Till the World is Mended

By Andrew Yang

While I was growing up, I believed Heaven was the point.

When asked, “Why are you a Christian?”

I answered, “Because I want to go to heaven.” Likewise, when evangelizing (I was a pretty zealous little kid), I would ask, “Do you know for sure you’re going to Heaven?”

I believed that an individual went to Heaven after he died, and there would spend eternity with friends and family. And the purpose of Christianity was to get other people in Heaven too. Like an army of salespeople. I remember using evangelism as a bargaining chip: “God, do this for me and I promise to lead seven people to you.”

I grew older and came to understand things better. Eventually I came across a passage in a book, I don’t remember which book or which author, but it went something like, “I had to love Jesus so much that were he to be in Hell, I would want to be there with him.” That passage was a turning point for me. I’d always heard that Christianity was a relationship, but the reality of that didn’t hit home for me until then.

I understood finally that Heaven, at least as I understood it, is not the point.

Turning to the Scriptures, I also discovered that Heaven is not the end. The Scriptures speak continuously of a new heaven and new earth, and a physical resurrection of the dead; a far cry from the idea of a purely spiritual realm I’d learned about where I’d escape to after dying to be with friends and family for all eternity. I wasn’t the only person to have this misconception. When talking to other Christians, I realized that for many people, personal salvation of the soul was the purpose and end product of Christianity. Not only that, but many people I talked to didn’t even know what to think about the phrase “resurrection of the dead.” For them, Christianity has very little to do practically with the physical world. They believe, as a friend of mine said, that “resurrection of the spirit is more important.”

But the Scriptures constantly assert the importance of the resurrection of the dead. Paul sees Christ as the forerunner of all of us who will be raised from the dead. Not only that, but “If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith” (1 Corinthians 15:13-14). According to Paul, our physical resurrection is intimately tied with Christ’s resurrection; thus our belief in physical resurrection is all the more important. You can hear the incredulity in Paul’s tone as he writes, “But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead?” (1 Corinthians 15:12)

Jesus was raised up physically. The Gnostic heresy has been rather popular in recent days, and it’s important to note that the Gnostics were some of the earliest opponents to the idea of Jesus being fully human. To the Gnostics, matter was impure, so Jesus’ resurrected form must have been purely spiritual. John addresses some elements of Gnosticism in the book of 1 John. “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God…This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God” (1 John 4:1-2).

Likewise in Luke, Jesus’ resurrected form is not that of a ghost. In a moment of the gospel that is practically comedy, Jesus appears among them: “Look at my hands and my feet!” Jesus says, “It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.” The disciples still aren’t sure whether to believe him, and Jesus says, “Do you have anything to eat?” and they give him a piece of broiled fish and watch him eat it, wide-eyed with joy and amazement (Luke 24:36-43). It’s no wonder that people like the Gnostics, who believed that the resurrected Christ became a spiritual being freed of his flesh, had a problem with passages like this. These scenes stress the physicality of Christ’s resurrection, showing the disciples poking around at the wounds of his physical body as Thomas does in John’s gospel or having Jesus eat, of all things, a broiled fish.

Not Destroyed, but Redeemed

While I’m emphasizing the importance of the flesh and its physicality, in its present state, the flesh is still imperfect and bound to sinful nature. As Paul says, “So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want” (Galatians 5:16-17). However, the glorified body of Christ is the future of the flesh, a precursor to our bodies after the resurrection: “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” Paul emphasizes that what happens to our bodies is not that they are discarded, but rather transformed, just as Christ’s body was transformed. “Listen, I tell you a mystery; We will not all sleep, but we shall all be changed – in a flash…the dead will be raised imperishable and we will be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:51-52).

The Scriptures also stress the fact that our present Earth isn’t just a prison from which we’ll fly away, but that it will be redeemed from its sinful nature just as our bodies will be redeemed from their sinful natures. “The creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:19-21).

I love the imagery that Paul uses here, of creation waiting in “eager expectation” or “anxious longing.” The picture he paints is that of a pregnant woman who is on the verge of giving birth, “groaning in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.” Not only the creation, Paul says, but we also share this inner longing. Numerous theologians, philosophers, painters, and poets have described this emotion. As C.S. Lewis writes in Pilgrim’s Regress, “The soul was made to enjoy some object that is never fully given – nay, cannot even be imagined as given – in our present mode of subjective and spatio-temporal experience.” (1) We and the whole of creation have a feeling that something is wrong and not meant to be. Paul tells us that this feeling, this longing and waiting, is to be fulfilled when the Earth is, at last, redeemed.

On Earth as it is in Heaven

Our bodies are an integral part of ourselves, and so is the Earth. They will not be destroyed or abandoned, but will be redeemed on the last day. So what? Our challenge then, is not to quietly endure the suffering of the world in expectation of a paradise after death. Nor should we wait passively until the kingdom of God comes. Jesus tells us that “the coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst” (Luke 17:20-21). The kingdom is already here, and it dwells within us. The same way that Christ’s resurrection is the firstfruits of the bodily resurrection and a sign of its coming, so our spiritual transformation or our “firstfruits of the Spirit” (Romans 8:23) is the sign of a new order in the kingdom of God. Thus, “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23) become symbols of a kingdom to come.

Likewise the world should not only see a Christian changing in attitude, but see Christians going out into the community and changing it. Christ teaches us to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and visit those in prison (Matthew 25:35-36). Christians should be addressing the issues of inequality in the world and fighting injustice, working to prepare the Earth for the kingdom of God, and living as citizens of the new kingdom even as we are stuck here in the old. Isaiah tells us to “prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God” (Isaiah 40:3). As John the Baptist prepared the way for Christ the first time he came, who but the Church should work to prepare his way the second time? With this in mind, how can we hole ourselves up in our church buildings with our primary concerns being ice cream socials and church picnics? Scripture warns us of faith that does nothing to change world. James writes, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says…Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world” (James 1:22, 27).

In Reflections on the Psalms, C.S. Lewis points out the major difference between how Christians and Jews view the role of the judge. With God as the judge in a criminal case, Christians hope to be pardoned. The Jewish view of the Scriptures is the idea of a civil case with themselves as the plaintiff; wanting God as the righteous judge to give them justice (Christ himself uses this view in his parable of the widow and the judge in Luke chapter 18) (2). Having this in mind, the constant desire expressed in Scripture for God to come down and judge the world becomes instantly relatable. Every person on Earth has experienced the injustice of the world, injustice inflicted by society, or government, or other people, or the weather – “Life isn’t fair,” we are told. And yet, we expect life to be fair and seem to be constantly surprised when it is not. We long for the justice of God to descend on this corrupt world, long with “eager expectation” as Paul says.

We are called to be light bearers in a world of darkness, like candles flickering at night, and through our light the world will have a taste of the coming morning. The Prophet Amos writes, “Let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!” (Amos 5:24) And indeed, let our cry be resounding agreement! Let us go out and give the world a glimpse of the world to come where the poor inherit the kingdom, the hungry are satisfied, and those who weep are comforted.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!”

Revelation 21:1-5

References
1. Brown, Dave. “Real Joy and True Myth.” Dave Brown’s C.S. Lewis Page. 1997. 13 Apr. 2008 <http:www.geocities.com/athens/forum/3505/LewisJoy.html>.
2. Lewis, C.S. “Reflections on the Psalms.” The Inspirational Writings of C.S. Lewis. New York: Inspirational P, 1994. 137.