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What’s still to come
5. A Better Country
Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them (Hebrews 11:16 NIV84, emphasis mine).
This better country is not received here. It is not a small strip of land in the Middle East with perpetual violence and wars. It will not come through earthly governments; it will not come through imposed law and law enforcement. That is what the beastly system is going to sell to the world—the lie that we can have peace and safety with more law and law enforcement.
But the righteous long for a better country—a heavenly one where safety and security don’t come from 100-percent community surveillance by an omniscient God, or from a perfect “police-state” by an omnipotent God with angels with flaming swords on every street corner. No! Heaven will not be safe because God has perfect law enforcement. It will be safe because every person there has perfect Christlike character restored within them. God’s law of truth, love, and liberty is written upon their hearts and minds, and every person there would rather die than harm another. Every person there is like Jesus, and every person there is perfectly trustworthy, just like Jesus is!
Yes, we are looking forward to a better country!
6. A Better Resurrection
Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection (Hebrews 11:35 NIV84, emphasis mine).
The better resurrection is the resurrection into eternal life with immortal bodies in a world free from all sin. It is not the resurrection of the Shunnamite’s son (2 Kings 4:18–37). It is not the resurrection of the man who was thrown into the cave and touched Elisha’s bones (2 Kings 13:20). It is not the resurrection of Lazarus (John 11:14–43). It is not the resurrection of the widow’s son (Luke 7:11–17). It is not the resurrection of Jarius’ daughter (Mark 5:21–43). All of these were resurrections to this mortal life, to a life of sin, turmoil, sickness, decay, and death.
Instead, our better hope is in Jesus, who provides a better resurrection, the resurrection of eternal life.
Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory” (1 Corinthians 15:51–54 NIV84, emphasis mine).
7. Something Better
These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect (Hebrews 11:39, 40 NIV84, emphasis mine).
None of that long list of God’s faithful, recorded in Hebrews chapter 11, who though they longed for the better land (the land of promise), have received what had been promised—including Enoch, who is included in that list. Even though Enoch was translated to heaven without seeing death, even though he can talk to Jesus face to face, he has not received the things promised because what has been promised is a universe free of sin and the restoration of our Eden home here on Earth.
As Jesus said, one day the meek will inherit the Earth (Matthew 5:5). The promise that has not been received is humanity, with Jesus at our head as our second Adam, being restored to an Earth made new, an Earth free of all sin, an Earth that flourishes as God originally planned. And we do not receive that promise until the end of the thousand years, when all sin, unrepentant sinners, sickness, disease, Satan, death, and the grave are eradicated from existence and the Earth is recreated in perfection as the eternal home of the righteous. (If you would like to read more about God’s promises for the land in Palestine, see our blog Israel and the Promised Land Today.)
Everything is better with Jesus—being restored to living in harmony with how He created life to operate, back into harmony with His design laws for life. Despite Adam’s sin, despite our sin, our distrust of God, our fear, our shortcomings, rebellion, and mistakes, despite all our sin-sickness, God still freely offers us something better, a better life, a life filled with His peace, love, joy, power, wisdom, truth—a life (heart and mind) filled with God’s presence as He lives, via His Spirit, within you! So I encourage you, if you haven’t already done so, to embrace the better life, open your heart to Jesus, and invite Him in. It really is better than anything this world has to offer.
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