We are thankful to our Creator that we can be kept from sin. This devotional reading looks at how sin will be kept from us on Judgment Day.
Nuggets
- Sin will be kept from us on Judgment Day.
- Sin is kept from us because we have been kept from the condemnation of the law.
- Sin will be kept from us, eliminating physical and spiritual death as we live with God for eternity.
Sin has caused so much hardship in our lives. It has brought separation from God. It has caused disease, poverty, crime, etc. to enter our world.
One day – on Judgment Day – we will see sin eliminated. Let’s take a look.
Let's Put It into Context
To read devotions in the Habitual Holiness of Heart and Life theme, click the button below.
Here is a running list of nuggets for the theme.
Devotions in the Habits to Keep Us from Evil study
Here is a running list of nuggets for the study.
We are using Wilcox’s sermon as the foundation for this series.
Resource
The headings are Wilcox’s words.
From the Power and Reign of Sin
“As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, but their lives were prolonged for a season and a time” (Dan. 7: 12 ESV)
Sin will be kept from us on Judgment Day.
Daniel was in the midst of a vision. He was seeing four great beasts, which he described in great detail (Dan. 7: 3-8).
The Ancient of Days set up His reign and killed one of the beasts. The rest live for a season of time.
Ancient of Days is another name for God. That name stems from the fact that He knows no beginning or end.
- “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable” (Isa. 40: 28 ESV).
- “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God” (Ps. 90: 2 ESV).
So, what is this telling us?
- Our persecutions will come to an end.
- God will have a day when He judges the world.
Henry described it this way. He wrote, “This is intended to proclaim God’s wise and righteous government of the world by his providence; and an unspeakable satisfaction it gives to all good men, in the midst of the convulsions and revolutions of states and kingdoms, that the Lord has prepared his throne in the heavens and his kingdom rules over all (Ps. 103:19), that verily there is a God that judges in the earth, Ps. 58:11.”
Resource
In other words, Daniel is describing Judgment Day when sin is vanquished. Satan and his followers are thrown into hell, and we live for eternity in perfection with God.
How does this line up with Revelation?
- “And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while” (Rev. 20: 2-3 ESV).
- “And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire” (Rev. 20: 12-15 ESV).
I’ve always heard the fourth beast described as the Roman Empire. Yes, it did start to decline after it started persecuting Christians.
But we are still here. The Roman Empire is gone, but Judgment Day hasn’t come – yet.
Then again, sin is still here. It still corrupts us.
Right now, God has a variety of ways that He punishes sin. Only on the day of the Lord will sin be totally crushed.
From the Curse and Condemnation of the Law
“For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh” (Rom. 8: 3 ESV)
Sin is kept from us because we have been kept from the condemnation of the law.
People who remain in sinful condition are called cursed. “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Mt. 25: 41 ESV).
This sinful condition began when Adam and Eve committed the original sin. We usually don’t think what God gave them was a law, but it was.
Jacomb explained the difference between the original law and the Mosaic law. He wrote, “Either that primitive law which He imposed upon Adam (and in him upon all mankind), upon the keeping of which He promised life, upon the breaking of which He threatened death; or else, that law which He gave Israel from Sinai, namely, the decalogue or moral law, which was but a new draught of the law first made with Adam.”
Resource
In Elaine-speak, Adam and Eve had one law – don’t bite. In other words, the law could have been written as obey what God tells you to do and live. They couldn’t keep that, so they died a spiritual death – and eventually a physical death.
How did God expect us to keep all the ones that He gave Moses if we couldn’t keep the one? He didn’t.
It was the Israelites and the Jews who thought the laws was all they needed for salvation from this curse. They were wrong.
God is adamant that we have to come to salvation His way.
- “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved” (Ac. 4: 12 NIV).
- “You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below” (Ex. 20: 3-4 NIV).
- “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’” (Jn. 14: 6 NIV).
Salvation is the gift of life through the deliverance from condemnation and sin to acceptance and holiness and changes us from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive.
- Sin is not believing that Jesus is our Savior to save us from our actions by humans that disobey God and break one of His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, goes against a purpose He has for us, or follows Satan’s promptings.
- Holy means to be set apart — because of our devotion to God — to become perfect, and morally pure while possessing all virtues and to serve and worship God.
- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
- Spiritual graces are worldly morals that have been submitted to God to further His kingdom instead of enhancing this world.
- Sanctified means to be set free from sin.
- Righteous means we are free from sin because we are following God’s moral laws.
- Pure means not being sinful or having the stain of sin.
- Virtues are standards of moral excellence.
- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
- Holy means to be set apart — because of our devotion to God — to become perfect, and morally pure while possessing all virtues and to serve and worship God.
- Holiness is the transcendent excellence of His nature that includes elements of purity, dedication, and commitment that lead to being set apart.
- Purity means possessing God’s moral character, having eliminated the stain of sin.
- Spiritual death is the spiritual separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin.
- The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.
Glossary
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
The law couldn’t save us. It could only show us what sin is.
Jesus came to bring us salvation from this curse.
- “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us …” (Gal. 3: 13 ESV emphasis added).
- “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (Jn. 3: 16-18 ESV).
Jesus’ birth, death, and resurrection was the only way that the curse – sin – can be removed. We have to accept this gift of salvation in order to gain it.
When we accept the gift of salvation, the curse and condemnation of the law is removed.
From the Slavish Fear of Death
“O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” (I Cor. 15: 55 ESV)
Sin will be kept from us, eliminating physical and spiritual death as we live with God for eternity.
We just talked about there being a physical death and a spiritual death. This verse covers both.
On Judgment Day, physical death will be eliminated. “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Rev. 21: 4 ESV).
We will receive glorified bodies that no longer have the physical ailments of this life.
How can that happen? It is because spiritual death will be no more.
Spiritual death is a result that came from the consequences of sin. The consequences of sin are spiritual death and separation from God.
Disciples will no longer be separated from God. We will live with Him for eternity.
- “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (Jn. 3: 16 ESV).
- “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6: 23 ESV).
- “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life” (Jn. 5: 24 ESV).
We know that sin cannot reside in Heaven. “No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him” (Rev. 22: 3 ESV).
Thomas made an interesting observation. He wrote, “Death was to the apostle, as yet, an idea, and it is worthy of our notice that death affects us, while living, only in idea. It is a friend or foe — victim or victor — according to our mental conception.”
Resource
Yes, there are people who stop breathing and having brain function that are revived. They would know.
Yes, we experience loved ones who pass. We feel like our hearts have been ripped out of our chests at the loss.
But 99.999% of us have no clue about what death actually feels like and entails. We’re scared of the unknown.
Preparing for death depends on how we perceive it. If we perceive it as the end of sin and the beginning of perfection with God for ever and ever, we can joyfully look forward to it.
Making the Connections
We can take great comfort in the knowledge that sin has been defeated. A way has been designed so that we can access the One Who not only has the power to defeat it – but also did do just that.
How Do We Apply This?
- ABCD
- Be content in God’s providence.
- Live with the knowledge that sin has been defeated.
- Walk with God so that we can become righteous and holy.
Father God. Thank You for defeating sin. We accept Jesus as our Savior. We look forward to spending eternity with You. Amen.
What do you think?
Leave me a comment below (about this or anything else) or head over to my Facebook group for some interactive discussion.
If you don’t understand something and would like further clarification, please contact me.
If you have not signed up for the email providing the link to the devotions and the newsletter, do so below.
If God has used this devotion to speak with you, consider sharing it on social media.