Rewards: Part 5

Objections

1. How can I be eternally happy knowing that I will be eternally less happy than others? Okay, so maybe I don’t have to spend eternity starring at Billy Graham’s palace from my cramped studio apartment, but I do have to spend eternity in the company of others far more joyful and immersed in God’s glory than me. How can eternity be eternal bliss knowing that I’m second rate?

There are several false assumptions lying behind this objection. First, it fails to take into account the perfect state of holiness we will be in. Why do you assume that another’s greater happiness will you make you less happy? Certainly, in this day when a good friend gets a raise or inherits $100,000 while we can barely afford our next tank of gas, we tend to grumble rather than rejoice over our friend’s good luck. And “good luck” it is, right? He certainly didn’t earn it. It’s not like he is better than me. I’ve probably prayed harder, have been more responsible, and need it more than him, but I suppose I should be happy for him. So our thinking goes. But is this the way we shall see those of greater raptures in the eternal state. Will we really be shaken by our envy of them? Sin and tragedy are the roots of grief. Jesus’ resurrection says that the roots will be pulled and the weeds of unhappiness with them. In a healed land populated by healed people, only happiness is possible. If your heart bursts with nothing but love for another, and that other is better off than you, you do not begrudge their richness. You rejoice in it. The fact that others will be better off than ourselves will not make us less joyful; it will increase our joy. They are our joy, and their betterment is our betterment.

Secondly, we tend to think that less happy means more unhappy, or that experiencing less of God means we receive less of God. These seem logical enough, but it does not necessarily follow that being less happy means being more unhappy. In addition to Scripture, much of my thinking on rewards owes to Jonathan Edwards. Edwards used the example of bowls. Take two bowls of differing sizes. Say one holds 10 oz. and the other holds gallon. Now in the smaller bowl does it follow that holding less water means it is more empty than the larger bowl? Of course not. The smaller bowl my be full to the brim and still hold less water. Think of eternity in a similar vein. All of us will be bowls of joy, but the size of those bowls will vary. Some will be 10 oz. and some 10 gallons. But every bowl will be full to the brim. You will never think, “Oh, I wish I could have so much more.” You will be bursting at your capacity for joy. You will hardly be able to believe that more joy is possible, and yet it will be.

Furthermore, it does not follow that experiencing less of God means we receive less of Him. Theologian Millard Erickson uses the example of attending the performance of a classical orchestra. Depending upon the understanding and love of classical music, two individuals may have very different experiences. One person may be totally engrossed while the other bored to tears. But it is not because they are hearing different things. They are both immersed into the same bath of harmony. In a similar fashion, God’s glory and love will not be more on display for some and less for others. We shall be immersed into the same bath, but like with the music some of us are greater connoisseurs of God. One’s vision will not be at all different from another, and yet it will be very, very different.