Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Will repented sin be brought up in Heaven as "paid in full?"

So this is a question I know that many of us have thought about and to be honest I thought that i knew the answer too. I remember going to a different (i dont want to put the denomination) church with a friend when i was in 5th grade and hearing about the repercussions of our sin...how if i sinned then my children would suffer for it and when i got to heaven that God would show me my sin (they claimed that God would show me the faces of all of those that I didn't share with that ended up in hell). So when our pastor was asked this by one of our church members he decided to preach on this topic. He titled his sermon "Thank God for the Cross: God is Satisfied!" This was a very emotional sermon for him to preach for obvious reasons....the realization that our sin is paid in full should bring you to tears of thankfulness. I know adam and I were overwhelmed with a feeling of love for our God and this was one of those sermons that we actually talked about over lunch with our friends (joel, you know what i mean). So here it is....in my words. First of all, the church member told our pastor that she just kept going back to her salvation and wondering if she would ever see her sin again.
He responded with Romans 8:38-39 " For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to seperate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord".
In other words God's love for us is final and secure. To prove this even more, we looked at Genesis 12:2-3 which is God's covenant with Abraham GET READY, THIS IS GOOD STUFF!!! "

I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you And I will curse him who curses you. And in you all families of the earth shall be blessed".
So we learn that that from Abraham there will be many people who will form a nation that God will bless. But, in Genesis 15: we learn that Abraham and Sarah are not able to have kids and Abraham is worried that Eliezer, the son of one of the servants of thier household will be the heir of Abraham. God comforts him and says
" This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body will be your heir"- vs. 4
God tells him that the # of offspring that will come from him will be like the # of stars in the heavens . Abraham asks God how he can know these things are true and here is where the covenant is made. Abraham is commanded to bring a heifer, a goat, a ram, a turtledove and a pigeon and to cut them in two, except for the birds. In ancient covenants the two who were making the covenant would walk between the cut carcasses, affirming that the same should happen to them if they broke the covenant. God had different plans for the covenant between he and Abraham though. While Abraham was waiting for the next move from God, God caused him to fall into a deep sleep where he revealed to Abraham that he would not see the promise of this blessed nation played out in his lifetime. He would die before the blessed nation would reach the promised land. God put Abraham to sleep because the covenant did not involve any promise on His part. He would not walk through the peices as a pledge.When Abraham woke up he saw a burning lamp and a smoking oven passing between the two peices of the carcasses. The burning lamp is Jesus-he is called the light of the world and the smoking oven is God-when an offering is completely done all that is left is smoke....the smoke symbolized the satisfaction of God. Therefore instead of God making this covenant with Abraham he made the covenant with himself. Instead of God and Abraham walking through the carcasses, God and Jesus walked through them...the covenant was that Jesus would die for our sin and God would be satisfied with it. God promised in this covenant that Abrahams descendents would be heirs of this promise.....WE are the HEIRS OF THAT PROMISE....OUR sin has been taken care of because of the covenant between Jesus and God. God knew that Abraham couldn't keep this covenant with him....Abraham is human and would die, and b/c of that his part of the covenant would be conditional. We see that this is true in Hebrews 6 vs. 13
" For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself......vs. 15 " And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise". vs. 17 (this is the GOOD PART) Thus God, determing to show more abundantly to His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.
The two immutable things are God's promise and the fulfillment of it.....the oath of cofirmation that is the end of all strife, GOD IS SATISFIED.
Isaiah 53:10-11 tells us this " Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grieft. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. He shall see the labor of His soul, and be SATISFIED. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their inquities.
Isn't that powerful, to know that our salvation doesn't rest in God's commitment to us, but in His commitment to Himself? Therefore we can rest in the sacrifice of Christ, and God's ability to keep his promise. We were judged as sinners at Calvary. We are judged as sons now. We will be judged as servants at the Judgement Seat. Don't let the sin in your past burden you. Don't allow Satan to tell you that your salvation can be taken from you. GOD IS SATISFIED.

2 comments:

Mark Andrew Murphy said...

Good statements. Although, I do think that for any job, you should use the right tools. As well, for theological statements such as "God the Just is Satisfied," talking about not being separated from the love of God is not enough. Justice and love are completely different aspects of God's nature. This is why God loves all people, and desires them to be saved, and yet it is also clear from John 6, Romans 9, Ephesians 1, etc. that God only chooses some to be saved. If a person was struggling with their salvation, it might help, but, regarding the whole "will the saved have to look at the people that they did not witness to when they get to Heaven, etc.?" question has a scriptural answer to it. I think it might be in Isaiah or Revelation. Lord-willing, I'll find it some time this week.

Mark Andrew Murphy said...

I FOUND IT! Woohoo! Praise the Lord. Here's the scripture:

Isaiah 65:17
"For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind."

...Hallelujah. When the new heaven and new earth are created, the past sins on the old earth will neither be remembered nor even come to mind. "Now it seems like I'm forgetting something." "NO!," says God, " For I have cast your sin as far as the east is from the west, to remember it no more, and, beloved, neither shall you remember!" They will be stricken from the pages of our mind, utterly forgotten. Thanks and praise be unto our God forever and ever, Amen!