What Does God Promise Us About Eternal Happiness?

What does God promise us about eternal happiness?

Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever. Daniel 12:2-3, NIV

Christian, meditate much on heaven, it will help thee to press on, and to forget the toil of the way. This vale of tears is but the pathway to the better country: this world of woe is but the stepping-stone to a world of bliss. . . . And, after death, what cometh? What wonder-world will open upon our astonished sight? CHARLES SPURGEON

IN AD 60, SENECA, the Roman Stoic philosopher and statesman who advised Nero, wrote, “No happiness lasts for long.”^a At that same time, the apostle Paul and others were spreading the good news that happiness is in God and will last forever. About five years later, Seneca died in Rome and Paul shortly after, both by Nero’s decree. Three years later, when the political tide turned against him, Nero killed himself.

Happiness is short lived . . . unless death is not the end of us and the world, and a happy life in a happy world awaits us still. For people with no faith in God, who deny the Resurrection, these are the best days, and certainly they’re winding down to a fixed end. But for genuine Christ-followers, these are decidedly not the best days of our lives. In fact, the best by far is yet to come!

A. W. Tozer said, “When the followers of Jesus Christ lose their interest in heaven they will no longer be happy Christians, and when they are no longer happy Christians they cannot be a powerful force in a sad and sinful world. It may be said with certainty that Christians who have lost their enthusiasm about the Savior’s promises of heaven-to-come have also stopped being effective in Christian life and witness in this world.”^b

A culturally engaged young man who’s a bestselling author with a large following interviewed me concerning my book Heaven. Before the interview, he told me apologetically, “Truth is, I didn’t read your book.”

I had read his books, so I smiled and said, “Let me guess why. It’s because you think Heaven will be boring, and it’s the beauties and wonders of this life—the natural world and human culture and the arts—that you’re really interested in.”

Surprised, he said, “Yes!”

“That’s exactly why you should read it,” I said. “It’s about the New Earth the Bible reveals, a place with resurrected people on a resurrected planet; with resurrected nature, nations, and cultures; with animals, art, music, literature, drama, and galaxies—all for the glory of God.”

His eyes brightened and then faded, as if to say, “If only that were true.”

Well, it is true. The gospel—the Good News—is way better than we believe it to be. But if we pay attention when we read the Bible, we’ll see it:

Be happy and rejoice forevermore over what I am about to create! For look, I am ready to create Jerusalem to be a source of joy, and her people to be a source of happiness. Jerusalem will bring me joy, and my people will bring me happiness. The sound of weeping or cries of sorrow will never be heard in her again.

Isaiah 65:18-19, NET

Most of us don’t live as if we believe in God’s promise of a New Earth. When we hang on, white-knuckled, to this life, it proves our disbelief in an afterlife that is physical (with real health), material (with real wealth), social (with real culture and relationships), and personal (with real happiness and continuance of our identity).

Despite Scripture’s claim to the contrary, even Christians end up thinking, If I can’t live my dreams now, I never will. Or, You only go around once . . . But if we know Jesus, we go around twice—and the second time lasts forever. It’s called eternal life, and we will live it in resurrected bodies in a redeemed universe, on a New Earth, with King Jesus!

Because of the Resurrection, we will never pass our peaks. We need no bucket lists since our life after death will afford us unlimited opportunities to enjoy with physical bodies and renewed minds a resurrected physical universe. The best by far isn’t behind us; it’s yet to come.

I’ve heard it said, “We can’t begin to imagine Heaven and what life will be like there.” Certainly, our imaginations can’t do it justice, but we can imagine it! Otherwise, it won’t appeal to us and we won’t anticipate it as we should. If we eagerly await vacations and what we’re going to see and do, how much more should we anticipate our eternal life with King Jesus!

Puritan pastor Richard Baxter (1615–1691) said, “Can you think that anything is fitter for the chiefest of your thoughts and cares, than the God and kingdom, which you hope for ever to enjoy? Or is there anything that can be more suitable, or should be more delightful to your thoughts, than to employ them about your highest hopes, upon your endless happiness and joy?”^c

Hope is the light at the end of life’s tunnel. Not only does it make the tunnel endurable, it fills the heart with anticipation of the world into which we will one day emerge. Not just a better world, but a new and perfect world. A world alive, fresh, beautiful, and devoid of pain, suffering, and war; a world without disease, accident, and tragedy; a world without dictators and madmen. A world ruled by the only one worthy of ruling.

O God, build in us a far greater anticipation for the renewal of this world. We’re buried under the weight of our collective sin and its effect on all creation. We need your deliverance. Come soon! When the time is right, bring us with you to the New Earth, where there will be no more sin, where nothing will impede our ability to see you, and where your happiness will cover us like a blanket. Until then, fill us with your joy as we contemplate that fantastic world to come.