What’s the Appeal of Heavenly Rewards Other Than Getting Christ?
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - Welcome to a new week on the Ask Pastor John podcast
00:00:06.080 | with longtime pastor and author, John Piper.
00:00:09.000 | Lots of questions come into our inbox on eternity
00:00:12.240 | and heaven, including this really perceptive one
00:00:14.440 | from a podcast listener named Lisa.
00:00:16.840 | Pastor John, what is the reward that we will receive
00:00:19.360 | above and beyond finally getting to see Christ
00:00:22.080 | face to face, to be with him, the lover of our soul
00:00:25.800 | forever in eternity?
00:00:28.240 | Isn't he enough reward himself
00:00:30.640 | or will there be other rewards besides him?
00:00:33.680 | If God is the gospel and God is the prize of eternity,
00:00:38.000 | how and why would all the other crowns and gifts
00:00:41.000 | motivate us towards heaven?
00:00:43.500 | - Lisa's instincts here are very good.
00:00:47.640 | It's right to say, isn't Christ enough?
00:00:52.360 | And the reason I say that's a good instinct
00:00:55.280 | is because it's the instinct of the psalmist.
00:00:57.920 | And it's the instinct of Paul.
00:01:00.360 | The psalmist says, "Whom have I in heaven but you?
00:01:04.320 | And there's nothing on earth I desire besides you."
00:01:08.400 | Psalm 73, 25, which is the heart that I hear
00:01:12.680 | coming out of Lisa's mouth.
00:01:15.360 | And Paul says in Philippians 3, 8,
00:01:18.400 | "Indeed, I count everything as loss
00:01:22.480 | compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus."
00:01:27.480 | Christ Jesus, my Lord.
00:01:29.840 | But here's the catch.
00:01:32.440 | God knows best how we can know Christ most completely
00:01:37.440 | and enjoy Christ most fully.
00:01:45.560 | And all the biblical pointers lead us to believe
00:01:50.400 | that Christ is revealed more fully
00:01:54.100 | when he is revealed not only immediately
00:01:58.120 | to the eyes of the heart by the Holy Spirit
00:02:01.320 | because of his moral and spiritual excellencies,
00:02:04.400 | but also when he is revealed immediately
00:02:09.400 | through things that he has made
00:02:14.040 | and things that he has done in creation,
00:02:19.040 | physical creation, things which we experience
00:02:22.420 | in our own created physical bodies,
00:02:25.520 | not only in our created spiritual souls.
00:02:30.520 | That's why God created a material universe,
00:02:36.600 | and he created the earth,
00:02:39.480 | and he created us with physical bodies
00:02:43.240 | and capacities to experience good
00:02:46.800 | through the created material existence.
00:02:50.520 | So the Bible says we are to eat and drink
00:02:54.260 | and do everything in our physical bodies
00:02:57.820 | to the glory of God,
00:02:59.500 | which must mean that the pleasures of God
00:03:03.660 | or the pleasures that God has built in
00:03:06.420 | to the taste of food are not designed primarily
00:03:10.860 | as competitors with God's beauty,
00:03:13.140 | but designed as means of its communication.
00:03:18.180 | He's communicating something of himself
00:03:20.400 | in the good creation that he has made.
00:03:24.200 | And so the creation becomes one of the ways
00:03:27.360 | that we taste and see that the Lord is good.
00:03:31.880 | And then the Bible makes it plain
00:03:35.680 | that this is not only true now,
00:03:39.800 | but will also be true in the resurrection.
00:03:43.600 | In fact, that's why there is a resurrection
00:03:47.040 | of the body and not just the immortality of the soul.
00:03:52.040 | Jesus was at pains, wasn't he,
00:03:55.040 | to persuade us or persuade his doubting disciples
00:04:00.040 | that they were not seeing a ghost.
00:04:03.320 | They were not just looking at a spirit.
00:04:06.300 | He said, "See my hands, my feet?
00:04:09.600 | It is I myself.
00:04:11.120 | Touch me and see,
00:04:13.120 | for a spirit does not have flesh and bones
00:04:16.000 | as you see that I have."
00:04:18.800 | So he has today a physical body in heaven.
00:04:23.800 | The physical body has been united
00:04:28.040 | to the second person of the Trinity
00:04:32.440 | with a human and divine nature in one person,
00:04:35.240 | stunning, amazing, unbelievable almost.
00:04:38.760 | And then Paul builds on that reality
00:04:42.160 | by stressing that we ourselves
00:04:45.680 | will be raised physically from the dead.
00:04:50.520 | And he does it by saying our resurrection
00:04:53.960 | is all of a piece with Jesus' bodily resurrection.
00:04:58.800 | First Corinthians 15, 20.
00:05:00.720 | Christ has been raised from the dead,
00:05:03.200 | the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
00:05:08.060 | That means we're all one physical material harvest,
00:05:12.620 | Christ and us.
00:05:15.080 | And then, isn't it amazing that in Philippians 1, 23,
00:05:19.640 | Paul says that to die and be with Christ
00:05:22.780 | is far better than anything on the earth.
00:05:24.900 | So Christ himself, Christ himself,
00:05:28.080 | and fellowship with him is enough.
00:05:31.520 | It's enough.
00:05:32.660 | Yes, and yet in chapter three,
00:05:37.660 | he stresses how he longs not just to die and be with Christ,
00:05:42.660 | but be raised bodily from the dead.
00:05:46.900 | He says in 310, "Oh, that I may know him
00:05:50.580 | "and the power of his resurrection
00:05:53.020 | "and may share his sufferings,
00:05:55.260 | "becoming like him in his death,
00:05:57.860 | "that by any means possible,
00:06:00.260 | "I may attain the resurrection from the dead."
00:06:06.020 | You know, wouldn't that imply,
00:06:07.780 | if you put that together with 1, 23,
00:06:09.780 | where he says to die and leave the body
00:06:11.940 | and go be with Christ is far better,
00:06:14.020 | wouldn't that imply that the way we experience Christ
00:06:19.020 | most fully after death is through relating to him
00:06:24.300 | in our new resurrection body and his resurrection body?
00:06:33.020 | Else, why would Paul care so much
00:06:35.620 | about being raised from the dead
00:06:37.900 | if it didn't help him experience Christ more fully?
00:06:42.740 | And I think it also implies, doesn't it,
00:06:44.780 | that the new world of the resurrection,
00:06:47.640 | the world we live in,
00:06:49.340 | must be suited for resurrection bodies,
00:06:54.040 | not just eternal spirits.
00:06:56.160 | And isn't that exactly what Paul points out
00:06:59.940 | in Romans 8, 19 to 23?
00:07:02.740 | And John points out in Revelation 21, 1 to 4,
00:07:05.980 | that our new bodies should have a new earth
00:07:10.100 | and a new heaven in which to live out our bodily existence.
00:07:15.100 | Here's the way Paul puts it, I love this.
00:07:17.980 | Oh, this is so amazing.
00:07:20.740 | "The creation waits with eager longing."
00:07:24.340 | The whole creation is waiting with eager longing
00:07:27.460 | "for the revealing of the sons of God.
00:07:31.400 | "For the creation was subjected to futility."
00:07:34.780 | Oh, yes, it was, it's all around us.
00:07:36.980 | "Not willingly, but because of him who subjected in hope."
00:07:41.360 | What hope?
00:07:42.440 | "That the creation itself would be set free
00:07:45.180 | "from its bondage to corruption."
00:07:47.820 | Why?
00:07:48.660 | "To obtain the freedom of the glory
00:07:52.560 | "of the children of God."
00:07:54.860 | Now, I take that to mean that the whole creation
00:07:58.640 | will be adapted to be a perfect dwelling
00:08:03.140 | for the children of God,
00:08:05.820 | so that it functions perfectly to reveal Christ
00:08:10.820 | and to be the means by which we will most fully enjoy Christ.
00:08:16.120 | So here's my answer to Lisa's question.
00:08:21.160 | Christ indeed is our reward.
00:08:24.280 | Yes, yes, yes, Lisa, you got that right.
00:08:27.820 | And, this is and, see if you think this is wrong.
00:08:32.820 | Christ is indeed our reward,
00:08:36.760 | and everything else morally and spiritually
00:08:41.760 | and physically inside us and outside us,
00:08:46.180 | in the universe, crowns, stars, cities, health,
00:08:48.660 | friends, family, great saints, et cetera,
00:08:51.620 | everything else with him that will maximize
00:08:57.700 | the communication of his glory and our happiness in it
00:09:02.620 | through, in him, through it.
00:09:07.620 | Now, if God thought that Christ could be known
00:09:12.140 | most completely and enjoyed most fully
00:09:16.580 | by being the solitary object of our awareness,
00:09:21.180 | with no created reality as means,
00:09:24.900 | I don't think God would have created a material universe
00:09:29.180 | in the first place, but only immaterial souls.
00:09:33.260 | He didn't do it that way,
00:09:35.060 | and he's not going to do it that way in the future.
00:09:38.520 | And so Christ is our reward,
00:09:40.900 | and everything else is our reward
00:09:43.220 | that more fully reveals him
00:09:45.220 | and more fully enables us to enjoy him.
00:09:48.120 | - Amen, that's a nice little theology
00:09:50.020 | of the material universe as well.
00:09:51.860 | Thank you, Pastor John.
00:09:52.780 | And if you have a question of your own like Lisa did,
00:09:55.580 | email us at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org.
00:09:59.580 | And of course, you can find our audio feeds
00:10:01.380 | and our archive of over 1,000 plus episodes now
00:10:05.060 | through our online home.
00:10:06.640 | Go to desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.
00:10:10.500 | Well, on Wednesday, we hear from a young man
00:10:13.180 | who feels called to the nations on mission,
00:10:15.180 | but there's only one problem.
00:10:16.780 | His parents believe that for him to leave for the nations
00:10:20.180 | would be to turn his back
00:10:21.260 | on all the God-given blessings of America.
00:10:24.580 | Now stuck between following a calling
00:10:26.900 | and honoring his parents, what should he do?
00:10:30.140 | John Piper will apply decades of pastoral wisdom
00:10:33.040 | and experience to that situation on Wednesday.
00:10:36.260 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.
00:10:37.180 | We'll see you then.
00:10:38.140 | (upbeat music)
00:10:40.720 | (upbeat music)
00:10:43.300 | [BLANK_AUDIO]