Think About These Things

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”  Revelation 7:9-10

At this point in my service as a pastor of churches, I can no longer recall the number of funeral services I have been privileged to officiate - that’s a funny word for it, don’t you think? It sounds like I was the referee or something. Anyway, as I said, I don’t know how many anymore. I can say that they all included these traditional words near the beginning of the ceremony: 

Dying, Christ destroyed our death. Rising, Christ restored our life. Christ will come again in glory. As in baptism Name put on Christ, so in Christ may Name be clothed with glory. Here and now, dear friends, we are God's children. What we shall be has not yet been revealed; but we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Those who have this hope purify themselves as Christ is pure.

It says that, when we die in Christ, we will shed the covering that Christ put upon us through His sacrifice so that our sin is hidden from God’s glory, just as God clothed Adam and Eve by the sacrifice of animals for their skins so that their nakedness was covered. Having shed our sin-covering at death we receive another covering that marks us as children of God by adoption through Christ. 

It is interesting to think about that day and imagine a new garment that we cannot wear until we shed the excessive weight born out of pain, suffering, sorrow, poison, and pride. Our eternal being carried the gravity of flesh and all the junk it collected through the years. When we arrive at Heaven’s threshold we will be directed to a cloakroom where we will be presented with a white robe we feel sure we cannot fit into. We will stand naked before a mirror that reflects who we really are. It will be the person God created us to be. It will be a reflection that we have never seen before because it will be the person God sees. 

It will take some time to learn to accept who we really are. It will be a continuation of our spiritual journey on earth, but without the heavy loads that our flesh absorbed and chose to carry. Stripped of these burdens, we will be ready for heavenly fitness. The spiritual journey will be accelerated and comprehensive in its outcomes. The world will fade from memory as we witness the reality of Christ’s Kingdom, seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, and feeling more clearly than we can imagine now. 

What’s more exciting than this? It is the coming of the King so that He can make Heaven and Earth one and the same. When the Lord’s great Day is complete the earth itself will be stripped of ugliness, scars, and contamination caused by sin. The creation will be made new and we will dwell in Eden again.

When temptation comes and we fret and worry about the world and the needs of our flesh, let us think about these things. When we look in the bathroom mirror and the voice of evil condemns the flesh, think about these things. When we look at others and think we know the true nature and worth, think about these things. When it seems like hell is loose on earth, think about these things. Then, pray and praise in Christ’s beautiful Name.