Years ago I read "The Great Divorce." In my rereading of "lies we believe about GOD," I'm finding the truth within "The Great Divorce" to be quite helpful. Let me elaborate.
In "The Great Divorce," a bus of people are taken from hell into Heaven. These people discover that everything in Heaven is far more... real... than anything in hell, so much so they can't even really walk on the grass there or do anything. This is because the way these people lived their lives on Earth did not prepare them for life in Heaven. Now to be fair, there is at least one passage in scripture that seems to contradict this possible interpretation of Heaven and hell- when Jesus was on the cross, he told one of the thieves that "today you will be with me in paradise." Perhaps God extends some grace to certain people? Or maybe this analogy isn't entirely fitting? I don't know. But it seems just to me. If you live your whole life in relationship with God, building your faith muscles and becoming strong in the Lord, it makes sense that that is training for eternal life. If you live your whole life cowering in fear or based on selfishness and greed, your faith muscles are bound to atrophy, and you will not at all be prepared for the rigors of Heaven. Here's the real question: what if living in relationship with God is preparation for Heaven, and what if choosing pride, self-righteousness, fear, and other nonfaith emotions just prepares you for perdition? What if the people of hell aren't just "not welcome" in Heaven, but actually can't survive the very "realness" of Heaven itself?
I like this thinking a lot. For one, it takes the blame away from God as being some sort of dictator punishing bad behavior and rewording good behavior. I'm sure God judges people on a more meaningful scale than just measuring our good decisions and our mistakes, but see... with this thinking it turns the judgment into a problem of our own making, AND it also turns having a right heart attitude, more than having the best actions, as key. See, with the right heart attitude, you mature as a believer and grow in faith, which is what you want. If all that matters is your behavior, you can get puffed up thinking that you did some things right. If it's the heart though instead of the actions, your motives for doing what you did come into play, which reveals the depth or the dearth of your faith. And it's that same depth of faith that makes it easier or more difficult to live in the realness of Heaven, depending on whether your faith muscles grew or shrank while on Earth. I think that is just.
If you look at scripture, it is clear that God values faith in a way that is hard for us to really grasp. Now I'm pondering the possibility that the reason faith is so prized by God is because he made his kingdom based on it, and that those that live and die by faith are the ones who will be the rulers and the rich in his kingdom- faith being the key element that makes us fit for Heaven. Maybe that thief's faith-filled-exclaim was enough for him to survive the rigors of Heaven? Maybe! And maybe the reason Jesus said that the rich have so much trouble getting into Heaven is simply because they've never lived on faith a day in their lives, so they aren't at all ready for the rigors of Heaven? I'm beginning to see the beauty of this explanation. When Jesus told the rich young ruler to sell all he had and come follow him, perhaps he said these things because he was looking out for the best interests of the young man?
"The just shall live by faith." Yeah. And those that live by faith will be ready for Heaven when they get there...
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