What We Can Expect When We Get to Heaven

1. No Memory of Pain

Isaiah 65:17 ESV

“For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind.

Revelation 21:4 ESV

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.”

2. No Weight of Shame

Romans 8:1 ESV

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

3. Total Absence of Death and Sin

Hebrews 12:22–23 ESV

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,

4. An Incorruptible Inheritance and Home

1 Peter 1:3–4 ESV

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,

5. Eternal Fellowship and Service

Revelation 22:3 ESV

No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.

6. An Incorruptible, Glorious, and Powerful Body

1 Corinthians 15:42–49 ESV

So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.

1 John 3:2 ESV

Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.

7. The Immediate Presence of God and Christ

John 14:2–3 ESV

In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

Philippians 1:23 ESV

I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.

2 Corinthians 5:8 ESV

Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

Revelation 21:3 ESV

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.