Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“ O Death, where is your sting?
O Hades, where is your victory?”
The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:51-56
Eternity is something incredibly fantastic. The end of our physical life is not the end of our existence. Death, which so many people fear and would rather not face, only means that we go onward. It means that eternity, which God has laid in our hearts, carries on forever.
The hope of heaven is the most wonderful thing a believer has. At the same time, it is what the world mocks most of all. And perhaps it is what believers lose most quickly. We so easily become worldly and full of worry. We worry about what we are, our titles, our positions, what we possess and what others think of us. All these things matter so much to us in this life, and God does not expect us to live as ascetics. He has so much for us in this world. But we are not of this world. We are truly on our way to another world.
All this, which we live in and of, is transient. It changes. It disappears. In Christ it will one day be covered with the everlasting. Therefore, we cannot have these things as guiding stars or points of support for our life; these are things that will pass away. But God will remain. These things will disappear. But God is eternal. Our inner man must never become attached to that which is worldly. Our spirit, which is eternal, seeks that which is eternal. And only in the eternal, in God, can we receive peace, strength and purpose. David said that when he had God in heaven, he lacked nothing on earth. And he had a lot. But he did not need these things, and they could not be used to reach his ultimate goal—to know God.
- Ulf Ekman
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