Several people, in comments on Without Sin? suggested that I’m referring to the idea, articulated by C.S. Lewis as well as in the Catholic teaching on Purgatory, of the need one might feel to be cleansed and purified before entering heaven. And I kept saying, yes, that’s an important point, but it’s not what I’m thinking about. It’s more like a physical disability, or a disease. Thinking about it this morning, I came up with an analogy.
Imagine a guy who’s always longed to play in the NFL. But he’s 5'5" tall, weighs 140 pounds, is small-boned and light-muscled, and due to a congenital defect wears a brace on one leg. Suppose a kind-hearted coach says to him, “Sure, come on, we’ll let you play,” invites him to training camp, and puts him in a uniform. Well, he can go out on the field, but still can’t play. No matter how merciful the coaches and the other players are to him, he’s just physically incapable of playing NFL football. To do so, he would have to be physically transformed.
Something like that, on the spiritual level but also on the level of whatever physicality our resurrected bodies will have, must, it seems to me, be part of what it would mean to be without sin, unfallen. That’s what I have difficulty in imagining. To imagine myself, as I am now, in heaven, is to imagine being in the position of that 140-pound guy.
I have faith that God can effect that sort of transformation, and in fact that analogy helps me to imagine it. I can imagine that guy being bigger and stronger and not having a bad leg, but still being essentially himself.
Light On Dark Water 
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