I wrote about what God did for us. Now I want to write about why He did it, or more specifically why He did it the way He did.

Paradise as described by John:

And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him. They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever. Revelation 22:1-5

It sounds like a great place. I look forward to being there, forever and ever. But, what is going to keep rebellion out of Heaven? As my dad puts it, “How come this (sinful rebellious man) is not going to happen again?”

For us to demonstrate our love for God, our willingness to live in His kingdom, there has to be a choice. If the choice was easy, and everyone made the same choice, it would not really be a choice, much like I wrote about the spectrum in “What is Evil.”

Life is about choosing. It is about God choosing us, and it is about us choosing Him. So when we really do live in His presence we already know what we want, and we have it. All the rebellious desire will be filtered out of man, both entire people and from each individual saint.

I think there is a nice short summation of this whole thing in Luke 23:39-43. Jesus, on the cross, has an exchange with two criminals. One curses God. The other, facing his death, and the presence of God incarnate chooses to acknowledge God, and is admitted to God’s grace.

You know that feeling you get when the protagonist in a story comes to the climax of a story and wins, against all odds. I am talking about a real protagonist too, not one of these morally ambiguous stories that seem so prevalent today. At least, it is a feeling I get. It is a wonderful feeling, things are being set right, justice is being done, grace is being shown. I want to stand up and yell. I think this is just a taste of the fulfillment we get when we fulfill the will of God. That is our true purpose, and how much more fulfilling it will be when we do so in His actual presence. I will take and eternity of that.