Even on Earth, Heaven Is Your Home

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[John 16:23-33] “…I have said these things to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

On Earth, Heaven Is My Home

Remedies help, but sometimes only to a degree. And we’d rather not have the trouble to begin with. The light of the moon remedies the night’s darkness, but it’s still no sunlight.

The sun gives light, and burns. Sunscreen and aloe are the remedy for its rays. Medicine is the remedy for sickness. Tylenol dulls the headache. And chemotherapy and radiation might even completely eradicate the cancer. But what about life without sickness? That would be better.

Friends and good company are a partial remedy for grief, but death still stings. We might try many things to remedy guilt, but not even time stops it from rearing its head. Forgiveness is the remedy for sin. But what about a life in which I’m not a sinner? That would be better.

We don’t get to live in a world other than the one that exists. And we don’t get to choose to be born in a body other than the one we have. Nor can we decide not to have a sin-fallen nature. There’s no alternate universe available devoid of wrongs. This world and body are what we have.

So, it does little good to beat your head against the wall about how the world should be – or to be paralyzed in regret about what you should be or should’ve been.

But you can rejoice that God has provided, in Jesus, a solution which is more than a partial remedy – and live by faith in what you will be because of Him.

Jesus came into this world as it is. The holy Son of God, God with God the Father, became man. He lived the same life you live – in a world of wrongs – in this world of sicknesses – and at a time when there were fewer ways of lessening the reality of it all.

And Jesus, though He had no sin, lived in this world of sinners. He had only sinners as friends – only sinners as family members – only sinners as neighbors – and only sinners as disciples.

Yet Jesus, with His Father, so loved the world that He gave Himself for it. Jesus, who had no sin, took all sin – and all sickness and sadness – and all guilt and agony of soul – and all grief and sorrow – and death and condemnation – that of all the world – upon Himself on the cross.

Jesus suffered this world and overcame it. “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” [John 16:33]. Easter. Jesus rose from the dead.

When Jesus rose from the dead, He brought out of the grave – in Himself – the beginning of a new heaven and a new earth. And the fullness of a new, renewed humanity – a new, renewed human nature – for you, as yours.

Just as Jesus shared, in Himself on that cross, all that belongs to this fallen world, so also, in His resurrection, He shares all that belongs to Him – His holiness, purity, perfect health, and eternal life – with you.

He took what is yours to conquer it and to give you what is His – making for you a new home and new you.                       

The new home made for you is the new holy city, the Jerusalem from above, depicted in today’s second Scripture reading: “And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God…

And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb… and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there… nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” [Revelation 21:10, 21–27]

“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore…” [Revelation 21:4]. A new home.

And the new you and me will be you and me who are no longer sick and no longer sinners. There will be nothing unclean nor detestable in us. And no wrongdoers to harm us.

In that day, partial remedies and helps will cease. We will be completely new. And the former things will be forgotten [Isaiah 65:17; Revelation 21:4].

And, brothers and sisters, all this that the Son of God has done for you is so sure and certain – since it is sealed in His blood – that even what is still to come is already considered true of you by God right now: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” [2 Corinthians 5:17]

What will be true of you in that day because of what Jesus has done for you is truer and surer already right now than all we can see in the mirror, or in the world. Surer than the present is the future that you have with Him.

So, what about the present? Does it matter? Yes, the present matters. But it matters as the passing events and stops and breakdowns and repairs on the car ride along the way.

The good and bad things of the present are not ultimate but passing. Knowing this puts them into proper perspective. We are traveling through this life, but heaven is our home.

Because the car ride is often rough, let’s be thankful – thankful to God for the partial remedies and temporary relief we do often receive. Let’s give thanks to God for the joys that we do have. Let’s take seriously the duties and vocations He has given us, and the accomplishments we can pursue.

But let’s not bank our ultimate happiness on any of these. Like the griefs and sorrows, these good things will also pass.

What doesn’t pass – what doesn’t end – is the truth that Christ is risen. He is risen indeed, praise the Lord. Because of Him, even in this life, heaven is already your home. Amen.