Ahne Dumalo
What Does Heaven Look Like? Many people choose to follow Jesus at first only because they don’t want to go to hell. People hear that hell is a bad place and want to avoid that reality. What we don’t talk enough about is the beauty of heaven. Heaven is where believers in Jesus Christ go to be in the presence of God for eternity. There is no sin in this place, no pain, brokenness, or hurt, just the beauty of God and getting to flourish as his creation. That may lead you to the question of what does heaven look like? The Bible Gives insight into what heaven looks like in Revelation 21, which is what we will focus on in this article.
Before We Worry about What Heaven Looks Like, We Need to Worry About Who God is
What Does Heaven Look Like?
When you think about what heaven looks like, it can be easy to forget that God is amazing. The reason heaven is awesome is because it represents the one true God. If you don’t know God or want to know him, you should not want to be in his presence. Everyone wants to go to heaven, but no one wants to walk with Jesus to get there. The concept of wanting to spend eternity with God without knowing him at all is a weird concept. It’s like wanting to marry someone you don’t know at all.
We must start with God because he is holy and completely set apart. There is none like him, and he is righteous in all of his ways. The God we serve is so loving and kind that he was willing to sacrifice his only son so that you and I could be connected to him. He was willing to take on death itself so that you and I could live.
It’s that God that we get to be with in heaven. If you don’t know God, I strongly encourage you to drop everything you are doing, confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. There is no amount of work you can do to earn heaven, it must come from the finished work of the cross.
Our Job is to Bring Heaven Down as Christians
Before we get to just yearning for heaven, we have to remember that we have work we have been called to as Christians. People forget this. It’s really easy to want to die so you can go to heaven, but we have a huge part in this. As Christians, we are not just here to let the world fall apart but are called to be Salt and Light (Matthew 5).
Being Salt and light means that we move out of darkness and help preserve what is good. Being salt and light as a Christian means living to make Christ the center of everyone’s heart. Too many Christians forget this or don’t know this. The result is that we just kind of hang around waiting to die to go to a better place. We live with no urgency to spread the Gospel but instead become discontent with the world.
Entire churches should be on fire to be Salt and Light on the earth. They should see all of the darkness in their city, town, state, country, and the world and have a strategy to move that darkness out actively. Bringing heaven down is the daily reminder that Christians must roll up their sleeves and get to work.
The New Heaven and New Earth
What Does Heaven Look Like?
Heaven will be the new earth. Jesus is coming back for his bride; we can give him all the praise and glory for this. His bride is those who we call the saints. The followers of Jesus Christ who make up the church are his bride and like a husband excited for his bride, Christ is excited to see us presented as perfect.
The purpose is important here. Heaven is not just a place for us to live in bliss, but it’s a place where we get to be with God in perfection. We get to dwell with him without sin. Hell is the opposite; its place is completely absent from God, and those who don’t know Christ live without the very God they rejected anyway. The best part of it is being with God.
After being with God, it means all the suffering and pain go away. There is no more death to worry about, either. Jesus will make all things new, and 1 Cor 15 tells us that we will be resurrected in our bodies, and they will be new too. Outside of this, I think the beauty of heaven will be unimaginable. The best thing to do is to let the text speak for itself.
Read Revelations 21 In Full
The New Heaven and the New Earth
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them; they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, crying, or pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also, he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”
The New Jerusalem
What Does Heaven Look Like?
Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.
It had a great, high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed— on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
And the one who spoke with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and walls. The city lies foursquare, its length the same as its width. And he measured the city with his rod, 12,000 stadia. Its length and width and height are equal.
He also measured its wall, 144 cubits, by human measurement, which is also an angel’s measurement. The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, like clear glass. The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel.
The first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.
And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there.
They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. But 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. What does heaven look like? The most important thing you need to know is that you will be in the presence of God!
