Recently I’ve been reading a choice book by John Piper titled God’s Passion for His Glory: Living the Vision of Jonathan Edwards.  Edwards (1703-1758) was probably one of the greatest minds America has ever produced.  He lived and labored as a pastor in New England and was a spiritual leader during the Great Awakening, a massive revival of the Gospel that occurred during the 1730’s and 1740’s.  In this book, John Piper reproduces and interacts with a key work of Edwards’ titled The End For Which God Created the World.  Piper sums up the glorious purpose of God for creating the world in this way: “First, that the glory of God might be magnified in the universe, and, second, that Christ’s ransomed people from all times and all nations would rejoice in God above all things.” According to Piper (and Edwards), these two goals are not actually at odds; in fact they are one great goal.  The glory of God and the joy of His people are not separate but bound together.  In the course of this book, Piper draws out some of the great implications of this twofold goal, and one of them is a breathtaking view of the nature of heaven.  I’ve been trying to wrap my mind and heart around it for a few days, and I’d like to invite you to join me in that effort.  Listen first to Piper summing up Edwards:

“Heaven will be a never-ending, ever-increasing discovery of more and more of God’s glory with greater and ever- greater joy in him.  If God’s glory and our joy in him are one, and yet we are not infinite as he is, then our union with him in the all-satisfying experience of his glory can never be complete, but must be increasing with intimacy and intensity forever and ever. The perfection of heaven is not static. Nor do we see at once all there is to see—for that would be a limit on God’s glorious self-revelation, and therefore, his love. Yet we do not become God. Therefore, there will always be more, and the end of increased pleasure in God will never come.” (God’s Passion For His Glory, p. 37)

Those are Piper’s words. Now here is another paragraph from the book, giving us the way Jonathan Edwards puts it, with Piper interspersing some comment:

“‘I suppose it will not be denied by any, that God, in glorifying the saints in heaven with eternal felicity, aims to satisfy his infinite grace or benevolence, by the bestowment of a good [which is] infinitely valuable, because eternal: and yet there never will come the moment, when it can be said, that now this infinitely valuable good has been actually bestowed.’ Moreover, he says, our eternal rising into more and more of God will be a ‘rising higher and higher through that infinite duration, and . . . not with constantly diminishing (but perhaps an increasing) celerity [that is, velocity] . . . [to an] infinite height; though there never will be any particular time when it can be said already to have come to such a height.’ This is what we see through a glass darkly in Ephesians 2:7, ‘[God seats us in heaven with Christ] so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.’ It will take an infinite number of ages for God to be done glorifying the wealth of his grace to us—which is to say he will never be done.” (p.37)

OK, so there’s a theological term for this:  YOWSA.  Think about the point that both of these wise men are making:  When we enter heaven for all eternity to enjoy God’s presence, He will continue to “show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”  Because we will be there for eternity, and because God’s grace is limitless, we actually will NEVER REACH THE CREST OF THE WAVE in our beholding and seeing and enjoying God’s glory.  We will never come to a point where we will be able to say:  I have beheld the fullness of God’s glory and have received the fullness of His grace to me.  Now, don’t be mistaken.  This does not mean that what we receive and see and enjoy of Christ in heaven will be less perfect or glorious at the beginning of eternity than after we’ve been there ten thousand years (as if there were such a thing – who on this earth can know what being outside of the bounds of time will be like?).   No, it will be perfect joy and bliss from the moment we enter heaven, as we will behold Jesus for the first time.  But, because God is infinite and we are not, we will never be able to receive the fullness of his love to us all at once.  Indeed the sheer joy of our joy is that it will not remain static, but will grow forever!

I’ve just begun to realize why this is hard to comprehend.  We are finite creatures that can’t really understand a category like “ever-increasing joy.”   When we experience joy, even the greatest joy imaginable, it reaches a glorious crest like a wave, and then subsides and the joy (while having lasting effects) inevitably gives way to the level plain or even a valley.  We only know joy in a limited sense.  But still, our joy in God is a true joy and a foretaste of heaven.   Oh, how the hope of this ever-increasing bliss can shape us into joyful, hopeful people in this life!  How transformational it ought to be in us that we have this great future that awaits us.  We will spend eternity in an ever-increasing joy, an ever-widening view of the expanse and beauty of Jesus, and we will receive an ever-increasing bestowment of grace from Him.  

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.”  (1 Corinthians 2:9)

It is hard to find a comment other than this: If that what heaven is like, then sign me up.

Living in anticipation,

Pastor David