According to the Bible, the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the son of God, links you up to a story that’s already, it’s like jumping into a rushing river, we are jumping into a story that’s already midstream and has all this momentum already. So in the Bible, the idea of heaven and earth are ways of talking about God’s space and our space. We understand our space really well, we live here, there’s trees, rivers, mountains, but understanding God’s space gets a little fuzzy and what we get in the Bible are images trying to help us grasp God’s space, which is basically inconceivable to us. So these are two very different types of spaces, they’re different in their nature, but here’s what’s really interesting, these are not always separate spaces, think of heaven and earth as the different dimensions that can overlap in the same exact space.
We talk a lot about going to heaven after we die, but this idea of heaven and earth overlapping, we don’t talk a lot about that, which is kind of crazy, because the union of heaven and earth is what the story of the Bible is all about. How they were once fully united and then driven apart and about how God is bringing them back together once again. Let’s go back to the beginning where heaven and earth, they’re completely overlapping? This is what the Bible’s description of the garden of Eden is all about. It’s a place where God and humanity dwelt together perfectly, no separation, and humans then partner with God in building a flourishing, beautiful world, but not everyone’s happy.
We’re introduced to a spiritual being who doesn’t want humans to rule, so he tricks them into thinking that they can get divine power on their own terms. They’re deceived, and they take the opportunity, and they’re banished from the Eden mountain, exiled to wander the earth and return to the dust. This snake is bad news. As you read on, you discover that he’s part of a spiritual rebellion that follows the humans outside of Eden and things get worse from there. So, we have these two spaces now, and the Bible actually uses lots of different kinds of words and phrases to refer to these two spaces to make a clear distinction.
So, these spaces can overlap, explain how that works? That is the good news, this is where we have to start talking about temples, because in the biblical world you experience God’s presence by going to a temple. That’s where heaven and earth overlap, there are two types of temples described in the Bible. One is a tabernacle, basically a tent that was built by Moses and the other was this massive building made by Solomon. These temples were decorated with fruit trees and flowers and images of angels and all kinds of jewels and gold, these are designed to make you feel like you’re going back to the garden, at the center of the temple was a place called the Holy of Holies, which was like the hot spot of God’s presence. Now, we can go and be with God again, but the temple also creates a problem, God’s space is full of his presence and goodness and justice and beauty, but human space is full of sin and injustice and the ugliness that results.
How do these spaces overlap, if they’re so different and they’re in conflict with each other? That was resolved through animal sacrifice. That’s kind of weird, what do animal sacrifices have to do with this? The idea is this animal sacrifice, they absorb the sin when the animal dies in your place and it creates a clean space where you are now free to enter into the temple and be in God’s presence. So, if I’m an Israelite and I live in Jerusalem, I might be able to be in God’s presence, but the story of the Bible is all about heaven and earth reuniting. We have to keep going in the story where we come to Jesus in the New Testament and in the gospel of John, we hear this claim that God became human in Jesus and made his dwelling among us. Now this word dwelling is really curious, literally it means, he set up a tabernacle among us. So what John is claiming right here, is that Jesus is a temple, he is now the place where heaven and earth overlap.
What’s interesting about Jesus, he isn’t staying in this safe, clean space, he’s running around, hanging out with sinners, healing people of their sicknesses and forgiving people of their sins. He’s basically a little pocket of heaven, where people can be in God’s presence, but he’s doing it out there in the middle of the world of sin and death and he keeps telling everyone that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Jesus even told his followers to pray regularly that God’s kingdom come and that his will be done here on earth, just as it is in heaven, but a lot of people are threatened by Jesus and they kill him which seems to spoil this whole plan to reunite heaven and earth. We have to go back to a scene earlier on in Jesus’ story, where John the baptist saw Jesus and said, behold, this is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. So, Jesus isn’t just talked about being a temple, he’s also talked about as being the temple sacrifice. The cross is now the place where Jesus absorbs sin to create a clean space that is not limited like animal sacrifices. Jesus’ sacrifice has the power to keep spreading and spreading and reuniting more and more of heaven on earth.
This is all really great, but it leaves one big question, what happens when I die? Don’t I just fly over to God’s space to be with Jesus? That’s not the focus of the Bible story, the focus is on how heaven and earth are being reunited through Jesus and will be completely brought together one day when he returns. So, in the book of Revelation, we get this beautiful image of the garden of Eden, now in the form of a city coming to end the age of sin and death, by redeeming all of human history in a renewed creation, and God’s space and human space completely overlap once again.
We talk a lot about going to heaven after we die, but this idea of heaven and earth overlapping, we don’t talk a lot about that, which is kind of crazy, because the union of heaven and earth is what the story of the Bible is all about. How they were once fully united and then driven apart and about how God is bringing them back together once again. Let’s go back to the beginning where heaven and earth, they’re completely overlapping? This is what the Bible’s description of the garden of Eden is all about. It’s a place where God and humanity dwelt together perfectly, no separation, and humans then partner with God in building a flourishing, beautiful world, but not everyone’s happy.
We’re introduced to a spiritual being who doesn’t want humans to rule, so he tricks them into thinking that they can get divine power on their own terms. They’re deceived, and they take the opportunity, and they’re banished from the Eden mountain, exiled to wander the earth and return to the dust. This snake is bad news. As you read on, you discover that he’s part of a spiritual rebellion that follows the humans outside of Eden and things get worse from there. So, we have these two spaces now, and the Bible actually uses lots of different kinds of words and phrases to refer to these two spaces to make a clear distinction.
So, these spaces can overlap, explain how that works? That is the good news, this is where we have to start talking about temples, because in the biblical world you experience God’s presence by going to a temple. That’s where heaven and earth overlap, there are two types of temples described in the Bible. One is a tabernacle, basically a tent that was built by Moses and the other was this massive building made by Solomon. These temples were decorated with fruit trees and flowers and images of angels and all kinds of jewels and gold, these are designed to make you feel like you’re going back to the garden, at the center of the temple was a place called the Holy of Holies, which was like the hot spot of God’s presence. Now, we can go and be with God again, but the temple also creates a problem, God’s space is full of his presence and goodness and justice and beauty, but human space is full of sin and injustice and the ugliness that results.
How do these spaces overlap, if they’re so different and they’re in conflict with each other? That was resolved through animal sacrifice. That’s kind of weird, what do animal sacrifices have to do with this? The idea is this animal sacrifice, they absorb the sin when the animal dies in your place and it creates a clean space where you are now free to enter into the temple and be in God’s presence. So, if I’m an Israelite and I live in Jerusalem, I might be able to be in God’s presence, but the story of the Bible is all about heaven and earth reuniting. We have to keep going in the story where we come to Jesus in the New Testament and in the gospel of John, we hear this claim that God became human in Jesus and made his dwelling among us. Now this word dwelling is really curious, literally it means, he set up a tabernacle among us. So what John is claiming right here, is that Jesus is a temple, he is now the place where heaven and earth overlap.
What’s interesting about Jesus, he isn’t staying in this safe, clean space, he’s running around, hanging out with sinners, healing people of their sicknesses and forgiving people of their sins. He’s basically a little pocket of heaven, where people can be in God’s presence, but he’s doing it out there in the middle of the world of sin and death and he keeps telling everyone that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Jesus even told his followers to pray regularly that God’s kingdom come and that his will be done here on earth, just as it is in heaven, but a lot of people are threatened by Jesus and they kill him which seems to spoil this whole plan to reunite heaven and earth. We have to go back to a scene earlier on in Jesus’ story, where John the baptist saw Jesus and said, behold, this is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. So, Jesus isn’t just talked about being a temple, he’s also talked about as being the temple sacrifice. The cross is now the place where Jesus absorbs sin to create a clean space that is not limited like animal sacrifices. Jesus’ sacrifice has the power to keep spreading and spreading and reuniting more and more of heaven on earth.
This is all really great, but it leaves one big question, what happens when I die? Don’t I just fly over to God’s space to be with Jesus? That’s not the focus of the Bible story, the focus is on how heaven and earth are being reunited through Jesus and will be completely brought together one day when he returns. So, in the book of Revelation, we get this beautiful image of the garden of Eden, now in the form of a city coming to end the age of sin and death, by redeeming all of human history in a renewed creation, and God’s space and human space completely overlap once again.
