One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, ‘Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!’ But the other rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.’Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’He replied, ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.’

Luke 23:39-43

Jesus said to one thief next to him as he died, ‘Truly, I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.’ (Luke 23:43)

In this one sentence Jesus conveyed the most important feature of Paradise – that people there are with him. The thief dying next to Jesus was told only one thing, that he would soon be with Jesus in Paradise. That truth, it seems, was all this man needed to know. The main truth of Paradise for us to know too is the same. As we die with Jesus, we will soon be with him in a new place.

As he died, Jesus used the name ‘Paradise’ for the first time. The Old Testament does not include information about Paradise. When Jesus used the name Paradise he was revealing something new. Early Christians understood that, through his death and resurrection, Jesus has opened up Paradise as a new future for people. Paradise is understood to have been part of the original creation, but locked or hidden so that people in Old Testament times did not know of it. Jesus created a new possibility for people after death, which he called Paradise.

In his life, Jesus talked of life beyond death, but used other words for this life. We can’t say exactly why Jesus held back from using the name Paradise until the very end. It could be that his fellow Jews would have objected to the name because it comes from Persian, rather than Jewish, Old Testament, language and culture. Jesus said there were things he had to say to the people around him which he could not say at the time because they could not accept them. (John 16:12) Maybe the name ‘Paradise’ was one of these things.

Paradise is being with Jesus. In Paradise we will notice Jesus with us more than anything else. We may well now be intrigued about what Paradise is like, what it looks like, what we will be doing there, who else is there. First, though, we need to take in the most important feature of Paradise: people there are with Jesus.

Closeness

Being with Jesus sounds simple but, for the man dying next to Jesus, was not what he was asking for, not what he was expecting. This man had asked ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ (Luke 23:42) He saw Jesus as a king. The sign over Jesus’ head read ‘Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.’ He thought, somehow, that Jesus would be a king, with a kingdom, beyond this life. He wanted to be remembered by Jesus the king, as part of his kingdom, one of his subjects.

This request was like Joseph from the Old Testament, the man of the coloured dream-coat, asking a fellow prisoner in Egypt to remember him when the fellow prisoner was back in his previous job in Pharoah’s palace. Both Joseph and the man dying next to Jesus knew that kings and Pharoahs live a separate life from their people, their subjects. They knew that kings are above other people. They were hoping to live under Pharoah or under king Jesus. To live with the ruler, on the same level as him, was beyond their experience, their expectation, their imagination.

Jesus said ‘Today you will be with me in Paradise.’ Not under me, with me. You will not be at a distance from me; you will be with me. You will not have me over you, controlling life without thinking of you particularly, as an earthly king thinks of his subjects in general rather than as individuals. You will have me with you, alongside you, so that you know I am with you and you know that I know you. You will be with me, close to me. That is how it has to be in Paradise.

The prospect of being with Jesus in Paradise is as unusual for us as it was for the people in Jesus’ day. In our life now, we too think mostly of Jesus above us, ‘seated at the right hand of God.’ We see wall paintings in old churches of Jesus way above us, seated as a king on a throne. We sing worship songs hailing Jesus the king on the throne in heaven, crowned with many crowns. As we call Jesus the king, the king of kings, we assume that, as with kings or presidents in our world, he is, rightly, above us, at a distance from us, engaged in matters which are too high for us.

Some people, though, have taken seriously Jesus’ words ‘Look. I am with you always, to the end of the age,’ (Matthew 28:20) seriously, and are trying to live conscious of Jesus with them now. Using the eyes of our heart, it is possible for us to see Jesus with us now, rather than, or maybe as well as, Jesus above us now. We need the Holy Spirit to enlighten the eyes of our heart (Ephesians 1:18) and we need to keep remembering to look to see where Jesus is with us. We need to ignore the scathing voice around us or inside us telling us that we are too old to have an imaginary friend. We try to do what Jesus told us to do, to look to see him with us, always. Knowing what it is like to have Jesus with us now gives us an idea of what it will be like to have Jesus with us in Paradise.

People who try to live conscious of Jesus with them report that Jesus is closer than they expected, especially if they have welcomed him close. Jesus is literally alongside, shoulder to shoulder, Sometimes his arm is on our shoulders. We can walk, sit, lie, aware that Jesus is next to us.

We know that Jesus is not with us exclusively. As Jesus is with us, he is also with everyone one else. If we are in a room with other people, we will probably not all see Jesus in the same place with us. Each person sees Jesus with them in their own way. How this can be is a mystery. But, for those, who learn to develop awareness of Jesus with them, it feels good to have Jesus close, in this life, as a foretaste of being with, close to, Jesus in Paradise.

Peace

Jesus with us is always relaxed. He looks as though he has everything under control. He knows that ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.’ (Matthew 28:18) Our awareness of Jesus with us relaxes us. He is the Prince of Peace, the great peace-giver. As we are aware of Jesus with us, we relax in his peace. Being with Jesus in Paradise will mean being relaxed, at peace, even more than in this life. Being with Jesus in Paradise will mean being with the Great Peace-Giver.

Jesus with us not only looks as though he has everything under control, he smiles, sometimes laughs, because he has everything under control. He truly can bring good out of everything. We catastrophise and gloomily think and imagine the worst. Jesus knows that his ability to create new beginnings is much greater than the worst that we, life or the devil can do. When we see miserable dead ends, he sees wonderful exciting new possibilities. Jesus is full of hope and joy. Being with Jesus in Paradise will mean absorbing and sharing his peace, his confidence, his hope, his joy.

Understanding and appreciation

Jesus with us always wants to communicate that he knows, us, likes us, loves us. Jesus said that his Father in heaven knows the number of hairs on our head. (Matthew 10:30) Jesus and his Father share everything. Jesus knows what his Father knows (except the exact time for Jesus to return to our cosmos.) Jesus knows how many hairs we have on our heads (and on our arms and legs!) He knows everything about us. Jesus knows the thoughts in our heads, as he knew the thoughts of people who were with him in Galilee and Jerusalem. Being with Jesus in Paradise will mean being with the one who knows us better than anyone else.

Jesus knows us with a loving knowledge, like the knowledge of a loving mother or older brother. Jesus knows us as our creator, who took our parents’ genes and put them together in a unique way to make us. He made us with our particular characteristics and gifts and quirks. He thinks he did a good job in making us. He likes our personality and talents and oddities. Jesus likes us, and, when we are conscious of him with us, he lets us know his pleasure in us being ourselves. Being with Jesus in Paradise will mean being with the one who likes every part of us.

Forgiveness

Jesus never turns his nose up at us, never shakes his head in dismay over us. Jesus understands our weaknesses, for his has been through this life like us. ^‘He is able to deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is subject to weakness;’ (Hebrews 5:2) Even what we see as our greatest fault, or most habitual waywardness, Jesus sees as a slightly distorted part of how we were originally meant to be, which he can cope with and, gently, over time, correct. Being with Jesus in Paradise will mean being with the one who knows and understands our weaknesses and faults and can help us to be better people, to be the people we really want to be.

Jesus knows all our regrets. Even when we haven’t realised how wrong some of our behaviour has been, he is already looking to forgive us. The people who crucified Jesus thought they were doing their nation a favour. Jesus kept saying ‘Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.’ (Luke 23:34) Jesus was with the soldiers and their masters already seeking their forgiveness. Jesus with us is the same. Our forgiveness is his priority. When we, eventually and rightly, ask for his forgiveness, our pardon is prepared.

When Jesus forgives us, he takes responsibility for repairing the damage we have done. The blood that he shed on the cross covers the wounds we have inflicted on other people and on ourselves, like scabs cover wounds, so that all are healed, eventually. (See the section ‘How does the death of Jesus achieve forgiveness?’ in Fresh Bible Answers, Christian Understanding.} Being with Jesus in Paradise will be being with the one who forgives us and repairs all the damage we have done.

Healing

Jesus knows all our pain. Jesus can heal all the wounds we have suffered from our mistakes, from other people and from living in a disturbed, devil-influenced, world. Jesus showed himself as the great healer. He healed all who followed him. (Matthew 12:15) All who were injured by bad choices or by other people or by life were healed by Jesus.

People had to come close to Jesus. Those who kept their distance from him were not healed. The one great exception was the Roman Officer who said he knew Jesus needed only to command the healing of his servant and it would be done. This exception shows the rule – Jesus healed people who came close to him, who were with him. Even to the Roman Officer, Jesus first said, ‘I will come and cure him.’ (Matthew 8:7) Jesus’ healing is for those who come close to him and ask him to come close to them.

People who live conscious of Jesus with them report being healed. Inner healing is common, healing of low self-esteem, of excessive fear or anger. When we know Jesus with us, we are comforted and soothed. We can express pain, we can cry and wail. Jesus’ calm presence is healing oil to hurting hearts. Jesus with us encourages us to mourn. Jesus is with us as the one who wipes the tears from our eyes, tears which we have not kept in. Physical healing can also come from being aware of Jesus with us, as it did for the people he was with physically, though this is less common.

Being with Jesus in Paradise will be being with the Great Healer. Our souls will be healed of all the trauma we have suffered. This will probably not be instantaneous but a process of increasing healing. We will be with the Good Shepherd who restores our soul. (Psalm 23:3)

Purification

The healing of our souls through being with Jesus in Paradise will foster our purification. All that is unclean in our souls will be washed away by knowing Jesus with us. Only the pure will remain. The grace and truth of Jesus, known close to us, will enable us to see more clearly what we need to let go of and what we need to retain. This grace and truth is often understood as a warm light, as from the sun or a fire, in which we both see more clearly and are given the warm energy to live without attitudes and habits which we now see as making our lives, and the lives of those around us, worse.

Jesus’ visit to Zaccheus the tax collector is the great example of the purifying effect of the presence of Jesus. Zaccheus has shown keen interest in Jesus. Jesus invites himself to Zaccheus’ house. All Jesus does is go and eat with him. Zaccheus then announces that he is changing his ways, giving half his wealth to the poor, paying back what he has gained through fraud four times over. A great change brought about only by having Jesus with him. (Luke 19:1-10)

Jesus’ declaration to Zaccheus is literally ‘Today, in your house I must stay.’ There is an echo of these words in Jesus saying to the man dying next to him, ‘Today, you will be with me in Paradise.’ Jesus was telling Zaccheus that the tax collector would be with him, in the man’s own house. Jesus was telling the dying man that this criminal would be with him, in Jesus’ Paradise. Jesus was to be with the dying man as he was with Zaccheus. It is at least highly likely that the effect on Zaccheus of being with Jesus was the same as the effect on the criminal, and all sinners, of being with Jesus in Paradise.

Jesus presence with sinners was not only with Zaccheus. Being with, eating with, sinners was a regular feature of Jesus’ life, one which attracted serious religious criticism. Matthew describes Jesus being with another tax collector, Levi, who became Matthew, in the tax collector’s house.

And as Jesus sat at dinner in the house, many tax-collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, ‘Why does your teacher eat with tax-collectors and sinners?’ But when he heard this, he said, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. …

Matthew 9:10-13

Matthew was changed by having Jesus with him in his house so that Matthew became a disciple of Jesus and writer of the Gospel. Matthew, like Zaccheus, was purified of his greed, selfishness, disregard for neighbours, through being with Jesus.

Earlier in Luke’s Gospel, we read of Simon Peter unexpectedly having Jesus with him on his fishing boat, Simon and his colleagues catch a huge hoard of fish. Simon falls before Jesus saying ‘Go away from me, Master. I am a sinful man.’ The presence of Jesus, graciously and greatly enhancing his productivity and wealth, showed him his need to be purified.

We often imagine purification as a process akin to refining metal in a furnace We think of being purified by the intense heat of adversity or guilt and punishment. Some people think of the traditional ‘hell’ as a place of purifying which we go through so that we are fit to enter ‘heaven.’ The Jewish equivalent of hell. ‘Gehinnom,’ is a place of purification through suffering. The name Purgatory means a place of painful purging, removing the unclean and unhealthy, or refining.

Yet the Gospels show us that the most powerful purifying agent is the presence of Jesus. The man to whom Jesus gave the promise that he would soon be with Jesus in Paradise, was already with Jesus, dying alongside him. It seems that the presence of Jesus with him, the presence of a truly innocent man, with not a bad bone in his broken body, enabled him to see that he was very different from Jesus, that he was being punished justly for his crimes. This man was also in agony. It was not the agony in itself, but the presence of Jesus alongside him in the agony, which prompted his admission of guilt, his awareness that he needed a purer life.

Jesus on the cross was in no way chastising. The only people Jesus chastised in his life were the religious teachers who should have known better. Jesus, on the cross, was forgiving rather than chastising. Jesus’ way of helping sinners to lead a better life was not to chastise them but to offer them his companionship and forgiveness.

C S Lewis wrote a fantasy about heaven and hell which he called The Great Divorce. The book begins in hell, with people criticising, ostracising each other, bickering, venting nasty resentment at all around them. Some choose to board a bus which takes them to the outskirts of heaven. Here they have the opportunity to be purified, to let go of unclean attitudes, habits and unclean spirits. Some take the difficult opportunity. Some refuse and take the bus for the return journey too hell. The heaven Lewis portrayed is better known as the Paradise spoken of by Jesus. Lewis describes this heaven / Paradise, rather than Hell, or Purgatory, as the place of purification.

We know that we die imperfect, messed up, and unclean. We know that, even at the end of a good Christian life, we are still not fully the saints we would like to be, or to have been. It makes sense that there needs to be a place of purification after death. This place is Paradise. Being with Jesus in Paradise will be being with the Great Purifier. Purification not through a harsh, chastising, punitive regime, but through perfect grace and truth living with us.

People have generally wanted to deal with criminals by locking them away in a harsh, chastising, punitive, regime. Some people, particularly in Norway, the Netherlands, and Spain have decided, instead, to separate criminals in a kind therapeutic environment, treating criminals as Jesus treats sinners, as people in need of healing. This kindness, grace and truth have been proved more effective in helping criminals change their ways than chastising and demeaning. Rates of reoffending in Norway, The Netherlands and Spain have reduced dramatically since they adopted a more therapeutic attitude to criminals. The most effective process of purification is for people to be treated with kindness, grace and truth. The most effective conveyor of kindness, grace and truth is Jesus close to us, in this life and in Paradise.

Love

People who live conscious of Jesus with them report, above all, felling loved. Jesus with us is pure patience and kindness, appreciation and approval, gentleness and grace. Being with Jesus in Paradise will be being loved as we have never been loved before.

Paradise is being with Jesus. We have explored some of what this close relationship with Jesus will be like. Our lives in Paradise will be enhanced in many other ways, including surprising benefits. Do we need to know any more about Paradise than that we will be with Jesus?

The way to Paradise

Jesus said to one thief next to him as he died, ‘Truly, I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.’ (Luke 23:43)

Living with Jesus alongside us in Paradise has to be a prospect which we welcome. We have to want to be with Jesus. If a future close to Jesus is the last thing we want, neither Jesus nor anyone else will force us into Paradise.

Jesus told only one thief dying with him that he would be with him in Paradise. Jesus did not say to the other thief that he would be with him in Paradise. The two men had responded in very different ways to Jesus. The man to whom Jesus did not promise Paradise is the man Luke writes about first:^‘One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”‘ The man promised Paradise showed care, honesty and respect rather than derision: ‘But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” (Luke 23:39-42)

The second man admitted that he deserved the terrible punishment. He was honest about what he had done, without making excuses. He had just heard Jesus say ‘Father forgive them for the don’t know what they are doing.’ (Luke 23:34) Maybe that call for forgiveness helped the man to admit his crime.

This, second, man also honoured Jesus as an innocent man and he asked for Jesus to give him a future. We don’t know exactly what he was expecting Jesus to do for him. He recognised Jesus as a king, knowing that the sign over Jesus’ head read ‘Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.’ Although all three of them were dying, he had some idea that Jesus would have a future beyond death and he didn’t want Jesus to forget him.

In Christian language, this man confessed his sin and he expressed loving faith in Jesus. Luke then writes that Jesus replied to him ‘Today you will be with me in Paradise.’ The promise of Paradise was a response to the man confessing his sin and expressing loving faith in Jesus to give him a good future.

That man was not unique. From him we hear the way for us to go to Paradise when we die: we confess our sins and we express loving faith in Jesus to give us a good future.

Fierst, we admit, without excuses, what we have done wrong. We turn to Jesus, responding to his loving offer of forgiveness to all who were involved in his death, to all people everywhere. We accept Jesus’ offer; we are honest about exactly why we need forgiveness.

Second, we trust that Jesus can give us a good, better, future, both in this life and in the next. We know that we cannot make ourselves into perfect people, or even particularly good people. We know that, left to ourselves, we make a mess of this life and have no idea where Paradise is, let alone knowing how to get there. We recognise Jesus as the expert on life. We ask him to make us better people, with a better life now, with Paradise beyond.

The key, foundation understanding, of the way to Paradise, is through confessing sin and expressing faith in Jesus.

The key foundation understanding of what life in Paradise is like is that people there are with Jesus. All that Jesus communicated as he died is that there is a Paradise, how we can go there, and that people there are with him.

Paradise: Souls without bodies.

Jesus also spoke of life after death: ‘Do not fear him who can kill the body and not the soul. Fear him who can destroy body and soul in Gehenna.’

Matthew 10:28

Jesus taught that the death we know and experience now involves our bodies being killed and our souls remaining alive. Jesus also taught that there is another destruction of both body and soul.

Many Jews at the time understood that there are two stages of life after death. The first stage after death, is before the coming of the Messiah, the Great Jewish King who will bring in a whole new age, a new life for all. The second stage is after the coming of the Messiah, the life of the new age. In this new age everything that is wrong with life now will have been removed. The new age will be life fully as God wants, life as God has always intended.

Christians see Jesus as this Great Jewish King who has come to start the new life for all and will come again to complete the new life for all. When Jesus returns, the first stage of life after death will be over. The second stage will begin. The death of body but not soul is the death we all know now, leading to the first stage of life after death. The new age for many and the destruction of body and soul for some, in the second stage, will come after Jesus returns.

Jesus said to the thief dying with him, ‘Today you will be with me in Paradise.’ Paradise is for people immediately after they die. Paradise is for the first stage after death, the stage in which the body is dead and the soul is alive. Souls live in Paradise without bodies.

Jews at the time also understood, as the Old Testament teaches, that the ultimate fate of wicked people will be their destruction. People who are unwilling to admit the damage they have done to others and to themselves will be destroyed. Jesus said this destruction is in a place called Gehenna. We believe and trust that these people will be few, compared to the many who enjoy the new age, the new life.

Jesus was saying that, after we die, our souls remain alive for a good while. Then, when he comes again to judge everyone, our bodies and our souls can be destroyed. This is the final fate people who are stubbornly attached to the devil and his ways and who refuse to ask for forgiveness.

Many more people, including all who are in Paradise, who have already been forgiven, and will move on into a whole New Creation with renewed souls and renewed, regenerated, bodies. In this new creation there is no more death. There is no end to this life of the new age. The life of the new age is eternal life.

We are used to thinking that life immediately after death is the life that is the same forever, that there is only one stage of life beyond death. We have been taught that life immediately after death is eternal life. The Church has, mostly, taught this for centuries, although it is a Greek understanding rather than a Jewish, Biblical, understanding.

We find it hard to take in that Jesus and the Bible talk of two stages beyond this life, not one. Tom Wright, Bishop and Theologian, has demonstrated in his book ‘Surprised by Hope’ that we are to believe not only in life beyond death but also in life beyond life beyond death.[1] Paradise is life beyond death. The New Creation is life beyond life beyond death, life beyond Paradise.

Immediately after death, said Jesus, our body is dead, but our soul is alive. Before Jesus comes again, our soul, without our body, is in Paradise. When Jesus comes again, everything changes. Then both soul and body live in a New Creation with no more death, with some people having been destroyed, body and soul.

We learn from Jesus that, in Paradise, people are souls without bodies. Again, it is hard for us to know what life as a soul with no body is like. We can think of our body as a shell. When people see the body of someone who has just died, they often comment ‘It’s only a shell.’ The dead body seems different from a body asleep or in a coma. The difference is more than that the chest is not moving. The body seems empty is a way that is hard to explain.

I once sat with a hospice patient, alongside his daughter and a nurse. The daughter had just agreed to tell her father that she forgave him. She spoke forgiveness. As I picked up my Bible to read Psalm 23, the nurse immediately said ‘He’s gone.’ The nurse could tell the signs, or knew in her guts, that the change had happened. His body was dead but his soul was still alive, now apart from his body, his shell.

We can think of our soul somehow filling our body alongside all the bones and organs. When the soul leaves, it will still have the shape of the body, like a cast removed from a mould. To say that, in Paradise, our soul is alive apart from our body does not mean that it is only a vapour. Souls may well look like a body in some ways, with a head and arms and legs, but different in some ways.

The Church has a long tradition of pictures of the saints in heaven, better called Paradise, looking very similar to how they looked on earth. This is not only because it is easier for us to recognise the particular saint because they look like they have a body, but also represents a little of the spiritual reality of a soul without a body, a reality we can only glimpse or guess.

Souls with memories

Souls in Paradise will continue to have a body shape, Souls will also retain, contain, our memories. The idea that, in Paradise, we will remember nothing of this life, we will be a completely new blank soul, is both unthinkable and also contradicts Jesus telling the dying man next to him ‘You will be with me in Paradise.’ ‘You,’ the person you are now, will be with me in Paradise. In Paradise you will be yourself. The person who I made you to be, who I like and love, will be with me in Paradise. One day body and soul can be destroyed, souls can be wiped away to nothing. But that is only at the Final Judgement, beyond Paradise. In Paradise we will be the people we have been on earth, except without our bodies. Everything else about, about our inner life will be the same. This must include our memories, for without our memories we are not ourselves.

We know that our memories are stored in our physical brain. What Jesus said about Paradise indicates that our memories are also stored in our soul. Confirmation of memories being stored elsewhere than in our physical brain comes from some Near Death Experiences. (These are the experiences of people who have been reported dead and are then resuscitated. These people believe they were dead. The more accurate term is In Death Experiences.) People return to life with memories of the time when they were dead. These memories cannot have been stored in their dead physical brain. Some of the memories are of observations in this world which have later been proved to be true. For instance, one man experienced his soul leaving his body and rising above the hospital where his body was. He returned with a memory of seeing a trainer shoe in a particular part of the roof. When people went onto the roof, they found the trainer. The memory of seeing the trainer had been stored in his soul rather than in his physical brain. In Paradise we will have all our memories.

Knowing that, in Paradise, we will have all our memories is a comfort to people who have lost memories now, particularly people with Alzheimer’s Disease. We do not understand why some, usually short-term, memories become inaccessible in this life. The implication of what Jesus said about Paradise is that, there, we will have access to all our memories.

Our memories may well also be different. People who know, see, Jesus with them in this life report that they can also see Jesus with them in their memories. Our faith tells us that Jesus is with us always and has been with us always. We have not been aware that Jesus was with us, but we can go back in memory and look to see Jesus with us. This process, usually called Healing of the Memories or, sometimes, The Emmanual Approach, extends the inner healing, the peace, comfort, soothing, of having Jesus with us to our memories. In Paradise we will remember the times when we knew Jesus was with us in this life. We will also remember the times when we did not know Jesus was with us in this life but we will be able to look to see Jesus with us then. This is part of the healing of our souls in Paradise, a process which can also begin now.

Death not to be feared

Jesus also said that the death through which we can go to Paradise is not to be feared. Jesus gave no detail at the time about how we can avoid fear of death. Humans are naturally afraid of death. Thinking of what Jesus said later, as he was dying, is one good reason not to be afraid. As we know we have confessed our sins, and we know we are looking to Jesus to guide us to a better life, so we know also that we have a great future with Jesus in Paradise. We may well be concerned that our death will be painful, as it was for Jesus. We also know that Jesus has been through death and come out the other side, so he can go through death with us and bring us out the other side, to Paradise.

Another reason not to fear the first death is that, according to Jesus, the one who kills the body is the devil and Jesus has defeated him. The devil has nothing like the power of Jesus, his Father and his Spirit. Jesus has been into death, killed as orchestrated by the devil, and has broken out of death. He then told us that he has the keys of death. (Revelation 1:17,18) Jesus has broken the devil’s hold on people through his power to kill our bodies. Jesus has the keys of death, which give him the ability and authority of entry and exit from death. We are told that death could not hold Jesus. (Acts 2:24) Jesus also said that death can no longer hold anyone he chooses. This is the obvious meaning of Jesus having the keys of death. More about this in Fresh Bible Answers, Christian Understanding, Where do we go when we die? Hades.

On the other hand, we are to fear God who has the power to destroy body and soul. The Bible generally tells us not to fear anyone or anything except God. We fear God by taking him seriously, not ignoring nor sidelining him. All who confess their sins and trust Jesus to give them a better life are fearing God. All who are on the way to Paradise are giving God the proper attention, are fearing God, and have nothing else to fear. All who are forgiven and in Paradise will live, eventually, body and soul, in the New Creation. The second death is not for them. Eternal life is for them.

Eternal life. More about the way to Paradise.

Jesus also talked much about ‘eternal life.’ After Jesus comes again life for most people will indeed be eternal. We will be renewed souls in regenerated bodies in a renewed, regenerated, wholly good, world in which there is no death, no end. This is the third and final stage of eternal life.

Life in Paradise is the second stage of eternal life. We live as forgiven souls, with Jesus. The Great Judge, Jesus, has already forgiven us, so we have guaranteed passage through the Final Judgement to the New Creation. Like going through the green channel at Customs. Life in Paradise is not yet the life of the New Creation but entry into the New Creation is guaranteed to all in Paradise.

Life now can be the first stage of eternal life. We don’t have to wait until the moment we die to confess our sins and to ask Jesus to guide us to a better life. We can be forgiven now, we can keep being forgiven every time we cause damage to others and to ourselves. We can live now aware of Jesus with us. Our souls can begin to be restored now. Eternal life, in its first stage, begins now.

When Jesus talked of eternal life he was talking of all three stages – beginning in this life, then in Paradise, then in the New Creation. Looking at what Jesus said about eternal life helps us to understand Paradise, as well as the other two stages.

In the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, we read of Jesus speaking of eternal life mostly in response to others who had asked him about eternal life. When Jesus speaks on his own initiative he speaks much more of the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Heaven. Eternal life and the Kingdom of God are, at least, closely related but, here, we concentrate on Jesus speaking of eternal life.

‘As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.You know the commandments: “You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honour your father and mother.”’ He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.”Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions. (Mark 10:17-22)

We know that the way to Paradise, to eternal life, is to look to Jesus to give us a good future. We need to be serious about having Jesus guiding our life, even when this means losing wealth or comfort.

Peter began to say to him, “Look, we have left everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news,who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life.But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.” (Mark 10:28-31)

Jesus assures Peter, and us, that life guided by him will be a blessed life now, with all the blessings of Paradise and the New Creation to come.

A lawyer stood up to test Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ he said, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ He said to him, ‘What is written in the law? What do you read there?’ He answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself.’ And he said to him, ‘You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.’

But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbour?’ Jesus replied, ‘A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead.Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.But a Samaritan while travelling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity.He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.The next day he took out two denarii gave them to the innkeeper, and said, “Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.” Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?’He said, ‘The one who showed him mercy.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Go and do likewise.’ (Luke 10:25-37)

When we hold back from helping others, we are causing damage to them, we are sinning. When we confess our sins, including what we have not done, we are recognising that we need to cause less damage, we need to not hold back from helping others. Jesus says this applies to anyone we see in need. Their need makes them our neighbour. Confessing our sins sets us on the way to Paradise. To stay on that way, we need our actions to be consistent with our confession. The way to Paradise is the way of care and generosity.

In the Gospel of John Jesus speaks of eternal life 14 times. As in the other Gospels, Jesus is not concerned to give detail of life in Paradise, but to show what it means to be on the way to Paradise, and to the New Creation beyond.

Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

For God so loved the cosmos that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. (John 3:14-16, see also John 6:40 and 47, John 10:28, John 17:2,3)

As the man who died with Jesus believed in him, so everyone who believes will have eternal life, in this life, in Paradise and beyond. We believe in Jesus as the one who forgives us, who guides us through life and who gives us a future beyond this life. This is for all humankind, whoever, wherever.

‘Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but must endure God’s wrath.’ (John 3:36)

Believing in Jesus as God’s Son, necessarily means that we are guided by him. If we refuse or ignore his guidance, we are not believing in him, not believing that he is the one who knows best about how we are to live our life so that we go to Paradise. The opposite of belief in Jesus is not doubt but disobedience. As with Jesus’ words to the rich man who was unwilling to follow Jesus’ guidance, these are hard words. It usually takes many failures to learn to follow the guidance or Jesus fully. We are grateful that, as we confess our failure each time, Jesus continues to forgive us and guide us again.

‘Those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.’ (John 4:14)

Believing in Jesus means also taking in the water he gives us, the refreshment and life-energy which we need to stay on the road to Paradise, the road of forgiveness and generosity. Later in his Gospel, John explains that when Jesus talked on another occasion about drinking water from him, he was speaking of the Holy Spirit. (John 7:37) As we take in the Holy Spirit we are taking in the lovingkindness of God for ourselves and for others so that we can indeed live fully guided by the Jesus who we know to be God’s Son. The road to Paradise is not a hard slog on our own but a way with plenty of sustaining water.

‘Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgement, but has passed from death to life.’ (John 5:24)

Eternal life, being on the way to Paradise and the New Creation, begins now. All who have already been forgiven, and who continue to seek forgiveness, have nothing to answer for at the Final Judgement. Already we are in the first stage of a life with no ultimate death.

‘You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf. Yet you refuse to come to me to have life.’ (John 5:39,40)

The scriptures then were the books of the Old Testament, primarily the first five books, known as the Torah. Now we count all the Old and New Testament books as scriptures. Jesus says these scriptures are a signpost to him. We should not look for life in the scriptures, we look for life in and from Jesus. We do not believe in the scriptures but believe in Jesus. We are guided primarily by Jesus, rather than primarily by the scriptures. The life-giving way to read the scriptures is to look for how they point to Jesus and to the life which he wants us to live, loving God and loving our neighbour as ourselves, on the way to Paradise.

‘Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.’ (John 6:27 see also John 12:25)

Living on the way to Paradise and beyond can feel like hard work. But then so can living only for this life. Either way we have to work. Better to work as guided by Jesus with whom we have the best and greatest future. All that we will receive in Paradise and the New Creation is so much greater than what we think we can receive in this life.

‘Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day.’ (John 6:54)

Taking in the water of the Holy Spirit and taking in Jesus through eating bread and drinking wine, while remembering him, are both ways of taking in the lovingkindness of God for ourselves and for others, taking in sustenance on the way to Paradise.

I have not spoken on my own, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment about what to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I speak, therefore, I speak just as the Father has told me.’ (John 12:49,50)

The life-giving message of Jesus comes from his Father in heaven. We must not think that Jesus wants us to have eternal life, including life in Paradise, whereas his Father wants us to perish! The lovingkindness of Jesus is the lovingkindness of the Father, coming from the Father through Jesus.

All who believe and trust in Jesus, trusting him to guide us to our good future, and taking in the nourishment he gives along the way, are heading for Paradise and beyond.

Heaven

^‘Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal.For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.’ (Matthew 6:19-21)

Jesus spoke here of life beyond death as ‘heaven.’ From Jesus, and from other Bible writers, we know life beyond death is Paradise followed by the New Creation. We can understand this mention of ‘heaven’ to be indicating that we can store up treasures in Paradise. When we come on to examine what Paul wrote about Paradise, we will see how Paradise is in heaven, or in the heavens.

We understand that our giving to those in need, as the Good Samaritan gave, our living fully guided by Jesus, are the ways we store up treasures in heaven. Jesus did not specify what these treasures in heaven, in Paradise, are. Gratitude may well be one. Meeting people who say to us ‘Thank you so much for that donation of yours. You kept my family alive after the earthquake. Thank you!’ Do we need any more treasure than this?

Storing up treasures in heaven are very similar, at least, to working for the food that endures to eternal life. We receive benefits in this life of being on the road to Paradise and much more in Paradise itself, and in the New Creation beyond.

Jesus also talked of heaven in a warning that heaven is not the only place for people after death:

And you, Capernaum,

will you be exalted to heaven?
No, you will be brought down to Hades.

Matthew 11:23

The town of Capernaum was Jesus’ base in Galilee. Jesus was in Capernaum more than anywhere else. Jesus healed people in Capernaum more than anywhere else. Just before these words Jesus has been warning Jewish people in various places, who have seen his miracles but have not looked to him to guide them to a better future, that they will have a worse future, after death, than they expect to have, particularly at the Final Judgement. Jesus then includes Capernaum, its Jewish inhabitants, as one of these places. They will not be lifted to heaven they will be pulled down to Hades.

Hades is the nasty remand prison for souls between death as we know it and the Final Judgement. Not everyone will go to Paradise. For more about Hades see Fresh Bible Answers, Christian Understanding, Where do we go when we die? Hades.

Jesus speaks of heaven, or Paradise, as a place we go up to, and of Hades as a place we go down to. In Jewish understanding of the time, Heaven is above the earth, Hades is below the earth. It was probably unusual for a Jewish teacher to speak of people going up to heaven after death because the Old Testament teaches that all people, after death, go down to Sheol, which was the Hebrew name for the place called Hades in Greek. Jesus seems to be saying, though, that the people of Capernaum expected to go to heaven after death. It could be that the understanding of people in Capernaum had moved on from the Old Testament. In using this language himself, Jesus confirmed that this is a possibility – for others, not for them. Unlike the one, Jewish, thief dying next to Jesus, they did not recognise Jesus as the great guide to the good future. Like the other thief dying with Jesus, they were heading for Hades. Jesus gave this warning specifically to people who had witnessed his miracles and refused to or not bothered to live his way.

Paradise as the family home

‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling-places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going.’Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also.’ (John 14:1-7)

Christians have long understood Jesus talking of his Father’s house as about life beyond death. Jesus said he would be going. He was going to death and through death. He said the repentant man dying next to him would be with him in Paradise, so he was saying that both the man and he would go through death and go to Paradise. The picture of the Father’s house is understood as a picture of Paradise.

According to the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, the Greek word, ‘oikos,’ translated house, refers both to a building and to a family or community. The same is true of the Hebrew word ‘bayit,’ which is translated oikos in the Greek Old Testament. The community of Israel can be called the house of Israel, the community of the Church can be called a house, God’s temple. A royal family can be known as the house of David or the house of Windsor. An oikos is the place where people come together, share life together, and also the community, the family, which comes together, shares life together, in that place. Jesus’ Father’s house is both a place and a community, a house and a household, a home and a family.

Jesus said in this household there are many dwelling places or rooms. According to the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament the Greek word translated dwelling place, or room, ‘mone’, is from the verb meaning to stay, to remain. A literal translation would be ‘In my Father’s family are many places to stay, many homes…’ The emphasis is that this is a permanent place to stay, a home rather than a hotel. As Christians become, through Jesus, children of God, so that his Father becomes our Father, his home becomes our home, his family becomes our family.

When we read or hear of a house, with rooms, we naturally think more narrowly of one building. Paradise is not one huge building but a great and diverse family community and the home of that community, formed around Jesus and his Father.

In Greece and Egypt, monasteries, similarly, are not one large building but a cluster of buildings, around a church, which looks like a small village. Monks there do not all live and eat together in a large central building but live and eat in their own small houses, small dwelling places. They are very much one community with each person also having a space, a small building, a garden, of their own. In Western Europe the old Cathedrals also have separate buildings around them for the clergy community of that Cathedral. Paradise is something similar.

Paradise is certainly not a prison, nor a boarding school, nor a care home. Paradise is the home of a great family in which there are many dwelling places for individuals or groups. We can think of rough parallels in this life, but, as Paul wrote, now we know only in part. We cannot now grasp more detail of Paradise other than that it is a great community, family, home, a place of close, knowing, fellowship and a place of freedom meeting the needs of each person.

Jesus emphasises the meeting of individual need by saying that he goes to prepare a place for us. The place prepared for us must be based on and an outworking of full knowledge of us. Everything fits, everything comforts or delights or inspires. Each place is perfect for each person. Difficult to imagine.

The place prepared for us in the family and home of Paradise, is a place where people know us and forgive us and welcome us. Preparing a place is not only a place with our favourite colours but with our favourite people and also our least favourite people. Our place in the community of Paradise is prepared by ensuring people are more than ready to forgive us, and we are more than ready to forgive them.

Everyone who goes to Paradise already knows they need forgiveness. Jesus was very clear that our recognition that we need forgiveness must go along with the recognition that other people need forgiveness, from us. We are forgiven as we forgive others. (Matthew 6:14,15) Giving and receiving forgiveness to and from our least favourite people, now in Paradise, should not be difficult. We will have to want it. Jesus reassures us that he is helping this process along, preparing a welcoming, forgiving, place for us, preparing welcoming, forgiving, hearts for us.

Jesus goes on to say that he will be our guide and escort to Paradise. None of us has much idea of where Paradise is and, even less, how to get there. Jesus says that he will come to us, connect us with himself so that we end up in the place where he is – Paradise immediately and then, eventually, the New Creation.

As the main feature of Paradise is that each of us is with Jesus, so the main feature of our journey to Paradise is that each of us is with Jesus. As the man to whom Jesus said ‘Today you will be with me in Paradise,’ was at the point of death, so Jesus is with each of us at the point of our own death to escort us to Paradise. We need to know nothing else. As we know Jesus, with us, we know he will escort us to Paradise.

Knowing Jesus with us is not only for death but also for life. Jesus assured us that he will come and take us to Paradise and he also commanded that we look to see him with us always, ‘to the end of the age.’ (Matthew 28:20) The end of the age is when Jesus comes again to this earth, judges everyone and fully makes all things new. The end of the age is the beginning of the New Creation. Throughout this present age, we are to look to see Jesus with us, throughout life on earth and throughout our time in Paradise. The time of our transition from life on earth to life in Paradise is a particular time when we will need to see Jesus with us. The more that we are used to seeing Jesus with us in this life, the more we will be able to see Jesus with us as we die, and the smoother will be our journey to Paradise.

We prepare for Paradise by continually recognising our need for forgiveness and by continually living with Jesus with us, using the eyes of our heart to see him alongside us now, so he can guide us to the better future he has for us in this life and in Paradise.

Paradise as the garden

Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches. To everyone who conquers, I will give permission to eat from the tree of life that is in the Paradise of God. (Revelation 2:7)

In this early part of the book of Revelation, John the writer is conveying words from Jesus. Jesus says to John, ‘To the angel of the church in Ephesus write…’ Although these are words which Jesus speaks to and through John in a vision after his resurrection and ascension, they are recognised by Christians as foundational words from Jesus, with the same importance as words of Jesus recorded in the Gospels. We can build our understanding on these words, as much as on other words of Jesus. Although they were first a message to one particular church, Christians have long recognised that they contain truth for all of us.

Jesus tells us that the tree of life is in Paradise, which he calls the Paradise of God. We know from Genesis, chapters 2 and 3, that the tree of life is in the Garden of Eden. Paradise is therefore equivalent to the Garden of Eden. Paradise is a garden, even the great original garden.

Jesus says that he gives permission to people in Paradise to eat from the tree of life. In Genesis 3 people are barred from Paradise, particularly so that they will not eat from the tree of life. The people, Adam and Eve, have welcomed the lies of the snake and been corrupted by the snake. They then hide from God. Their shame, their knowledge that they have disobeyed God, to their own damage and to the damage of others, keeps them away from God. They can no longer be with God in the garden. If they stay in the garden, and eat from the tree of life, the fruit of the tree will keep them living for ever. They will remain corrupted, hiding from God, unable to be with God, forever. This is a fate worse than death which God makes sure they will not suffer.

God makes it impossible for people to eat from the tree of life as he works out his plan to remove the corruption in them, to deal with their awareness that they have disobeyed and caused lasting damage which they cannot repair, to open the way for them to return to the garden, to the state of being with God, walking and talking closely with him.

This plan of God was fully worked out in Jesus. In his death Jesus showed that everyone needs forgiveness and everyone can and should ask for forgiveness which will be given freely. Jesus put himself in the place of greatest shame so that he can be with people in their shame, cover and heal the damage they have done, and enable them to welcome him, his forgiveness and a future with him, a future the same as the original human life in the Garden of Eden.

God had warned Adam and Eve that, if they disobeyed him, they would die. The snake had directly contradicted God by saying that they would not die. They did die. For humans to be immortal, they have to eat the fruit of the tree of life. All humans now die, because all us disobey, none of us have access to the tree of life and its fruit. Yet the snake, the devil in the snake, has continued to spread the lie that we will not die, we are immortal, and, therefore our ultimate fate is to live as corrupted beings, in shame and torment, away from God, for ever. We know this threat of the hell of eternal torment is a lie because God said that Adam and Eve would die and ensured that they would die rather than suffer the eternal fate worse than death. Jesus also reminds us that it is only by eating the fruit of eternal life, which is in Paradise, that we live for over. Being in Paradise, or on the way to Paradise, means that we will live for ever, in close fellowship with God, particularly with Jesus, God-With-Us. There is no other way for humans to live for ever.

Jesus here also underlines that he considers Paradise a good word to describe the place after death for the souls of people he has forgiven. His mother, Mary and others, who saw and heard him as he was dying, and, we think, told Luke so he could record Jesus’ words, did not mishear what he said to one man next to him.

Paradise was originally a Persian word, meaning walled enclosure, which came to be known as a Persian King’s park. The Greek Old Testament of Jesus’ day used Paradise as the word for the Garden of Eden. Jesus continued and developed this idea of the great Jewish garden which, through him, becomes the great global garden after death. A name originally Persian can indicate that Paradise is open not only to Jewish people but to other nations.

Jesus underlines that the Paradise he talks of is not firstly the garden of a Persian King by calling it ‘the Paradise of God.’ This also connects the Paradise of which he talks with the Garden created and planted by God in creation.

The picture of Paradise as a walled garden complements the picture of Paradise as a family community home. Each picture helps us to grasp, even imagine, a different, important aspect of Paradise. Paradise is both a home for anyone forgiven by Jesus, looking to Jesus to give them a future, and a garden full of life, bursting with shape and colour and fragrance, well-watered, purely delightful, and, through hosting the Tree of Life, able to give eternal life to everyone inside. We may find it easier to imagine the garden, each on our own way, than to imagine the community home. We may think of both, a great home with a great garden, as Buckingham Palace with its garden is home to the British Royal family, all of whose members are free to explore both house and garden as they wish.

What do we learn from the New Testament?

Paradise, with Jesus, beyond human contact. Jesus can pass on messages.

^‘I know a person in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows. And I know that such a person—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows— was caught up into Paradise and heard things that are not to be told, that no mortal is permitted to repeat.

1 Corinthians 12:2-4

Paul is writing about a vision, which was given to a fellow Christian. A number of people think Paul himself was given the vision but he doesn’t want other people to think he is a special visionary nor does he want people to quiz him for more details.

The vision was of ‘the third heaven’ which he then calls ‘Paradise.’ Paradise is the same as the third heaven.

Paul, and fellow Jews at the time, understood there are seven heavens. Some languages, including Hebrew, use the plural ‘skies’ to refer to what, in English is called ‘heaven.’ In French the word for the sky is ‘le ciel’ and the word for ‘heaven’ is ‘les cieux’ – literally the skies.

A heaven, for Hebrew or Aramaic speakers, was a level of sky for us. We think of cloud level, today of satellite level, or moon level. They thought of each level as a distinct heaven. Paul and his fellow Jews may well have thought of a physical level and a corresponding spiritual level. Today we do not understand Paradise as located in a particular physical level of sky, but in a spiritual dimension which is somehow equivalent to the physical dimension or is best understood as akin to the physical dimension.

Paradise is the third heaven, counting from the earth up. We don’t know exactly where each level was understood to end, maybe there was no exact correlation between the third heaven and a particular level of sky. It is reasonable to think of ‘below cloud level’ as the first level or the first heaven. Cloud level, then, is the second heaven, but it is hard to say where that ends, probably beyond our sight. The third heaven, Paradise, is therefore way up, out of sigh, beyond the furthest clouds. Paradise is very separate from human life on earth, but not even half way to the farthest extent of the heavens.

Paradise is up, rather than down, and that Paradise is so far up to be out of reach of human contact. Paradise is not the cloud level which is often thought of as where the spirits of loved ones who have died are now. ‘Grandad is in the clouds, looking down on you,’ is a common, though not Christian, understanding. Disney’s Lion King is one of many films and books that convey the message that those who have died are close enough above us for us to communicate with them now. The Biblical understanding of Paradise is different.

People in Paradise are out of reach of human contact, but they are in constant contact with Jesus. The main feature of Paradise that people there are with Jesus. We are also in contact with Jesus now. The Jesus who is with people in Paradise is the same Jesus we talk with today, who said that he is with us always. (Matthew 28:20) We may not understand how Jesus can be with people in Paradise and also with people on earth, but this is clearly what Jesus taught.

As Jesus is with people in Paradise and with us, he can take a message from us to them. Jesus said he came to serve. (Matthew 20:28) A servant does what they are told to do, as long as it does not transgress any law. The Bible tells us that we should not try to contact people who have died, but asking Jesus to pass on a message is different.

Because Jesus is with people in Paradise and with us, we have no reason not to ask him to pass on a message. This is a logical outworking of the Biblical truths of the presence of Jesus with people in Paradise and on earth, of Jesus serving people in love and of Our Father’s care for all. Such a logical outworking based firmly on Jesus the foundation is likely to be part of the Holy Spirit leading us into all truth. This may well also be a fresh understanding to many Christians.

Many people wish they had said things to people before they died. Maybe they never told their grandmother clearly or often that they loved her. Maybe they never said sorry to their father for ignoring his advice. They now want the person to know what they did not say before. This is a common human desire or need. Jesus the loving servant, who understands the pain of grief because he has suffered it himself, is always kind enough to pass on a message.

Asking Jesus to pass on a message is significantly different from us trying to talk directly to someone who has died. When we try to talk directly, we think that they are close enough to hear us, and also close enough for us to hear them. From what Paul wrote, we know that people in Paradise are, rather, beyond human contact.

Seeking to be in direct contact with people who have died is dangerous. People in Paradise, in the third heaven, are too far away to hear us. In between us and the third heaven is the second heaven which Paul understood to be the abode of ‘the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.’ (Ephesians 6:12) If we try to talk with people in Paradise, our message will not reach them and any message that comes back, apparently from them, is likely to come from the spiritual forces of evil between us and them.

These spirits in the heavenly places can have supernatural, though not divine, knowledge, which makes it easy for them to imitate someone who has died. AI technology now can pretend to be someone else, often someone famous. Satan and his unclean spirits have long been able to do the same. These spirits will also try to entice us into an ongoing conversation, misleading us into thinking that our contact with those who have died is helping them as well as us.

The truth is that those who have died need us to let go of them, and our lives are better when we have let go of them. This may be a painful process of mourning, of weeping, crying, wailing, feeling the loss, the absence, of the loved one. Comfort and blessing come to those who mourn in this way, not to those who fill the absence with a false impression of the person’s presence and continuing communication. (Matthew 5:4) Psychologists and Counsellors today teach that the work of bereavement is to feel the pain so that, eventually, we let go of the person who has died, for them to live their new life separate from us.

Asking Jesus to pass on a message is more effective and is safe. When we ask Jesus to pass on a message, we do not expect a reply. This is not a two-way conversation between us and someone who has died. But, if we are able to have two-way conversations with Jesus, Jesus may choose, occasionally, to pass on to us something from them, probably when we are not expecting this. (See ‘How do we have two-way conversations with Jesus?’ in the Christian Life section of this website.)

Occasionally, also, Jesus will give someone the message that their loved one is fine now, through a vision or a sense of that person. This comes to some people, when they are not expecting it. This message helps them to let go of that person for them to enjoy the new life they have now in Paradise. This is the opposite of contact with the dead person which is expected to continue. When we know they are fine, in a good life. We can give up any idea of trying to contact them and concentrate on our own life now, grateful for the good we have received through them. Encouragement to let go of the loved one who has died is a hallmark of a genuine message, allowed by Jesus.

My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better;but to remain in the flesh is more necessary for you.

Philippians 1:23, 24

Yes, we do have confidence, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

2 Corinthians 5:8

Paul confirms that going to Paradise is to depart. He knows that, once in Paradise, he will no longer be able to communicate with the people to whom he is writing, which is why he accepts that, for now, it is better for him to stay.

Paul confirms the key understanding of Paradise, that all who are there are with Jesus. He expects to be with Jesus after death and looks forward to this future with desire. He also knows that he has work to do on earth which will benefit others, so is content to wait for Paradise.

Paul confirms that beyond this life we are at home with Jesus, in the Father’s house and household. Paradise is home.

Paul writes that his desire to be in Paradise with Jesus is shared by the Christians to whom he writes. Paul’s desire is not at all unique to him.

Paradise as knowing and being known fully

For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.

1 Corinthians 13:12

Now means this life, then means beyond this life, both Paradise and the New Creation beyond Paradise. In Paradise, according to Paul, we will see Jesus face to face. This will be the best and most significant part of Paradise, being with Jesus, face to face with Jesus. Now, in this life, we can be in the presence of Jessus, we can see him. Jesus told us to look in this life, because he is with us always. (Matthew 28:20) But, for now, our vision of Jesus will not be crystal clear, it will be like seeing in a mirror, which, in Paul’s day, was a small sheet of metal hammered as flat as possible. Imagine a reflection in such a mirror. You will know if the person is sitting or standing or lying down; you will not know how long are their eyelashes nor what colour are their eyes. This is seeing Jesus in this life, hazily. In Paradise we will see clearly, face to face.

Jesus seeing us face to face makes us feel fully known. Jesus sees all of us, welcomes all us, appreciates and enjoys all of us. We rarely feel properly understood in this life, because we cannot communicate as well as we like and because other people see us through their own filters. In Paradise we will be fully known, we will be entirely comfortable being the people Our Father made us.

As we are fully known in Paradise, we will also know fully. We will know Jesus fully. We will know other people fully. Paul does not say that there will be any limit to the extent of our knowledge, we will know everything fully. There will be no gaps in our knowledge.

This knowledge is intimate. In Biblical, Hebrew, language, knowing someone can be the most intimate knowledge, the knowing someone by becoming one flesh with them. We cannot understand now what being fully known in Paradise will be like. The closest we can come to understanding is that it will be like the intense intimacy of sexual union. We begin to have some idea of how, in Paradise, living fully, intimately, known by Jesus, knowing him fully, intimately, and knowing other people fully, intimately, we have moved beyond the limitation of being able to know only one person fully and intimately through becoming one flesh with them. The intimacy of Paradise is so much greater and wider than the deepest intimacy we can know in this life.

Even when we move on from Paradise to the New Creation, where we have regenerated bodies, there will be no marrying, no one flesh intimacy, according to Jesus.

‘For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.’

Mark 12:25

Our souls in Paradise begin to have the intimacy with Jesus and with other forgiven souls which we will have, body and soul, in the New Creation, an intimacy which means there can be no pairing off as we have now. Special close relationships in this life will continue in Paradise. All that is good about this life will continue in Paradise. We won’t be able to be especially close to everyone, even there. Yet the special connection with someone known and loved closely in this life will be less unique and less excluding in Paradise.

Paradise as rest

While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them.’ When he had said this, he fell asleep.’

Acts 7:59,60

Luke writes, in the book of Acts, the description of the death of Stephen the first martyr. Luke writes that Paul was present. We know, from later in Acts, that Luke knew Paul and travelled with Paul. It is likely that Luke is writing Paul’s memories of the death of Stephen.

Stephen knew that, when he died, his spirit would remain alive, as Jesus had said. The New Testament writers used the words ‘soul’ and ‘spirit’ interchangeably. The soul which Jesus says does not die, as the body does, at the end of this life (Matthew 10:28), must be the same as the spirit which Stephen asked Jesus to receive at the end of his life. Soul means that part of us which remains alive after our body has died. Spirit here also means that part of us which remains alive after our body has died. Stephen knew that his spirit would go to be with Jesus. So, he asks Jesus to receive his spirit, as Jesus had asked his Father to receive his spirit. Stephen and Paul and Luke would have understood that Stephen’s spirit would be received by Jesus in Paradise.

Stephen then asked for forgiveness for his killers, as Jesus had asked for forgiveness for his killers and the man next to Jesus had recognised his own need for forgiveness, admitting that the soldiers were only applying the law justly.

We see that Stephen understood the most important aspect of Paradise is that, to go there, we need both to look for Jesus to give us, our spirits, a future there, and to be people who receive and give forgiveness. Paul and Luke seem to have shared this understanding, along with the very earliest Christians.

Luek then writes that Stephen fell asleep. He means that Stephen died, and in some translations we read ‘Stephen died.’ The Greek word, ekoimethe, means to fall asleep. It could be that the early Christians thought of the death of Christians as like falling asleep, or it could be that Paul remembered seeing Stephen’s face immediately after he died and Stephen looked as though he was sleeping, or it could be both.

Death as sleep, from which we will wake up, body and soul, for the Judgement and New Creation (or Final Destruction), is a picture Paul uses. Paul writes of ‘those also who have fallen asleep in Christ…’ 1 Corinthains 15:6 and 18, 20, 51) He specifically writes that those who have died in Christ, rather than everyone, have fallen asleep, or ‘we’, those who are in Christ, have fallen asleep. Christians can know and show peace as they die, knowing that they will be with Jesus in Paradise. Christians expect to rest in Paradise.

Christians look forward to Paradise as a place where we do not labour as on earth. In the Garden of Eden food was freely available in plenty. Adam and Eve had the responsibility of tilling the garden and keeping it but this did not involve hard labour. They could plant what they liked where they considered best, but no sweat was involved. Banished from the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were told that, in order to eat, they would have to toil and sweat. Instead of living in harmony with the ground, they would have to fight with the ground. In the Garden they had the delightful role of working with a willing earth, deciding what to plant, watching the growth, as well as eating the harvest.

Paradise is the same. Hard labour is in the past. Productive, delightful, activity, creativity, is available. The absence of labour means that the command, for this life, to work for six days a week and rest for one day, is redundant. Then all days are without labour, though productive activity is still available. The labour of the six days is to do all that we have to do. The rest of the one day is space to do all that we want to do, enjoy doing, but do not have to do. All activity in Paradise is this fulfilling creative activity, restful activity.

The writer of the Book of Hebrews looks forward to the rest of Paradise:

For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not speak later about another day. So then, a sabbath rest still remains for the people of God; for those who enter God’s rest also cease from their labours as God did from his. Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall through such disobedience as theirs.

Hebrews 3:8-11

Even though Joshua led the people into the Promised Land, they did not live in rest, they still had to labour hard in order to eat. In Old Testament times, people looked forward to ceasing from labours and entering a further rest, of which the weekly sabbath is a foretaste. With Jesus this rest is now near. With Jesus beside us to guide us in this life, our labours are not as hard, and are more fruitful. Just as the labour of Jacob for his uncle Laban seemed a delight to him for his love of Laban’s daughter Rachel, and was remarkably fruitful, showing that God was with him as promised (Genesis 29:20), so the labour of Christians can be lightened by our love for Jesus, as we know and see him with us, as he promised.

The great rest, though, is still to come, in Paradise where there is no labouring, and in the New Creation. The Old Testament, though, gives the warning that, as people then disobeyed God and failed to enter the Promised Land, so Christians today can fail to enter Paradise because they disobey or pay no attention to Jesus’ call to live in forgiveness, guided through life, and death, by him with us.

John, the writer of the Book of Revelation, also shows us rest in paradise. After conveying messages from Jesus to various churches, John writes a long description of Paradise:

After this I looked, and there in heaven a door stood open! And the first voice which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, ‘Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.’, At once I was in the Spirit, and there in heaven stood a throne, with one seated on the throne!

Revelation 4:1

John is invited to come up into heaven, or the heavens, not in the future but as they are now. He sees heaven as it is now. He is later shown, in picture, symbolic, form what must take place on earth in days to come. Some of John’s pictures are pictures of heaven now. Some of them are of life to come on earth. The pictures of heaven are pictures of Paradise because Paradise is part of heaven, one of the heavens.

In heaven, in Paradise, John sees a throne, with one seated on the throne. Glorious, awesome, power radiates from the throne, the throne of God. We do well to remember that Jesus taught his followers to think of and relate to God as Our Father. The one seated in majesty is firstly Jesus’ Father and then also ours. Jesus addresses his Father as Abba, the Hebrew word for Dad (Mark 14:36). The Holy Spirit encourages us also to address God as Abba Father (Romans 8:15, Galatians 4:6). The God of glorious, awesome, power is our Abba Father.

Around the throne are four great living creatures and twenty-four elders also on thrones. A glorious sight, with the sound of a glorious song of worship to God. Then John sees Jesus, among the elders, as a lamb. Lamb Jesus is deemed worth to open scrolls. Lamb Jesus is worshipped in the same way that God is worshipped.

Lamb Jesus opens seals and John sees some of what must take place on earth.

When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slaughtered for the word of God and for the testimony they had given; they cried out with a loud voice, ‘Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long will it be before you judge and avenge our blood on the inhabitants of the earth?’ They were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number would be complete both of their fellow-servants and of their brothers and sisters, who were soon to be killed as they themselves had been killed.

Revelation 6:9-11

Under God’s altar in heaven, are the souls of Christian martyrs. They long for the Judgement by Jesus of the whole world. They are then told to rest a little longer. They have been resting already, they are told to continue their rest. The souls of faithful Christians, especially of those who suffered in this life because of their allegiance to Jesus, rest in Paradise. John does not tell us what the rest of these souls entails. We can be certain that it means they have no more hard labour, a significant part of life in Paradise.

Paradise as worship, led by angels.

Around the throne, and on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with a face like a human face, and the fourth living creature like a flying eagle. And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and inside. Day and night without ceasing they sing,

‘Holy, holy, holy,
the Lord God the Almighty,
who was and is and is to come.’

And whenever the living creatures give glory and honour and thanks to the one who is seated on the throne, who lives for ever and ever,the twenty-four elders fall before the one who is seated on the throne and worship the one who lives for ever and ever; they cast their crowns before the throne, singing,

‘You are worthy, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honour and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they existed and were created.’

Revelation 4:6-11

The four living creatures are very like the angelic beings seen by Isaiah and Ezekiel as recorded in the Old Testament. ‘Holy, holy, holy’ is a song of angels (Isaiah 6:1-3, Ezekiel 1@4-14). Angels are servants of various kinds, some, not all, are messengers, others carry out all the different tasks God orders, including singing, as angels sang to the shepherds when Jesus was born. In the Old Testament, The living creatures seem to be chief servants, commonly known as archangels, closest to the throne, in charge of many other angels,

Who are the twenty-four elders? Opinion is divided. Some say they are also angelic beings, part of what the book of Job calls the court of heaven, or maybe the good principalities and powers written of by Paul. Others say they are redeemed and glorified human souls, maybe from each of the twelve tribes of Israel, maybe representing wider humanity.

What is clear is that worship, the celebration of God the Creator, is part of the life of Paradise, led by angels.

Then I saw between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders a Lamb standing as if it had been slaughtered, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. He went and took the scroll from the right hand of the one who was seated on the throne. When he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell before the Lamb, each holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. They sing a new song:

‘You are worthy to take the scroll
    and to open its seals,
for you were slaughtered and by your blood you ransomed for God
    saints from every tribe and language and people and nation;
you have made them to be a kingdom and priests serving our God,
    and they will reign on earth.’

Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels surrounding the throne and the living creatures and the elders; they numbered myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, singing with full voice,

‘Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might
and honour and glory and blessing!’

Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, singing,

‘To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb
be blessing and honour and glory and might
for ever and ever!’

And the four living creatures said, ‘Amen!’ And the elders fell down and worshipped.

Revelation 5:6-14

Lamb Jesus is seen among the twenty-four elders. He is then celebrated as God is celebrated, first by the living creatures and the elders, then by many thousand angels, then by all humanity. Worship, celebration, of God and Jesus are part of the life of Paradise, and this worship is chiefly led by angels.

Every other creature then joins in the celebration. Every creature includes animals and birds and fish. John sees fulfilment of the vision and longing of the last verse of the Psalms.

Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord!

Psalm 150:6

John then sees much which symbolises developments on earth, up to the last days. Then, we read:

Then I looked, and there was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion! And with him were one hundred and forty-four thousand who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven like the sound of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder; the voice I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps, and they sing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the one hundred forty-four thousand who have been redeemed from the earth. It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins; these follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They have been redeemed from humankind as first fruits for God and the Lamb, and in their mouth no lie was found; they are blameless.

Revelation 14:1-5

Here we have Lamb Jesus on earth, on Mount Zion, probably a symbolic place, with many brothers and sisters. From heaven comes the sound of worship, thunder and harp music and songs. This worship is in the heaven which John described earlier. The worshippers are ‘before’ the throne as in Revelation 4, The Greek word translated ‘before’ is ‘enopion.’ According to Strong’s Bible Dictionary enopion is literally ‘in the sight of,’ ‘in the eye of.’ This echoes with Paul writing of life beyond this life, life in Paradise, as ‘seeing face to face.’

We are not told who is playing the harps and singing the songs, angels or humans. As the place and the proximity are the same as in Revelation 4, we can assume that the worshippers are first, numberless myriads of angels, then other creatures joining them. But here, those who can learn the song, who can hear and join in on earth, are only the 144,000 (symbolic number) pure sisters and brothers of Jesus, rather than every creature. Revelation 14 confirms that worship led by angels is part of Paradise. People on earth can join with the angels in Paradise, as do people in Paradise.

Heavenly worship has been glimpsed earlier in the Psalms:

The Lord has established his throne in the heavens,
    and his kingdom rules over all.
Bless the Lord, O you his angels,
    you mighty ones who do his bidding,
    obedient to his spoken word.
Bless the Lord, all his hosts,
    his ministers that do his will.

Psalm 103:19-21

This confirms that angels are servants of God, carrying out God’s orders in many different ways. They also bless, praise, celebrate God. Here the angels are instructed to bless, praise, God by the people on earth. Worshippers in the Temple regularly, repeatedly said or sang these words, telling angels, hosts, to bless, to praise, God.

It has been said that people’s chief activity in Paradise will be to worship God and Lamb Jesus. In Revelation, it is more true that the angels’ chief activity is to worship God and people. Other creatures, both join in with the angels and instruct the angels to continue their praise. People, as children rather than servants of God, relating to God as Abba Father rather than Master, Lord, have a different role in worship to the role of angels.

As usual, we are given only a glimpse of Paradise without much detail. Maybe the praise of people is less ordered, less instructed, more spontaneous, than the praise of angels. As children in the Father’s household, people enjoy all the life that Jesus has prepared for them, expressing great gratitude to the Father and to Jesus for their life, for their home and garden, and for their rest. Human worship in Paradise is restful worship. The angels do the work, similar to professional musicians. The people join in, or listen, or do other things, as free children in their Father’s house.

Revelation 14 also tells us that we on earth can join with the worship in Paradise. Christians have long painted worshipping angels, and saints, in churches, expressing this spiritual reality. We can be encouraged to know that we now join in the same worship as those we know, who confessed their sin and looked for the guidance of Jesus, and are now in Paradise.

Paradise: Seated in the heavenly places.

God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 2:4-7

Paul is writing to Christians, to those who have acknowledged their sins, sought and found forgiveness and are committed to Jesus to lead them through life and through death. In other words, Paul is writing to people on the way to Paradise.

Paul writes that these people have been raised up with Jesus and are seated in the heavenly places in Jesus. Paradise is one of the heavenly places, the third heaven. Paul does not explain in detail what he means. As with other Bible passages, we are given a glimpse of Paradise about which we can ponder.

Paul writes that we are now seated in the heavenly places, while still alive on earth. This echoes what Jesus said about eternal life, which we understand as beginning in this life, continuing in the soul life of Paradise and complete in the New Creation to come. Being seated in the heavenly places looks either the same as eternal life, another way of talking about eternal life, or something very similar.

Jesus seated is a picture of him having accomplished his work and exercising divine authority.

Jesus said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man is seated on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

Matthew 19:28 (see also Matthew 26:64 and Mark 14:62)

Paul may have been thinking of these words of Jesus about his coming again and the beginning of the New Creation, when he will be seated on the throne of his glory and his followers will be seated with him. This is a picture of the ultimate stage of eternal life. Paul, also following how Jesus talked of us being able to enter eternal life now, writes that Christians are now, already, seated with Jesus. It is not clear if the judging of the twelve tribes of Israel has started happening already. But just as Jesus is seated on a throne, a place of rest and authority, so his followers are seated on thrones, in places of rest and authority.

In Philippians 2:9 Paul writes in a similar way of Jesus having been highly exalted by God after completing his saving work on earth.

Peter also writes of Jesus:

who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.

1 Peter 3:22

Angels, authorities and powers are now subject to Jesus who is seated on his throne at the right hand of God. Jesus’ followers, his sisters and brothers, are also seated on thrones, with angels, authorities and powers subject to them too.

The writer to the Hebrews also writes of Jesus now having authority over angels, quoting Psalm 8:

‘What are human beings that you are mindful of them,
or mortals, that you care for them

You have made them for a little while lower than the angels;
you have crowned them with glory and honour, subjecting all things under their feet.’

Now in subjecting all things to them, God left nothing outside their control. As it is, we do not yet see everything in subjection to them, but we do see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honour because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

Hebrews 2:6-9

Paul writes of humans now seated in heavenly places, with authority over angels. The writer to the Hebrews states that we do not yet see this authority complete. We see the wounded Lamb Jesus now and one day will know everything subjected to him and to his people.

Christians have partial authority over angels and authorities now and will have full authority in the New Creation. Therefore, in Paradise, between this life and the New Creation, people are seated, having accomplished their work and have more authority than on earth, less authority than in the New Creation.

The reality of human authority now coming only through Jesus, is evident in the writer to the Hebrews changing, developing, the words of Psalm 8. The Old Testament Psalm describes humans as ‘a little lower than the angels.’ Humans are seen as subject to angels, by a little way. Hebrews describes humans ‘for a little while lower than the angels.’ Forgiven people are elevated from a rank of servants of God, under the angels, to the seats, the position of children of God, with a rank of family members, now learning to exercise authority over angel-servants in preparation for the full authority they will enjoy in the New Creation.

Humans now, forgiven and guided by Jesus, sisters and brothers of Jesus, can tell angels to worship God and maybe tell angels to carry out other tasks as servants. The same humans in Paradise also tell angels to worship God and to carry out other tasks, probably with more authority. Knowing what we know already about Paradise, we know that exercising this authority in Paradise will be restful, delightful, like telling a great orchestra or band to play and enjoying the music. People, souls, in Paradise may well also use their authority to tell angels to help people on earth, or even in Hades. Revelation 14 also includes a description of Hades where ‘the holy angels’ are present. (See Fresh Bible Answers Christian Understanding Where do we go when we die? Hades.)

[1] Tom Wright Surprised By Hope SPCK 2011

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Where do we go when we die? Paradise