Thursday: The Law in the Kingdom
Of all the harsh consequences of sin, death has been the most persistent. Sin can be overcome, Satan can be resisted, but with just two known exceptions (Enoch, Elijah) out of billions, who has escaped the inevitability of death? When it comes to death, wrote an ancient philosopher, we human beings all live in an unwalled city.
Image © Sandra Harris from GoodSalt.com
What message is found in Revelation 20:14 and 1 Corinthians 15:26?
With the power ascribed to death, it is no wonder that just before Christ establishes the Messianic kingdom on earth, He will first utterly destroy death.
There is no question that death is related to sin, which means it’s related to God’s law, as well; because sin is violation of God’s law. Consequently, there can be no sin without the law. Although sin is dependent on the law, the law is independent of sin. That is, the law can exist without sin. In fact, it did so for all the ages until Lucifer rebelled in heaven.
When Satan rebelled against the law of Jehovah, the thought that there was a law came to the angels almost as an awakening to something unthought of. In their ministry the angels are not as servants, but as sons. There is perfect unity between them and their Creator.-Ellen G. White, Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, p. 109.
With this in mind, the absence of death and sin in the kingdom of God does not require the absence of the law. Just as the law of gravity is necessary for the harmonious interaction between the physical elements of the universe, God’s moral law is needed to govern the righteous interaction between the saints. When God inscribes His law in the hearts of the redeemed, His sole purpose is to seal their decision to walk in the way of righteousness for eternity. Consequently, His law becomes the very essence of His kingdom. So, we have every reason to believe that the principles of God’s moral law will exist in God’s eternal kingdom. The difference, of course, is that those principles will never be violated there as they have been here.
Try to imagine the perfect environment of heaven: no fallen natures, no devil to tempt us, no sin, and no death. Now ask yourself: what things in your life and character would not fit very comfortably in such an environment?
(17)
I think it is impossible for imperfect beings to comprehend what perfection is. The fact that we were born in sin and shaphen in iniquity causes us to think like sinners, however when we accepts Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord, we are saying that we want to eventually live with Jesus in that perfect world where sin and sinners can not exist. Think of our fore parents, Adam and Eve who knew perfection, and then because of their disobedience were expose to sin. It was a 930 years night mare for Adam but thanks be to God he Adam will experience perfection again, this time however it is unconditional. And I say thank You "JESUS".
Can't we see this "perfection" in what is revealed about God in His Word and in the Word made flesh? We won't comprehend all until in a perfect environment, but from where we are, we can find the way in the example set before sinners. We need only to understand how it applies to this present life and live it by faith.
Doesn't Jesus command us to a high standard? Don't we see His commands as enablings? If not, is He asking for what cannot be achieved by the means provided? If we see His commands as enablings, then we only need to focus on the means provided, and not the difficulties that will always appear if we dwell on them.
It was a mystery how sin was conceived in the mind of the great angel of light before the very presence of God and its going to be a mystery now to imagine how sin would not be found in the new earth inhabited by free moral subjects with the preserve still to make decisions whether good or bad,,this time only immortal,because death and hades cast into the lake of fire Revelation 20:14,,
Will we have immortal sinners?
Revelation 21.4 says there will be no sin,Revelation 20:14 says death and hades will be destroyed,Jeremiah 31:31-34 says all men shall know God from the least to the greatest,,all iniquity will be forgiven,,humanity will totally conform in perfect tune with divinity,
Therefore brethren it would a great fallacy to state that the latter will also be a mystery,,if there would be no sin,,it means the redeemed would have been washed eternally in the blood of Christ and therefore no sinners at the time,,that is; sin is never the presence of law or better stiil the presence of the law does not bring sin,,sin cannot exist on its own but the law can and will for eternity
It is because even then in the new Earth, there would be God's law because God's moral character is found in His law and nothing can change that,not now not ever
It follows that,,if the law which forms the character of God leads us to perfect rightiousness of Christ Jesus and creation of new mind and soul,,then where would sinner come from.??
Think about it too