Audio
Insight into eternity
It reminded me, like something out of a sci-fi movie, when I learned of the discovery of an Earth-like planet called Proxima Centauri. This is in an orbit of the red fixed star Proxima Centauri. However, it is unlikely that we will discover extraterrestrial life there (at a distance of 40 trillion kilometers!). However, people will always wonder if there is human-like life outside of our earth. For the disciples of Jesus there was no question - they were witnesses of Jesus' ascension and therefore knew with absolute certainty that the man Jesus in his new body now lives in an extraterrestrial world which the Scriptures call "heaven" - a world which has absolutely nothing in common with the visible "heavenly worlds" that we call the universe.
It is important to know that Jesus Christ is fully divine (the eternal Son of God) but also fully human (the now glorified man Jesus) and remains so. As CS Lewis wrote, "The central miracle for which Christians stand is the Incarnation"—a miracle that will endure forever. In His divinity, Jesus is omnipresent, yet in His continued humanity, He physically resides in Heaven, where He serves as our High Priest, awaiting His physical, and thus visible, return to planet earth. Jesus is God-man and Lord over all creation. Paul writes in Romans 11,36: "For from him and through him and to him are all things." John quotes Jesus in Revelation 1,8, as the alpha and omega, who is there, who was there and who is to come. Isaiah also declares that Jesus is “the High and Exalted One,” who “dwells (lives) forever” (Isaiah 57,15). Jesus Christ, the exalted, holy and eternal Lord, is the implementer of His Father's plan, which is to reconcile the world.
Let us note the statement in John 3,17:
“For God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” To say that Jesus came to condemn the world, meaning to condemn or punish, is lying incorrect. Those who divide mankind into two groups—one predestined to be saved by God and another predestined to be damned—are also wrong. When John says (perhaps quoting Jesus) that our Lord came to save "the world," he is referring to all of humanity and not just to a specific group. Let's look at the following verses:
- "And we saw and testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world" (1. John 4,14).
- "Behold, I bring you news of great joy, which shall come to all the people" (Luke 2,10).
- "Neither is it the will of your Father in heaven that even one of these little ones should perish" (Matthew 18,14).
- "For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself" (2. Corinthians 5,19).
- "Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1,29).
I can only emphasize that Jesus is Lord and Savior of the whole world and even of all of his creation. Paul makes this clear in Romans chapter 8 and John makes this clear throughout the book of Revelation. What the Father created through the Son and the Holy Spirit cannot be broken into pieces. Augustine observed, "The outward works of God [concerning His creation] are indivisible." The Triune God, who is One, works as One. His will is one will and undivided.
Unfortunately, some people teach that Jesus' shed blood only redeems those whom God has appointed for salvation. The rest, they say, are destined to be damned by God. The core of this understanding is that God's purpose and purpose are shared in relation to his creation. However, there is no Bible verse that teaches this view; any claim of this kind is misinterpretation and ignores the key to the whole, which consists in the knowledge of the nature, character, and purpose of the Triune God revealed to us in Jesus.
If it were true that Jesus intended both to save and to damn, then we would have to conclude that Jesus did not represent the Father correctly and thus we cannot know God as He really is. We would also have to conclude that there is inherent discord in the Trinity and that Jesus revealed only one "side" of God. The result would be that we would not know which "side" of God we can trust - should we trust the side we see in Jesus or the hidden side in the Father and/or the Holy Spirit? These twisted views are at odds with the Gospel of John, where Jesus clearly proclaims that he fully and correctly made known the invisible Father. The God revealed by and in Jesus is the One who comes to save mankind, not to condemn them. In and through Jesus (our eternal Advocate and High Priest), God gives us the power to become His eternal children. Through His grace our nature is changed and this gives us in Christ the perfection that we could never attain ourselves. This consummation involves an eternal, perfect relationship and communion with the transcendent, holy Creator God, which no creature can attain of its own accord—not even Adam and Eve before the Fall could have. By grace we have communion with the triune God, who transcends space and time, who was, is, and will be. In this fellowship, our bodies and souls are renewed by God; we are given a new identity and eternal purpose. In our oneness and communion with God, we are not minimized, absorbed, or transformed into something that we are not. Rather, we are brought into the fullness and supreme perfection of our own humanity with Him through participation in the humanity that was risen and ascended by the Holy Spirit in Christ.
We live in the present - within the boundaries of space and time. But through our union with Christ through the Holy Spirit, we penetrate the space-time barrier, for Paul writes in Ephesians 2,6that we are already established in heaven in the risen God-man Jesus Christ. During our ephemeral existence here on earth, we are bound to time and space. In a way that we cannot fully understand, we are also citizens of Heaven for all eternity. Although we live in the present, we already partake of the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus through the Holy Spirit. We are already connected to eternity.
Because this is real to us, we convincingly proclaim the present reign of our eternal God. From this position, we look forward expectantly to the coming fullness of the Kingdom of God, where we will live forever in union and communion with our Lord. Let us rejoice over God's plan for eternity.
by Joseph Tkach
