My Grace Is Sufficient for You (2 Cor. 12)

[Sung Psalm: 96]

In 2 Corinthians 12 Paul makes reference to a man who was caught up to paradise – to the third heaven.

To understand what Paul is doing here, we need to pay attention to the biblical picture of the world.

If you are on earth, then you look up and you see the great blue dome – you see the “heavenly” ceiling of the earth.

But what do you see if you are in heaven? The “heaven of heavens” refers to the ceiling of God’s heavenly dwelling place. In the same way that the earth is bounded by the heavens, the heavens are bounded by the “heaven of heavens.”

So what is the “third heaven”? The third heaven is dwelling place of God himself. The third heaven – paradise – is where God dwells in unapproachable light. This is the heavenly holy of holies.

This is where John went in Revelation 4:1, when he was called to “come up here” – and he found himself standing before a throne in heaven.

Before the throne was a sea of glass, like crystal.

Now, if you are on earth looking up, what do you see? The heavens, spread out like a dome of crystal. If you were in the heavens looking down, what would you see? A sea of glass, like crystal!

Now, nobody ever thought that God literally lived on the top of a crystal dome right up there! Remember what Solomon said? “Heaven of heavens cannot contain you – how much less this house that I have built!”

But the blue dome above your heads is the sea of crystal that John speaks of. It was designed by God as a picture of his heavenly dwelling place.