There were two previous times when Peter tried to say, "No, Lord," rather than "Yes, Lord." We find one of them in Matthew 16:21-23 when Peter refused to believe that Christ had to suffer and die. At that time Peter did not have in mind the things of God. "Never, Lord!" are two words that a disciple can never utter. They are self-contradictory. If Peter is saying no to Jesus, then he is not really following Jesus as Lord at all.
If ever there was a disciple after God’s own heart, it was Peter. It was Peter, you remember, who was the first to leave his fishing nets and follow Jesus, the first to get out of his boat and walk with Jesus on the water, and the first to confess Christ Jesus as the Christ. In the Gospel of John, chapter 21, verses 1-19, Peter is getting wet for Jesus once again. He is the first to tuck in his robe, the first to jump in the lake, and the first to swim to Jesus on the shore. Can there be any doubt that Peter loves the Lord Jesus? There he stands beside the Galilee, his dripping robes a testimony of his affection for the Lord.
In the words of the great hymn writer Isaac Watts, "Every power will find sweet employ in that eternal world of joy." But, of course, the difference will be that our work and our play will be unstained by sin. At present we're striving to become more and more holy and making slow progress of it. But we will not become completely and perfectly holy until we're glorified. Glorification is the perfection of our sanctification. In heaven we will be free from sin forever. We will be unable to sin. We will live as sinless creatures in deathless bodies. And God will glorify us so that we can glorify him for all eternity.
So I ask you, have you asked Jesus to make you clean? If not, I really doubt whether you have anything suitable to wear for eternity. But if you do go to Jesus, you will find that God’s promise is true - that though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; that though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. The hymn writer William Cooper described that remarkable cleansing like this: "There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel’s veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains." When we emerge from that cleansing fountain, we come out as spotless as the Lamb himself.
Here in Revelation 7, three features of our glorious life are mentioned: our beautiful adornment, our blessed employment, and our endless enjoyment. First, our beautiful adornment: when we all get to heaven, we will all wear long, white robes. Now, this is theologically significant. It’s mentioned several times in these verses. It is mentioned again in Revelation, chapter 19, where we are told that we will wear "fine linen, bright and clean." In fact, the history of salvation is actually a series of fashion statements.
