Would you choose Heaven without God?

Consider this question, “Would you still go to Heaven if God wasn’t there?” Seriously, stop reading for a minute and answer this honestly. 

When I thought about this question it revealed a lot about my thoughts of both God and Heaven. In my mind I saw Heaven as a place free from pain, suffering, evil, and corruption. But the sad reality is the first thing I thought about and longed for in Heaven, wasn’t God. The idea of being somewhere where there were no longer all the “bad” things of Earth sounded pretty good to me, but among the requirements was not the presence of God. I asked some friends of mine this same question and they all responded the same way, “I know what I should say, but I think I would still go.” Our collective response showed a lot about our view of what we want from God. It is for our circumstances to be better, for a peaceful way of life, and rest. We didn’t want to be the king of the world, have tons of money, or even be famous. We just wanted a good, solid existence free from the troubles that drag us down on a daily basis. 

What we articulated was a thought that C.S. Lewis said decades ago, 

“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

Our problem was not that we didn’t want God or thought He wouldn’t make us happy. It’s that we were asking for far too little. We didn’t desire the very best things of life, or to be one with God, we just wanted our lives to be a little better and easier. This isn’t necessarily sinful in and of itself to want, but God wants so much more for us. He has given us the spirit of adoption, made us joint heirs with Christ, and promised to abide with us forever both now and in the ages to come (Romans 8:12-17). He is offering us infinite joy that is found in Him, but we are stuck in the slum playing with the mud pies of life, instead of coming to Him for an endless holiday at the sea.

We’re not the only ones to struggle with this question, Moses had a similar decision to make when the Hebrews were in the desert and began making idols to worship instead of Yahweh. Tim Chester says this in his book Enjoying God:

God had rescued his people from slavery in Egypt. Now in the wilderness they make a calf out of gold and worship it instead of God (Exodus 32:1-6). Even so, God reiterates his promise to give them the land of Canaan. “But,” he adds, “I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way” (Exodus 33:3). Think about that offer for a moment. The people can have the blessings of God without the demands of his holy presence. Imagine you were offered a ticket to heaven without the need to be holy. Would you take that offer? This is what Moses says in response: 

“If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?” (Exodus 33 v 15-16)

 It’s an extraordinary response. In some ways Moses is offered the goal of his life’s work and he can have it without the obligation of being God’s distinctive people. But knowing God and being his people is what really matters to Moses. God offers Moses everything without God, but Moses doesn’t want everything. He wants God. And so he declines the offer. The blessings of the promised land are secondary to the true blessing which is God himself. We are not only saved from sin; we are saved for God.

His last thought, that we are saved for God is the heart of this question. Why is being a Christian so amazing? Because the God of the Universe wants a personal relationship with us and there was no price too high to have us. If He thought we were worth sending Jesus to suffer and die to pay for our sins, what could ever be better than knowing and living with Him? I pray that your heart would long for more than the best created things on our Earth, and instead would long for the Creator Himself.