Heaven Is More Real Than This World

More Substantial than Earth

Because heaven is portrayed in the Scriptures with metaphors and symbols, many people think of heaven as ethereal. Gary Larson captures the misconception of heaven in his Far Side comic strip. In one cartoon, a man with angel wings and a halo sits on a cloud. With absolutely nothing to do, he wears an expression of boredom, and a caption explains his thoughts: “Wish I’d brought a magazine.”

C. S. Lewis flipped the script on this ethereal view of heaven in The Great Divorce, an imaginary tale of a trip from hell to heaven. He describes hell as shadowland—ghostlike and transparent. In contrast, the future heaven will be solid and heavy. Lewis describes the grass, rocks, trees, and water in heaven as much more solid than things in our own country. Everything in heaven is hard, like diamonds. The main character in the story—who has only experienced the immaterial dark shadows of hell—can’t pluck a flower, pick up a leaf, or drink the water. This is how Lewis puts it:

A grove of huge cedars to my right seemed attractive and I entered it. Walking proved difficult. The grass, hard as diamonds to my unsubstantial feet, made me feel as if I were walking on wrinkled rock. . . . A bird ran across in front of me and I envied it. It belonged to that country and was as real as the grass. It could bend the stalks and spatter itself with the dew.^1,

You might be thinking that this picture of heaven is unattractive. Who wants grass to cut their feet? But Lewis’s point is that heaven is not less real than this world but more real. It is so full of substance that even the grass won’t bend under our current insubstantial bodies.

Lewis’s weighty view is supported in the Scriptures, which describe heaven as a new earth, a new city, and a new home. Our future heaven is described as a new earth:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. (Rev. 21:1)

The Scriptures imagine the final destiny as a new earth with rivers, mountains, trees, and flowers. Some of the best descriptions of heaven, like Lewis’s, use what we see here but reach for a higher reality. The Scriptures also describe our future heaven as a new city:

By faith Abraham obeyed. . . . For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. . . . For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is come. (Heb. 11:8, 10; 13:14)

Combining these images of a new earth and new city, some have described heaven as a garden-city.

Finally, the Bible encourages us to see our future heaven as our new home. Jesus says that in his “Father’s house are many rooms” (John 14:2). Notice that Jesus describes heaven as a real place, using physical images to describe it (a house with rooms). He gives his disciples something tangible to think about. Understanding that heaven is a home helps us begin to conceive of what we will do in heaven. In ancient homes, people worked, fellowshiped with those they loved, and rested. This means that in heaven we will work, fellowship with those we love, and rest. Jesus has gone to prepare rooms for us so that we can be with him and our loved ones forever. Somewhere deep in the human heart is a longing for our true home.

At the end of Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia, one of the characters finally arrives at heaven and says, “This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now. The reason why we loved the old Narnia is that it sometimes looked a little like this.”² Heaven will be like our earth, our cities, our homes—but transformed.

New Bodies

If our future heaven is a real, physical place, then what will we be like? Will we have bodies? Or will we be souls that float around? According to Randy Alcorn, most views of our eternal home are anti-incarnational.³ Any talk of resurrection that is not bodily is a flat-out contradiction. The Scriptures affirm that we will receive new resurrected bodies like Jesus’s: Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. (1 Cor. 15:49)

The Lord Jesus Christ . . . will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body. (Phil. 3:20–21)

When [Jesus] appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:2)

Nevertheless, this still raises the question of what these new bodies will be like. While some mystery remains, there are texts that give us some help. One of these texts is the account of the transfiguration of Jesus (Matt. 17:1–8; Mark 9:2–8; Luke 9:28–36). When Jesus goes up on the mountain with his disciples, he shows them what our future bodies will be like. Jesus’s body is “transfigured” (Matt. 17:2), translating a Greek term from which we derive our word metamorphosis. When we hear the term metamorphosis, we likely think of how a butterfly morphs from an egg to a caterpillar to a chrysalis to a butterfly. Metamorphosis rightly refers to physical change.

Jesus’s transfiguration gives a preview of how our bodies will change. Jesus’s face shone like the sun (Matt. 17:2; Luke 9:29), and his clothes became as white as light, radiantly white (Matt. 17:2; Mark 9:3; Luke 9:29). Nevertheless, the disciples recognize Jesus, so there is some sort of continuity. Jesus’s body is not discarded or cast aside. Similarly, in the resurrection, our bodies will not be annihilated but glorified, not destroyed but renewed.

Jesus’s resurrection confirms this. The empty tomb means that his resurrection involved the same body in which he was crucified. When Jesus is raised, he returns to the ordinary activities of bodily life. He eats (Luke 24:41–43; John 21:12–13), walks (Luke 24:13–17), and talks (Matt. 28:9–10). He even reassures them that he is not a ghost (Luke 24:39). Most importantly, when Jesus is raised, his disciples touch the scars on his body (Luke 24:39–40; John 20:27). Christ was not a different person after the resurrection but the same person.

Yet, Jesus’s embodiment is also strangely different than his body before. Jesus appears out of nowhere (Luke 24:15), vanishes (Luke 24:31), and doesn’t seem to have to go through doors (John 20:26). Those who knew him best don’t recognize him (Luke 24:16; John 20:14). The point is that Jesus’s body is both different and the same. Paul reflects on the nature of our raised bodies in one of his letters:

There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; . . . So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body; there is also a spiritual body. (1 Cor. 15:40–44)

This text can be confusing for those who assume that “heavenly” and “spiritual” mean non-physical. However, Paul insists that we will have bodies. To say they are “spiritual” bodies doesn’t describe their substance but what animates them. We will have bodies governed by the Spirit.

Therefore, our resurrection bodies will have similarities and dissimilarities with our earthly bodies. The disciples both recognize Jesus and don’t recognize him. Augustine says we will be able to consume food like Jesus did but not out of need.⁴Thus, we will have our same bodies, but they will be upgraded. Maybe we can compare it to the renovation of a house. My wife loves to watch programs that trace the transformation of a house. What once looked old and deteriorating is suddenly bright and new. The house is the same but has now been transformed.

The most wonderful thing about heaven is that we will finally see God face-to-face.

New Vision of God

While it is good to speak of our new home and our new bodies, there can be a tendency to focus on these things and make heaven a “super-sized earth” and our bodies a “superhero self.” Some might conclude from the above that we will have the same bodies but with six packs. Or we will live in cities, but they will all be as beautiful as the Italian Amalfi coast.

We also have to be careful of over-literalizing some of the images of heaven. What can be missed in a view of heaven that is merely an upgraded earth is that the best thing about heaven is not our new bodies or our new home. The most wonderful thing about heaven is that we will finally see God face-to-face. As Samuel Parkison rightly states, “What makes heaven, heaven? Christianity’s resounding answer to that question throughout the centuries has been the [sight of God].”⁵

The good life is life with God. We could receive a new place to live and new bodies, but if God were not there it would not be good. We must remember that the best thing about heaven is that we will dwell with God. If God is absent, nothing else will satisfy. The Scriptures affirm that the best thing about heaven will be seeing God:

One thing have I asked of the Lord,
that will I seek after:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord
and to inquire in his temple. (Ps. 27:4)

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. (1 Cor. 13:12)

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. (Matt. 5:8)

When [Jesus] appears, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:2)

In our eternal state we will have immediate knowledge of God. Our new bodies and souls are simply a benefit. God is what heaven is all about. One of the great dangers of viewing heaven as only an upgraded home and body is that we would begin to view God as a means to something else rather than an end in himself.

In other words, we can be tempted to treat God as a sort of Santa Claus who is only good for what he can give us. We may assume that once we have his gifts, we won’t really need him. However, the Scriptures argue that the goodness of heaven is God himself. That is because he himself is the very nature of the good and the source of all that is good.

Even with all these descriptions of heaven, some might still suppose that heaven will be boring because we won’t grow. Do we simply stare at God and sing? That might not sound too exciting. Can you imagine living for eternity and never growing in knowledge, physical ability, or even delight? That sounds more like hell than heaven.

The problem is that too many Christians and non-Christians have a static conception of heaven. The Scriptures and the Christian tradition portray heaven as a place where we are completely happy but also continually grow. It will be like climbing to one mountain summit (or riding the gondola for those who don’t like hiking) to see the vista, only to find that countless more summits await even further up, with glory to behold.

While those in heaven will experience abundant joy, they will also continually learn, grow, and strain toward more. They will perpetually strive toward the inexhaustible God. Since God is infinite, our sight of God will always be progressive. Perfection is not static but continual movement toward God.

The Christian life, even in heaven, is not one merely of acquisition but of pursuit––continual pursuit. Our sight and growth will progress in the eternal state. We will be continuously changed as we behold God. Our future will include infinite progress toward the perfection that exists in God.

While this may sound like we are never fulfilled in heaven, the idea is that once we have reached one degree of fulfillment, we then long for more. We arrive at joy and then realize that deeper joy awaits us. We reach one mountain peak and realize that another one beckons us. In heaven there will be eternal progress. To put it in the words of Lewis, we go “further up and further in.”⁶

In heaven we will dwell on a new earth with our new bodies. But most importantly, we will see God face-to-face and be completely happy. The resurrection of the dead is not only true but also good, even very good (Gen. 1:31).

Patrick Schreiner is the author of The Hope of the Resurrection: How Jesus’s Defeat of Death Changes Everything.

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