When it's cold, and I'm sad and lonely, I think of being in the warm and wonderful presence of God, all full of happiness and golden light. I think of the absence of shame and the overwhelming sense of peace I will feel: fully forgiven, fully restored, fully perfected, fully able to apprehend the love He has for me.
Sin has a way of dragging us down in this life, our own sin does it, and so do the sins of people we know, and even the sins of people we only hear about. Sin begets sin.
I wrote about apologies once, and (theoretically) how people sometimes think they are apologizing when they say, "I am sorry, but I would not have stolen your t-shirt if you had not called me an idiot." While that is a pitiful apology, a kernel of truth lives in it. Sin begets sin. When we mistreat others, they react badly, and when others mistreat us, we often react badly as well.
In heaven, there will be no more sin. I will not sin, and nobody else will sin either. Nobody will ever hurt or disappoint or offend anybody ever again, in heaven. In the glorious presence of the perfect, holy, almighty God of the Universe, we will be freed forever from the curse of sin.
This is so overwhelming to me that it makes a lump rise in my chest and I feel like my breathing and swallowing are all mixed up with each other.
I'd thought through this and deduced it: no sin means that I will not sin against anybody else, and nobody else will sin against me. We will not sin intentionally or unintentionally. There will be no more sin, not even any temptation.
I'd figured it out, because it is the logical end of a bunch of the promises of God.
The other day, I also found it written out, in plain language...
The Son of man
will send out His angels,
and they will weed out of His kingdom
everything that causes sin
and all who do evil.
Matthew 13:41 (NIV)
It's a passage about judgment, but I just find so much hope here.
...they will weed out of His kingdom
everything that causes sin...
amen
This reminds me that sin and/or evil is a violation or deprivation of the Good. One day we will experience His fullness as He always meant for it to be. No more moth-eaten coats. Just total joy! I think of it like a film played backwards. The effects of sin unwinding unraveling until we reach the garden of His perfection. No more holes in goodness! Then we will enter into the Good, enjoy it and even participate in it with no chance of sin''s corruption--no chance of evil's corruption of it forever. I enjoyed wandering in here! God bless you!
ReplyDeleteI think C.S.Lewis said that there is nothing evil in and of itself; evil only exists as a perversion of something good. So in heaven we will not lose anything, we just find total, perfect restoration of everything to its original state of "and it was good," as God created it.
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the blog, and thanks for commenting. I hope you come back! :)