“For all of the questions and confusion about just what heaven is and who will be there, the one thing that appears to unite all of the speculation is the generally agreed-upon notion that heaven is, obviously, somewhere else. And so the questions that are asked about heaven often have an otherworldly air to them: What will we do all day? Will we recognize people we used to know? What will it be like? Will there be dogs there? I’ve heard pastors answer, ‘It will be unlike anything we can comprehend, like a church service that goes on forever,’ causing some to think, ‘That sounds more like hell.’ Are there other ways to think about heaven, other than as that perfect floating shiny city hanging suspended there in the air above that ominous read and black realm with all that smoke and hissing fire? I say yes, there are.” (pages 24-26)
· Rob is concerned that the view most people have of heaven causes them to disengage from this earth. One of the primary teachings of this book is that both heaven and hell are, in one sense, here on earth. To use the common phrase, Rob is concerned that many Christians are “so heavenly minded that they’re of no earthly good.” Do you know people who might fall in that category? If so, how does their “heavenly-mindedness” affect them and those around them?
· The Apostle Paul tells believers, “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” (Colossians 3:1-4) Based on this passage, should we actually be more “heavenly-minded?” Is it possible to be too “earthly-minded?” In your opinion, how do you correctly balance the two?
· Think about your own view of heaven. Do you see it in your imagination as a “perfect floating shiny city hanging suspended there in the air above that ominous read and black realm with all that smoke and hissing fire?”
· After reviewing what the Bible says about heaven (below) do you see how people might describe it as a “shiny city?” In your opinion, is that an inaccurate description? Why or why not?
o It is the presence of God: Hebrews 9:24
o Not part of this creation: Hebrews 9:11
o Far from decay, crime, and destruction: Matthew 6:19-20
o A different place than earth: Matthew 16:19
o Heaven is God’s throne and the earth is his footstool: Acts 7:49
o Jesus is there preparing a place for us: John 14:2-3
o When we leave this body we will live in “an eternal house in heaven” with the Lord: 2 Corinthians 5:1-10
o Heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God with thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly: Hebrews 12:22-23
o Flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder: Revelation 11:19
o Harpist playing their harps: Revelation 14:2
o Rest from labor: Revelation 14:13
o Great multitude shouting “Hallelujah!” Revelation 19:1
o The Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven: Revelation 21:2
o No tears, death, mourning, crying, or pain: Revelation 21:4
o No need for the sun because the glory of God gives it light: Revelation 21:23
o Nothing impure, shameful, or deceitful, but “only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” Revelation 21:27
o “The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth ruby, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth turquoise, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of gold, as pure as transparent glass.” Revelation 21:18-21
“In Matthew 19 a rich man asks Jesus: ‘Teacher what good thing must I do to get eternal life?’ For some Christians, this is the question, the one that matters most. Compassion for the poor, racial justice, care for the environment, worship, teaching, and art are important, but in the end, for some followers of Jesus, they’re not ultimately what it’s all about. It’s ‘all about eternity,’ right? Because that’s what the bumper sticker says. There are entire organizations with employees, websites, and newsletters devoted to training people to walk up to strangers in public places and ask them, ‘When you die and God asks you why you should be let into heaven, what will you say?’ There are well-organized groups of Christians who go door-to-door asking people, ‘If you were to die tonight, where would you go?’ The rich man’s question, then, is the perfect opportunity for Jesus to give a clear, straightforward answer to the only question that ultimately matters for many. First, we can only assume, he’ll correct the man’s flawed understanding of how salvation works. He’ll show the man how eternal life isn’t something he has to earn or work for: it’s a free gift of grace. Then he’ll invite the man to confess, repent, trust, accept, and believe that Jesus has made a way for him to have a relationship with God. Like any good Christian would. Jesus, however, doesn’t do any of that. He asks the man: ‘Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.’ ‘Enter life?’ Jesus refers to the man’s intention as ‘entering life’? And then he tells him that you do that by keeping the commandments? This wasn’t what Jesus was supposed to say.”
· In your opinion, how important is the question about how to obtain eternal life? The Bible says, “You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” James 4:14 When you think about the brevity of life, doesn’t it make sense to plan for the life to come?
· The Apostle John wrote, “Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.” Revelation 20:11-15 If you became convinced by passages like this that you will have to stand before God to give account of your life someday, wouldn’t the topic of how to get your name “written in the book of life” become a priority? Why or why not?
· With this in mind, do you think it is inappropriate that “There are entire organizations with employees, websites, and newsletters devoted to training people to walk up to strangers in public places and ask them, ‘When you die and God asks you why you should be let into heaven, what will you say?’ There are well-organized groups of Christians who go door-to-door asking people, ‘If you were to die tonight, where would you go?’
· If someone asked you, “What good deed must I do to have eternal life?” how would you respond?
· Are you puzzled by Jesus’ response? Why or why not?
“The man, however, wants to know which of the commandments. There are 613 of them in the first five books of the Bible, so it’s a fair question. In the culture Jesus lived in, an extraordinary amount of time was spent in serious discussion and debate about these 613 commandments, dissecting and debating just how to interpret and obey them… The Ten Commandments were central to this discussion because of the way in which they covered so many aspects of life in so few words. Jesus refers to them in answering the man’s questions about ‘which ones’ by listing five of the Ten Commandments. But not just any five. The first four of the commandments were understood as dealing with our relationship with God – Jesus doesn’t list any of those. The remaining six deal with our relationships with each other. Jesus mentions five of them, leaving one out. The man hears Jesus’s list of five and insists he’s kept them all. Jesus then tells him, ‘Go, sell your possessions, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.’ which causes the man to walk away sad, ‘because he had great wealth.’ Did we miss something? The big words, the important words – ‘eternal life, treasure, heaven’ – were all there in the conversation, but they weren’t used the ways that many Christians use them. Shouldn’t Jesus have given a clear answer to the man’s obvious desire to know how to go to heaven when he dies? Is that why he walks away – because Jesus blew a perfectly good ‘evangelistic’ opportunity? How does such a simple question – one Jesus could have answered so clearly from a Christian perspective – turn into such a convoluted dialogue involving commandments and treasures and wealth and ending with the man walking away?”
· The commandments Jesus listed are, “You must not murder. You must not commit adultery. You must not steal. You must not testify falsely. Honor your father and mother. Love your neighbor as yourself.” Look at the listing of the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:12-17. Why do you think Jesus skips the commandment about coveting?
· Take a few minutes to read the rest of the story (Matthew 19:16-30). If someone thinks they are so good they can earn their way to heaven, what is the best response to their arrogance? Could it be that Jesus’ response was intended to “burst his bubble” of self-righteous hypocrisy? Why or why not?
· Many people are like this rich young ruler. They assume they’re good enough but they aren’t able to see a huge sin in their lives (in his case, it was coveting money). What is the most loving thing Jesus could do for a person like this?
· Without a sense of his sinfulness and need, how do you think he would have responded to a clear presentation of the gospel like the one Jesus gave to Nicodemus in John 3?
“The answer, it turns out, is in the question. When the man asks about getting ‘eternal life,’ he isn’t asking about how to go to heaven when he dies. This wasn’t a concern for the man or Jesus. This is why Jesus doesn’t tell people how to ‘go to heaven.’ It wasn’t what Jesus came to do. Heaven for Jesus was deeply connected with what he called ‘this age’ and ‘the age to come.’ In Matthew 13 Jesus speaks of a harvest at the ‘end of the age,’ and some who are ‘considered worthy of taking part in the age to come,’ Sometimes he describes the age to come simply as ‘entering life,’ as in Mark 9 – ‘it’s better for you to enter life maimed’ – and other times he teaches that by standing firm ‘you will win life [in the age to come]’ as in Luke 21. And then, just before he leaves his disciples in Matthew 28, Jesus reassures them that he is with them ‘always, to the very end of the age.’ Jesus’s disciples ask him in Matthew 24, ‘What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?’ because this is how they had been taught to think about things – this age, and then the ages to come. We might call them ‘eras’ or ‘periods of time’: this age – the one we’re living in – and the age to come. Another way of saying ‘life in the age to come’ in Jesus’s day was to say ‘eternal life.’ In Hebrew the phrase is olam habah. What must I do to inherit olam habah? This age, and the one to come, and the one after this one. When the wealthy man walks away from Jesus, Jesus turns to his disciples and says to them, ‘No one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age, and in the age to come eternal life.’ (Luke 18) Now the word ‘age’ here is the word aion in New Testament Greek. Aion has multiple meanings – one we’ll look at here, and another we’ll explore later. One meaning of aion refers to a period of time, as in ‘The spirit of the age’ or ‘They were gone for ages.’ When we use the word ‘age’ like this, we are referring less to a precise measurement of time, like an hour or a day or a year, and more to a period or era of time. This is crucial to our understanding of the word aion, because it doesn’t mean ‘forever’ as we think of forever. When we say ‘forever,’ what we are generally referring to is something that will go on, year after 365-day year, never ceasing in the endless unfolding of segmented, measurable units of time, like a clock that never stops ticking. That’s not this word. The first meaning of this word aion refers to a period of time with a beginning and an end. So according to Jesus there is this age, this aion – the one they, and we, are living in – an then a coming age, also called ‘the world to come’ or simply ‘eternal life.’” (pages 29-32)
· Rob says that telling people how to go to heaven when they die “wasn’t what Jesus came to do.” Do you agree with this statement? Why or why not? (See Luke 19:10, John 6:38-40, John 17:2)
· Dr. Jim Samra, pastor of Calvary Church in Grand Rapids, the “mother church” of Rob Bell’s church, Mars Hill, took strong exception to Rob’s interpretation. Here is his response to this passage in Love Wins:
“A central point Rob makes throughout the book centers on what he identifies as the Greek word aion. He writes that the word can mean “age” (which is true), but implies that aion cannot mean “forever” as in the sense of eternity. However, more than 50 times in the New Testament, an throughout ancient Greek literature, aion does refer to “a time to come of which, if there is no end, is known as eternity” according to the standard Greek lexicon in use today (known by the initials BDAG).
Also, Rob seems to confuse aion with a different, though related Greek word, aionios. Although they look similar, aion is a noun and aionios is an adjective. This makes quite a difference. For example, in English we could say of someone, ‘it seems like he’s been a pastor for an eternity.’ But we would never say ‘it seems like that pastor is eternal.’ The same is true in Greek. While the noun aion can refer to a fixed period of time, aionios is never used that way in all the New Testament. Aionios always means ‘unending’ or ‘without duration’ (from BDAG). So English translations are right to use the words ‘eternal life’ because the word is aionios, not aion, as Rob would have us believe.
“Rob’s confusion of these two different words contributes to an unusual interpretation of Matthew 25:46 in the third chapter (of Love Wins). In the passage about the sheep and the goats, Rob tells us the goats are sent to ‘an aion of kolazo.’ By saying it in this way, Rob is claiming that Matthew uses the word aion in this passage. He does not. Matthew uses aionios. Compounding the confusion, Rob writes kolazo (which is a verb) instead of kolasis (which is the noun that Matthew actually uses). Rob implies that this word is in the genitive case. It is not.
Also, Rob seems to confuse aion with a different, though related Greek word, aionios. Although they look similar, aion is a noun and aionios is an adjective. This makes quite a difference. For example, in English we could say of someone, ‘it seems like he’s been a pastor for an eternity.’ But we would never say ‘it seems like that pastor is eternal.’ The same is true in Greek. While the noun aion can refer to a fixed period of time, aionios is never used that way in all the New Testament. Aionios always means ‘unending’ or ‘without duration’ (from BDAG). So English translations are right to use the words ‘eternal life’ because the word is aionios, not aion, as Rob would have us believe.
“Rob’s confusion of these two different words contributes to an unusual interpretation of Matthew 25:46 in the third chapter (of Love Wins). In the passage about the sheep and the goats, Rob tells us the goats are sent to ‘an aion of kolazo.’ By saying it in this way, Rob is claiming that Matthew uses the word aion in this passage. He does not. Matthew uses aionios. Compounding the confusion, Rob writes kolazo (which is a verb) instead of kolasis (which is the noun that Matthew actually uses). Rob implies that this word is in the genitive case. It is not.
“So, when Rob tries to tell us that Matthew wrote ‘an aion of kolazo,’ which might mean ‘an age of pruning,’ he has not correctly told us what Matthew wrote in the Greek. What Matthew actually wrote is ‘into aionios kolasis,’ which cannot mean an age of pruning’ but ‘eternal punishment.’ The reason why no English translation has ‘an age of pruning’ is not because the translators didn’t know what they were doing. It is because this is not what the Greek text actually says. Even a non-Greek reader can figure out that Matthew cannot be talking about ‘an age of pruning’ in this lifetime because five verses earlier Jesus says to the same people, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire (aionios pur) prepared for the devil and his angels.’ Matthew 25:46 cannot be referring to something that is currently happening, ‘hell now,’ even if Rob was reading the Greek correctly, because the devil and his angels are not experiencing eternal fire during this age. This is a significant problem in Love Wins. Rob makes authoritative statements and tries to use Greek to support his ideas; however, I found his use of Greek to be dangerously misleading.”
· Apparently Rob’s use of the Greek to support his view is not consistent with the views of most Bible translation scholars. When authors or pastors tell us that the words in our Bible are not accurately translated from the original languages, it always raises a question in my mind. Who should we trust, a group of translation scholars who have devoted their lives to understanding original languages, or a pastor who has spent a few years in seminary? The fact that all of the English translations of the Bible translate the word “Aion” as “eternal” makes me think it must be the more accurate meaning. Do you agree? Why or why not?
“A couple of observations about the prophets’ promises regarding life in the age to come. First, they spoke about ‘all the nations.’…That’s an extraordinarily complex, interconnected, and diverse reality, a reality in which individual identities aren’t lost or repressed, but embraced and celebrated. An expansive unity that goes beyond and yet fully embraces staggering levels of diversity. A racist would be miserable in the world to come. Second, one of the most striking aspects of the pictures the prophets used to describe this reality is how earthy it is… It’s here we’re talking about, this world, the one we know – but rescued, transformed, and renewed. Third, much of their vision of life in the age to come was not new. Deep in their bones was the Genesis story of Adam and Eve, who were turned loose in a garden to name the animals and care for the earth and enjoy it… Central to their vision of human flourishing in God’s renewed world, then, was the prophet’s announcement that a number of things that can survive in this world will not be able to survive in the world to come. Like war, rape, greed, injustice, violence, pride, division, exploitation, disgrace. Their description of life in the age to come is both thrilling and unnerving at the same time. For the earth to be free of anything destructive or damaging, certain things have to be banished. Decisions have to be made. Judgments have to be rendered. And so they spoke of a cleansing, purging, decisive day when God would make those judgments. They called this day the ‘day of the LORD.’ The day when God says ‘ENOUGH!’ to anything that threatens the peace (shalom is the Hebrew word), harmony, and health that God intends for the world… Of course, to celebrate this, anticipate this, and find ourselves thrilled by this promise of the world made right brings with it the haunting thought that we each know what lurks in our own heart – our role in corrupting this world, the litany of ways in which our own sins have contributed to the heartbreak we’re surrounded by, all those times we hardened our heart and kept right on walking, ignoring the cry of someone in need.” (Pages 34-39)
· The prophet Micah predicts a wonderful day of peace for this earth. “In the last days the mountain of the LORD’s temple will be established as the highest of the mountains; it will be exalted above the hills, and peoples will stream to it. Many nations will come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.’ The law will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. He will judge between many peoples and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. Everyone will sit under their own vine and under their own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid, for the LORD Almighty has spoken.” (Micah 1:1-4) When does the Bible say this will take place? (See Revelation 20-21)
· To prepare the way for this peaceful kingdom, what does God have to do?
· Rob mentions that, in each of our hearts, there is a sense of our own role in the corruption of the world. How can we have our own sinfulness removed so we can participate fully in this restored kingdom? (See Malachi 3:1-2, Romans 8:1-4, 1 John 1:9, 4:7-18)
“What does Jesus mean when he uses that word ‘heaven?’ First, there was tremendous respect in that culture…for the name of God. …One of the ways people got around actually saying the name of God was to substitute the word ‘heaven’ for the word ‘God.’ Second, Jesus consistently affirmed heaven as a real place, space, and dimension of God’s creation, where God’s will and only God’s will is done. Heaven is that realm where things are as God intends them to be….Many people think of heaven, and they picture mansions (a word nowhere in the Bible’s descriptions of heaven) and Ferraris and literal streets of gold, as if the best God can come up with is Beverly Hills in the sky. Tax-free, of course, and without the smog…. How we think of heaven, then, directly affects how we understand what we do with our days and energies now, in this age. Jesus teaches us how to live now in such a way that what we create, who we give our efforts to, and how we spend our time will all endure in the new world. Taking heaven seriously, then, means taking suffering seriously, now. Not because we’ve bought into the myth that we can create a utopia given enough time, technology, and good voting choices, but because we have great confidence that God has not abandoned human history and is actively at work within it, taking it somewhere. It often appears that those who talk the most about going to heaven when you die talk the least about bringing heaven to earth right now, as Jesus taught us to pray: ‘Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.’ At the same time, it often appears that those who talk the most about relieving suffering now talk the least about heaven when we die. Jesus teaches us to pursue the life of heaven now and also then, anticipating the day when earth and heaven are one.” (Pages 42-46)
· Based on your reading of Rob’s book, do you think he believes in a literal heaven as real place somewhere else? Do you agree or not? Why?
· In the Apostle John’s vision of heaven, he reports seeing streets of gold. “The great street of the city was of gold, as pure as transparent glass.” (Revelation 21:21) Do you think his description is literal or metaphorical? Why?
· Rob observes that often people who speak of heaven in a different place are not fully engaged in the needs of the world around them, while those who are focused on the suffering of those around them don’t talk much about going to heaven when they die. Has that been your experience? In your opinion, how does a person’s view of heaven affect his or her priorities on earth?
· Toward the end of his life, Paul wrote, “I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith.” Philippians 1: 20-25 Based on this passage, do you think it is possible to be “heavenly-minded” and “earthly-minded?” Do we have to be either/or?
“It’s very common to hear talk about heaven framed in terms of who ‘gets in’ or how to ‘get in.’ What we find Jesus teaching, over and over and over again, is that he’s interested in our hearts being transformed, so that we can actually handle heaven. To portray heaven as bliss, peace, and endless joy is a beautiful picture, but it raises the question: How many of us could handle it, as we are today? How would we each do in a reality that had no capacity for cynicism or slander or worry or pride? It’s important, then, to keep in mind that heaven has the potential to be a kind of starting over. Learning how to be human all over again. Imagine living with no fear. Ever. That would take some getting used to. So would a world where loving your neighbor was the only option. So would a world where every choice was good for the earth. That would be a strange world at first. That could take some getting used to. Much of the speculation about heaven – and, more important, the confusion – comes from the idea that in the blink of an eye we will automatically become totally different people who ‘know’ everything. But our heart, our character, our desires, our longings – those things take time. Jesus calls disciples in order to teach us how to be and what to be; his intention is for us to be growing progressively in generosity, forgiveness, honesty, courage, truth telling, and responsibility, so that as these take over our lives we are taking part more and more and more in life in the age to come, now.” (Pages 50-51)
· Rob raise a fascinating question. If you were immediately transported to heaven, just as you are now, do you think you’d be comfortable in heaven? Why or why not?
· Rob doesn’t think our preparation for God’s presence happens in the “blink of an eye.” While it is true that God is using the circumstances of our lives to “conform us to the image of his Son” (Romans 8:29), do you think this process continues in heaven? Or do we instantly know things we didn’t know on earth and become pure and holy like Christ? (See 1 John 3:1-3, 1 Corinthians 13:9-12, 2 Corinthians 3:18)
· In your opinion, what is the best way to get ready now for our life in heaven?
“To summarize, then, sometimes when Jesus used the word ‘heaven,’ he was simply referring to God, using the word as a substitute for the name of God. Second, sometimes when Jesus spoke of heaven, he was referring to the future coming together of heaven and earth in what he and his contemporaries called life in the age to come. And then third – and this is where things get really interesting – when Jesus talked about heaven, he was talking about our present eternal, intense, real experiences of joy, peace, and love in this life, this side of death and the age to come. Heaven for Jesus wasn’t just ‘someday;’ it was a present reality. Jesus blurs the lines, inviting the rich man, and us, into the merging of heaven and earth, the future and present, here and now. To say it again, eternal life is less about a kind of time that starts when we die, and more about a quality and vitality of life lived now in connection to God. Eternal life doesn’t start when we die; it starts now. It’s not about a life that begins at death; it’s about experiencing the kind of life now that can endure and survive death. We live in several dimensions. Up and down. Left and right. Forward and backward. Three to be exact. And yet we’ve all had experiences when those three dimensions weren’t adequate. Moments when we were acutely, overwhelmingly aware of other realities just beyond this one…. Yes, there is plenty in the scriptures about life in the age to come, about our resurrected, heaven-and-earth-finally-come-together-as-one body, a body that’s been ‘clothed in the immortal’ that will make this body, the one we inhabit at this moment, seem like a temporary tent. And yes, there were plenty of beliefs then about what the future would hold, just as there are now. But when Jesus talks with the rich man, he has one thing in mind: he wants the man to experience the life of heaven, eternal life, ‘aionian’ life, now. For that man, his wealth was in the way; for others it’s worry or stress or pride or envy – the list goes on. We know that list. Jesus invites us, in this life, in this broken beautiful world, to experience the life of heaven now. He insisted over and over that God’s peace, joy, and love are currently available to us, exactly as we are. So how do I answer the questions about heaven? How would I summarize all that Jesus teaches? There’s a heaven now, somewhere else. There’s a heaven here, sometime else. And then there’s Jesus’s invitation to heaven here and now, in this moment, in this place. Try and paint that.”
· As the Apostle Paul contemplates the end of his life, he writes, “For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. For we live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.” 2 Corinthians 5:1-10 Do you ever “groan, longing to be clothed with your heavenly dwelling?”
· In Romans 8: 23 Paul writes, “we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.” Is there anything wrong with longing for our future existence?
· How do we experience eternal life now? (See John 4:14, John 6:54, John 17:3, Matthew 6:10)
After reading chapter two and considering the verses on heaven in the Bible, how would you describe heaven in your own words? 