What will we be like in heaven?

Our culture defines and categorizes people in many different ways. Christians are defined by Scripture as: “all one in Christ Jesus.” Heaven is impossible to define because we don’t own the needed vocabulary and we don’t have the ability to comprehend eternity. Yet one eternal distinction clearly made in Scripture applies to every human being today.

Everyone you know is either one with Christ Jesus or living separately from him.

When it comes to interpreting Galatians 3:28, debates, laws, and attitudes have changed over the decades. We still tend to define people by their nationality, religion, social status, and gender. Those distinctions are for life on earth but will not exist in heaven. We are all one in Christ Jesus. A Christian will be defined eternally as “a child of God.”

If you are able to read and understand Hebrew, you know that some of the names and descriptions of God are male while others are female. God is Father and Mother because he is uniquely able to fill both human roles. Yet, in truth, God is neither male nor female. He is simply fully God. So is the resurrected Christ and his Holy Spirit.

Jesus walked on earth as a man yet was also fully God. To be one with Christ Jesus is to become God’s child, even though still living in our human form. Jesus is the model for our faith. He grew to be a man but eternally always saw himself as God’s child. We can know God as our Abba Father, just as Jesus did.

Thinking of ourselves as the world classifies us is normal. But wouldn’t beginning and ending each day with an understanding of how God sees us be more helpful? We are his children. We are not yet perfected, but God already knows us as the people we will be eternally.

Jesus walked through his earthly life with a sense of eternal purpose and we can too.

Jesus saw himself through his Father’s eyes and we should too.

Jesus was and is the model for our faith and the pathway for our eternal relationship with God. The next time you pass a mirror, step away from just the appearance of things and into the reality of full knowledge. You, Christian, are a child of the Creator God, and you always will be.