Encouragement

Heaven, Part 5—Promotes Purity

by J.W. Phillips
03/27/25
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Heaven, Part 5—Promotes Purity

A vision of Heaven can greatly motivate the believer to pursue purity, and we’re going to need all the motivation we can get!

Why? Because this purity pursuit will face formidable challenges! S.D. Gordon declared, “Temptation will come with the subtlety of a snake, with the rush of a storm, with the unexpected swiftness of a lightening flash.”¹ So how are we to effectively resist?

Truth is, many people don’t resist. Philippians 3:19 characterizes them as enemies of the cross, saying, “Their end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is their shame—who mind earthly things.”

Unfortunately, this capsule-like characterization fits not only the Hollywood jet-setter and the suicidal rock star, but also many people living in Middle America.

Flesh-driven people, controlled by their bodily appetites and their self-serving desires, are so tuned into earthly things they will compromise almost anything to get billboard recognition.

How easy it is to be caught up in the value system of the world. For everywhere we turn—at school, where humanism is espoused; at home, where the immorality of TV desensitizes us; at work, where we see a generation lost to God—we are pulverized by worldliness.

Titus 2:12 says we are to resist worldly lusts. It is the next verse, however, Titus 2:13, that tells us how to do it.

Theoretically, much advice could be given. But notice how the inspired writer answers this question, how best to resist? “... by looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearance of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.…”

You see, by riveting our attention on Heaven, and our reunion with Jesus, what once dazzled us with its glitter will soon seem yellow and tarnished when compared with the brighter prospects of Heaven.

Thomas Goodwin, the great Bible expositor of the seventeenth century, put it succinctly: “The more thou desirest heaven, the more holy thy heart is.…”² The desire leads to this outcome. Moreover, the Lord will facilitate this outcome.

Giving testimony to that, Amy Carmichael wrote, “He that shall be our bliss when we are there is our Keeper while we are here.…”³ This vision of Heaven will help make it so!

Perhaps you’ve been thinking that Heaven will be the same for everyone. Short answer: It won’t be.

The believer who lived a casual, carnal, careless life won’t have the same capacities to enjoy Heaven as does the believer who lived a self-denying, Spirit-filling, kingdom-enhancing life.

Romans 14:12 proclaims that each of us will give an account of our life before God. II Corinthians 5:10 says believers will appear before the judgment seat of Christ, where we will be judged—not in terms of Heaven or Hell (because obviously that issue has already been settled), but in terms of how we lived our life after we became a Christian.

Were we obedient? Were we attempting to please God? Were we extending faith? Were we depending on his Spirit?

Upon evaluating every word, deed, and thought expressed or experienced in our life, the Lord will then give rewards to those who earned them; and these rewards will greatly determine what Heaven will be like.

Earned them? Yes, G.D. Watson wrote, “We are saved by faith, but our rank in the kingdom of heaven, our future degree of blessedness, our crown, the size of our immortality will depend on our good works, including our good works toward God in obedience to him.…”⁴

As we think about the judgment that will come and the eternal Heaven that awaits us, the spiritual discipline we exercise down here makes total sense. In his book, Jesus, Author of Our Faith, A.W. Tozer wrote:

I can only hope that you are wise enough, desirous enough and spiritual enough to face up to the truth that every day is another day of spiritual preparation, another day of testing and discipline with our heavenly destination in mind. For as I hope you have already seen, full qualification for eternity is not instant or automatic or painless.⁵

Also commenting on these differing capacities for enjoying Heaven, Richard Baxter wrote:

The eye of flesh is not capable of seeing, nor the ear of hearing, nor the heart of understanding heaven and its glories. But there the eye, the ear, and the heart are made capable. Else how could we enjoy those things in heaven?

The more perfect the sight, the more delightful will be the beautiful object. The more perfect the appetite, the sweeter the food. The more musical the ear, the more pleasant the melody, and the more perfect the soul, the more joyous these joys, and the more glorious these glories.⁶

When Jesus said that we could lay up for ourselves treasures in Heaven (Matthew 6:20), he made it clear there is an investment we could make that isn’t susceptible to rust or robbery, one offering a far greater return than any investment this world can generate.

Therefore, if we have our eyes fixed on the greater gain promised by Heaven, this objective to live obediently before the Lord won’t be as hard to achieve as we first thought.

Affirming the truth that Jesus did indeed prepare a place for us, James S. Stewart then asked, “But what if we are not prepared for the place?”⁷

This is not a question to be sloughed off, a question to be soon and summarily dismissed. For as we think about the Heaven our rewards will enable—that realm of living where the enhanced capacities bestowed on us increase our eternal joy—at issue is not the preparation Jesus made for us. That preparation is settled and need not be called into doubt. At issue is the preparation we are making for the greater glories of Heaven.

Is there Scripture-stipulated merit in our lives that God can reward? And is there purity manifesting that pleases God?

As good as Heaven is (which language and current knowledge fail to apprehend), Heaven can’t be reduced to a travelogue for tourists; Heaven has a much greater attraction than that!

Charles Spurgeon’s testimony on this point bears repeating:

To be forever with the Lord is my idea of heaven at its best. Not the harps of gold, nor the clouds unfading, nor the light unfading, is glory to me; but Jesus, Jesus himself, and myself forever with him in nearest-and-dearest fellowship.⁸

It is the heart that wants this fellowship, and wants it now, that will turn away from anything that hurts this fellowship.

To this kind of heart, the heart that loves Jesus and can think of Heaven only in terms of being with him, obedience is easy.

Notes:
1. S.D. Gordon, Quiet Talks on Power, (New York, Grosset & Dunlap, 1903), p. 178.
2. Thomas Goodwin, The Works of Thomas Goodwin, Volume 1, (Lafayette, IN., Sovereign Grace Publishers, Inc., 2000), p.324.
3. Amy Carmichael, Whispers of His Power, (Ft. Washington, PA., CLC Publications, 2001), p.64.
4. G.D. Watson, Love and Duty, (Salem, Ohio, Schmul Publishing Company, Inc. 1984), p.86.
5. A.W. Tozer, Jesus, Author of Our Faith, (Camp Hill, PA., WingSpread Publishers, 1998), p.94.
6. E.M. Bounds, Heaven, (Grand Rapids, Baker Book House, 1975), p.87.
7. James S. Stewart, Walking with God, (Vancouver, British Columbia, Regent College Publishing, 1996), p.21.
8. Charles Spurgeon, Faith’s Checkbook, (South Plainfield, New Jersey, Bridge Publishing, 1987), p.352.