In Chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians, the apostle Paul describes the attributes of love:

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres (vv. 4–7 NIV84).

And the Bible tells us that “God is love” (1 John 4:8).

Do you believe God is love? If so, then do you rejoice knowing God is patient and kind, that He is not envious and doesn’t boast, that He is not proud or rude, that He is not self-seeking or easily angered, that He doesn’t delight in evil but rejoices with the truth?

Well, what about the “keeping no record of wrongs” part?

If you believe God is love and that love keeps no record of wrongs, then do you believe that God does or does not keep records of wrongs?

You might recall that the Bible teaches there are record books in heaven and that from those books, people are “judged.”

And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books (Revelation 20:12 NIV84).

If God is love and love keeps no record of wrongs, then how do we harmonize the Bible teaching that there are records in heaven from which people will be judged according to what they have done?

It all depends on the “law lens” one has as they read and try to understand Scripture.

Do you believe God’s laws function like human law, imposed (made-up) rules that require external oversight and enforcement through infliction of punishment? If so, then the books become a record of wrongs that the legal justice system must maintain to ensure accurate accounting and just enforcement. In this legal view, it is taught that what is recorded in the books of heaven are the bad deeds, the sins, of people—a record of wrongs.

Those who hold the human legal view of God’s law will teach that God will open these legal documents (books) in the judgment and will be required by law and justice to judge us by this list of sins that remain recorded there (the ones not removed by the blood of Christ through our confession and claiming His blood as our legal payment). They will argue that God is not only loving but also “just” and, because they falsely believe God’s law functions like human law, they will assert that His “justice” is the infliction of proper torture and death to enforce the law—because if the law is not enforced, then everyone gets away with sin; i.e., no justice.

But this very teaching undermines love and trust, for no matter how one frames it, the ideology functions like this: God says, “Love me, or I will kill you.” But this is a violation of the law of liberty and always results in the destruction of love and trust, which causes more fear, selfishness, and distrust of God. This causes those who believe this lie to cling with greater intensity to the legal system because their spirit is afraid of what God will do to them if their sins are not properly paid, hidden, and removed from the record. Thus, they experience a feeling of “security” from the punishing god they worship within their false legal framework.

These legalists also do not realize that sin does not happen or occur in books and, therefore, God cannot erase or eradicate it from His universe by paying legal penalties and erasing historical records.

How the “Books” Work in Reality

When we return to reality, to worshiping God as Creator, to the truth that as Creator God’s laws are design laws, the laws only the Creator can establish and maintain—like the laws of physics, gravity, health, and the moral laws that govern the operations of hearts and minds—then we realize that sin is not a legal problem; it is a lethal problem. It is choosing to deviate from the protocols (laws) that God has built life to exist and operate upon and, as such, causes decay, degradation, pain, suffering, and, if not healed, death.

When we return to reality, to worshiping God as Creator, we realize that sin is a breakdown of love and trust that occurs in the minds and hearts of intelligent beings and can only be erased by truth, love, and trust being restored in the being, which requires their free-will participation. This is why the Bible teaches the plan of salvation is God writing His design law upon our hearts and minds (Hebrews 8:10), and that God cannot win by might and power but only by His Spirit, which is the Spirit of truth and love (Zechariah 4:6).

In this reality-based understanding of erasing sin from the “books,” history doesn’t change; what changes is sinners. They are, in reality, changed from distrusting, fear-ridden rebels into loyal, loving, and trustworthy saints through the application of all that Christ has provided. Truth erases from their hearts and minds the lies they have believed. Love erases the fear and selfishness. The life of Christ that we receive through faith erases the life of guilt and shame, and we are reborn, recreated, renewed to become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21).

So then how do we understand the records?

They are a transcript of each of our individualities, our identities, our characters, who we have chosen to become. The Bible teaches that what is recorded in the books of heaven are the “names” of people (Revelation 21:27). And names in Scripture represent character, who we are in reality. Have we chosen to trust God, to surrender our lives of fear, guilt, sin, and shame to Jesus and be reborn with a new Spirit? Have we been regenerated and recreated to have the mind of Christ, so, like Paul, we can say, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me”? (Galatians 2:20 NIV84). Or have we chosen to cling to lies, fear, and selfishness, and to hide our sin-sick selves behind a wall of legal theologies designed to protect us from God?

How Judgment Works in Reality

So what happens in the judgment? Reality—we are all exposed to be exactly what we have chosen to become. Either we have chosen truth in Jesus and been reborn to be like Him, or we have rejected truth and love and chosen to harden in sin and rebellion.

And then when the records of reality, of who we are, are revealed, people are judged by what they have done. How is this God not keeping a record of wrongs? Because what is it they have done? This is what will be seen when the records are opened:

The lives, the hearts, minds, and characters of the lost are exposed for all to see for what they actually are—the “books” of our lives are opened. And it is seen by all the heavenly beings and the saved from Earth that the hearts, minds, and characters of the wicked are that way because they repeatedly chose fear over love, lies over truth, distrust over trust, exploitation over kindness, etc. As they are seen to be what they have chosen, hardened in character against every single manifestation of God’s love and truth poured out to save them throughout their lives, the entire universe watching will, with broken hearts, say with God and Jesus, “What have you done?” “What have you done to yourself?”

For “the dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.”

And what have they done in reality? They have chosen to harden their hearts into lies, fear, selfishness, and distrust of God, such that no amount of truth and love will have any redeeming impact upon them. They experience truth as an attack, love as mocking and manipulation, kindness as accusation, tenderness as weakness, mercy as vulnerability. They are disgusted and hate the kingdom of God and—they are judged, diagnosed, by all the righteous to be exactly what they have chosen to become.

That is the judgment. There is no record of legal wrongs being kept to punish people by—love doesn’t do that. Love rejoices with the truth and gives real freedom; thus, God’s records are the records of reality, what people have chosen freely for themselves to encode, value, internalize, and become.

Understanding reality, the only way to have our heavenly record cleansed from sin, is to trust Jesus today and have our hearts and minds cleansed. Sin is erased from the “books of heaven” by trusting Jesus and having fear, distrust, lies, and rebellion erased from our hearts and minds today. Why? Because the heavenly records are the records of reality, of who we are. We have either been won back to love and trust, or we have not.

Love doesn’t keep a record of wrongs—it keeps track of people, and people choose who they become.

If you haven’t already done so, I encourage you to embrace reality, reject the imposed-law lies, and worship God as Creator whose laws are the design laws of life; open your heart in trust to Him and be reborn with His Spirit of love and trust—this is the way, this is life, this is healing, this is reality.