The Glory Now RevealedSample

Day Five: A Glorious Detachment from Sin

Central to our heavenly celebration will be the deep awareness of God’s grace to us in Christ. At present, we lack an accurate estimation of how much grace God has lavished on us. We readily forget our sins, while we minimize God’s perfect holiness. We do not know even a fraction of the times we sin in our thoughts, or when we commit sins of omission—walking right by needy people whom the Lord wanted us to help. When we get to heaven, our knowledge of our history of sin will be complete and perfect, so that we can fully glorify God for his grace. 

The greater the knowledge we have of the magnitude of our sins—both their quantity and their seriousness—the greater value we will place on the atoning blood of Christ in heaven. In order that Christ might have his due worship and thanks for such a great atonement, there must be a memory in heaven of the number and magnitude of the sins of the redeemed. 

In 2 Corinthians 5:17 we read, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” This “new creation” language is used by the Bible to speak of the new heaven and new earth, where righteousness will dwell forever (2 Peter 3:13). The sinner is “born again” (John 3:3, 6). The Holy Spirit removes the heart of stone and replaces it with a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26). Paul can mysteriously say, “I no longer sin” (see Romans 7:17-20). 

Paul is able to say now in heaven that it is not he who sinned but effectively another man, a man he will never be again. So it will be for all the redeemed. In heaven, we will be able to say with absolute truthfulness: “I no longer sin at all.” When our sins are revealed and reviewed as a necessary part of God’s narration of history, we will have a glorious detachment from the people we were in our sins. Effectively the stinger of sin will have been totally and finally removed by our resurrection from the dead. There will be not the slightest pang of shame when we watch our past actions in heaven, only a deepening understanding of God’s grace. 

Lord, I ache for the day when I will no longer sin or want to sin or have any separation from you at all. Help me to live with that day in mind today! Amen.