Light Without Heat

We've been experiencing record-breaking heat in Sydney of late.  Last Friday the Sydney CBD went over 45 degrees Celsius!  The hot breeze fueled over 100 fires throughout New South Wales that burned simultaneously.  We are seeing temperatures hotter than ever recorded in Australia.  After one of our hot days, during my nightly reading I came to this passage in Revelation 7:16 which ministered to me on multiple levels:  "They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat..."  The Bible tells us that after the final judgment the heavens and earth will pass away.  God will create a new heavens and new earth with no need for the sun.  Revelation 21:23 says of the heavenly New Jerusalem, "The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light."  Jesus is and will forever be the light of the world.

On earth, it is understood that the sun is our chief source of light.  It is also the earth's major source of heat.  But in heaven, things will be different.  We will no longer be sunburned or uncomfortable under the heat of the sun.  As far as I know, all the light sources that utilise combustion or electricity grow warm or even untouchably hot during and after use.  When God is our sole source of light both in the physical and spiritual realm, no longer will we be scorched by the sun.  Did you know that God spoke light into existence on earth before the sun?  After speaking the world we know into existence, Genesis 1:3 reads "Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light."  We read that in six days God created the heavens and the earth and on the last day He rested:  seven actual 24-hour days.  This is nothing for God to do.  He could have created all things in less than a blink of an eye, but in His creation of the universe He chose to utilise the seven-day week as it remains until today.  We know this because after each day it reads, "Evening and morning were the first day."  It was not until the fourth day that God made the sun, moon, and stars (Gen. 1:14-19).

So the next time you feel the searing heat of the sun upon your skin or experience the uncomfortable pain of a sunburn, know that it will not always be so for those who are born again through repentance and faith in Christ.  For those who die in their sins, however, they know nothing of the heat they will experience forever, separated from God in the outer darkness being consumed in the undying flames of hell.  Jesus expresses this truth over and over in Mark 9:43-48:  "If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched--⁴⁴ where 'Their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.' ⁴⁵ And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame, rather than having two feet, to be cast into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched--⁴⁶ where 'Their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.' ⁴⁷ And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire--⁴⁸ where 'Their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.'"

Heaven and hell are both real.  It is only through Jesus Christ we can live eternally in heaven, where sun and fire cannot scorch us.  Hell was designed for the devil and his angels (Matt. 25:31), yet man chooses to go there if he remains in sin.  The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our LORD.  How great that life Christ offers is far beyond our natural ability to appreciate.  It is a perfect life, life as it was intended by God:  free from sin, death, pain, sickness, and the deceptions of this world.  It is a life governed by love, grace, righteousness, and goodness.  It is a life in the presence of the eternal God, who created us, sent His own Son to die as a sacrifice for us, has washed us clean, and adopted us as sons, making us kings and priests unto Him.  He will provide light without darkness, light without heat.  He indeed makes all things new!