My lovely wife and I had a conversation last night about this topic. She had asked me a number of times through the months how the lost could still be angry and hateful toward God after passing from this life to be judged. You see, I had mentioned to her a comment I had heard from another minister that many will still be cast away while shaking their fists at God and His Throne. She found that so hard to believe. She even asked why Satan doesn't just simply give up, knowing he's going to be defeated in the end.
Over a period of months, I had been thinking about all this, and seeking the Spirit of the Lord for His Ways and His Thoughts on all this, and so I wanted to share with you the things that have come to me from the scriptures and whatever other means the Lord does His wondrous ways of revealing His truths to us.
For starters, Satan, like all other angels, are subject to their natures. Satan, however, is special, in that he continues his drive to destroy the works of God because...well, that's just his nature. He's a creature bound to the depths of his own evil. Without any other avenues for escape or redemption, he's without hope, and so it's just who he is to continue doing his mischief among the nations, doing all that the Lord knew he would do, and always under the watchful Eyes of the Lord, and the Power the Lord exercises over all.
Now, the lost; what can we say about them? Well, the only way to express the seemingly inexpressible is to observe some things about their state of being in this life and after their death in sin:
Romans 5:20-21
20 Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more,
21 so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The power of the Law is the curse of death, and in that death sin reigns. In other words, the unbeliever chooses, up to the point of death to this world, to keep their sin upon themselves, and so it is their sin that keeps their names from the Lamb's Book of Life, and that they must try to atone for in the fiery lake. When they stand before the Great White Throne, they still have their sin nature within and upon them, just as they were here on earth, although they will be imbued with knowing as they are known. Because they were never born again from above, they retain their sinful nature, and are governed by that nature throughout eternity since they, in this life, never chose to call upon the name of the Lord for salvation and new birth...thus laying the penalty of their sin upon He who alone atoned for sin.
So, if we consider that they are unregenerate in their lost state, still filled with all the sin they had in this life as they look upon their Creator, they will know and fully understand the ramifications of their chosen state. Those out there who teach that all in Hell will one day be released to dwell in Heaven...they will have to explain how mortal man, by way of any measure of suffering, could possibly match the Power of the Blood of Christ Jesus, who alone is Divine rather than His creations.
As we gain more understanding of the things pertaining to the Lord and the realities He created, we draw even closer to Him in our hearts and minds through His revelations of Himself. The seemingly unjust things about His judgments begin to fade away one after another as we begin to see more clearly the reality of sin and its effects, both here in this life and the one to come. Sin is the power that separates the sheep from the goats in this life. The only life everlasting with the Lord offered to anyone is through the Blood of the Father's only begotten Son. It's a simple choice, really. The Lord doesn't force anyone into Heaven to be with Him who don't want to be there. The vast majority choose to keep their sins and sin nature.
My wife asked about the deceptions of sin. I could see where that was leading, and so I pointed out once again Roman's 1 where it is written that ALL are without excuse. Deception is a state into which one enters only because they choose to ignore the Light of Truth. Again, it's a choice, not a state of being in and of itself, with that choice never having been made by someone else for them. God's Justice demands righteousness, and the lost simply refuse that gift of righteousness, and for reasons at which we can only guess, but in vain.
Thoughts?
MM
Over a period of months, I had been thinking about all this, and seeking the Spirit of the Lord for His Ways and His Thoughts on all this, and so I wanted to share with you the things that have come to me from the scriptures and whatever other means the Lord does His wondrous ways of revealing His truths to us.
For starters, Satan, like all other angels, are subject to their natures. Satan, however, is special, in that he continues his drive to destroy the works of God because...well, that's just his nature. He's a creature bound to the depths of his own evil. Without any other avenues for escape or redemption, he's without hope, and so it's just who he is to continue doing his mischief among the nations, doing all that the Lord knew he would do, and always under the watchful Eyes of the Lord, and the Power the Lord exercises over all.
Now, the lost; what can we say about them? Well, the only way to express the seemingly inexpressible is to observe some things about their state of being in this life and after their death in sin:
Romans 5:20-21
20 Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more,
21 so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The power of the Law is the curse of death, and in that death sin reigns. In other words, the unbeliever chooses, up to the point of death to this world, to keep their sin upon themselves, and so it is their sin that keeps their names from the Lamb's Book of Life, and that they must try to atone for in the fiery lake. When they stand before the Great White Throne, they still have their sin nature within and upon them, just as they were here on earth, although they will be imbued with knowing as they are known. Because they were never born again from above, they retain their sinful nature, and are governed by that nature throughout eternity since they, in this life, never chose to call upon the name of the Lord for salvation and new birth...thus laying the penalty of their sin upon He who alone atoned for sin.
So, if we consider that they are unregenerate in their lost state, still filled with all the sin they had in this life as they look upon their Creator, they will know and fully understand the ramifications of their chosen state. Those out there who teach that all in Hell will one day be released to dwell in Heaven...they will have to explain how mortal man, by way of any measure of suffering, could possibly match the Power of the Blood of Christ Jesus, who alone is Divine rather than His creations.
As we gain more understanding of the things pertaining to the Lord and the realities He created, we draw even closer to Him in our hearts and minds through His revelations of Himself. The seemingly unjust things about His judgments begin to fade away one after another as we begin to see more clearly the reality of sin and its effects, both here in this life and the one to come. Sin is the power that separates the sheep from the goats in this life. The only life everlasting with the Lord offered to anyone is through the Blood of the Father's only begotten Son. It's a simple choice, really. The Lord doesn't force anyone into Heaven to be with Him who don't want to be there. The vast majority choose to keep their sins and sin nature.
My wife asked about the deceptions of sin. I could see where that was leading, and so I pointed out once again Roman's 1 where it is written that ALL are without excuse. Deception is a state into which one enters only because they choose to ignore the Light of Truth. Again, it's a choice, not a state of being in and of itself, with that choice never having been made by someone else for them. God's Justice demands righteousness, and the lost simply refuse that gift of righteousness, and for reasons at which we can only guess, but in vain.
Thoughts?
MM