Audio Transcript
We talk a lot about eternal life here because you want to talk a lot about eternal life here. I’m not complaining. I love returning to a conversation about our eternal happiness in heaven. We often talk about the joys of heaven, the end of pain and suffering, and a world of no more tears where nothing is broken. There’s a lot to anticipate about eternity.
But if we are honest, there are some fears about eternity too, and those fears can creep in and keep us up at night. We wonder if our happiness is too fragile for forever. We doubt that in ten thousand years of doing the same things we will be entertained. And if we are, what if eternity expires? What if heaven ends at some point? Can it end? If not, how do we know for sure? That is today on Ask Pastor John: Will you be happy in one million years?
The question is from Emily in Austin, Texas: “Pastor John, I am a teen who struggles with strong and frequent anxiety attacks. I have a question about heaven that sometimes worries me a lot. It’s at least part of my problem. Will God ever get rid of people in heaven to be done with them or simply to start over and make new people for some other reason? I’m not talking about those who aren’t in heaven (the annihilation of the wicked). I mean the annihilation of the godly. Is that possible? And if not, what do you think life will be like for us in one million years?”
Emily, the first thing I want to say is that Jesus is really good at helping people with anxiety. He is, in fact, a specialist in overcoming fear and sustaining glad-hearted boldness. He doesn’t just tell us to be free from anxiety or tell us not to be anxious — he gives us reasons not to be anxious. He helps us believe them.
For example, when you read Matthew 6:25–33, there are eight reasons in that paragraph not to be anxious. Another example would be 1 Peter 5:7, where Peter tells us not to be anxious because God cares for us. Wow, what a great reason not to be anxious: The Creator of the universe cares for me. Let it sink in. I think I sent that in an email this morning to two people: one older man going into heart surgery and my grandson going in for a heart procedure. And I used that very text to say, “God cares for you. Hang on.” So, that’s the first thing, Emily: Be confident that Jesus Christ is really good at helping us with our fears.
Five Reasons for a Happy Forever
Let me see if I can be his ambassador now to help you with this particular anxiety about whether heaven could come to an end. Could God just stop heaven, annihilate the people in it, start over — a whole new universe, a whole new people — and create another redemptive history? I can imagine that, if I thought that, it would keep me awake at night, so I don’t blame you for feeling anxious if that’s what you think is a possibility. I pondered this for a long time because not many people have asked me this question. In fact, I can’t remember ever being asked it. I love this question. I love new questions. But I thought about it and thought about it, and I pondered the Scriptures. I think I could give you a dozen reasons why that’s not going to happen, but we don’t have time for a dozen, so we’ll do five — and all these reasons have to do with Jesus Christ.
If you think about God in the abstract, your mind can invent all kinds of unbiblical scenarios. But if you think about God specifically coming into this world as Jesus Christ, who was God in the flesh, who chose this humanity to save, who died on a cross to save sinners and make them his people, who rose from the dead never to die again, who reigns in heaven today over a redeemed people, then you can begin to see how it is impossible that God would throw away this redeemed people.
1. Infinite Gift
Let’s begin with the most important argument — namely, what did the cross of Jesus Christ actually achieve? Here’s John 3:14–15: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up [on the cross to die], that whoever believes in him may have eternal life” — not temporary, not a million ages, but eternal life. So there you have an absolutely crucial statement: The reason Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died on this planet among this humanity is so that a vast number of people who believe in him would have eternal life with him.
“God is infinitely rich. He has an infinite store of fresh ways to be kind to us and lavish his grace upon us.”
Let us underline it: forever. Think of it this way: God is infinite, right? The worth of Jesus Christ’s life is infinite. It’s an infinitely valuable life. If the salvation that he purchased by the payment of his infinitely valuable life turns out to be a finite salvation, then the worth of the cross and the worth of the life of Jesus given on the cross is diminished and dishonored. That’s not going to happen. God will never ever dishonor his Son. God is not going to dishonor the infinite payment of his Son’s life by treating the salvation that he bought as finite.
An infinite gift doesn’t purchase a finite result. It’s not finite; it’s infinite because its blessings go on forever and ever. In other words, the eternal duration of our salvation is the manifestation of the infinite worth of the death of Jesus. I’m going to say that sentence again because it’s the most important one I’ll say. The eternal duration of our salvation is the manifestation of the infinite worth of the death of Jesus.
So, Emily, keep your eyes on Jesus and his infinite beauty and greatness and worth, and remember the connection. He gave his infinitely valuable life to provide an infinite salvation, meaning it will never end. That’s reason number one, and all the other reasons flow from that one.
2. Eternal Praise
For example, in Revelation 5:13 it says, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” We will be giving glory not just to God in the abstract forever and ever, but to Jesus, the slain Lamb. We will be praising the Lamb forever because it was by the slaying of the Lamb that eternal praises are guaranteed.
3. Forever Priesthood
Third, it says in Hebrews 5:6: “You [Christ] are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.” Christ’s priesthood cannot be cut short without dishonoring him as a priest. His priesthood is forever because the blood he shed is of infinite value. He will be holding it out in the presence of God the Father as long as it has value, and it will always have value — it is of infinite value. For God to cut off the people of Christ would be to trample on the infinite worth of his blood and on the priesthood of Jesus. That’s not going to happen. God’s never going to trample the worth of his Son’s blood or the beauty, greatness, and perfection of his Son’s priesthood.
4. Everlasting Covenant
Fourth, when God promised in Jeremiah 32:40 that he would make with his people an everlasting — mark the word — covenant, the reason he could do this is, first, because the blood of Jesus would be the blood of the covenant, meaning it would cover the sins of all God’s people for all time (Luke 22:20). The second reason this covenant is everlasting is because God made the covenant depend not finally on man’s faithfulness but finally on his own commitment to keep man faithful. That’s the new covenant.
In other words, the covenant that God made with his people cannot be canceled because it was certified by the blood of Jesus — the infinitely valuable blood of Jesus — and because God himself has pledged to see to it that his people will meet the conditions of the covenant. It will never be broken. God won’t let it be broken. That’s the meaning of the new covenant: His covenant people will never cease to be blessed by God. They will eternally keep the covenant because God will keep them keeping the covenant.
5. Generational Glory
Fifth, the church, the redeemed people of Christ, is the theater for the display of the wisdom of God forever. “To [God] be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever” (Ephesians 3:21). That is the strongest phrase for eternity there is in Greek — “forever and ever.” God will not put the church out of existence any more than he would put his Son out of existence, because the church is united to the Son and displays the glory of the Son forever and ever.
Immeasurable Riches
Finally, Emily, you ask, “Well, if you’re right, what do you think life will be like in a million years?” That’s a good question. When I was a child, I worried about being bored in heaven, and it wasn’t because of heaven stopping; it was because it didn’t stop. It’s going to go on and on and on and on. How could it not get old? It was the length of eternity that worried me as a little child. I don’t worry about this anymore, Emily. I’ve grown up into the Bible. Now I believe the Bible better than I did then. I have a better biblical imagination than I did then.
Here are two passages that describe what life for Christians will be like in a million years: “In the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:7). God is infinitely rich. He has an infinite store of fresh ways to be kind to us and lavish his grace upon us. It will never cease, and we will never be bored. Instead, Psalm 16:11 says, “In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
So, Emily, if you hold fast to Jesus, you will be as happy as you can possibly be in a million years.
