“I’m single. Can I get married in heaven?”

Steve Brown:
I’m single. Can I get married in heaven? The answer to that question on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
Key Life exists to communicate that the deepest message of Jesus and the Bible is the radical grace of God to sinners and sufferers. Life’s hard for everyone, so grace is for all of us. But there’s a lot of confusion about how grace applies to real life. So, here’s seminary professor and author Steve Brown and Pete Alwinson from ForgeTruth to answer your questions.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. Hi Pete, how you doing?

Pete Alwinson:
I’m doing good, how you doing? Happy Friday.

Steve Brown:
Oh, happy Friday to you too. We’ve said it a thousand times. When you’re a pastor, there’s no such thing as a happy Friday. That’s when the demons start coming and the darkness falls and you realize you’ve got a blank paper and you better put something on it before Sunday. We don’t go there anymore.

Pete Alwinson:
No. I mean, we’ve got to be done way ahead of that. Not every week anyway.

Steve Brown:
Hey you guys, check out ForgeTruth.com trust me on this, you’ll be pleased. Dynamite podcast, sometimes controversial, and you’ll enjoy that website. Pete comes in every Friday and we spend the time answering the questions you have sent. And we appreciate you and your question, take both seriously. You can call 1-800-KEY-LIFE and that’s open 24 7. Follow the instructions and record your question. Sometimes we put that on the air. Or you can send your question to

Key Life Network
P.O. Box 5000
Maitland, Florida 32794

In Canada

Key Life Canada
P.O. Box 28060
Waterloo, Ontario N2L 6J8

or you can e-mail your question to [email protected] and if you can help us financially, those would be places where you could do it. And we will rise up and call you blessed and use your gift for the glory of God. If you can’t help us financially, we understand. Do say a prayer for this ministry. Pete, why don’t you lead us in prayer and then we’ll get to some of these questions.

Pete Alwinson:
You got it. You got it. Our Father, we come to you at the end of this week and Lord, it’s been a good week, but Lord, we know it’s also been hard in several ways and we come to you. We thank you that we can come quickly and boldly into your presence all because of what Jesus has done. We love to call you Father, for we need your fatherly care and wisdom and guidance. We need to know that you love us and you do. And so, we praise you and we give you honor and glory. And Lord, you know our needs are greater than we even know right now. And so, at the end of this week, we commit the week to you and we ask that you would help us to hear your voice by your Spirit and through the word. And use those leaders that you’re going to put in front of us this week-end to do that. We thank you for our pastors, our priests, our teachers, leaders, our worship directors, all those that will stand in front of us and lead us into your very presence. And we pray that Lord will hear your voice and hear how we should apply the gospel to ourselves this week. Thank you for Steve. Thank you, Father, for our listeners. Thank you for Key Life and the opportunity to talk about the gospel of grace. And even in this time of Q& A, we commit it to you as we pray these things in the strong name of our risen Savior, Jesus. Amen.

Steve Brown:
Amen. Pete, this is an e-mail. Will there be marriage in heaven?

Pete Alwinson:
No.

Steve Brown:
And you say that with great authority, because you’re quoting somebody.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right. Luke 20:36 you could start reading about that, but Jesus is very clear. The Pharisees and the leaders of the day were unclear about it themselves.

Steve Brown:
They were trying to trap him, weren’t they?

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah, they always, right?

Steve Brown:
And they thought they’d get him, and he’s a master controversialist.

Pete Alwinson:
He is.

Steve Brown:
Stott wrote a book on Jesus the Controversialist, and he was clear there, too. No, there’s not, they won’t be given in marriage in heaven. Can I bring my wife, though?

Pete Alwinson:
Ha, ha, ha.

Steve Brown:
You know, that kind of, if you’ve got a good marriage, that’s not a good thing. I mean, I don’t, but it’ll be a relationship far deeper and more profound than you could imagine on earth.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah. And I really do understand those couples that have great relationships and they love their kids and their grandkids. And you mean we’re not going to be family in heaven? And no, it won’t be that way, but like you said, it’ll be deeper. But there will be knowledge and continuity of life, I believe.

Steve Brown:
I do too.

Pete Alwinson:
It’s going to be good. Heaven’s going to be better than we can imagine.

Steve Brown:
I had a lady come to me one time, and she was coming out of a religious movement where they believe that you are married throughout all of eternity. And she asked me what Presbyterians thought, and I told her, well, not in that sense. She said, good, I’m going to be a Presbyterian. And I said, wait, there’s another reason you have to join this church. And she said, the reason I’m going to join is that my former leaders told me I had to be married to that and she used an expletive for all of eternity. I can live with him through this life, but I’ll be, and another expletive, if I want to be married to him through all of eternity. And I almost accepted her, but I finally said, that’s not reason enough.

Pete Alwinson:
It’s not enough. Where are you with Jesus?

Steve Brown:
Listen, this is an e-mail. Does God love everyone?

Pete Alwinson:
You know, God, there’s a sense in which he does, of course, he loves his creation for, and in a sense for God so loved the world, yes. But there is a sense in which he has specific love for those that he’s called to be his children.

Steve Brown:
That’s right.

Pete Alwinson:
So, both are true.

Steve Brown:
Yeah, they really are, and you know, I struggle with that sometimes. We have a saying at Key Life that God is not angry at you. Well, he might be if you’re not one of his own. So, we corrected in our statement of faith to make it clear that God will never be angry at his people again, because all that wrath was poured out on Christ. And so, I used to try to make that distinction when I would say it in conferences or churches where I was speaking. But that said more than I wanted to say, too. I didn’t want to say that God was a monster. So, I finally said, but if you’re not a believer, if you go to Him, He won’t be angry at you either, which kind of covered it. And I finally just gave it up and said, God loved the world. And so much that he gave his only begotten son.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right. Back to Scripture right there.

Steve Brown:
Yeah, that’s right. And I’m glad.

Pete Alwinson:
Do you know, the hard part about that is that, you know, Romans 1 is very clear.

The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against those who deny, suppress the truth.

And so, there is such a thing as judgment that comes from God.

Steve Brown:
But you have to be really careful or you can skew the gospel if you’re not careful.

Pete Alwinson:
Absolutely. Sometimes we anthropomorphize God. We make God a human being that he gets angry over every little thing with human emotions, just like we do. No, God is divine. He’s perfect. And so, his anger is always just, and he’s even good even in his anger.

Steve Brown:
And if you go to him, and that’s what this is all about, he won’t be angry.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right, that’s right.

Steve Brown:
And you’ve got to remember that.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right.

Steve Brown:
Then you can call him Father.

Pete Alwinson:
Amen.

Steve Brown:
I accepted Christ at some time in my life, but I’m not sure exactly when. What should I say when asked when I became a Christian? Tell them 2,000 years ago, that always shuts them up.

Pete Alwinson:
They go, what?

Steve Brown:
Well, you know, if that bothers you, do it now and put a date on it. But I don’t think the question is necessarily appropriate. And if it’s done the right way and you’re a covenant child, you probably won’t have a date.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah, that’s right.

Steve Brown:
I mean, it’s something that grows as you grow in a covenant family where you never knew, when you didn’t know him.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s so true. And that’s why if you’re raised in a covenant family, a church, and where you were maybe even baptized, given the sign and seal of the covenant of grace, the idea is that you never know a time when you don’t know Jesus as Savior and Lord, and that God is good. You’re trusting him. You have a boring testimony, but you know, that’s not a bad thing. So you go, well, I don’t know. I do remember when my mom, I was eight, she made me come in from the outside. She had been discipled by Henrietta Mears. And so, she presented the gospel to me.

Steve Brown:
And you remember.

Pete Alwinson:
And I remember that. And then I went out and played, but I remember that I remember saying, yeah, I’m a sinner and I need Jesus. I remember it was real. And even though I was a kid. And so.

Steve Brown:
Oh, we make, my wife forced me to lead our oldest daughter to Christ.

Pete Alwinson:
She was ready.

Steve Brown:
Oh, I told Anna, she’s too young. I’m not doing that. And she said, well, you better talk to her. So, I did. And just like you, she knew she was a sinner. She knew that Jesus died for her and she wanted to belong to him.

Pete Alwinson:
Amen.

Steve Brown:
And, you know, that’s pretty destabilizing when you’re a pastor and you’re sure that the one who’s coming to Christ can’t.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah, that’s right.

Steve Brown:
You change some views.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right. Well, and getting back to your point and that question, I would say, you know, you can give them a ballpark. You know, I don’t know, I was in my early thirties or I was in my early twenties, but it changed my life because it’s kind of good to know the before Christ story when it happened and then roughly, and then what differences it made cause your testimony is crucial.

Steve Brown:
Yeah. That’s good, wise advice. What does suffering and endurance mean in Romans 5? One leads to the other, that’s what it means.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah.

Steve Brown:
If you want to look that up and read that verse, you don’t know it by heart, I could see it on your face.

Pete Alwinson:
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

Steve Brown:
If you want to look that up, it’s, Romans 5:

Pete Alwinson:
I’m there, I’m there, I got it, no, you’re absolutely right on, I mean, you’re right.

Steve Brown:
I’m ordained.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s exactly right.

Steve Brown:
But as a matter of fact, and you don’t want to be flippant about it because there’s too much flippancy among God’s people about suffering. You’ll be better for it. God is teaching you a lesson. It’s dark, but don’t doubt in the dark what you learned, all of that. Suffering’s no fun. It’s hard and it’s dark and Jesus knows that. But you find, and sometimes later, you know, I hung on.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah.

Steve Brown:
The endurance was one of the gifts. And there aren’t many.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right.

Steve Brown:
But one of the gifts that came along with my suffering. Guys, we’ve got to go. Key Life is a listener supported production of Key Life Network.