GOD’S WORD FOR SEPTEMBER 3 ~ ~ John 11:26 ~ ~ “And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die….”

From: “We Shall See God” —excerpts from sermons by Charles Spurgeon, with comments by Randy Alcorn.

SHALL WE SEE OUR FRIENDS IN HEAVEN?

Charles Spurgeon:

Why should we not? The saints in Heaven are never spoken of in Scripture as moving around anonymously, but their names are spoken of as written in the Book of Life.

The apostles knew Moses and Elijah on the Mount though they had never seen them before. I cannot forget old John Ryland’s answer to his wife:

“John,” she said, “will you know me in Heaven?”

“Betty,” he replied, “I have known you well here, and I shall not be a bigger fool in Heaven than I am now; therefore I shall certainly know you there.” That seems to be clear enough.

We read in the New Testament, “Many will come from east and west to recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 8:11)—not sit down with three unknown individuals in iron masks nor three spirits who make a part of the great pantheistic cosmos or three spirits who are as exactly alike as pins made in a factory……..but Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

These good men have lost nothing that really pertained to their individuality, nothing that made them precious in the sight of the Lord. In fact, they have gained infinitely. They are now at their best. As Abraham is not lost to Isaac, nor to Jacob, nor to God nor to himself, so are our loved ones by no means lost to us. We are by no means deprived of our dear ones by their death. They ARE themselves and they are ours still.

***************** ***********

Randy Alcorn:

Just as each of us has a unique genetic code and fingerprints here on earth, we should expect the same in our new bodies. God is the creator of individual identities and personalities. He makes no two snowflakes alike, much less two people. Not even “identical twins” are completely identical. Individuality preceded sin and the curse. It’s God’s plan, and He receives greater glory through our differences than He would if we were all alike. I love what Spurgeon says about how our uniqueness will manifest itself in heaven: “All the saints exist in their personalities, identities, distinctions, and idiosyncrasies.” It is not sin that sets us apart from one another but God, our Creator. Yes, even many of our idiosyncrasies are not the result of the curse but of God’s playful creativity!!!

Heaven’s inhabitants don’t simply rejoice over nameless multitudes coming to God. They rejoice over each and every person (Luke 15:4-7). That’s a powerful affirmation of heaven’s view of each person as an individual, someone whose life is observed and cared for.

When Jesus was resurrected, He didn’t become someone else; He remained who He had been before His resurrection: “It is I myself” (Luke 24:39). In John’s gospel, Jesus deals with Mary, Thomas, and Peter in very personal ways, drawing on His previous knowledge of them (John 20-21). When Thomas said, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28) He knew He was speaking to the same Jesus he’d followed. When John said, “It is the Lord!” (John 21:7), he meant, “It’s really Him—the Jesus we have known.”

“’As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before Me’ declares the Lord, ‘so will your name and descendants endure’” (Isaiah 66:22) Our personal histories and identities will continue from one earth to the next. Jesus said that He would drink the fruit of the vine again WITH His disciples IN His Father’s Kingdom (Matthew 26:29)

When the Bible says that the names of God’s children are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life (Rev 20:15; 21:27), I believe those are our earthly names. For instance, God calls people in Heaven by their earthly names—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. To have the same name written in heaven that was ours on earth speaks of the continuity between this life and the next. (and goes right along with Jesus’ statement that we “will never die” (John 11:26))

In addition to our earthly names we’ll receive new names in heaven (Isaiah 62:2; Rev 2:17; 3:12). But new names don’t invalidate the old ones.

A man wrote to me expressing his fear of losing his identity in heaven. “Will being like Jesus mean the obliteration of self?” He was afraid that we’d all be alike, that he and his treasured friends would lose the distinguishing traits and eccentricities that make them special. But he needn’t worry. We can all be like Jesus in character yet remain very different from one another in personality.

Distinctiveness is God’s creation, not merely a fleeting whim. What makes us unique will survive. In fact, much of our uniqueness may be uncovered for the first time in heaven. We’ll be real people with real desires, but holy ones. We’ll have real feelings, but feelings redeemed from pride, insecurity and wrong thinking. We’ll be ourselves—-with all the good and none of the bad. And we will consider it, in just the right sense, a privilege to be who God has made us to be.

Published by liveinthelightofourlord

View all posts by liveinthelightofourlord