Will we remember past failures in heaven?

This text is from a transcript of a talk by David Gooding, entitled ‘An Abundant Entrance into the Eternal Kingdom’ (1985).

I suspect you are thinking now, very properly, of heaven and are inclined to take it very literally, as you should do, and are thinking, 'Now, what are we going to feel like when we are there?' And if, when we get home to glory, we are still able to remember the things that we did wrongly here on earth when we seriously grieved the Lord, will not the memory of that spoil heaven for us? Shall we remember?

Well, as to the fact of memory in heaven, I think the answer must be, 'Undoubtedly, yes.' Let me put it to you simply this way. Shall we remember when we get home to heaven that our Lord was crucified for us? Or shall we forget all about the cross when we get home to heaven? That is impossible, isn't it? Revelation admits us to that great vision of John the apostle where the very song of heaven is, 'Worthy is the Lamb who was slain' (Revelation 5:12). If in heaven we remember, therefore, and never forget the fact that our Lord was slain, shall we remember why he was slain?

You say, 'We shall remember he was slain for the sins of the world.'

So shall I find myself in the situation that I can remember that he was slain for your sins? And I say, 'Yes, they're a poor lot; they scarce deserve to be here.' But I can't remember any of my own sins for which the Lord suffered and died? It's unlikely, isn't it?

And then we have the story given by our Lord of the rich man who, lifting up his eyes in hell, was in torment, and Abraham said, 'Son, remember.' He could remember (see Luke 16:19–31).

So, if we have to say, 'Yes, Scripture seems to indicate that we shall remember in heaven,' then comes the second part of the question: 'will this not detract from the enjoyment of heaven?'

I want, in the first place, to say, 'No.' Then, in the second place, let me give way to my weakness already mentioned and ask you a question. Does God, at this moment, ever feel sorry about his people's sins? At this moment?

Do you think that God, at this moment, is sometimes sorry and feels sorrow at the sins of his people? I ask now if you think of God as anywhere else but in heaven. So if God is at this moment in heaven, and if God at this moment feels some sorrow and grief over people's sins, in some sense (whatever that means for God), it sounds to me extraordinarily like as if there could be a kind of sorrow in heaven. Is it not so? Some may say no. But how then?

I shall have to leave that one with you to sort out, shan't I? We can be sure of this thought. God is in heaven, wherever else he is. He is the transcendent Lord of time and space and, therefore, existing quite outside heaven, I dare say, but in heaven too. And from Old Testament indications God is distressed, in some sense, over the sins of his people. But now think it over. At Calvary, did God himself feel no grief? And where was God when he felt it?

So we must grasp, and we do grasp, those Scriptures that say that in the eternal state, there is no more sorrow, crying and tears, no more curse 'for the former things have passed away' (Revelation 21:4). We must balance that with the fact that we shall, in those days, look back upon the occasions of earth. That will not destroy our enjoyment of heaven. We shall look at things then as God looks at them. In that sense we shall not want to hide the memory of what we did wrong. It will be for the everlasting glory of Christ that his sacrifice put it right. But I do not think that our memory will be wiped clean of what we did on earth.

You say, 'Sir, you have got things terribly wrong.'

That could well be.

You say, 'But doesn't the Bible actually say that, for instance, God will not remember our sins anymore?'

It does indeed (see Hebrews 8:12), but pray, consider, what the term means. The term, 'their sins and iniquities will I remember no more,' doesn't mean that God up in his heaven has forgotten the fact that we are sinners. It is a legal term. When, in the ancient world, a sovereign or a judge remembered sin, it meant that he called the whole thing up before his judicial court. That is what 'remembering sin' means. As the widow said to Elijah when he came to her place, and her son eventually died, 'You have come to bring my sin to remembrance, and to call it up for investigation, trial, decision and passing a verdict' (see 1 Kings 17:18). It is, in that sense, a judicial thing. You will read in the Revelation, for instance, that when great Babylon 'was remembered' before God (Revelation 16:19 RV), then forthwith her judgments fell.

What God is saying when he says, 'their sins and iniquities I will remember no more,' (and thank God it means this) is that he will never bring up our sins into his court of justice, never bring them before his bar and pronounce the sentence of condemnation. He will never do that. Why not? Because the matter has been settled, and thus our Lord who shall be judge says, 'whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgement' (John 5:24). Why not? Because the judgment has already been settled, and we have been justified. 'There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus' (Romans 8:1). It is then, as I take it, a legal term.