Heaven is not a location to which good people are assigned, and salvation is not a simple condition of perfect righteousness. The goal of human striving, according to the New Testament, is the acquisition of eternal life—which may be read to mean, the attainment of the kind of life that God Himself leads and enjoys. And that is not simply an existence defined by His perfect attributes. God is God by virtue of the perfection of the relationships He has founded and preserved. He has “set his heart” upon us, “doeth not anything save it be for [our] benefit,” weeps over our suffering in sin, and
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