Imperishable Inheritance

In a time where all of the earth lives for them­selves, it’s a poignant argu­ment to say that some have “made up” heaven to fit in with their insa­tia­bil­ity. The prob­lem is not heaven but how we view heaven.

What fol­lows is a sys­tem­atic look at heaven through the Scrip­tures. There is lit­tle com­men­tary, but only Scrip­ture in this exam­i­na­tion under cat­e­go­rized head­ings. May Christ, the Son of the liv­ing God, be extoled in our lives and among the nations.

Heaven Is Not About You

The only rea­son heaven exists is to man­i­fest the glo­ri­ant radi­ance and glory of God. God, in His per­fect coun­sel, chose to cre­ate a race and to elect a sub­set to make known the riches of His glory.

What if God, although will­ing to demon­strate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience ves­sels of wrath pre­pared for destruc­tion? And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon ves­sels of mercy, which He pre­pared before­hand for glory, even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gen­tiles.
Romans 9:22–24 (cf. Deut 9:13–14)

Those who have the gift of eter­nal sal­va­tion are not to boast in what has been given to them (Eph 2:1–10) but to boast only in the cross which saves (Gal 6:14). Car­nal Chris­tian­ity is built around the thought that we have inher­ited what we wanted (eter­nal life), and all we needed to do is say a sinner’s prayer and we have obtained the won­der­ful gifts of faith (Eph 2:8), repen­tance (2 Tim 2:25), jus­ti­fi­ca­tion (Rom 5:1), elec­tion (Eph 1:4–11), adop­tion (Gal 4:5), and I could go on. That is not what Christ declared to be enough, to obtain the inher­i­tance you will prove your inher­i­tance through spir­i­tual fruit (Mat 3:8, 7:17; Col 1:10) and by fol­low­ing the com­mands of God (Gen 26:5; Lev 26:14–16; Psalm 119:35; John 14:15; 1 Cor 7:19).

For this rea­son also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will con­fess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Philip­pi­ans 2:9–11

Heaven is a Gift, not a Reward

And the dis­ci­ples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in para­bles?” Jesus answered them, “To you it has been granted to know the mys­ter­ies of the king­dom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted.
Matthew 13:10–11

Under­stand­ing Heaven Involves Under­stand­ing Humility

At that time the dis­ci­ples came to Jesus and said, “Who then is great­est in the king­dom of heaven?” And He called a child to Him­self and set him before them, and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are con­verted and become like chil­dren, you will not enter the king­dom of heaven. Who­ever then hum­bles him­self as this child, he is the great­est in the king­dom of heaven.“
Matthew 18:1–4

“If any­one serves Me, he must fol­low Me; and where I am, there My ser­vant will be also; if any­one serves Me, the Father will honor him. Now My soul has become trou­bled; and what shall I say, ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this pur­pose I came to this hour. “Father, glo­rify Your name.” Then a voice came out of heaven: “I have both glo­ri­fied it, and will glo­rify it again.“
John 12:26–28

Before The Elect See Heaven, All Will See The Wrath of God

And He said, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, and the field is the world; and as for the good seed, these are the sons of the king­dom; and the tares are the sons of the evil one; and the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the har­vest is the end of the age; and the reapers are angels. So just as the tares are gath­ered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His king­dom all stum­bling blocks, and those who com­mit law­less­ness, and will throw them into the fur­nace of fire; in that place there will be weep­ing and gnash­ing of teeth. “
Matthew 13:37–42

For they them­selves report about us what kind of a recep­tion we had with you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve a liv­ing and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who res­cues us from the wrath to come.
1 Thes­sa­lo­ni­ans 1:9–10

And if anyone’s name was not found writ­ten in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
Rev­e­la­tion 20:15

The Author­ity Lies in Christ

And Jesus came up and spoke to them, say­ing, “All author­ity has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.“
Matthew 28:18

Jesus said to him, “You have said it your­self; nev­er­the­less I tell you, here­after you will see THE SON OF MAN SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF POWER, and COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN.“
Matthew 26:64

And He said to them, “I was watch­ing Satan fall from heaven like light­ning. Behold, I have given you author­ity to tread on ser­pents and scor­pi­ons, and over all the power of the enemy, and noth­ing will injure you. Nev­er­the­less do not rejoice in this, that the spir­its are sub­ject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven.“
Luke 10:18–20

So then, when the Lord Jesus had spo­ken to them, He was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.
Mark 16:19 (from the Tex­tus Receptus)

For our cit­i­zen­ship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Sav­ior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will trans­form the body of our hum­ble state into con­for­mity with the body of His glory, by the exer­tion of the power that He has even to sub­ject all things to Him­self.
Philip­pi­ans 3:20–21

Cor­re­spond­ing to that, bap­tism now saves you–not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience–through the res­ur­rec­tion of Jesus Christ, who is at the right hand of God, hav­ing gone into heaven, after angels and author­i­ties and pow­ers had been sub­jected to Him.
1 Peter 3:21–22

Our Lives Are To Be Stor­ing For Our­selves Trea­sures in Heaven

“Do not store up for your­selves trea­sures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for your­selves trea­sures in heaven, where nei­ther moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your trea­sure is, there your heart will be also.“Matthew 6:19–21

And he said to Him, “Teacher, I have kept all these things from my youth up.” Look­ing at him, Jesus felt a love for him and said to him, “One thing you lack: go and sell all you pos­sess and give to the poor, and you will have trea­sure in heaven; and come, fol­low Me.“
Mark 10:20–21

Now if any man builds on the foun­da­tion with gold, sil­ver, pre­cious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evi­dent; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the qual­ity of each man’s work. If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suf­fer loss; but he him­self will be saved, yet so as through fire.
1 Corinthi­ans 3:12–15

Jesus Christ is the Only Way to Enter Heaven

“And there is sal­va­tion in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.“
Acts 4:12

“For this is the will of My Father, that every­one who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eter­nal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.“
John 6:40

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.“
John 14:6–7

The Gift of Heaven, When Given, is Eternal

“All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will cer­tainly not cast out.
John 6:37

“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they fol­low Me; and I give eter­nal life to them, and they will never per­ish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.“
John 10:27–29

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who accord­ing to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a liv­ing hope through the res­ur­rec­tion of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inher­i­tance which is imper­ish­able and unde­filed and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are pro­tected by the power of God through faith for a sal­va­tion ready to be revealed in the last time.
1 Peter 1:3–5

For this rea­son I endure all things for the sake of those who are cho­sen, so that they also may obtain the sal­va­tion which is in Christ Jesus and with it eter­nal glory. It is a trust­wor­thy state­ment: For if we died with Him, we will also live with Him; If we endure, we will also reign with Him; If we deny Him, He also will deny us; If we are faith­less, He remains faith­ful, for He can­not deny Him­self.
2 Tim­o­thy 2:10–13

There Will Be A Mar­riage in Heaven

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, com­ing down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her hus­band.
Rev­e­la­tion 21:1–2

Final Thoughts

My hope and prayer that the empha­sis of heaven is not about the redeemed but about the glory of our right­eous God. I hope also that the redeemed will see the impor­tance of obey­ing the call of God in their short lives.

Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire noth­ing on earth.
Psalms 73:25