How do you imagine eternity will be like for you? Somehow in the last two centuries, what we now refer to as ‘being saved’ is about escaping Hell and has little to do with the LORD, worship of Him, doing His desires first and only. Jesus spoke often about the nature of Heaven and what it would be like for His disciples to be in the eternal presence of the LORD. In Matthew 22, Jesus gives a parable of the Kingdom of God likening it to the King giving a wedding feast for His Son:
“The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. Again he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.”’ But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them… Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.’ And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests. 1
How could it possibly be that those invited and who had accepted the invitation ‘paid no attention’ to the King’s proclamation? The King then turns to those seemingly undeserving of His invitation and they gladly accept. All except one.
“But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ For many are called, but few are chosen.” 2
Well, now that seems unfair—after all, this man came wanted to be in on the wedding! There is a detail lost in translating wedding ‘garment’ into English from the Greek endyma; it sounds like the man is rejected for not possessing the appropriate attire but this is the same idea as our word ‘endow’ meaning that which enables fulfillment of a purpose. We think of it in education or arts as that which is provided to enable. In the parable, the wedding garment was not something the guest provided but an enabling gifted from the King. ‘Many are called, few are chosen’ refers to accepting or not accepting what is provided to enable.
Jesus also gave another perspective on this same theme in Matthew 25:31-46 talking of the LORD’s eternal Kingdom,
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 3
‘Inheriting the kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world’ is reserved for those identified by the Shepherd as His sheep. These would be those ‘predestined to be conformed to the image of His [the King’s] Son’ 4 but who accept the King’s call, are receiving of His justification and who then meet the criteria of entering His glory.
And notice the King’s priority on the Lost—His invitation is extended to those who will accept that they need something they cannot do for themselves and who are willing to share what He provides for them with others like themselves—lost and needy.
“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” 5
Alas, for those who refuse to accept the provision of the King, LORD God, it does not end well despite what they want or expect on their own terms. The Kingdom of God, the eternal Heaven in His presence is only fit for those who accept who He is and His terms of relationship with Him. You really wouldn’t want to be ‘forced’ to spend eternity with Someone you disagree with about your priorities.
