The Third Heaven
I know a man in Christ who was caught up into the third heaven 14 years ago. Whether he was in the body or out of the body, I don’t know, God knows. ~ II Corinthians 12:2
Does this verse teach levels of Heaven or exaltation?One of the key doctrines of ancient Gnosticism was the transcendence of god. Because their god was wholly separated from his creation inhabiting the farthest reaches of eternity; he had thus instituted emanations (revelations) from himself and gradations of levels of access to himself.
Angelic beings served as a kind of ‘go-between’ between god and man. Christ was the highest or greatest of the emanations in their scheme. This kind of thinking had thoroughly penetrated many corners of the ancient world and many attempts were made by false teachers to mesh Christian truth with pagan gnostic practice.
This rationale has survived in many forms through the ages. Because God is so holy and man is so sinful, only ‘super’ saints will ever have direct access to his presence. The highest heaven will then be inhabited only by those who prove themselves extra worthy.
Is this what Paul is teaching here?
I think not. In fact, I am sure Paul would recoil in horror at such a thought. Rather than seeing himself as a ‘super’ apostle, at the very end of his life Paul’s self-appraisal was ‘chief of sinners’.
Paul understood the cloth he was cut from. Paul knew “in me dwelleth no good thing.” Paul readily understood that it was ‘by the grace of God’ that he was what he was. Paul never saw any good thing as being in himself- his glory was only the cross and Christ crucified for sins and risen. Paul understood Heaven was a gift, not a wage.
Do you? Are you banking your hope on your good deeds and merit? The Paradise of God is inhabited by the likes of unlikely thieves who nevertheless looked in faith to the slain Lamb of God and petitioned: ‘remember me.’
There is room at the cross for you, don’t delay, look and live.
His grace is sufficient; ‘In Christ’ is more than enough.
Because of grace,
Tim
