What do you hope happens when you die? Consider for a moment the need for such a hope in the first place. For human beings, hope is a means of survival as sure as food and water.

In his landmark work Man’s Search for Meaning, Victor Frankl, the world-renowned Jewish psychologist who survived the concentration camps of Nazi Germany, documents how hope was the crucial determining element between life and death of his fellow prisoners. Without hope, souls wither, grow dark, and die before their time. Hopeless people become easy prey to addiction. We say “keep hope alive”, but it is hope that keeps us alive. Consider that the next time you are waiting in line at the convenience store behind someone buying lottery tickets.

As we heard Sunday, perhaps we crave hope because we are made for so much more than what we now experience. One of the reasons Bruce offered in his sermon for believing in an afterlife is the intuitive sense that we never see the perfection we feel should exist in this life. We yearn for perfect justice, love, and healing, and long for true significance and release from the inevitability of death. I believe hope in such a future where we will experience this kind of existence is not only a clue to the afterlife, but an essential element in the Christian faith. The Bible refers to Christ in us as the “hope of glory”. We experience Christ’s presence in our hearts as a pledge of that future glory of eternal life. And Ephesians 1:14* refers to the gift of the Spirit of God as a deposit that guarantees an inheritance that awaits us. But for those who do not hope in Christ — and for all of us really — there are still lesser hopes that buoy us through the flow of days and keep us going and directed.

Along with hope, there are other elements just as critical to our human experience that I believe should have some bearing on our thoughts about life after death. Someone once said: “The grand essentials to happiness in this life are:
something to do,
something to love,
and something to hope for.”
The Bible provides a clear basis for this three-fold summary of human nature. In the story of creation, Genesis 1:26-28 says that man and woman were made to multiply, and to fill the earth not only with the fruits of themselves (children) but with the fruits of their work (accomplishments). So they had God and each other to love, and were given a great task to do. And when things went awry, God quickly gave them a promise in which to hope that things would be made right one day. These three elements are there at the beginning of our history, but what about in the end? At the conclusion of the Bible’s final book, Revelation 21:3-4 speaks of the fulfillment of hope when God has dealt with the pain and death of the world, and the perfection of love through His direct and visible presence with His people. I wonder then, what about that fundamental part of us that yearns to do, to accomplish? Will that remain with us in the afterlife?

I hope so. But perhaps this wouldn’t be such a burning question for me if I hadn’t noticed that heaven suffers what I think is a popular misconception: the notion that there is really nothing to do there. I mean, apart from singing praise songs and saying hey to everybody, what else needs doing? The place is already perfect. It’s no surprise that such a picture of heaven bores the hell out of people, and gives them a strong incentive to develop alternatives.

So what clue do we have that the afterlife is a lot more exciting than that? As we read earlier in Genesis, mankind was was given the task to cultivate the earth. For God’s first man and woman, this meant going out into the broad world to make it as full and beautiful as the Garden of Eden. Before they got a good start on the job, they fell into sin, suffered a curse, and were ejected from the Garden. But here’s the kicker: despite man and woman failing so miserably from the start, God did not take that mission away from them. And He has not taken it away from us. It’s still the way we’re wired. We are made to accomplish things, of all kinds. When we can no longer do that, we begin to die, just as if hope were removed from us, or love.

As beings that are made to hope, love and accomplish, we need to understand a fuller Biblical picture of heaven. Not only is it a place where God’s love and presence is immediate, and where pain and suffering are wiped away, but also where we and the world are restored in such a way that each of us can produce and create as God intended us to. We were made not to float in clouds (though that could still be fun), but to play a significant role on the earth, as it is now, and as it some day will be.

I’d say chances are good that’s exactly how it will be. The basis for hoping so is Jesus Christ. He who took on our flesh to live as a man perfectly among us, did not set His humanity aside once he had risen from the dead. Rather, he retained that humanity, to be the first man of the multitude whom God would transform to glory (1 Corinthians 15:20-21). For God to become a man, and to remain a man even after the work of the cross was finished, says to me that God is pleased with the way he has made us and intends to let us do the great things we were made to do throughout eternity; an eternity that starts now.

Questions for discussion:

1.) Describe your picture of life in the afterlife.
2.) 1 Corinthians 3:12-15 speaks of work that has eternal quality. What do you believe could be the fate of your various works?
3.) Jesus alludes to those who are faithful in this life being entrusted with more perhaps in the next (Matthew 25:29). What would you see yourself entrusted with here, and ultimately then?

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*Note: If you wish, you can look up this and other Bible passages online at biblegateway.com
Copyright © 2009 Blair Israel