Marilynne Robinson has written a novel titled Gilead, a beautiful novel of hers that you readily recommend, Pastor John. And at one place in the novel, this is what she writes, quote, in eternity, this world will be Troy, I believe. And all that has passed here will be the epic of the universe, the ballad they sing in the streets.

Because I don't imagine any reality putting this one in the shade entirely, and I think piety forbids me to try, end quote. What do you think, Pastor John? Will this life be a ballad of eternity? Obviously, there will be no tears and no regrets in heaven, but are there any biblical clues on the place of history in eternity?

>> I would love to know what she means by piety forbids me to try. I know what I mean when I say yes to your question, because I agree with her. At least insofar as I understand her, I agree with her. When Troy is mentioned, not everybody might get that.

Troy was the city that the Greek states were attacking to try to capture, and it was a ten year conquest, and Homer wrote the Iliad about it. And the Iliad, I think, focuses pretty much on the last several weeks of that conquest. And Troy is captured, and so the bravery is heralded for generations to come.

And the Odyssey is about the coming home of Odysseus. And so in other words, a great historical exploit that is told and written in poems for generations to come. And she's saying, in the age to come, after Christ returns and the kingdom is established and the new heavens and the new earth are in place, the last thousands of years of church history that we are living in right now are going to be that balladry.

They're going to be that, and I think that's right. So here's my reason. What is history for? What is history for? All your, this is Psalm 145, all your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord. All your saints shall bless you. They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom and tell of your power to make known to the children of man your mighty deeds and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.

And I want to say, what? They're just going to stop? All of that is magnificently worth heralding now, and it won't be magnificently worth heralding then? I don't think so. What does Christ's work mean? When I read in Revelation 5 that they are singing, in heaven worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals.

For you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. They're singing that ages after the event in heaven, they're singing about the cross. Now, what meaning could the cross possibly have in heaven if the history of redemption is forgotten?

Nothing, it will be meaningless. In other words, if you say, what will be celebrated about Jesus Christ? Surely, he will be celebrated for having fulfilled all the promises of the Old Testament. Surely, he will be celebrated in ways we've never seen by fulfilling everything the history of redemption was all about.

Surely, he will be celebrated by being the ground and cause of every good thing that happened after him in the world. And so if Christ really is the center, the apex of redemptive history for that apex to have its meaning, then the rest of history of which it is the apex has to be known and understood and celebrated as well.

And here's another pointer. Revelation 15, 3, they sing in heaven, they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God and of the Lamb. Now, the song of Moses is Exodus 15, where they're singing about the triumphs of the people of God over Pharaoh. So if we're singing about the Lamb and we're singing the song of Moses, surely that is symptomatic of singing the songs of the triumphs of God in world history right down to the salvation of Tony Ranke, surely, right?

Why would your story not be told and not be remembered to the praise and the glory of God? You're a trophy of grace. Well, I think those trophies are gonna be walking around in the kingdom. And if you see a trophy on somebody's shelf, you say, what's that? And he tells you about the game, right, the game.

And the season when the trophy was won. Or here's another clue. We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, Paul says, so that each one may receive his due from the body, what is good and what is evil. Well, if you're gonna receive something for what was good, though the good is gonna be remembered and something is gonna happen to you that will constantly call to mind the good.

So there's another evidence or the ten talents, you're gonna be serving over ten cities, I'll be serving over five cities, and there will be some explanation for that, and the explanation is it has roots back in this age. Now, I think you asked also, well, wait a minute, there's a lot of sad stuff in this age, and he's gonna wipe away every tear.

Okay, here's my take, and you can say this is speculative maybe, but I don't think Jesus is going to wipe away tears of joy. When he says every tear will be wiped away, he means painful tear, tear that is destructive and hurtful and paralyzing, and it makes my life miserable to have these tears and these memories.

But if my, I mean, I'm sure most of our listeners will agree that the deepest joys have sometimes brought tears rather than laughter. Tears of stunned amazement that we've been treated so well, and those tears aren't gonna be wiped away, they're beautiful. You can see the sparkle of grace in those tears.

And if you would ask me, well, will there be regrets? Hmm, for years I have tried to put together two texts that I think gives an answer to this. One is Philippians 3 where it says, forgetting what lies behind, we strain forward to the goal, so you're supposed to forget what lies behind.

And the other is Ephesians 2 that says, remember that you were once separated from Christ. So you got a command to forget and a command to remember. How do you put those together? I put them together like this. Every regret and every memory will be done away with that cannot serve your greater joy, cannot serve your greater love for Jesus, your greater valuing of grace.

So he will wipe away every way of remembering, every way of regretting that ruins your joy in heaven, and minimizes his mercy and minimizes his glory. But I think, Tony, that Marilynne Robinson is right that we have a great Troy in redemptive history, and God will see to it that all the mighty works of grace done in the thousands of years leading up to the second coming will not be forgotten.

And yes, she's probably right that piety should prevent us from wanting it to be forgotten. Excellent. Thank you, Pastor John, and thank you for listening to this podcast. Please email your literary questions to us at AskPastorJohn@DesiringGod.org. At DesiringGod.org, you'll find thousands of other free resources online from John Piper.

I'm your host, Tony Reinke. Thanks for listening.