Heaven, a Place

“If God had told me some time ago that He was about to make me as happy as I could be in this world, and then had told me that He should begin by crippling me in all my limbs, and removing me from all my usual sources of enjoyment, I should have thought it a very strange mode of accomplishing His purpose. And yet, how is His wisdom manifest even in this! for if you should see a man shut up in a close room, idolizing a set of lamps and rejoicing in their light, and you wished to make him truly happy, you would begin by blowing out all his lamps; and then throw open the shutters to let in the light of heaven.”

—SAMUEL, RUTHERFORD.

RAVEN isa place. Out of the region of
all fancy it is taken and put into the
realm of the actual, the local. ‘The

revelations of the bare fact that death does not end all, death cannot end all; that man must exist to all eternity, that the future may be one of unutterable bliss, — that is the fact. This fact may have many colorings, many symbols, but these are not the main things, nor of the main thing. Heaven does not float around. It is not made of air, thin air. It is real, a country, a clime, a home sacred affinities draw to the spot. Divine assurance settles and fixes the fact.

Heaven might be a reality, but simply a state. In its location and grasp it might be airy, volatile. The Bible statement is of a place. One of the main ideas contained in the heavenly symbol, of a city, is place, location, a settled place, in contrast with a pilgrim state, unsettled and temporary.

The strong argument for heaven as a place centers in, and clusters about Jesus. The man Jesus, bearing a man’s form, the body He wore on earth, has a place assigned Him — a high place.

“‘ Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2: 9-11).

“Whom he raised from the dead and set him at his right hand in the heavenly places, Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all” (Ephes. 1: 20-23).

This excellence and dignity is all conclusive of a place of high honor, the best, the most royal in the heavenly world.

“God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir to all things, by whom also he made the worlds; Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Heb.

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These all bespeak His place among the home places of God’s many mansioned country. ‘Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.”

These are figures of Christ’s exaltation and location. ‘They are figures of a place. Jesus wants us with Him. To see and share His glory. He dwells ina place. A place which honors and glorifies His person and presence. His business is not to be enthroned and receive honor, but He is there for us, to prepare a place for us.

“Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me” (John 17:24).

Heaven in the Bible is represented as a place in contrast with earth. The earth is a place, but unstable, insecure, fleeting. Heaven is stable, secure, eternal.

“For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come” (Heb. 13:14).

How marked the contrast between earth and heaven! Earth is but a pilgrim’s stay, a pilgrim’s journey, a pilgrim’s tent. Heaven is a city, permanent, God-planned, God-built, whose foundations are as stable as God’s throne.

“By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out not knowing whither he went. By faith, he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God”

(Heb. 11: 8-9).

The Bible reveals heaven as a place. It is measured off, has its appointed metes and bounds, as definite place as a city, a walled city. It has its inside and its outside. Heaven is within the city, hell is without.

“For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie” (Rev. 22:15).

Heaven is a place. Not airy, impalpable, delocalized, is heaven. “TI go,” said Jesus, “to prepare a place for you.” That means locality, something settled. Heaven has its deep, strong colorings, its metes and bounds on God’s map.

In God’s house, Jesus declares, there are many mansions. ‘The New Version has it in the margin, “abiding places.” In God’s many homes, one home was to be theirs, a place, a home prepared for them. This was the solace to the disciples, saddened as they were. “Going to prepare a place for them,” is the purpose and fact in regard to the going of Christ. Nothing can be simpler, more explicit, more downright honest than this revelation to them of Christ’s purpose and plans. As though He had said, “Earth is a place where we have been abiding. We can abide together no longer here, but God has many other abiding places. I go to select one of these places for you; when it is ready I will come and take you there, and we will be together in place as well as in spirit, ‘that where I am, there ye may be also.’” “United again,’ Alford says, commenting on this statement of our Lord. “His taking His people to Himself to be where He is,” is begun in His Resurrection, carried on in the spiritual life, the making them ready for the place prepared. Jesus uses the term, “prepare a place.” The

term means, make the necessary preparation, get ‘everything ready, a figure drawn from the eastern custom of sending on before kings persons to level the roads and make them passable. Jesus is our pioneer, gone to prepare heaven for us. A place made ready it will be. Its antitype was Canaan, a place and a prepared place. Israel did not have to pioneer the way, build cities, or homes. Homes and cities were already built for them. They had to do nothing but simply to enter in, possess and enjoy. As Canaan was but a feeble type of heaven, so its preparation was but a faint shadow of the preparation which will be made for us in heaven, a city God-built, homes not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

As Jesus Christ drew near to the end, in the last conversation on the eve of His death, important things, most important, all important things, engaged His attention. He must commit to His disciples the interests of His kingdom. Heaven was all important. Heaven was to be kept in eye and heart all the time. He speaks of heaven. Their deep spiritual life, their personal holiness, their conscious abiding in Christ, all this was all important. Of this Christ spake in His last words, sacred words, holy words, of the necessity of Christ-life and Christ-likeness.

What could be clearer, more hope-giving, more conclusive than the utterance of Christ on the verge of His going away! His disciples were sorrowfully impressed, deeply touched, and depressed by the fact of His leaving them. He challenges their faith in Himself and links Himself inseparably as the object of their faith with God.

Peter views heaven as a place, an inheritance to be sought for, a possession awaiting us. He is scarcely less enraptured by the glorious vision and reversion, its location and certainty than Paul.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance, incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1: 3-5).

This is no impalpable state without local habitation, or merely a name. It is located, named definitely, and definitely described.

John had a picture of heaven which located it. The picture is for charm, comfort and for strength.

“After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God, which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God. Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, be

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ESSEX FELLS, NEW JERSEY unto our God for ever and ever. Amen. And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light upon them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the thone shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes” (Rev. 7:9-17).

“To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise,” was the answer of Jesus to the prayer of the dying thief. ‘Through the gates into the city,” represents a place. So also “Absent from the body to be present with the Lord” indicates locality. Ejijah and Enoch are in their bodies.

The future of the saint will not be impalpable and transitory, but defined, limited, real as soul and body will be real. ‘The glorified will not be pilgrims, transient visitors, or tenants at will, but settled, permanent, walled, established by title, through eternity by warrantee deed, signed, sealed, recorded, possession given. No renters, no lessees of heaven, but all property and home-owners.

Heaven’s patent is issued to guarantee right and title. In fact it is ours before we get there. It is reserved for us, it is guarded for us, our names of ownership are engraven, jeweled on our heavenly home.

Heaven is a house, “a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens.” In this the apostle is drawing a contrast between a tent, its frailty, its temporary nature and the permanency of heaven. “For we know,” says the apostle, “that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God, an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens.”

All earthly houses however beautiful, costly, and enduring they may be, are made with earthly hands and subject to decay. The marks of their death are on them, laid in their very foundations. ‘The houses of heaven are God-built, and are as enduring and incorruptible as their builder. We will have bodies after the resurrection, transfigured they will be after the model of Christ’s glorious body. ‘The transfiguration will refine and spiritualize the substance of our bodies, but we will require houses then to locate us as now. What houses they will be! fitted essentially for every use, employment, and enjoyment of the heavenly citizens, worthy of God their builder, reflecting honor on and bringing glory to Him by the untold beauty, magnificence, and grandeur of these God-built houses. Whatever the house as used by Paul in this extract may mean, whether it is used to signify the glorious body which shall be the habitation of our spirits, or whether he has reference to some glorious structure outside of ourselves, fitted for home uses, as our houses are, it is all the same God-built mansion for spirit, or for body and spirit immortalized. It is “a building of God not made with hands eternal in the heavens.’”’ It will be for us; we shall be in it. A thing of beauty and joy forever and ever, Amen!

Paul again asserts the security and confidence of heaven:

“We are always confident I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:6).

Home is always a place, the heart’s place, the place to which longings draw, and around which sweet memories cluster.

Paul was caught up into paradise, into the third heaven. All these passages and others have in them, in intention and spirit, a place. Lazarus was carried by the angels and located in Abraham’s bosom.

In the Bible the fact also is taken for granted that heaven is a place, stable, enduring, all attractive, in contrast with the veering nature and transitory conditions of our earth’s sojourn. If the description in the Revelation of John be in any wise a description of the material aspects of heaven, the place is one of matchless and exquisite beauty, “incorruptible, undefiled, that fadeth not away.”

Stephen the first martyr was a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit. In the presence of a cruel murderous death and an infuriated mob, he had the sight and calm of heaven.

“But he being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God. And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God. Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul. And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep” (Acts 7: 55- 60).

Jesus declares, “I came down from heaven.”

He is declared in the sacred scriptures to be “The second man from heaven.” Much shall we learn from Him of heaven. From heaven He came, for heaven He suffered. In heaven He lived, to heaven He returned. Born in heaven, living in heaven, breathing the air of heaven, speaking the language of heaven, longing for heaven, it would be strange if we did not hear from His lips much of heaven.

In familiar language He constantly impresses us with the fact that heaven is a place. What are the words in his memorable conversation with Nicodemus but a contrast of places — earth and heaven and His own identification, and location with the one!

“If I have told you earthly things and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven” (John 3: 12-13).

We are well assured that we shall hear much from His lips of heaven. So He begins His Beatitudes, “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5: 3).

This sermon on the mount among His first utterances, if not the very first, begins with heaven. He teaches us to let our light shine that we may glorify our Father in heaven; that except our righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees we shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. So He begins His divine mission and marvelous career with heaven accepted, recognized as a matter of course, in full force and to the front. His first preaching was saturated with the idea of the principles of heaven. “Repent,” He said, “for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The first foundation stone of spiritual character is cemented, impregnated with the same. The first utterance of His first sermon is a beatitude of the kingdom of heaven. The diamond of all diamonds of character is, “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.” What includes, seeing, knowing, and loving God, but it includes and finds its full realization in heaven. To see God, to see Him in everything, in every tear that dims the eye or breaks the heart — that is heaven, heaven begun on earth. To see God — that is heaven, the highest heaven, heaven to all eternity. “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also Iam known” (1 Cor. 13: 12).

He brings us into the presence of the children and their character, and we see the child’s inheritance, “if children then heirs.” ‘‘ Blessed are the peacemakers; for they shall be called the children of God” (Matt. 5: 9).

The next Beatitude reads, “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” ‘This leads the way to the last: “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” “Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they,

LIBRARY the prophets which were before you” (Matt, 5: 10-12).

Jesus at the very beginning and in His first call to discipleship stimulates and connects that call with all the alluring weight, comfort, and hope of heaven. Heaven is at the foundation of the system of Jesus, its first thought, brightest hope, strongest faith. Their Father, He tells them, is in heaven, a place worthy the abode of God, and they must so demean themselves as to reflect glory on their Father in heaven. ‘The righteousness of His followers must exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, else the glories of heaven would never be theirs. The commonplace, generally current piety will not bring heaven. Heaven in the teaching of Jesus is God’s throne. Earth His footstool. As the throne excels in honor, character, material, and uses the footstool, so does heaven excel earth. How much, who can tell? He will not let. it get out of their mind that their Father is in heaven, a place, defined, located, and that they are His children; they must be like Him to share His character, imitate His conduct, to share His heaven. He keeps before us constantly that heaven is His home. ‘The Father’s character must be the children’s character, the Father’s conduct, the children’s conduct, the Father’s place, the children’s place, the Father’s home, the children’s home.

“Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt

HEAVEN, A PLACE on

love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven, for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth his rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matt. 5: 43- 48).

He faces and prefaces duties with heaven as the home of our Father. Almsgiving, prayer and fasting take their coloring, and their obligation from “Our Father who art in heaven.” Heaven is His dwelling place, and the very place itself receives its glory from the Father. The Father’s name and the Father’s dwelling place are to be hallowed. Heaven is not only the home of God, but it is to be the pattern after which earth is to be fashioned. FEiarth ought to look to heaven, its harmony, its beauty, its ecstasy, all due to implicit obedience to God’s will, and learn how to rival heaven. But instead earth is devoted to its own fashions, and is even ready to forget the higher and holier place after which it should type.

Jesus keeps the place, the being, the order, and beauty of heaven, ever before us and hangs them all around the Father’s house, the trappings and decorations of His abode, saying, be like God. He is your Father. Children be like your Father. Heaven is His home. Make your home like His. Earth is unsafe, says Jesus. Thieves are here, treasures are lost here. Moths are here. Finest silks and costliest robes are eaten. Rust is here. Richest jewels and finest gold, costliest metals corrode and rust. Heaven is a place, as really as earth is a place, a place of absolute safety. ‘Thieves are never there. No robberies ever occur on its plains or in its cities. Moths are not known there. Its spotless robes have never been defiled by their touch. Its precious stones and metals know not the corroding touch of rust. All is pure, polished, glittering and forever secure. How emphatic and absolute the command for safety and obedience!

“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!” (Matt. 6: 20-23).

How the divine teacher emphasizes heaven! He wants our hearts to be there. They must be there, if we ever get there. The heart is the soul, the being, the man. Safety is in heaven, Put your values there only, put your heart there. No tears are there to flood your heart, no sorrows there to break it, no losses there to grieve and embitter. Put your heart in heaven, says Jesus, that it may be sweet, and whole, and joyful. Put your treasures in heaven, says Jesus, and all will be light and clear, cloudless and strong. Don’t divide between heaven and earth. If so, the light will be mixed, confused and confusing, and turn the darkness into darkness, all the darker for the light lost in it. Don’t divide between heaven and earth, says Jesus.

“No man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”

Anxiety about food and raiment, the fears hidden in the womb of to-morrow, have mastered many a soul, breeded fears and disrooted faith. Jesus Christ shows that the cause of these anxieties and carefulness results from lack of faith in our Father in heaven, and as their only infallible cure, He puts on an absorbing pursuit of heaven; “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” He would quiet our anxieties by stressing the fact that our “Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things,” by linking us constantly with our Father, His ability and solicitude for us. With heaven His abode and ours, Jesus would calm our hearts, and set them on heaven and its pursuits, which is impossible when earthly need and necessaries bewilder and engross. Heaven to Jesus is the real place. The Father’s place and home.

Let others seek a home below,

Which flames devour, or waves o’erflow,
Be mine a happier lot, to own
A heavenly mansion near the throne.

Then fail this earth, let stars decline,

And sun and moon refuse to shine,

All nature sink and cease to be,

That heavenly mansion stands for me. — William Hunter.