{"id":526,"date":"2024-03-28T09:39:40","date_gmt":"2024-03-28T09:39:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stm.edu.my\/beritastm\/?p=526"},"modified":"2025-03-28T09:19:55","modified_gmt":"2025-03-28T09:19:55","slug":"this-and-that-side-of-heaven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stm.edu.my\/beritastm\/2024\/03\/28\/this-and-that-side-of-heaven\/","title":{"rendered":"THIS AND THAT SIDE OF HEAVEN"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\/Rev. Dr. Chong Siaw Fung<\/p>\n

\u201cO death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?\u201d\u00a0 The sting of death is sin, and\u00a0the power of sin is the law.\u00a0But thanks be to God,\u00a0who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.\u00a0 (1 Cor. 15:55-57, ESV)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

When I was thirteen years old, death suddenly became a fear factor for me.\u00a0 In the darkness of my room each night, I would stare at the ceiling wondering what it \u00a0<\/span>would be like if I went to sleep and did not wake up the next morning.\u00a0 Perhaps this mixed feeling of fear, despair, and uncertainty is common among people without hope for eternity.\u00a0 Paul\u2019s exclamation about Christ\u2019s victory over death in 1 Corinthians 15:55-57 is a fanfare for the hope of resurrection and eternal life in Christ.\u00a0 Actually, this is a cosmic mystery between the \u201ccompleted\u201d and the \u201cyet to be.\u201d\u00a0 On the human timeline, Christ\u2019s resurrection had nullified the curse of death (the \u201ccompleted\u201d), but the reality of eternal life had yet to come (the \u201cyet to be\u201d).\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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\u2019s plan of salvation.\u00a0 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).\u00a0 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. \u00a0Of course, it might not feel exactly like heaven now, because we are \u201csojourners and exiles\u201d in this world (1 Pet. 2:11) and we are not of this world (John 15:19).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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\u2019s love and kindness is towards the world (John 3:16) and as truly as Christ\u2019s victory is over sin and death (1 Cor. 15:57).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\/Rev. Dr. Chong Siaw Fung \u201cO death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?\u201d\u00a0 The sting of death is sin, and\u00a0the power of sin is the law.\u00a0But thanks be to God,\u00a0who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.\u00a0 (1 Cor. 15:55-57, ESV)   When I was thirteen years old, death […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-principals-message"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stm.edu.my\/beritastm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stm.edu.my\/beritastm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stm.edu.my\/beritastm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stm.edu.my\/beritastm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stm.edu.my\/beritastm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=526"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stm.edu.my\/beritastm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":540,"href":"https:\/\/stm.edu.my\/beritastm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526\/revisions\/540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stm.edu.my\/beritastm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stm.edu.my\/beritastm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stm.edu.my\/beritastm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}