Will We Remember Our Sins in Heaven?

WILL WE REMEMBER OUR SINS IN HEAVEN?

Will we remember our sins in Heaven? Some have argued, yes, we will, but not in the manner in which on earth we recall our sins.

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…will we remember our sins?

I’m not sure the Bible addresses this question directly, yet it’s one I’ve been asked plenty of times. How can we rejoice in being forgiven but not look back in pain at our sin[s]? In the end, we trust the Lord with this question, yet I think we are pointed towards the answer.

…It seems that in heaven right now, the song of the Lamb is founded upon a recollection of sin:

And they sang a new song, saying:

“You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.” (Revelation 5:9-10)

The blood of Jesus purchases us out of our slavery to sin. That’s what he’s being praised for.

So I think we will have an awareness of our sin[s], but that in our sinless state, it will not cause us distress. We’ll know the sweetness of being forgiven but not the shame for what we’ve done.

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https://www.thegoodbook.com/blog/interestingthoughts/2017/06/29/will-we-remember-our-sin-in-heaven/

—Matt Fuller, “Will We Remember Our Sin[s] in Heaven?” June 29, 2017, thegoodbook.com

Dante Alighieri appears to have at least acknowledged that the remembrance of our personal sins will detract from our experience of the perfect beatitude of Heaven.

For this reason, he placed the river Lethe atop Mount Purgatory so that before ascending into the celestial spheres of Heaven and into the Empyrean, souls by bathing in the river could completely cleanse themselves of the memory of their personal sins.

“When I was near to the shore of the blessed, I heard ‘Asperges me: cleanse me’ sung so sweetly, I cannot remember it, nor can I describe it. The lovely lady opened her arms, clasped my head, and submerged me so that I had to swallow water, then pulled me out, and led me, cleansed.”—Purgatorio, XXXI

https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Italian/DantPurg29to33.php#anchor_Toc64099740

—“Dante: The Divine Comedy: Purgatorio Cantos XXIX-XXXIII,” Poetry in Translation

Several times Scripture attests that God forgets sins even to the point that they actually vanish.

Isaiah 43:25

It is I, I, who wipe out, for my own sake, your offenses; your sins I remember no more.

Jeremiah 31:34

Everyone, from least to greatest, shall know me—oracle of the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity and no longer remember their sins.

Jeremiah 50:20

In those days, at that time—oracle of the Lord: the guilt of Israel may be sought, but it no longer exists, the sin of Judah, but it can no longer be found; for I will forgive the remnant I preserve.

Micah 7:18-19

Who is a God like you, who removes guilt and pardons sin for the remnant of his inheritance—who does not persist in anger forever but instead delights in mercy and will again have compassion on us, treading underfoot our iniquities? You will cast into the depths of the sea all our sins.

Hebrews 8:12

I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sins no more.

Hebrews 10:17

[The holy Spirit] also says: “Their sins and their evildoing I will remember no more.”

Repeating the question, “Will we remember our sins in Heaven?” I respond as follows.

Sin wounds the soul and causes suffering as a result. Analogy with bodily injury might be helpful concerning this question. It is possible to recall an injury, say, a bruised knee, from the past without feeling pain or distress, and the memory of this injury hardly occupies us.

Something analogous may happen with respect to the wounds of the soul when we experience beatitude (assuming we attain it). Our memory of our personal sins—and for that matter, the sins of the world—will possibly be infinitesimally reduced by the glory and holiness of the vision of God.

The sins of the world will in effect be forgotten because nothing will detract from or reduce the beatitude of the elect, which will be perfect.

According to this view, sins may be remembered but not according to the manner in which we exercise our earthly memory.

A related question is, “Will we remember our sins in Hell?”

Yes, in Hell, all sins that have not been forgiven will be remembered forever.

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