Christianity without Heaven and Hell

If there were no heaven or hell, would you still follow Jesus?

Every now and then I come across a blog, article, or sermon with some spiritual type of fellow asking, “If there were no heaven or hell, would you still follow Jesus?” (Maybe it was Tony Campolo, who knows? Anyway…) But what a mind-boggling question to pose! So let me get this right, you’re telling me if there were no ultimate rewards or ultimate punishments for my every action, would I really make an effort to life the Christian life?

I suppose living the Christian life without the expectation of seeing a heavenly reward can be considered something noble. Then, again, there are many Americans who don’t think much about heaven or hell, but strangely enough they still hold fast to “Christian” values — they don’t lie, they don’t cheat, they love their kin, they attend church, vote, give to charity, and pay taxes. The stakes, however, could be raised —like say this were country ruled by Muslim extremists, wherein the common lot for a Christian minority was oppression, and persecution — then the question of whether or not one would still follow Jesus knowing full well there would be not heavenly reward and hellish vindication has some real substance. (This is, perhaps, my own mind wandering than anything else.)

The point of the whole thing about living the Christian life without the expectation of heaven and hell, however, appears to be a way of slapping the spiritually shallow and superficial with a paradoxical idea just to get them thinking about something of real substance. In this case, thinking about whether they love the Master or what’s on the Master’s table. God may bless us with a load of stuff, but if we love God simply just to get a ton of stuff, then we really missed the mark.

Perhaps the real problem is that heaven is so much more than just a prize in the Cracker Jack box. It is not a bone that the good master throws down to his favorite pets.

In Christian theology, the concept of heaven is deeply woven together with having a right relationship with God. When Joe Sinner repents and embraces the gift of salvation that Jesus Christ purchased by His blood on the cross, he becomes Joe Christian, a citizens of the kingdom of heaven. Henceforth, as Joe Christian cultivates his relationship with God though communing with the divine through prayer and the Word, fellowshipping with other Christians, and witnessing to the lost, he is doing activities that slowly shape him into a person fit for life in heaven. It is the same thing as athletes getting their physical bodies in shape so that they can be up to their optimal performance on the field of competition.

After Joe Christian dies, his soul lives on, and he experiences a new dynamic to his existing relationship to God. A body subject to sin, decay, and death no longer hinders him. Although he is absent from his body, he is present with the Lord, and that is one sweet deal! However, this is not the end, for he still awaits another life after this afterlife.

When Jesus Christ appears the second time, Joe Christian can expect to be raised to an incorruptible body — one that is not subject to death and decay. Just as the Lord rose from the dead, God will raise up Joe Christ from the dead into a body that is incorruptible. He will then experience still another dynamic to his relationship with God, one that is far more robust, and fruitful than the one he had on earth as a follower of Jesus in a mortal body, and the one as a disembodied soul absent from the body, present with the Lord, and awaiting the final resurrection. At that time, Joe will also witness the resurrection of the Cosmos — a new heaven and new earth shall emerge. The humanity that was banished from life with God in the Garden of Eden, but redeemed through Jesus Christ, shall once again walk with God for eternity — He will be their God and they will be His people. Paradise lost shall become Paradise restored.

It is with this eternal perspective in mind, that Joe Christian can understand why there is no real problem with those who can kill the body, for his soul shall out live on, and he shall be glorified into a body incorruptible. Heaven is ultimately the place wherein we can experience a full, robust, and unhindered life with God for all eternity.