How Old Will We Be in Heaven?

Does the Bible say what our age will be once we enter the kingdom of heaven?

Eternal Life

When someone asks what my age will be in heaven, my only answer is that I know life will never end because Jesus promised, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this” (John 11:25-26). The first and most important question for them is if they have trusted in Christ. Has God brought you to repentance, and have you placed your trust in Him? The question of what age we will be in heaven is irrelevant for those who haven’t been born again. They will never know the answer to that question, and that’s the most important question of all! How you answer that determines your eternal destiny. So I would ask them if they believe in Jesus Christ and if they have trusted in Him. All other questions are insignificant compared to this one. But if you’ve been born again, then you might have wondered how old you will be in heaven. What does the Bible say about this, if anything?

The Optimum Age

Most agree that the age of 30-33 is the optimum time when we reach our mental and physical peak. At age 30 Jesus entered into His earthly ministry. Men could not even enter the Levitical priesthood until they were the age of 30. But does this mean this is the age we’ll be when we enter into glory? And what about babies who die before they’re old enough to understand what repentance and faith are (Mark 1:15)? How old will a baby who dies here on earth be in the kingdom? Besides, how can a young child know enough to be saved if they can’t even talk or read. All I know for certain is the Bible is silent on this subject. We just cannot say for certain, but many believe we’ll revert to the age of 30-33 after we die and enter the kingdom of heaven, or if Jesus returns before we die. It would seem logical because that’s the average age of a human’s greatest mental and physical potential; however, older people are still growing and can increase their spiritual or biblical knowledge. The truth is, it takes a lifetime of sanctification to grow in holiness. So old age doesn’t mean a person’s less spiritual; in fact, they may be more so as they age.

Be Like Him

Every Christian should have the desire to be more like Christ day after day. Interestingly, the Bible teaches that we will be like Him in ways, certainly not in His resplendent glory, but we will have glorified bodies. The Apostle John wrote, “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2). John clearly says that we’ll be like Jesus after we’ve entered the kingdom of heaven. But what age would we be, and what age would Jesus be? Of course, in Jesus’ humanity He only lived until about 33 years of age; so we would expect that Jesus, in His physical appearance, will be like that of a 33-year-old male. But, of course, He is God too; so we can only draw our conclusion so far before we’re walking on air, having no scriptural support for what our age will be. The Apostle Paul wrote, “Just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven” (1 Corinthians 15:49). So as the Apostle John wrote, and the Apostle Paul agrees, we will be like Him (Jesus) but not in all of His magnificent glory. We will be like Him in many other ways, like having a body that can’t die or have disease anymore. We’ll never run the risk of death again; and, the best part of all, we’ll be saved to sin no more! St. Thomas Aquinas wrote many years ago that “all will rise in the condition of perfect age, which is of thirty-two or thirty-three years. This is because all who were not yet arrived at this age, did not possess this perfect age, and the old had already lost it. Hence, youths and children will be given what they lack, and what the aged once had will be restored to them.” But he did not, nor could he provide specific Bible verses to prove his point. Right now we can only guess. Since the Bible is silent on this subject, then I must be too.

Conclusion

Again, we return to the most important question of your life: Have you ever repented and placed your faith in Christ? Remember, Jesus said, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh” (John 6:51). So “whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him” (John 3:36). Either it’s life or it’s God’s wrath–both are eternal. Your future depends on whether you’ve believed in the Son of God or not. No other question even comes close in importance. What do you say? Have you believed? If so, you have eternal life. And what that age will be, who cares because we will be in the presence of the Lord for time without end (Revelation 21:3, 22:4). That’s satisfying enough for me, so I don’t have to worry about what age I will be in heaven. I’ll just be glad to be there.