Surprised by Hope: Shining Like Stars

Alan S. and Bob Harry made some very insightful comments in the preceding post of this series. Alan S. wrote,

Are you saying that we can expect to be resurrected with a body similar to what Jesus had when he rose from the dead (before ascending to heaven)? The apostle John was, no doubt, very familiar with the form Jesus took for 40 days, but later said, “…it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like him…” (I John 3:2).

and Bob wrote,

The appearance of Jesus in Revelations was more glorious than after his resurection. Is there additional embelishment when we get to heaven?

I will be happy to get there in any form whatever.

Very good points. The NIV translates —

(1 John 3:2)  Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

And yet, Paul writes,

(Phil 3:20-21) But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

and John also writes,

(Rev 1:12-16)  I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and among the lampstands was someone “like a son of man,” dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. 14 His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. 15 His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. 16 In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.

to which we must add —

(Dan 12:2-3)  Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. 3 Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.

and Jesus said,

(Mat 13:43)  Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.

So if we start with Daniel, the resurrected saints are said to shine like stars. Paul references this passage when he says,

(Phil 2:14-15)  Do everything without complaining or arguing, 15 so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe.

Present tense! But it doesn’t appear that Jesus actually shone like a star while resurrected and yet on earth. But at the Transfiguration, Moses and Elijah did, as did Jesus (Luke 9:30 ff).

And so, it seems that although Jesus has a resurrected body while on earth, which was unlike a normal human flesh and blood body, his glory is now even more manifest in heaven. Just so, when we are resurrected, our glory will be something like Jesus’ resurrected body on earth but even more glorious — like it is in heaven now.

But — and this is really important — we already shine like stars in the universe. In a sense, we were resurrected already in our baptisms, and so we already enjoy a part of the glory promised in Daniel.

This is one of those not-yet/already things that so fill the New Testament. We aren’t really all that shiny yet — except in God’s eyes. But he sees us as already among the redeemed in heaven.

(Eph 2:6-7)  And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

Notice that we’ve been “seated” with Jesus in heaven already — past tense! It’s done. We can throw it away, but God’s already kept his promise.

Now, I don’t pretend to fully understand this. I just know that, in some sense, we are both here in the flesh and already shining like stars, on a throne, in the heavenly realms. I imagine that the Spirit in each of us connects us to heaven some way, so that we are already both here and there.

For that to be true, we have to imagine heaven being right next to us — like Narnia. It’s not far away in the skies. It’s close. We just don’t have the eyes to see it.

Of course, this means we presently live a dual existence, somewhat here and somewhat there. Our senses are fleshly and so they don’t perceive the “somewhat there” part, but it’s even more real than the somewhat-here part.

Now, to the literal mind, this is nonsense. We treat this merely as metaphor. Pretty words for a legal transaction by which we’ve been forgiven. But that ignores too much of the Bible to be true. It’s that — and much more.

God lives outside space-time. We can’t perceive the larger, spiritual universe of which our tiny fleshly universe is a part. We can’t see how close heaven is to us or how much of us is already there. But we are — somewhat. By the power of his Spirit, God has changed our nature and given us an existence in heaven that lives alongside our existence on earth.

And this builds a bridge between this existence and the next that sometimes lets power and joy and holiness into our earthly existence, which can be so surprising that we sometimes fail to even see it.