davidbowerkingwood

What’s So Special About the Church?

As mentioned last time, I can imagine some fairly grand ideas with regard to eternity but I’m under no illusions that my imaginations will even come close to the realities God has planned for His children.

We have considered the new earth, the New Jerusalem, and the new heavens so let us now focus some attention on the Church. Who will we be and what will we do; does the Bible give us any hints? I think we can learn much from the limited amount of information that has been revealed.

Keep in mind that in this context the Church is the total number of individuals who have personally accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour from Pentecost as described in Acts 2:1f through the Rapture which is yet future.

For starters I’m convinced that we will be busy with all sorts of jobs to be done. One clue that I see is in the case of Adam. When Adam was placed in the Garden of Eden he was given dominion over all the earth, all living things on the earth and on top of all that he was expected to till the Garden of Eden and keep it as well.

I have no idea how big the Garden of Eden was but tilling it and caring for it sounds like a full time job to me which would in fact make gardener the world’s oldest profession. I have no idea whether there will be any gardening responsibilities in the eternal state but I suppose anything is possible.

The Church Has Been Remarkably Blessed

As members of the Church we know several things about ourselves; for instance we are children of God and joint heirs with Christ. That alone gets things off to a rather auspicious start. Although it is impossible for us to fully realize, we now have and will continue to have throughout all of eternity a union with God which is unbreakable and eternal. We are in God and God is in us; that is an immense thought!

At this very moment you, as a born-again believer, are indwelt by God the Holy Spirit; the Lord Jesus Christ is living His life through you and spiritually you are in Christ seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, I Corinthians 6:19; Galatians 2:20; Ephesians 2:6.

Our mortal bodies cannot sense this or share in it; although you have been redeemed, your redemption does not extend to your physical body. I find it curious that the only part of us that has not been redeemed, and will not have a share in eternity is the only part of us that we can actually see.

Eternity Will Be a Busy Place

We also know we are royal priests joining together the administrative role of government as well as the intercessory role of priest, II Peter 2:9. That is a major departure from the Old Covenant pattern wherein the role of king and priest were clearly separated. We also learn in I Corinthians 6:3 that we will judge the angelic creation; even though we are now lower than the angels, in eternity we will judge the angels.

It sounds to me as if we’re going to have plenty on our plates to keep us busy; as members of the royal household with those implied leadership responsibilities; as priests under the leadership of our High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ; and as judges of angels and possibly of the nations we may have a waiting list of chores needing our attention. Now that sounds pretty exciting to me and leads me to think we’ll all be very busy.

We have covered only a very small part of what eternity may be like and I’m again reminded of my early analogy of exploring the Pacific Ocean by walking along the beach in San Diego. I suppose our stroll along the beach of eternity must come to an end with most of our questions unanswered. I hope you’ve enjoyed some of my speculations and will open your minds to the possibilities and privately stroll down your own eternal beaches.

Happy strolling!