J.A. Matteson
So splendid and beyond the reach of our imagination is the reality of heaven, to which we may stumble in grasping the delightful intent of biblical revelation in describing our part in it. "...and His bond-servants will serve Him" (Rev. 22:3). We may error in our understanding of what the Spirit is getting at in interpreting heavenly disclosures like this. It is not as though God is lacking anything in His person whereby our worship is necessary to complete Him. Nor is our service to be associated with work grudgingly performed. Rather in heaven the slow laborious process of our sanctification in Jesus Christ begun on earth is complete, glorification is our new eternal state. On earth saints groan within themselves over sin. Our worship and service are polluted by sin that continues to hinder our devotion to Jesus Christ. Now, consider your grandest moments in the Spirit, those so called mountain top experiences that enraptured your soul with inexpressible joy. Those moments were in time and restricted by your mortal limitation to grasp and fully experience the totality of who Jesus Christ is. Had He revealed the fulness of His divinity to you in the flesh you would have died (Ex. 33:21-23). Even Peter, James, and John only got a glimpse of Jesus' holiness on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matt. 17:1-3). In heaven you will see Him as He is, face to face, and your capacity to experience the eternal will be realized by your new eternal nature as a glorified child of the Almighty. To serve Jesus Christ in heaven is God's gift to the saints, a mountain top experience eternal in its duration, eternal in its content, and without bounds in its satisfaction. For this reason the apostle observed that no one can even imagine how absolutely wonderful heaven is (1 Cor. 2:9). What we can be assured of is that human language fails to give adequate expression to its delightful reality. To serve the LORD in heaven is what the saints were created for, and in which they will receive their absolute contentment for eternity as the spotless bride of the Lamb of God, who ransomed her by His own blood. In the new year keep a watchful upward eye on heaven, for your Redeemer has promised that He comes quickly.
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