5 Expectations of Heaven



“After this body is dead, my spirit will soar.”

– Max Lucado

No More Pain

The Bible says that someday we’ll have no more pain (Rev. 21:4), but I don’t think this is speaking about only physical pain. It seems that the ones we love the most are the ones we hurt the greatest and are often the ones who hurt us the most. Someday all of that will pass away and be no more. Think about what Paul wrote: “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Rom. 8:18). Ponder that a bit: What we suffer in the present time will be unworthy to be compared with the glory that’s coming!

No More Sorrow

When Martha ran up to Jesus and gave Him a mild rebuke, saying, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died” (John 11:21), Jesus reassured her, “Your brother will rise again” (John 11:23). Jesus conquered the grave and can boldly proclaim, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die” (John 11:25-26). Someday our spirits will soar after our bodies die because death’s not final–it is only the beginning of eternal life in Christ.

No More Tears

Apparently after leaving Timothy, Paul could still recall his tears, writing tenderly to Timothy, “As I remember your tears, I long to see you, that I may be filled with joy” (2 Tim. 1:4). When Paul had to leave the Ephesian elders, “there was much weeping on the part of all; they embraced Paul and kissed him, being sorrowful most of all because of the word he had spoken, that they would not see his face again” (Acts 20:37-38). Even though Jesus wept (John 11:35), someday there will be no more tears.

No More Death

After Jesus was raised from the dead, it was the death of death as we know it. Yes, we will still die and then have our judgment (Heb. 9:27), but our sins were judged at the cross; this is only the beginning of eternal life. When I give funerals and they lower the believer’s body in the casket into the ground, I say, “This is not burial ground but resurrection ground, for they’re not here; they’re with Christ,” and “we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:8).

No More Sin

Christ put our sins away by His blood, and they are gone for good, for “as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12). By the way, north and south meet at the equator but east never meets west, so we’ll never meet up with our sins again. The Apostle John writes, “Nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life” (Rev. 21:27).

Conclusion

Think about what Max Lucado said: “After this body is dead, my spirit will soar.” And he is so right. Someday God “will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Rev. 21:4), and that’s enough to make any spirit soar!