The latest question in the Ask The Pastor blog series is an interesting one:
When we get to heaven, do we still have a free choice? Lucifer choose to disobey and took 1/3 of the angels. Do we struggle with our emotions in Heaven? Do we have to choose to do the right thing?
I must admit, I’ve never had anyone ask me this question before. And yet, a quick search revealed that many people clearly wonder about whether or not we can sin in Heaven.
Like many of the questions being asked in this series, we really can’t say for certain. While the Bible does give us a glimpse of what Heaven is like, for the most part, we can only guess as to what we will experience in Heaven. And so, ultimately, I really don’t know what we will and won’t be able to do in Heaven.
Heaven is going to be a topic we look at on a few occasions with this series. In fact, the final week of our service teachings is going to focus on what happens after we die. One of the questions we’re going to address in that live service is whether or not those who have died can watch us from Heaven.
So, let me toss out some thoughts on this blog question.
First, I want to quote 1 Corinthians 13:12
Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.
Paul is making it clear: we don’t see things perfectly on this side of Heaven. We can say things like, “In Heaven, I’m going to feel this, or that …” And yet, we simply don’t know.
My gut says that we will continue to have the freedom to choose even in Heaven. After all, it is part of our nature, of how God created us. To lose that would mean to lose a part of how God designed us.
But, why do we choose to sin? Because we believe our way is better than God’s way. We choose to do something on our terms.
Perhaps in Heaven we will have the freedom to choose, and yet, because we will see everything with perfect clarity, we will choose obedience to God every time. Perhaps we’ll weigh out the options and disobedience will not even come into the picture. Perhaps. It’s just a guess.
But what about the angels who disobeyed? They were in heaven and yet they chose sin. True. But perhaps there was a time when angels had the same veil as we did. Maybe they didn’t see clearly, or perfectly, as Paul suggests in this passage. For a season, maybe they were not able to see the full majesty of God and in that season, Lucifer was able to deceive them. Again, it’s only a guess.
The final part of today’s question has to do with our emotions in Heaven and whether or not we’ll struggle with them. I guess it depends on what we mean by “struggle.” I do believe we will experience emotions in Heaven. After all, God created us with emotions. Why would they disappear in Heaven?
However, using our passage as a guide, maybe our emotions will be filtered with a new perspective. We’ll see clearly. As a result, how we respond emotionally will also be more clear. We won’t react negatively because we will have a full understanding of who God is in the midst of the emotion we are experiencing. I find it interesting that the Bible seems to focus on the emotions of joy, peace, and happiness that we experience in Heaven. Perhaps it’s because we are in the presence of God himself, and we understand what we must currently know only by faith: that nothing is impossible with God.
I realize I’m offering a lot of “maybes” and “perhaps” in this answer, but it’s the best I can do.
I’d love to hear what others think — so, share your thoughts in the comments section!
