The secret life of the saints in eternity; the secret life of Irma. Their life isn’t secret; we’ve just forgotten what it includes. And when we forget, we shortchange their lives. How is that possible? How can you shorten the life of a saint in eternity? He is beyond, outside, the realms of time, in God’s glorious presence. It’s when we think their existence is only of being a soul since they no longer need their bodies. Not so!
Now, Irma is in heaven. Her soul (or spirit) is delighting in God’s presence with the others saints. She is part of the redeemed, those made holy by the blood of Christ. Solomon, the one to whom God gave an extra portion of wisdom, wrote: “Our dust returns to the earth as it was before and the spirit returns to God who gave it” (Ecclesiastes 12:7).
When Jesus was dying on the cross, paying for the sins of the world, for Irma’s sins, and yours, He spoke to a criminal dying next to Him. The thief recognized Jesus as the promised Savior. Assuring the crucified man in his distress, our Lord comforted him: “Today, you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43).
The body of the thief remained on the cross while God delivered his soul to heaven. Irma and the repentant thief are now friends, eternal friends. Even while she lived here, she had a kind personality, able to forgive and rebuild bridges with others, those who seemed irreconcilable. Now, she’s without sin—like the thief—so, of course, they’re friends. For the saints of heaven, sin no longer is getting in the way.
So, what is Irma doing, now, in God’s eternal presence? What is she doing as part of the Church Triumphant? Is she floating on a cloud, in pure bliss, strumming a golden harp for all eternity? You’d be on a never-ending journey to find such a description in Scripture. Here’s what we do find.
God gave the Apostle John a vision of heaven. Stunned by what his mind took in, he tried to describe the indescribable. In front of John were “the four living creatures and the 24 elders, who bowed before the Lamb” (Revelation 5:8). Four represents creation. The 24 elders represent the Church—both the Old Covenant and the New. The 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 Apostles equals 24. The Lamb is Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29).
John tells us what they are doing. “Each held a harp and a gold bowl full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints” (Revelation 5:8). So, we do find a harp, but no one is playing it as he floats on a cloud. We, instead, find the saints in eternity praying, shown by the burning incense rising to the throne of God. They are praying.
So, for whom does Irma pray: herself, the other saints in heaven, for people still here on earth, for you? Here, Scripture doesn’t answer such a question. But they do pray, for they are still part of the Church—and Christians pray. So, what does God want His people to pray for, those who are in His Church?
We now drink in the words of the Apostle Paul:
First, I urge you to offer, for everyone, petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanks to God. Pray for kings and all who are in authority that we [the saints on earth] may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. Such prayer is good and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. [1 Timothy 2:1-4]
So, Irma is praying for us. She may even be praying for you by name. We don’t know, but she is aware of some of what takes place in our lives. Now, this doesn’t cause her any heartache or tears. The Apostle John tells us, again in Revelation: “The lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd. He will lead them to springs of living waters, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Revelation 7:17).
Such a joy this gives us! For Irma is not sad and filled with tears. She is without sin, and she even prays for us; yet, is more going on in her “secret” life in eternity? Our Gospel reading, “The Parable of the Lost Sheep,” gives us a clue. What may have slipped past us was our Lord’s ending for His parable.
Jesus finishes His parable in this way: “There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous people who don’t need to repent.” Here’s the irony: while sin is still within us, we still need to repent—and when we repent, “heaven” rejoices! Irma rejoices every time you turn from sin, back to God!
So, what happens when you come to Church every Sunday and confess your sins? Confessing your sins is repenting; it’s denouncing your sins and turning away from them. What happens? Irma rejoices! In Holy-Spirited repentance, you bring joy to Irma, now in eternity. How cool is that?
So, Irma’s not sitting on a cloud, oblivious to what is happening in our lives. Our Epistle reading corrects us of such an unbiblical idea. Irma is now part of “a large cloud eyewitnesses surrounding us” (Hebrews 12:1). They can surround us in such a way because they are still without their bodies. They haven’t yet received what God promised (Hebrews 11:39), which will happen when Jesus calls forth our bodies when He returns.
Even now, while only a soul, Irma is part of this “cloud” of saints surrounding us. In New-Testament Greek, a “witness” or “eyewitness” can only be so because he sees something that happens. If you didn’t observe what happened, you can’t be a witness. Our courts work the same way: you cannot testify to what you did not witness.
So, as part of the vast cloud of saints surrounding us, Irma is seeing us, as an eyewitness. You might think, “What does that mean?” A most Lutheran question, which we learned to ask from Luther’s Small Catechism. The book of Hebrews tells us: “For that reason, throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily ensnares. Run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, who begins and completes our faith.”
Since Irma can see you, as part of the saints in eternity, she’s cheering us on to keep running the race of faith! “Don’t give up! If you only knew the eternal joys I’m experiencing, you would let nothing stop you from crossing the finish line in faith.”
There you have it. That’s part of what Irma is now doing—but she’s still incomplete. Like all the saints of old, Irma hasn’t yet received “what was promised,” as our Epistle reading tells us. She’s still awaiting a sinless, perfect body to join her soul—when Jesus returns on the Last Day.
Back in the beginning, when God created Adam, He breathed His life into the man, and Adam became a living creature (Genesis 2:7). The Hebrew text says Adam became a living soul. From the start, God made us as beings with both a body AND a soul. Without both, we are incomplete. So, why would God leave us incomplete? He won’t.
“God provided something better—only with us will they be made complete” (Hebrews 11:40). Irma is sinless, living in eternal joy. Her journey, however, is not yet complete. She, like us, is still living in faith. She, like us, awaits our Lord’s return, when body and soul will reunite. She awaits to be the person whom God created her to be from the start. And why not! Irma as only bodiless being can’t eat the potatoes she so loved—but when her body and soul reunite, watch out!
“So, these three remain—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13). Why is love the greatest? Our reading from Hebrews tells us about faith: “Faith is the reality of what we hope for, the proof of what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1). Irma is still living by faith, as are we. She is not yet experiencing (she is not now witnessing) her body and soul delighting in eternity. By faith, she also believes in body’s resurrection. Irma is now experiencing heaven and some of God’s eternity—but not everything!
What then of hope? The Apostle Paul tells us: “We were saved in hope; yet if we can see what we hope for, that is not hope. Who hopes for what he has?” (Romans 8:24). Irma is still living in hope, for she is not yet experiencing her body and soul delighting in eternity. Oh, Irma is further along than we are, for she’s experiencing heaven and some of God’s eternity—but not everything!
“So, these three remain—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13). Love is the greatest because it continues into eternity, even after the Last Day. Our Lord will return, reuniting body and soul, fulfilling our faith. What we hope for, being all that God created us to be from the start, we will then experience. Love, however, will remain.
“God is love” (1 John 4:8). Being complete, perfect, and sinless, with our faith fulfilled and our hope complete, we will experience Love—God in all His fullness. You can only experience that when God’s love infuses, floods, and fills your entire being—in body and soul, without sin getting in the way. God will fill you with His fullness in His way, in the new heaven and earth. So also for Irma.
Irma is still your sister in the Faith. “For that reason, throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily ensnares. Run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, who begins and completes our faith.” Amen.
