Recently someone asked me if I thought that we would
recognize people after the Second Coming. My answer was, “Sure. Although marriage
won’t exist anymore, there’s no reason we wouldn’t know each other.” I think
her main concern was that we would be mourning those who weren’t saved. While I
do think there will be a period of mourning at the judgment, we are promised
that “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” (Rev. 21:4 ESV). I don’t know exactly how God will do
that, but I think we will be so consumed with His glory that the former things
will not matter in comparison. In The
Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis imagines hell as being so minuscule and
insubstantial that those in heaven are unaware of its existence. Personally, I
believe in the complete annihilation of the unsaved after the judgment, so
there would be no reason to mourn those who no longer exist.
If God were planning to wipe away all our memories, there is
no logical reason for our current existence. He could create new, sinless
beings and do away with this fallen world. Our life here and now is integrally
related to our future existence in eternity.
Here are some other relevant passages:
Paul wrote in 1
Corinthians 13:12, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.
Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” While I
think this refers first to our knowledge of God, I believe it will also apply
to our knowledge of one another. We will truly know each other as brothers and
sisters in Christ and not just as friends or acquaintances. Currently we only
know those things that people choose to share with us. In eternity we’ll know
each other with a depth of intimacy that right now probably induces some degree
of fear in us.
In 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 we learn, “For this light momentary
affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all
comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that
are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are
unseen are eternal.” Our godly responses to the trials and difficulties we face
in this life are creating some kind of eternal beauty that we do not yet see.
One day we’ll look back at our own lives and the lives of others and see how
each of us was shaped and made to reflect Christ. We will know things about one
another that we can only guess at now.
The fact that we will know one another should be motivation
for sharing the Gospel. Otherwise one might say, “I like Joe, but I’m not going
to remember him later, so there’s no reason for me to embarrass myself by
bringing up the Bible.” Eternal life doesn’t begin after death; it begins whenever
we come to faith in Christ in this life: “Whoever believes in the Son has
eternal life” (John 3:36). “And this is eternal life, that they know You, the
only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3). For the believer,
death will be just a temporary interruption prior to receiving a new body.
Jesus did not lose His divinity when He came in the flesh,
but rather He added
a human nature. Now the resurrected Christ is both fully God and fully man.
Similarly, once we receive our resurrection bodies, we will still be fully
human and, I would contend, will be even more human than we are now. Our bodies
will be imperishable (1 Cor. 15:53) and we will have more abilities than we
have now, not less (e.g. John 20:19). We will be like God in ways that we
cannot now imagine, but He will still be infinitely greater. And regardless of
how it all works out, we can be assured that it will be glorious and that every
moment of pain will be worth it all (Rom. 8:16-25)!
“And we all, with
unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the
same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord
who is the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18).
© 2017 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated all images are
copyright free from pixabay.com.
