I recently came across a few big thoughts that rarely get a great deal of mention in Christian circles. The following is a brief excerpt from John Piper from a 2008 sermon titled the Echo and the Insufficiency of Hell that really struck me:
I have heard well-schooled preachers and book writers say that all that is
horrible, sinful, painful in this life will be forgotten. Not to overstate it, that’s a damnable sentence. Calvary will not be forgotten and it is the most horrible most sinful, most agonizing event that ever was. It will be the center of heaven forever. We will, with our mouths, be singing that song forever. I hope if this conference gives you one thing it will be: Hell exists, cross exists, sin exists, heaven exists, you exist, universe exists, in order to magnify the worth of the scream of the damned. – John Piper
I don’t think that we can ever overemphasize the eternality of the cross. What Jesus did for us, what he did on the eternal cross, needs to be in the forefront of our minds. The cross isn’t just a single act accomplished by Jesus that we consider briefly and then “get beyond” in our walk with Jesus. The eternal cross is a thing that we will celebrate for all eternity. The cross is also Jesus’ penultimate act – binding his perfect life with his miraculous rise from the dead. For everything that Jesus did either points forward or backward to the cross.
Now I would also like to say something about the “forgetting of sin, death and pain in heaven” that John gets pretty worked about in this sermon. And I think that while John is right in his assessment that we will never forget what Jesus did for us – particularly when it comes to fathoming the depths of a Perfect God who not only descended into an imperfect world but descended to take our sin upon his perfection in order to destroy the devil’s work – I don’t think pastors and theologians are wholly wrong when they say we will ‘forget’ about trials, sufferings and temptations in this life while enjoying the glories of the next. Our joy for what Christ has done, our joy in his glory and the beauty of the world to come will overshadow all sadness, gloom and fears – even while we will never forget what Christ endured to bring us into his eternal joys. So will we have eternal joy for what Christ has done for us? Yes. We will remember the mechanics of how Christ came to the cross and that we too sinned and had a part in his death, and then shared in his sufferings sans our rebirth by faith in his Name? Yes. But will we remember our sin and sufferings in the same way that we remember them here on earth –with a sense of loss, dread and pain? No. The eternal joys that are brought to us from the eternal cross will overwhelm, overshadow and overcome all the gloom of this world even while we never forget what Christ has done for us – making us all the more glad and admirable of him.
