Question: 205 How will we be able to enjoy heaven if we have loved ones who are in hell?
Answer: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passes away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away’” (Revelation 21:1-4).
Paul states, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9).
John in Revelation and Paul in 1 Corinthians both make it very clear that man, in our fallen sinful state cannot even imagine what heaven will be like. It is an absolute perfect place where there will be no death, no sorrow, no pain, no tears but only a certainty of joy, bliss, comfort, peace, love and perfection. To show how heaven will be far greater than our wildest imagination, look at the dimensions of the city. For example, the New Jerusalem is a cube shaped place which is approximately 1500 miles wide, 1500 miles long and 1500 miles high. After Jesus returns that will be our home forever. Being with God in Heaven is an altogether different dimension. (Revelation 21:15-21)
First of all, we don’t know God as He really is. We especially do not know Him as the God who is Holy, Holy, Holy. God’s holiness is different from how we use holiness. When we use it, the primary meaning is referring to people who have been, “set apart,” for special work. But God’s holiness refers to His transcendent majesty, His unmatched superiority which makes Him worthy of our honor, reverence, adoration and worship. It refers to God’s righteous actions. God does what is right. He never does what is wrong. For us to think that God will make a heaven whereby we will not be completely 100% happy and joyful beyond our imagination shows how inadequate our knowledge of our Almighty God really is.
Secondly, we do not know ourselves very well. Try as we might, we remain oblivious to how truly heinous our sin is. We don’t and can’t know how truly filthy we are in the sight of God and how incredibly wonderful our salvation is. We need better self-knowledge; the kind God gives to us through His Spirit when we are seeking a realistic knowledge of ourselves through His Word. We cannot imagine how we could be content in heaven while loved ones are in hell because we do not know ourselves and our sinful condition very well.
Thirdly, we do not know what it means for us to be changed at our death into Christlikeness. At that instance, we are made morally perfect. We will not only be without sin; we will have been removed from the very presence of sin. When we were saved, we experience the removal of the penalty of sin, justification. From that moment until we die, we are in the process of being removed from the power of sin, sanctification. At our death, we experience the removal of the very presence of sin, glorification. At that point, we will love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our mind in an undiluted perfection. This may sound harsh, but our compassion, our love, our concern will be much more for the vindication of God’s holiness than for a loved one who refused to repent and seek the salvation that was available to him/her. In the meantime, we are to pray for the lost, plead for their souls, share the gospel with them while at the same time placing our trust in the God who is good and who does only what is good.