Glen Berry

AM I BEING audacious, presumptuous and preposterous? Or have I been taken into the heart of God?  If I were to die tomorrow, I would want to be bold today in declaring this truth!  Yes, all this is by the GRACE of God, but what I want to say is that Heaven will itself be GRACED when and as the glorified saints are taken there.

We seem to always tend to look at Heaven from our viewpoint—how marvelous, peaceful, joyful and exceedingly wonderful it will be for us as redeemed sinners, as glorified saints. All that is true and beyond words wonderful.  But what about God’s viewpoint? What joy is He getting out of it? How wonderful must it be for Him?  I heard one pastor say many years ago He is doing it to have playmates in Heaven, even for Jesus Christ, God made in our image as we are in His image, to have playmates in Heaven.

I ask you, Does the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, the Light of Heaven GRACE Heaven?  Of course you will admit that He does. Then if God the Father is so happy, so blessed, so FULL OF JOY to have God the Son to grace Heaven, why would He not also be so very exceeding joyful and wonderfully satisfied to have even a large number that no man can number, though they have a number, of saints THAT HAVE BEEN MADE (conformed) TO BE JUST LIKE HIS SON? Have you really ever thought about that, what THAT might mean to GOD?

Read the Song of Solomon and see in figurative language what the bride of Christ means to Him. Nothing can compare. You can there see the joy that Christ feels to have such a  blessing as His bride, the Lamb’s wife! Earthly words cannot describe such heavenly joy and ecstasy that the very Shepherd, the Son of God, God in the flesh feels at having finally His inheritance, His bride.  We are trying to look at this from His point of view, that God even describes in the very Bible that is laying on your coffee table, or on your desk, or on your own lap. It is all there!  The bride of Christ IS the glorified saints!

What wondrous joy must God the Father feel to see multitudes of saints running around Heaven that are just like His Son. Since He loves His Son so much that He GAVE Him His bride, what further JOY He must have to see that bride there to also love and worship His only begotten Son and Himself as the Father.

Let me ask you something else.  You know that the Bible teaches it is “more blessed to give than to receive.” Why is this  so eternally true? Because it is true of God, as well as true for those who have the love of God within them, His born-again believers, His children, the bride of the Lord Jesus.

So that being eternally true, we know also that the REASON for our joy in giving, is that it makes the receiver blessed and joyful as well. And that being true, you can know that as we love, serve and worship God, the very Triune God, our Savior who redeemed us, for ever and ever, then that will not only give US  more and more joy, it will fill His heart with joy too.

That is a truth, the extent of the joy of which we just cannot fathom in this life. That our presence as REDEEMED and holy and GLORIFIED sinners-become-marvelously-SAINTS of God will GRACE Heaven! Meditate on  that.

No wonder our Beloved comes leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills. See Song of Solomn 2:8. To God be all the glory!