{"id":5337,"date":"2026-04-02T09:00:05","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T13:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/?p=5337"},"modified":"2026-04-02T09:00:05","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T13:00:05","slug":"the-life-everlasting-amen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/02\/the-life-everlasting-amen\/","title":{"rendered":"The Life Everlasting. Amen."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here<\/a>
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Throughout the season of Lent, we’re taking a close look at the Apostles’ Creed – one of the earliest and most concise summaries of what followers of Jesus believe.<\/em>
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C.S. Lewis once imagined what it would be like to grow up in a prison.
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In a sermon that was ultimately published as The<\/em> Weight of Glory<\/em>, the British author and theologian crafted a fable in which a woman is incarcerated.\u00a0She\u2019s expecting a child.\u00a0Her son arrives and then grows up with her in that dark and limited space.\u00a0
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But she\u2019s an artist, and she\u2019s been able to secure pencils and a sketchpad.\u00a0
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She draws pictures of the world \u201cout there,\u201d doing her best to reveal to her little boy the wonders of forests, rivers, fields, and mountains.\u00a0He dreams of personally experiencing those realities one day.
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He \u201cknows\u201d something of the world beyond the prison bars, but only by means of two-dimensional sketches.\u00a0He cannot comprehend the fragrance of hyacinths, the roar of breaking waves, or the icy coolness of snowflakes on his skin.\u00a0He can discern only the barest outlines of such a world.\u00a0 \u00a0
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So it is with the way we tend to picture heaven.\u00a0
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Lewis points out that most cultures, historically, have imagined the next world to be far less real than this world.\u00a0
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As we noted when we considered the Creed\u2019s declaration that Jesus \u201cdescended to the place of the dead,\u201d the ancient Greeks pictured Hades as a shadowy realm where men and women exist as mere shadows or shades of their former selves.\u00a0They are drained of energy, joy, and hope.\u00a0The Hebrews of Old Testament times described Sheol (an undefined place synonymous with \u201cthe grave\u201d) in similar terms.\u00a0
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Even contemporary Western civilization has managed to transform heaven into a comparatively boring place.\u00a0Can you imagine floating on clouds, strumming harps, and singing Handel\u2019s \u201cMessiah\u201d forever<\/em> \u2013 especially if you\u2019ve always had a fear of flying and aren\u2019t a big fan of Baroque music?\u00a0
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There are 1,189 chapters in the Bible.\u00a0Few of them have anything to say about heaven.\u00a0Scripture is surprisingly shy about depicting Paradise.
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Where does that leave us?\u00a0Trying to imagine heaven by extrapolating from a handful of verses is like attempting to experience the tastes, sounds, and colors of a three-dimensional world by studying some pencil lines on a flat sheet of paper.
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Here\u2019s what we know: Heaven will not turn out to be less<\/em> than our present experience.\u00a0It will be infinitely more.\u00a0 \u00a0
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Where do we get that idea?
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New Testament scholar N.T. Wright suggests that trying to perceive the future is like peering into a thick bank of fog.\u00a0We cannot see what lies ahead.
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All of a sudden, someone steps out of the fog and greets us.\u00a0It\u2019s Jesus. A real flesh-and-blood person, someone who truly died, left this world and entered the next.\u00a0All of us, too, will one day make that journey. But Jesus did something no one else has yet done.\u00a0He came back<\/em>.\u00a0
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What was Jesus like when he reappeared to his disciples?\u00a0
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He was himself.<\/em>\u00a0His memories, identity, and relationships were intact.\u00a0Most importantly, he was whole<\/em>.\u00a0He retained evidence of the wounds he had experienced on Good Friday.\u00a0But instead of signifying pain, they now represented God\u2019s victory.\u00a0Christians believe these represent previews of what our own future embodied life will be like.
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People may live in this world as if money, status, and beauty are supremely important.\u00a0If that\u2019s true, then all we have are a few years to attain them.\u00a0And then we lose them forever.
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But humanity\u2019s deepest dreams, at least in the West, have always been related to the possibility of a next world.\u00a0Can anyone survive the grave? Will we still be conscious?\u00a0Will people retain the capacity to think, to work, and to experience joy?\u00a0Will there be reunions with those we love?\u00a0Will our wounds at last be healed?\u00a0 \u00a0
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Right now, all we have are sketches of a reality we cannot possibly comprehend.
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In the apostle Paul\u2019s poetic words, \u201cFor now we see only a reflection as in a mirror;\u00a0then we shall see face to face.\u00a0Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known\u201d (I Corinthians 13:12).
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Followers of Jesus have every reason to believe that the fullness of life doesn\u2019t come to a screeching halt when we take our last breath.
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The Apostles\u2019 Creed\u2019s final assertion is \u201cthe life everlasting\u201d \u2013 that Real, Lasting Life will go on and on and on in the presence of God and in the company of our brothers and sisters in Christ.
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The Bible\u2019s next-to-last chapter provides this peek:
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\u201cAnd I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, \u2018Look! God\u2019s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them.\u00a0They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.\u00a0\u2018He will wipe every tear from their eyes.\u00a0There will be no more death\u2019\u00a0or mourning or crying or pain,\u00a0for the old order of things has passed away\u201d (Revelation 21:3-4).
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That may only be a glimpse of our future. But for those who long to walk with God, it sets the heart soaring.
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What else would you expect from a God who raises the dead?
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As we near the end of our Lenten study, only one word remains in the Apostles\u2019 Creed:
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Amen.<\/strong><\/em>
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Scholars agree that most people who lived in Israel during the time of Jesus were at least partially trilingual, speaking Hebrew, Aramaic (a Semitic language that is very similar to Hebrew), and some conversational Greek. While the New Testament is written in Greek \u2013 something that guaranteed its rapid dissemination around the Mediterranean world \u2013 the four Gospels feature about 18 Aramaic words and phrases, a number of which slipped through \u201cas-is,\u201d without translation.
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They include rabbi, abba, hosanna<\/em>, and Jesus\u2019 profound cry on the cross, Eli, eli, lema sabachthani<\/em> (\u201cmy God, my God, why have you forsaken me?\u201d).
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Amen<\/em> is an Aramaic word whose meaning and pronunciation have somehow stayed the same through two millennia. Whenever we say amen<\/em>, we are speaking one of the very words that Jesus spoke. \u00a0
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What does it mean?
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Amen<\/em> is a way of saying, \u201cI agree. I mean business. I\u2019m signing off or attaching my signature to everything that I just said or prayed or declared.\u201d
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For that reason, we must be cautious about saying amen<\/em>.
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It may take less than 60 seconds to speak the words of the Apostles\u2019 Creed, but there is a lifetime of responsibility and accountability associated with its last word.
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Every time we say amen,<\/em> we\u2019re declaring, \u201cThis is how I want the world to be.\u00a0Starting with me<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0
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And as our study of the Creed comes to an end, my hope and prayer is that the time we\u2019ve spent together on this extraordinary statement has deepened your love for the Lord and helped you prepare, even in some small way, to worship our risen Savior with greater joy this Easter. \u00a0

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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here\u00a0Throughout the season of Lent, we’re taking a close look at the Apostles’ Creed – one of the earliest and most concise summaries of what followers of Jesus believe.\u00a0C.S. Lewis once imagined what it would be like to grow up in a prison.\u00a0In a sermon that was ultimately published as The Weight… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5338,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1094,1080,36],"class_list":["post-5337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-amen","tag-apostles-creed","tag-heaven"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5337"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5337\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5339,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5337\/revisions\/5339"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}