Not sure i follow you here. The stones, in heaven will remind us of things discounted and discarded? The stones are the apostles and nothing in heaven will ever remind us of our sin or things discarded. Not sure where you got that from.
I disagree again. God doesn't count us holy "if"....He does these things all on His own.
Titus 2:14
14 who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.NASB
1 Thess 3:13
13 so that He may establish your hearts unblamable in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints. NASB
And many more. God does all this in the believer.
Again, sorry but this sounds confusing to me. It sounds like youre playing both sides. Are we perfect and sinless? Or do we need sanctification to grow in Christ-likeness? Sanctification implying we sin, confess and press on as well as strive to live for Him. Keeping our eye on the goal.
I'm sure someone will twist this to say 'see, just live in sin sin sin and still expect to go to heaven uncleansed, blemished and carnal.' There i did it for a certain individual. I of course never said it but i'm sure thats what at least one person would have said that i said.
We only see the end of our road, not how we get there.
Our understanding of Gods perfection is always our own, not His.
And look at what people say in the church. Its alright to be carnal we are forgiven, covered by the blood, osas, or equally we are perfect and pure, and only the lost or deceived fail. It is hard to accept God is working with us, and we are a work in progress. But speak to believers and you will find issues and things they are all working on. And then see Paul calling us to perfection, aim for it.
So here is the tension, and God regards us as worthy, precious jewels in the Kingdom.
Take David and Bathsheba. His fall was predictable, but also his repentance and restitution.
It is this, our weakness, and then our ability to repent and work with our weaknesses that mark out the elect.
