ONE OF THE MOST COMMON OBJECTIONS to the Christian faith is the exclusivity of Christ. Christianity teaches that only those with saving faith go to heaven.
One Sunday I mentioned this subject in a sermon. Afterwards, a visitor approached me. “I don’t like the idea that only Christians go to heaven. That is patently unfair,” he said with great emotion. He assumed that heaven would be a place of happiness for Believer and Unbeliever, and it seemed unfair that anyone should be left out.
“There’s nothing unfair about this,” I responded. “Without a change of nature, your unbelieving friend would be absolutely miserable in heaven. (Obviously, he would not be happy in hell either). He wouldn’t be happy in heaven because you must be born again to extract happiness from heaven.”
If you want an explanation for why I responded this way, keep reading.
Sin and And It’s Fruits
Any objective observer of human nature must agree that, despite optimistic Enlightenment views of human perfectibility, people are not born virtuous, unselfish, humble, delighting to serve others, free from gossip, slander, or lust.
No, the facts point to the opposite. We are naturally discontent. We do not like to take the low place. Instead, the average person is constantly engaged in self-promotion, if necessary, at the expense of others. We lust for popularity and prestige, and we are usually willing to run over others to get it. We are not grateful. Rather, we descend into grumbling at the first opposition to our perceived happiness.
Jonah Goldberg, not writing as a Christian, sums up an objective understanding of human nature, as revealed through human history, this way—
The story of civilization is, quite literally, the story of taming, directing, channeling, or holding at bay human nature. It is human nature to take what you want, particularly from a stranger—if you can get away with it. It is human nature to kill—again, particularly strangers—if you don’t like them or feel threatened by them. It is human nature to grant favors to family and friends.
Goldberg, Jonah. Suicide of the West: (p. 30-33).
In the words of the Apostle, Paul—
As it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” (Romans 3:10–12)
The truth is, our fallen nature hates God. Don’t misunderstand me. We love the God we have made up—the tolerant old man in a rocking chair who winks at our idolatry and rebellion—but we hate the God of the Bible. That is because the God of the Bible commands our obedience. He separates us from out sin. He is at war with sin and sinners. So great is our estrangement from him that his Son had to suffer the agony of death on a cross to propitiate the wrath he feels for us.
The bottom line is this: we hate the God of the Bible even as we pursue our happiness in sin and sinning.
The Divine Nature
However, this is not the case for the Christian. At new birth Believers receive a share in the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4).
The divine nature means new desires, new loves, new longings, and new behaviors. We begin to think and act like God. We begin to increasingly love what we previously hated. First, we love God, then the behaviors and values that God loves. We find ourselves delighting in humility, lowliness, meekness, obedience, servanthood, self-control, purity of thought and deed, and we become increasingly willing to suffer loss, or inconvenience to advance the happiness of others, even our enemies.
This means that what we previously hated or despised—God and his will—we know increasingly, but never perfectly, love and delight in. The unbeliever has no way to understand this. He has no way to sympathize with someone who feels this way.
Holiness
We can sum up the divine nature with the word, holiness. In heaven the divine nature, or holiness, is perfected. There is not even a hint of sin there. God hates sin. It is completely foreign to his nature. He and the residents of heaven are allergic to it.
That is one reason why Believers spend their earthly lives on a pilgrimage to acquire ever-increasing degrees of holiness. For them, the holy life is the happy life. They know that God will someday perfect the divine nature in them (1 John 3:2-3). That will fit them for him and enable them to it. That is the Believer’s hope.
After we are made “like him” sin will be impossible. Instead, like God, all of our joy will come from humbling self, taking the lowest place, and making extravagant sacrifices to glorify God and enhance the happiness of those around us.
An unbeliever without this change of nature would be miserable in heaven. Why would he enjoy then what he now despises? His nature is more consistent with hell, not heaven. His joy comes from getting not giving; in lifting himself up, not taking the lowest place; in being powerful not weak; in the pride of earthly wisdom; not the wisdom of the cross; in autonomy, not slavery to God’s will. This is not Jesus or his followers. “For the joy set before him he endured the cross” (Hebrews 12:2).
Above all, those in heaven delight in humility. Everyone in hell has their fist raised to God shouting “unfair.” I deserve happiness. But they have no way to connect their happiness with holiness.
By contrast, the souls in heaven are prostrate in the dust thanking God for his unmerited favor. Their happiness proceeds from their smallness, their lowliness, their total dependence on God. They know what they deserve, and they continually thank God that they aren’t getting it.
Conclusion
Is this you? Do you share in the divine nature? If you do, you will increasingly delight in holiness, in the life of heaven.
If so, have you accepted the fact that your unbelieving friends would not be happy there? That is why we evangelize others, to make they fit for heaven, to give them the capacity to find their happiness in holiness.
Are you reaching out to them and praying for their salvation? That is our calling from God. Neither we nor God want anyone to suffer in hell. Sinners in hell are miserable, but sinners would also be miserable in heaven. Heavenly happiness feeds on the change of nature that is new birth.
