 2:10)? They do not come there as servants — no servant has any right to the inheritance of his master. However faithful he may be, he is not his master's heir. But because you are sons — sons by the Spirit's regeneration, sons by the Father's adoption — because by supernatural power you have been born again, you become inheritors of eternal life and enter the many rooms of our Father's house above. Let us always understand, then, when we think of heaven, that it is a place to be ours and a state to be enjoyed as the result of birth — not as the result of work. "Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3). That kingdom being an "inheritance," until you have the new birth you can have no claim to enter it.

The Sleep of Death

"The sleep of death" — what is this sleep? We know that the simplest idea connected with sleep is resting. The eyes of the sleeper ache no more with the glare of light or the rush of tears. His ears are bothered no more by the noise of conflict or the sound of suffering. His hand is no longer weakened by long, drawn-out effort and painful weariness. His feet are no longer blistered from traveling back and forth along a rough road. There is relief for aching heads, overtaxed nerves, and heavy hearts in the sweet rest of sleep. On his bed, however hard, the worker shakes off his labor, the businessman his cares, the thinker his difficulties, and the sufferer his pains. Sleep makes each night a Sabbath for the day. Sleep shuts the door of the soul and tells all intruders to wait.

So it is with the body while it sleeps in the grave. The weary are at rest; the servant is as much at ease as his master. No more the worker leans on his shovel; no more the thinker props his tired head. The wheel stands still; the shuttle is not in motion; the hand that turned the one and the fingers that threw the other are quiet also. The grave shuts out all disturbance, labor, or effort. The worn-out believer quietly sleeps, as does the child weary from play, when it closes its eyes and falls asleep on its mother's chest.

Oh, happy are those who die in the Lord! They rest from their labors, and their works follow them. We would not avoid hard work, for though it is in itself a curse, it is, when sanctified, a blessing. Yet work for work's sake we would not choose. And when God's work is done, we are glad to think that our work is done too. The mighty Farmer, when we have finished our day, will bid His servants rest on the best of beds. Their sleep will never be broken until He rouses them to give them their full reward. Guarded by angel watchers, hidden by eternal mysteries, resting in the arms of mother earth, you shall sleep on, you inheritors of glory, until the fullness of time brings you the fullness of redemption.

Foretastes of Heaven

Is it possible for us to know anything at all about our heavenly home? Does the human mind have the power to reach into the land of the hereafter, where God's people rest eternally? Our question is met at the outset by what seems a firm denial: "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him" (1 Corinthians 2:9). If we stopped here, we might give up all idea of catching a glimpse of that "good land." But we do not stop, for like the apostle, we go on with the text and add, "But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit" (1 Corinthians 2:10).

It is possible to look within the veil. God's Spirit can draw it aside for a moment and let us take a glimpse — though a distant one — of that unutterable glory. There are mountaintops even now on the earth from which the heavenly homeland can be seen. There are sacred hours in which the fog and clouds are swept away, and the sun shines in full strength, and our eyes, freed from their natural dimness, see something of that land which is very far off — and catch a little of the joy and happiness reserved for the people of God hereafter. By the Holy Spirit, even now in seasons of blessed communion, such experiences, joys, and feelings are given to believers as seem to bring heaven down to them, and enable them to grasp, in some faint measure, what heaven itself must be.

The Work of the Spirit

Let us always remember that Christ on the cross is of no value to us apart from the Holy Spirit in us. In vain that blood is flowing unless the finger of the Spirit applies the blood to our conscience. In vain is that garment of righteousness completed unless the Holy Spirit wraps it around us and dresses us in its costly folds. The river of the water of life cannot quench our thirst until the Spirit offers us the cup and lifts it to our lips. All the things in the paradise of God could never make us happy as long as we are dead souls — and dead we are until that heavenly wind comes and breathes upon us so that we may live.

We do not hesitate to say that we owe as much to God the Holy Spirit as we do to God the Son. Indeed, it would be a grave offense to try to place one person of the divine Trinity above another. You, O Father, are the source of all grace, all love and mercy toward us. You, O Son, are the channel of Your Father's mercy, and without You the Father's love could never flow to us. And You, O Spirit, are the one who enables us to receive that divine power which flows from the fountain — the Father — through Christ the channel, and which, by Your work, enters into our heart, and there lives, and brings forth its glorious fruit. Magnify, then, the Spirit. There has never yet been a heavenly thought, a holy deed, or a consecrated act, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ, that was not worked in us by the Holy Spirit.

Peace

The believer enjoys, in favored seasons, such closeness with the Lord Jesus as fills the heart with an overflowing peace. There are sweet words that Jesus whispers in the ears of His people, and there are love-visits He pays to them, which a person would not believe even if they were told about it. To understand it, you must experience in your own heart what it is to have fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. There is such a thing as Christ showing Himself to us as He does not to the world. All doubtful thoughts are banished then, and we can say, "I am my Beloved's, and my Beloved is mine" (Song of Solomon 6:3). This is the one all-consuming feeling.

And what wonder is it that the believer has such deep peace when Christ dwells in the heart and reigns there without a rival? It would be a miracle of miracles if we did not have peace. But how is it that our peace is not more constant? The only explanation of our frequent loss of peace is that our communion is broken and our fellowship is damaged. Otherwise, our peace would be like a river, and our righteousness like the waves of the sea. Live near the cross, and your peace will be continual.

Earth's Seasons

The things that are seen are pictures of the things that are unseen. The works of creation are illustrations to the children of God of the hidden mysteries of grace. God's truths are the apples of gold, and the visible world is the silver setting. The very seasons of the year find their match in the little world within us.

We have our winter — bleak, howling winter — when the north wind of the law rushes against us, when every hope is killed by frost, when all the seeds of joy lie buried beneath the dark clods of despair, when our soul is locked fast like a river bound with ice, without waves of joy or streams of thanksgiving.

Thanks be to God, the soft south wind breathes upon our soul, and at once the waters of desire are set free. The spring of love arrives — flowers of hope appear in our hearts, the trees of faith put out their young shoots, the time of the singing birds has come, and we have joy and peace in believing through the Lord Jesus Christ.

That happy spring is followed in the believer by a rich summer, when our graces, like fragrant flowers, are in full bloom, filling the air with perfume, and fruits of the Spirit, like ripening harvest, swell to their full size in the warmth of the Sun of Righteousness. Then comes the believer's autumn, when the fruit grows ripe and the fields are ready for harvest. The time has come when the Lord will gather together His "pleasant fruits" and store them in heaven — the feast of gathering is at hand, the time when the year will begin anew, an unchanging year, like the years of the right hand of the Most High.

Love Undeserved

There is nothing that makes us love Christ so much as a sense of His love balanced with a sense of our unworthiness of it. It is sweet to think that Christ loves us. But oh, to remember that we are as dark as the "tents of Kedar" (Song of Solomon 1:5), and yet He loves us! This is a thought that may well wean us from everything else.

The Infallible Commentary

Those who would best know God's Word must study it in its own light.

A Place of Trust

Take care that you place all your dear ones into God's hand. You have put your own soul there — put their souls and bodies likewise into His care. You can trust Him with your everyday needs for yourself; trust your treasures with Him as well. Understand that they are not your own, but that they are God's loans to you — loans that may be recalled at any moment, precious citizens of heaven not permanently given to you, but only entrusted for a time.

Your possessions are never so safe as when you are willing to give them up, and you are never so rich as when you put all you have into the hand of the Lord. You will find it greatly softens the sorrow of loss if, before the loss, you have learned to surrender every day all the things dearest to you into the keeping of your gracious God.

Consider Him

Believer, you are weary and disheartened because of the roughness of the way — look at the Master's footsteps and see how He suffered. You are tested and troubled, and you ask for comfort. What better comfort can be given than this: Jesus Christ is one with you in your nature. He has suffered all that you are now suffering. Your path has already been walked by His sacred feet. The cup from which you drink is a cup He drained to the very bottom. The river through which you pass is one He swam, and every wave and breaker that rolls over your head did long ago roll over Him.

Are you ashamed and unwilling to suffer what your Master suffered? Shall the student be above his teacher, and the servant above his lord? Shall He die upon a cross, and will you not carry the cross? Must He be crowned with thorns, and shall you be crowned with honor? Is He to be pierced in hands and feet, and are His followers to feel no pain? Cast away the foolish delusion. Look to Him who "endured the cross, despising the shame" (Hebrews 12:2), and be ready to endure and to suffer even as He did. You have His example to guide you and His sympathy to encourage you.