Free Will and Heaven
I am re-reading Heaven by Randy Alcorn. It has generated some interesting thoughts and conversations for me. At least they are interesting to me.
The latest one is the question “Will we still have free will in Heaven?”. Understand that my perspective of Heaven has changed so I need to explain a bit. Alcorn shows in the Bible how there are two definitions of Heaven. Present and Future.
Present Heaven is where believers go when they die. We go immediately there on death (Today you will be with me in Paradise) and we have a physical body but not a resurrected one. Think of it as a holding place where we know others, remember our lives on Earth and interact with everyone there.
Future Heaven is at the return of Christ and the resurrection of the believers. A new Heaven and a New Earth. At that point we are given our resurrected bodies, placed on the New Earth and we get to grow from there. Still human but now God is living on the Earth in New Jerusalem. Everything is resurrected. Earth, the Heavens, animals, plants, oceans. Everything.
Now, presuming we are fully human and free of our sin nature (like Christ was on Earth) and in our resurrected bodies, will we still have free will? To choose what we want to do, think and then act on it? It’s hard to get your head around that thought because we have never been free of our sin nature. We equate sin with our desires that are corrupted versions of what God intended and that is just the way life is on Earth but as humans we have the ability to think about what we think about. (I know, it made my head hurt to write it too.)
My thought on this is we will have free will but because of the closer connection to God and the relationship we will have with him we won’t want to do anything that would displease Him. Think about the time you were first ‘in love’ with your spouse. It was all about them. You did whatever they wanted and did it gladly. You enjoyed it and looked for ways to please them. You could choose not to but you did not.
Eventually our selfish nature (sin nature?) kicked in and we saw the connection change but imagine that our connection to God would just increase and expand instead. Our selfish nature won’t be needed because the basis for that is nested in sin (survival, sweat of the brow stuff) and God will be providing for our physical needs as well as our need for relationships.
It’s a radical idea but imagine the New Earth as a place where we live, meet new people, relate to friends, work, create and explore what God has done. God will be there and we can go to Him at anytime or perhaps we will all be able to spend time with Him alone at the same time. (another head stretching thought). Maybe Jesus will be able to be with each of us alone or in groups at the same time.
Our desire to create new technology, art, music, cooking and anything else you desire is realized without the need to be selfish or to look out for ‘No. 1’ because the real No. 1 (God) is looking out for us the way it was meant to be.
I don’t believe that Heaven is all harps and clouds anymore. That was the image I had for a lot of my life and I wasn’t sure I wanted to experience that for eternity. Seems I won’t have to. I am still content to remain here with my family and friends, learning lessons and gaining knowledge and wisdom for what is to come but I am thrilled to think about what is in my future too. Everything I enjoy about life today but more. Much more.
I would love to hear from you and your thoughts as you contemplate the new existence that is promised to us. Comment or email me.