March 13 I Monday

Deuteronomy 19-21

Mark 13:21-37

“This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.”        —1 Peter 1:4-5

What is the nature of the salvation that is revealed in the last time? It will be perfect. One of our greatest anticipations of heaven is that the old nature that constantly fights against the Spirit—the new nature—will be gone. We will be purified in the new nature, which raises a question: can we sin in heaven? This is a good question, because Lucifer sinned in heaven. He was the most perfect of all God’s angelic beings and there was a time before time in eternity past, before the creation of the world, when Lucifer wanted to be God. As the most beautiful and senior of all angels, Lucifer challenged God and was cast out of heaven with a third of the angels who joined him in his rebellion. Revelation 12:9 tells us, “The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient snake called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.” We know Lucifer as the devil and his followers as demons.

       If Lucifer sinned in heaven, can we sin in heaven? Yes, the capability for us to sin must be there as it was with Lucifer. But will we? Absolutely not. Why? Because we will finally fully understand the utter sickness of sin, we will have seen and experienced it on earth, but in heaven it will be thoroughly unmasked for the lie that it is.

       May we find encouragement in the words of Jude 1:24-25, “To Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy—to the only God our Saviour be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and for evermore!”

       The part that struck me as I looked at that verse is the statement, “to present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy.” Could we believe that? The Lord Jesus will one day say to His Father, “Father, here is Charles Price. He is without fault and I present him to You with great joy.” When I wrote that down in my notes, I found tears coming to my eyes. There will be a day when I am without fault and Jesus will not embarrassingly introduce me to His Father saying, “This is Charles Price, messed up here, there and everywhere, but I am going to give him to You anyways.” While we will still struggle with sin in our life on earth, we can look forward to the day when Jesus presents us without fault and with joy to the Father.

Prayer: Dear Jesus Christ, thank You for being able to keep me from stumbling, and for one day, to present me to the Father without fault and with great joy. Praise You!