This is Not Plan B

Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
Matthew 25:34 (HCSB)

Many people in the world have the misconception that Eve messed up the plan God had for us. There may even be some who think we would still be in the Garden of Eden if she had not taken a bite from that fruit.  However, Eve did not wreck God’s plans.  I will discuss why we know that is true in a bit, but I want us to think about this misconception first.  You may think this misunderstanding doesn’t really mean much, but there are some important implications to believing this lie.

One thing implied by this misconception is that humans have the power to hinder God’s plans.  We don’t.  God is far too powerful for that.  Thinking we can throw a monkey wrench into God’s plans is simply giving us too much credit.  Job had it right when he replied to God saying, “I know that You can do anything and no plan of Yours can be thwarted.” (Job 42:2)  Later, we will see why Eve did not mess up His plans.

Another thing implied by the misconception that Eve messed up God’s plans is that God did not see it coming.  That is not true.  God knew mankind would sin and would need to be saved from those sins.  The Bible tells us He had a plan to save us from our sins before He even created the world.  Paul tells us:

⁴For He chose us in Him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love ⁵He predestined us to be adopted through Jesus Christ for Himself.
Ephesians 1:4-5 (HCSB)

Before God even created the world, He knew we would need to be adopted back as His children through Jesus Christ.  God knew man was too weak to resist sin.  I am sure he knew Adam and Eve would sin since no person is strong enough to resist the attraction of sin.  Because He knew this, He planned for Jesus to die on the cross to pay the price of our sins before He even made us.  Wow, that is love!  God wanted us to be able to enjoy Him so much that the Father and the Son were willing to pay that price.

Some people think that since God knew Adam and Eve would fall to sin and since He placed the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil right there in front of them that God was setting them up for failure.  That is true in a sense but false in another.  It is true that God placing them in the Garden with the tree did guarantee them to fall victim to sin.  While this is true, God had already planned to pay the price for their mistake before He put them there.  It is kind of like having a teacher giving her students a VERY hard test on purpose.  The students fail the test horribly.  However, after she grades the tests and informs the students of their grades, she turns around and retakes the test herself and gives each student a 100% on the test.  While it is true that Adam and Eve failed the test, they still got to be 100% pure in the end because Jesus took the test too and passed it for them.

God’s plan for mankind was made before the creation of the world and before Adam and Eve’s sin.  That sin did not change His plan one bit.  The Heavenly Kingdom awaiting all Christians was planned before they sinned and even before this creation was made.

Selflessness is Just Heavenly

Imagine living without anyone having any selfish motives.  Not just acting unselfishly from time to time but never having a selfish thought…ever!  Think about the implications of that for a minute.

• Instead of people cutting you off while driving, they go out of their way to let you merge in or change lanes.
• Instead of worrying if the great deal the salesperson was pushing had some hidden price, you would know without a doubt, that it was exactly what he or she said it was.
• Instead of dreading when the phone rings at 6pm at night wondering which telemarketer was bugging you this time, you know you will enjoy talking to whoever is calling.

Does all that sound too good to be true?  Well, it is too good to be true. ..at least while we are living here on earth it is.  Here, we will all continue to struggle with our selfish desires.  We will continue to fall victim to sin and people will suffer because of it.  That is the bad news.  However, the wonderful news is it will be very much like the examples above in Heaven.  I do not know if we will have traffic, sales people, or phones in Heaven.  But, I do know that there will not be any selfish desires there.  I had to give earthly examples of people living unselfishly because that is all we can relate to.  However, these earthly examples give us some idea of what it will be like in Heaven.

How do I know people will be totally selfless in Heaven?  Is there a passage that says this?  If you stick with a bit of theology, I will try and make my point.  While it is not stated word for word that there is no selfishness in Heaven, the implication is very clear from Matthew 13:42:

⁴¹ The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather from his kingdom everything that causes sin as well as all lawbreakers. ⁴² They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.  (NET1)

I underlined the part I want us to pay particular attention to.  This is in the middle of an explanation of the end of the age when judgment is executed on mankind and Satan.  At this time, all things that cause sin will be cast away from us for all eternity.  Oh man, I cannot wait for that!  I will have more on that in a minute. For now I want to get back to selfishness.  I firmly believe the root of all evil (or sin) is selfishness.  While it is true that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil (James 6:10), selfishness even drives the love of money.  See if you can think of any sin which does not, at its root, come from selfishness.  I have tried and failed to think of any.

So in Heaven people will just naturally carry out all those “one another” verses (John 13:34, Rom 12:10, 16; 14:13, and many more).  How do I know this?  The previous verse along with James 4:17 means this will have to be true:

¹⁷ So whoever knows what is good to do and does not do it is guilty of sin. (NET1)

If you know something is good but you do not do it then you are sinning.  Now, this obviously does not mean that you have to do every good thing that you can possibly imagine.  Only God is powerful enough to accomplish all that.  But, it does mean we are sinning if we know of something we need to do and we have the means and opportunity to do it but choose not to.

Let us put all this together.  In Heaven there will be nothing that causes sin.  Knowing there is good to do and not doing it is sinful.  So, in Heaven everyone will automatically do any good thing they have the power to do.  Thus, there is no possibility for selfishness in Heaven.  (Google it and you will see I am not alone in this conclusion).

That was a lot of theology to get to what I really wanted to emphasize.  No matter what type of place Heaven may be, (purely spiritual or also physical) the atmosphere will be so full of love we cannot even imagine it here on earth.  People will be so giving, so sympathetic, and so sacrificial that we cannot begin to understand what that will be like.  My pathetic attempts at the start of this blog to help us realize what this could be like are not even going to be close to the reality of it.

I am greatly looking forward to having no sinful desires of my own.  I have been deceived by sin enough in my past to know the consequences of sin can tear my life apart.  I am horribly disappointed with myself and embarrassed with some of the times I have fallen to temptation.  What a glorious relief it will be to not have to worry about being tempted ever again.  Praise God!  Oh how I understand what Paul meant when he wrote:

²³  I feel torn between the two, because I have a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far, ²⁴ but it is more vital for your sake that I remain in the body.  Phil 1:23-24 (NET1)

At the same time I am looking forward to this I am also feeling so unworthy of such a glorious prize.  I have fallen so often I deserve nothing like Heaven.  When you add in all the times I chose my selfish desires over the good I know I should have done, I am amazed that anything can get me into Heaven.  It is Jesus who makes me worthy.  Thank you Jesus!  I have a friend in the church who was also feeling unworthy.  He was talking about how the bad things he had done in his life made him feel that God could never fully accept him.  I could totally relate to that.  I was thankful I could share the book I recently wrote with him; it seemed to really help him feel more loved by God even with big mistakes in his past.

So while I am still here on earth I will use this understanding of Heaven to give me strength to deal with life's struggles.  I will also continue to try and help others escape sin’s clutches.  That way I will have even more people to love when we all get to Heaven.