THIS AND THAT SIDE OF HEAVEN

/Rev. Dr. Chong Siaw Fung

“O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”  The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.  (1 Cor. 15:55-57, ESV)

When I was thirteen years old, death suddenly became a fear factor for me.  In the darkness of my room each night, I would stare at the ceiling wondering what it  would be like if I went to sleep and did not wake up the next morning.  Perhaps this mixed feeling of fear, despair, and uncertainty is common among people without hope for eternity.  Paul’s exclamation about Christ’s victory over death in 1 Corinthians 15:55-57 is a fanfare for the hope of resurrection and eternal life in Christ.  Actually, this is a cosmic mystery between the “completed” and the “yet to be.”  On the human timeline, Christ’s resurrection had nullified the curse of death (the “completed”), but the reality of eternal life had yet to come (the “yet to be”).  While the Gospel assures us of eternal salvation, we will have to hold onto that blissful thought until the anticipated heaven finally comes true in the eternal future.

Yet, the Kingdom of God is a displayed reality when the Son of God came to the world, died, resurrected, ascended to the heavenly realm where He came, and promised to come again to fulfil God’s plan of salvation.  Thus, heaven is, in fact, a real deal even while we are waiting for the arrival of the New Heaven and New Earth (Rev. 21).  As Rev. Yong Wai Yin (pastor of Wesley Seremban, Trustee of STM, a great friend) rightly put it in her sermon about two years ago (which I had the pleasure of hearing): we live now on this side of heaven in anticipation of the other.  Of course, it might not feel exactly like heaven now, because we are “sojourners and exiles” in this world (1 Pet. 2:11) and we are not of this world (John 15:19).

I urge you, who claimed to love God and are called according to His purpose (Rom. 8:28), be aware that you are indeed living on this side of heaven; and on that glorious day, you will indeed cross over to the other side of heaven, as surely as God’s love and kindness is towards the world (John 3:16) and as truly as Christ’s victory is over sin and death (1 Cor. 15:57).