What Does It Mean to Believe in Heaven?

By Dr. David Jeremiah

The Savior of the world wanted to teach His friends about heaven. Let’s take a closer look and see what we can learn from that conversation.

Heaven Means Believing in a Person

Jesus began His words in John 14 on a note of assurance: “Let not your heart be troubled.” The Good News translation says, “Do not be worried and upset. . . . Believe in God and believe also in me.” These words are for you. Imagine the Lord Jesus Christ, standing in all His strength and splendor, looking at you amid the situations of your life and saying: “Don’t be worried and upset.”

Today we’ve accumulated an armory of agents to help us combat anxiety—medications, therapies, breathing techniques, coping mechanisms, support groups, mindfulness exercises, religious rituals, playlists, medical professionals, and psychological counselors. Any of these, used wisely, may be helpful. But on that long-ago night amid the flickering torches of the Upper Room, the Lord Jesus had only one recommendation: Himself.

“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.”

Our discussion of heaven and the mental peace it brings to us always starts with a Person—the Person of Christ. Our relationship with Him starts when we acknowledge our failures and our need for Him, and then we open our hearts to Him and trust Him as Savior and Lord. But that’s only the beginning of our journey in believing Him, trusting Him, and leaning on Him during frightening times.

Jesus’ words would be hollow without what happened to Him three days later. He rose physically and literally from the grave following His crucifixion. His body was the same, but different. He was recognizable, but He was now physically equipped to live endlessly without aging and without deteriorating. This is our single greatest biblical clue about heaven. The risen Jesus will be there personally and bodily, letting us know heaven is a real place. We will reside there with Him in our physical, resurrected bodies.

Heaven Means Believing in a Place

Now, let’s drill a bit more into heaven as a place. That’s the word Jesus used in John 14: “In My Father’s House are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you” (verse 2).

The word Jesus used is the Greek term topos, from which we get our word “topography.” It refers to a literal location—a particular district, neighborhood, region, or habitat. Hebrews 11:16 calls it “a heavenly country.” Revelation describes it as a vast capital city (Revelation 21:10). The Psalms refer to heaven as “Zion,” where God dwells (Psalm 9:11). During the course of this book, we’ll look at all those designations for heaven and many more.

In John 14, Jesus described this place as His “Father’s house.” The idea could be rendered household, family, home, even palace. The idea is one of residence.

In short, the Father’s house is where God dwells, and there are many mansions there. The Greek word for “mansion” simply means a place to stay, a dwelling, or a home. But mansion is a perfectly good word to describe any dwelling place in heaven!

The key word in this entire section is Father, occurring twenty-three times. God the Father is the One who brings peace, perspective, and permanence to our troubled hearts through His Son Jesus. In this comforting image of the Father’s house, we come face-to-face with the closeness, intimacy, and everlasting nature of heaven. Heaven is not a feeling or a fantasy. It is a prepared place for prepared people.

This will be our lasting home. Remember, you are not home yet. This world is passing away, and all of us are passing away from the world. The Bible describes us as pilgrims and strangers on the earth (1 Peter 2:11). We may own homes, even beautiful ones, but they’re only temporary because we’re not here for long.

Just ask Edward Harriman. He was a preacher’s kid who dropped out of school to become an errand boy on Wall Street. In less than ten years, he was a member of the New York Stock Exchange. He later became one of America’s leading railroad giants. He was known as “King of the Railroad.”

In 1885, he purchased nearly eight thousand acres north of New York City for his forever home—an estate he called “Arden.” The one-hundred-thousand-square-foot mansion sat on twenty thousand acres at the top of Mount Orama with breathtaking views. The mansion, which is today an exclusive conference center, boasts wide corridors, sprawling sitting rooms, sweeping courtyards, spewing fountains, and lavish bedrooms. It’s one of the largest private homes in America.

Harriman moved into his sprawling mansion in early 1909—and died there on September 9 of the same year. He was sixty-one, and he only enjoyed his version of paradise a few months before death took it all away.*

Our earthly homes—whether we live in a cardboard box or a sprawling estate—are temporary. Heaven is your forever home, which you’ll enjoy in a resurrected body with a glorious Friend named Jesus Christ.