The end of sin: will sin be destroyed?

Been thinking about eschatology lately. That that is such a volume of texts involved make it vital to be patient and fair when dealing with differing views. One of the issues on my mind is the end of sin in believers.

One of the statements that run around as cliches in the church about the eternal state that "sin will be destroyed". I think the sentiment is true, but the statement is inaccurate (if you believe, as scripture teaches, in eternal punishment). The existence of an eternal hell means there will eternally exist creatures, whether human or angelic, who are in rebellion to God. Thus, sin always will exist, it is not destroyed. Sin is not a thing to be created or destroyed, it is a corruption of conformity to God's nature (thus, Romans 3:23 - "falling short").

Yet, before I get stoned, let me insist that while sin is not destroyed, there will be no sin in heaven.

But nothing unclean will ever enter [the heavenly city], nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life. (Revelation 21:27).

Those who sin are outside this city:

Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
(Revelation 22:15)

So in the eternal state, there are two realms, and these do not have influence on each other. But if sin is not destroyed, what distinguishes the ages to come from the beginning of this age? Adam was a perfect being, the Angels were perfect beings, and yet they sinned. I can think of a few reasons why this is different for believers in the age to come.

1. The memory of salvation history both personal and racial will mean that we have seen the effects of sin in our own life and in our human race's existence. Thus, unlike Adam, the deception of sin with false promises (Genesis 3:5) will have no hold over us, like it did for the first couple and they were deceived.
2. The transformed nature of resurrected believers (1 Corinthians 15:50-58) indicates that by nature they will be stronger than the first man, Adam. Additionally, those resurrected believers will trace their genes not in Adam, but in Christ, whose glorious resurrection and resurrection body is the firstfruits of this new sinless race (1 Corinthians 15:46-49).
3. The presence of God and the Lamb (Revelation 21:22-24) is the most powerful reason no more sin in believers during the eternal state. According to the texts there is nowhere in the city that the light of the God and the lamp of the lamb will not shine. Why do believers sin today? Because they are not as consistently close to Jesus as they should be. This problem will be finally solved in eternity, for there will never be a time we do not behold Jesus. Thus, the Apostle John says:

   Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:2, emphasis added)

Thanks be to God in Jesus, for the victory is in Him!

And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. (1 John 3:3)

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. (1 Corinthians 15:58)

Empathy in Evangelism

"As we turn to consider in more detail how we may speak to people of the twentieth century, we must realize first of all that we cannot apply mechanical rules. We, of all people, should realize this, for as Christians we believe that personality really does exist and is important. We can lay down some general principles, but there can be no automatic application. If we are truly personal, as created by God, then each individual will differ from everyone else. Therefore each person must be dealt with as an individual, not as a case or statistic or machine. If we could work with these people, we cannot apply things we have learnt..." "...mechanically. We must look to the Lord in prayer, and to the work of the Holy Spirit, for the effective use of these things."

"Furthermore, we must remember that the person to whom we are talking, however far from the Christian faith he may be, is an image-bearer of God. He has great value, and our communication to him must be in genuine love. Love is not an easy thing; it is not just an emotional urge, but an attempt to move over and sit in the other person's place and see how his problems look to him. Love is a genuine concern for the individual. As Jesus Christ reminds us, we are to love that individual 'as ourselves'. This is the place to begin. Therefore, to be engaged in personal 'witness' as a duty or because our Christian circle exerts a social pressure on us, is to miss the whole point. The reason we do it is that the person before us is an image-bearer of God, and he is an individual who is unique in this world. This kind of communication is not cheap. To understand and speak to sincere but utterly confused twentieth-century people is costly. It is tiring; it will open you to temptations and pressures. Genuine love, in the last analysis, means a willingness to be entirely exposed to the person to whom we are talking."

Francis Shaeffer

Postmodernism

Though it led to a lack of objectivity, maybe the postmodernist mistake is founded on a right desire for complexity, and a reaction against being simplistic in everything. Even here the issue is complex, because not everything is complex.

"The essence of tyranny is the denial of complexity".
- Jacob Burkhardt

**note: "complex" does not mean "complicated", neither does "simplistic" mean "simple".

Certainty and Biblical Faith

How can Biblical faith be certain? Isn't this contradiction? Isn't the best we can do probable, not absolute?

Maybe it should be understood this way. Certainty is binary. Probability is a mathematical possibility. The two, while both valid, are not to be conflated. Certainty has to do with matters of being in a time frame. "Is" or "Is not", at this time, never or forever. Probability has to do with prediction "probably will". So the certainty of 2+2 being 4 is constant, not probable, for the entire period which 2 and 4 remain 2 and 4. I think, therefore it is certain that I am. If factors do not change, then certainty remains for the future. If factors change, then probability enters the conversation. Thus, if all things remain equal, if X is Y now, then X will be Y later.

Certainty is different from accuracy. It is certain that "the arrow hit the target". To counter this evident occurrence is to confuse categories by redefining terms and context, and not take the statement on its own terms. How accurately the arrow hit the target is a different discussion, based on establishing a standard of accuracy.

Faith, if defined as the appropriation of (acceptance of, dependence on) the certain, is Biblical faith. Acceptance of the probable as certain is not Biblical faith, but wishful thinking. Once you establish certainty, you can build confidently on it - the irony of Christian faith is that without certainty you cannot believe, Christianity is not a "leap of faith". This is what the case for Christ is all about - and it's not just a certainty based on historic facts, but present, ongoing, certain assurances and realities.

Beloved, Rest in God

Concerning our lives:

He chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love, He predestined us (Eph 1:3-5)

Concerning our work:

We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Eph 2:10)

Concerning His Church:

He will build His church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (Matt 16:18)

To him (will) be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever (Eph 3:21)

Implication:

Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, my beloved brothers,

1. be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. (1 Cor 15:57-58)

2. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. (Phil 4:6)

Bible Studies I Would Kill to Have Been At

Working backwards, and assuming (fairly, I should think) where it does not mention the word "scripture" that given the time spent, scripture was the major content of their teaching...

Paul:

"When they had appointed a day for him, they came to him at his lodging in greater numbers. From morning till evening he expounded to them, testifying to the kingdom of God and trying to convince them about Jesus both from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets."
Acts 28:23

And he entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God.
Acts 19:8

And Paul went in [Thessalonica], as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ...
... Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.
Acts 17:2-3, 11

Interesting that the Bereans, whom we use as a model of diligent students, actually were eager to study in a very specific way - as Jews, they were checking scriptures to see if the Christ that Paul preached from the Old Testament was really there!

Jesus:

Then he opened their [the disciples] minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
Luke 24:45-47

He presented himself alive to them [the disciples] after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.
Acts 1:3

And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them [the two men on the road to Emmaus] in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
Luke 24:27

and, of course
"You [Pharisees] search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me..."
John 5:39

The kingdom of God. The person, work and purpose of Christ. Jesus is the Christ. Is it reasonable to say that if they saw the OT this way, so should we. Isn't it also reasonable to say that to the extent we don't use all scripture this way, we're deviating from norm?

And oh, I wouldn't actually kill anyone. Maybe a rabbit.

Faith

Faith is not a power; it is merely acquiescing to the power of God.
-John Hannah

Sin and Legalism, John Owen

This might surprise you, but it's helpful. From John Owen's "Mortification of Sin in Believers" (I've tried to simplify the language a little, maybe it helps).

When a man fights against his sin only with arguments from the issue or the punishment due the sin, this is a sign that sin has taken great possession of the will, and that there is a superfluity of naughtiness in the heart. A man that opposes nothing from sin's seduction and lust in his heart except fear of shame among men or hell from God, is sufficiently resolved to do the sin as if there were no punishment for it; which, what is different from living in the practice of sin, I do not know. Those who are Christ's, and are acted in their obedience by Gospel principles, have the death of Christ,the love of God, the detestable nature of sin, the preciousness of communion with God, a grounded hatred of sin as sin, to oppose any seduction of sin, to all the workings, strivings, fightings of lust in their hearts. Joseph did so. "How shall I do this great evil," says he, "and sin against the Lord?" my good and gracious God. And Paul, "The Love of Christ constrains us;" and, "having received these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from all pollution of the flesh and spirit," 2 Cor 7:1.

But now if a man is so under the power of his lust that he has nothing but law to oppose it with, if he cannot fight against it with gospel weapons, but deals with it only with hell and judgment, which are the proper arms of the law, it is most evident that sin has possessed itself of his will and affections to a very great prevalence and conquest. Such a person has cast of, with regard to the particular sin, the conduct of renewing grace, and is kept from ruin only by restraining grace; and so far is he fallen from grace, and returned under the power of the law. And can it be thought that this is not a great provocation to Christ, that men should cast of his gentle, easy yoke and rule, and cast themselves under the iron yoke of the law, merely out of indulgence of their lusts?

This truth should affect both how we approach our own sin as well as how we preach to others about sin. From where do we, as regenerate believers, draw motivation for the mortification of sin? From law and judgment, or the renewing grace of the Gospel? Owen 's warning is strong, that if you're motivating or being motivated by fear and judgment, you are "fallen from grace" and have "returned under the power law", the very thing you were redeemed from.

Rather, use gospel weapons: The death of Christ (and the many realities it brings for our relation to sin), the love of God (which, by the Spirit, compels us), the detestable nature of sin (in light of what God did about it), the preciousness of intimacy with God (and sin's hindrance of it) and therefore a deep hatred of sin as sin.

By the way, for all those on the 'new' Gospel-Centrality bandwagon, this was published (written much earlier) in 1658.

Be blessed.