You have the best of both worlds (5)
John 3:12-13
12 If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?
13 And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.
The phrase ‘ascending to heaven’ from verse 13 is not what happens when a man dies, it is what happens when a man becomes born again. So, being born again can be related to being in heaven. Heaven can mean being in the Father, so verse 13 can be put as the son of man who is in the Father.
Genesis 1:1-2
1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
John 14:3
3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
The word prepare has to do with an inward preparation, and it is the man that will be prepared, the preparation is in man, and he did this upon the resurrection when he purged us. God exists in the spirit and not in any man-made material. The spirit of God stays in a man (the manifestation of God). Jesus came in his incarnation, he also came to us in the spirit upon the resurrection. Then he says we’ll know that he is in the Father and the Father is in us — that is the reality of Christianity, our identification with the Father.
Heaven is not what happens when a believer dies, it is what happens when a man gets saved, heaven is the status of the man in Christ. God gave us his spirit; we are now his house.
1 Corinthians 3:16
16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
2 Corinthians 6:16-17
16 What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.
17 But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.
God lives in and manifests himself through the man in Christ.
Ephesians 2:4-6
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
Heaven is in Christ, the response to deity is where heaven is. The believer is seated in heaven.
Hebrews 12: 22
22 But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,
Heaven is not a geographical horizon; it is not the opposite of the earth. A man can be on earth and be in heaven at the same time. The believer will not have more of God when he dies. What the believer has is the ability to switch worlds, and he has the best of both worlds as God is with him in both worlds, that is, he is never at a disadvantage.
Ephesians 3:14-15
14 For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
15 Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
Verse 15 is actually, ‘of whom the whole family is named in heaven, that is, in earth…’. Heaven is where God is, not somewhere in the clouds. So, for a believer, what happens at death is a change of body, not a change of place. The believer is in heaven and at the same time in the earth, he has the best of both worlds. The believer is never at a disadvantage. He has the best of both worlds. Heaven comes to the man who has believed in the gospel. The Father came to us, he is the faithful one, he came and made his abode with us. We are the sons of God; we are in the family of God. We have sonship.
Daily Bible Reading Plan:
Bible Reading – Genesis 43-45
TEACHING OF THE DAY
Working out your Salvation (1)