Let this encourage God’s people to endure patiently every trial and persecution, for they are His saints who remain firm to the end in obedience to His commands and trust in Jesus. And I heard a voice in the heavens above me saying, “Write this down: At last the time has come for His martyrs to enter into their full reward. Yes, says the Spirit, they are blessed indeed, for now they shall rest from all their toils and trials; for their good deeds follow them to heaven!” Revelation 14:12-13 TLB

If we are to be saints in glory, we must be saints before we die. The favorite idea of many, that dying men need nothing except absolution and forgiveness of sins to fit them for The Kingdom, is a delusion. We need the work of the Holy Spirit as well as the work of Christ. We need renewal of the heart as well as the atoning blood. We need to be sanctified as well as to be justified.

The rest of heaven would be utterly useless if we had no heart to enjoy it. What could an unsanctified man do in heaven, if by any chance he got there? No man can possibly be happy in a place where he is not in his element, and where all around him is not congenial to his tastes, habits, and character.