What Christians Will Do Forever
Jordan Thomas is a husband, father of six, and founding pastor of Grace Church, Memphis. After preparing for the ministry through college and seminary, Jordan went on to train in church planting at Bethlehem Baptist Church before returning to Memphis, Tennessee to plant Grace Church in 2007. Jordan now continues in local church ministry through shepherding the fold at Grace Church and leading with Treasuring Christ Together Church-Planting Network.
Christ Our Treasure: Enjoying the Preeminence of Jesus in the Local Church is an 8-week multimedia Bible study by Jordan Thomas that invites you to return to Scripture to behold the beauty of Christ, contemplate the role of the local church in the Christian life, and learn what God says about the purpose of each body of believers: to treasure Christ above all else, together.
What we will do in heaven flows from what we will be. In the age to come, Christians will be glorified (Romans 8:30). Then, we will be like Jesus because “we will see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2). In the age to come, there will be no impediment between our hearts and embracing all that God is for us in Christ. Christians will never be more justified in God’s sight than we are right now. But then, we will never be more glorified. The only progressive dimension of salvation is sanctification—the here-and-now process of conformity to Christ that happens to all Christians is the evidence of justification and the highway to glorification. Jesus is the beginning—the Author—and the end—the Perfecter—of saving faith (Hebrews 12:2). Therefore, we fix our eyes on Him from first to last.
In glory, our embrace of Jesus will be tantamount to the magnificence of Jesus. Equal. As glorious as Jesus is, so will be our embrace of Him. Such is the pinnacle blessing of sinless existence. The reason the Son could assert that He “always does what pleases the Father” is because He was “without sin” (John 8:29; Hebrews 4:15). When we “see Him as He is” and are “transformed,” we, too, will join Jesus in maximum delight in God (1 John 3:1–3).
In the here and now, all believers struggle to keep our eyes on Jesus. Drifting away from Christ is the direction of life’s tide on this side of eternity. We need the local church because we are weak. The only thing that outmatches our need is Christ’s supply. If anything apart from Christ dazzles us, we should repent and refocus our gaze on Him. We must diligently keep our hearts moored to Christ. Our churches will be lost at sea if we do not keep our eyes on Him—our true north (Hebrew 2:1–4). But, once glorified, the undercurrent of heaven will pull us toward Christ. Then, nothing will hinder our full embrace of all that God is for us in Jesus.
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Here, even our most protracted seasons of “looking unto Jesus” are brief. Even at the height of worship, we want for more of the fullness of Christ in our lives and churches. Even when we “hunger and thirst for righteousness” and are “satisfied” by Christ’s supply (Matthew 5:6), we long for a deeper filling, and more devout treasuring of Christ. But then, we will never be left wanting. Oh, glorious day! Forever we will be simultaneously filled to the brim with Christ’s supply, and ever-expanding in our capacities to enjoy Him more.
Then, as quick as a flash of lightning, the race will be over. Then, we will be like Him.
All of your sputtering, inconsistent, oftentimes lapsing into sin, distractedness from the beauty of Christ will dissolve like fog before the noonday sun. Faith will change to sight when you see your Beloved face-to-face (1 Corinthians 13:12). Hope will melt into reality. But love will endure, and intensify, forever (1 Corinthians 13:13).
Glorification will plunge you into the bottomless and brimless ocean of God’s agape love for you in Christ. By love I mean that you will inescapably know that you are as loved by God as Jesus is. Indeed, you will have an unbroken experiential knowledge of God’s love.