If Sinners Go to Heaven, How Can it be Sin-free?

In this regular feature Dave and Tom respond to questions from listeners and readers of The Berean Call.  Here is this week’s question:  Dear Dave and Tom, “I have a few questions about heaven.  One:  How is it that there will be no sin in heaven if indeed man has a free will?  Two:  If God knew that some of the angels would turn from him through rebellion and knew that there would be no salvation for them, why did he create them?  And three:  How can a person who was saved just before his death be as happy in heaven as one who loved, served and even suffered for the faith for years here on earth?”

T. A. McMahon:

Well let’s start with the first one Dave.

Dave Hunt:

No let’s start with the third one Tom, that’s the easiest.  How can somebody who was just saved the last few moments and didn’t suffer and live for the Lord, how could he be as happy?  I don’t know what you mean by “as happy.”  Somebody says that, maybe the capacity for some to be happy will be greater than the capacity for others, but everybody will have a full cup overflowing.  But our happiness does not depend upon what we accomplished on this earth but it depends upon him.  Christ is our life, our joy—“Where Jesus is, tis’ heaven there,” the old hymn says.  So, I think that one is fairly easy.  But Tom, this is tough stuff—three questions!

T. A. McMahon:

Well, let me go back to the third one.  In other words, in our love for Christ, as we grow in our love here it gives us a greater capacity and that’s all you are saying is that it’s not that I’m happier than the next person in heaven, but it’s just that he’s filled us.

Dave Hunt:

Let’s take what the Bible says.  “When we see him we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is.”  That’s the little baby who died and went to be with Christ.  That’s the mature Christian, that’s this new convert just on his deathbed, each one of us when we see Christ we’re going to be like him and we will know as we are known, we will see him as he really is.  What a flood of insight and understanding that will be.  And then, I think that takes care of the first one, at least somewhat. How could there not be sin in heaven—

T. A. McMahon:

Now wait a minute, you said that takes care of the first one.

Dave Hunt:

I am saying that that would take care of the first one that would help us to take care of the first one.  Why will there not be sin in heaven if we still have a free will?  Well, I used to use illustrations.  You’ve got in one hand a glass of vitamins and nutrition and the other hand a glass of poison and you keep struggling—oh, I don’t know how I can give up this poison, I know it’s killing me.  See, we live in bodies of flesh, of lust, we are fools, the Bible talks about deceitful lusts, we are deceived.  When we see him and we know as we are known, what would be the reason for wanting to sin?  We will be like him; we will have such love for him that who could possibly tempt us?  Furthermore, we are not in Hollywood anymore, we are not here to try out a TV and suddenly there is some commercial that ought to be R-rated or X-rated.  So, temptation will be removed—well, of course, we still have ourselves, what temptation was there for Satan?

T. A. McMahon:

Lucifer in heaven.

Dave Hunt:

Right.  He was in the presence of God.  I guess that would bring us to the angels.  If God knew that these angels would sin, why would he create them?  Let’s stick to Lucifer for a moment, that’s a bit easier.  I believe that Satan is really essential in this whole struggle for the human soul.  If you have Cassius Clay, or Mohammed Ali, or whatever his name was in the ring with a two-year old and he knocks him out that’s nothing.  I think Satan is the ultimate alternative to God.  Let’s give it a quick example.  I’m the king in a country and I’m a bachelor and I want to marry this beautiful woman.  Well, to make certain that she will marry me I banish from my kingdom any man who might possibly be competition.  Well that’s not real—I mean, how can I be sure that she really loved me?  Maybe I threw her lover out, the one that she really would have wanted to marry.  I think that Satan offers the ultimate alternative to God.  And, I often say to people, look, if Satan has a better deal for you than God has, follow him.  God is not playing games, he is not withholding any information, he is not trying to talk you into something.  But, it’s going to be real love, it’s going to be on the basis of the truth, it’s all laid out.  Now, Satan will deceive you.  You’ll find out too late that he’s a liar, but I think that Satan is really the ultimate alternative to God that really tests whether the gospel is true, whether man’s heart can truly be won in love for God.  And, why would he create angels that he knew would sin?  Because this is part of the whole picture that is laid out there.  Satan has some agents to operate, to bring temptation, and so forth.  And, you could say, well, why does God allow Satan to tempt Judas?  Well, it was in his heart, he was a thief and I believe that God allows us to be tested.  He doesn’t tempt men.  God does not trick anyone into sinning, but he tests us.  He says to the children of Israel in Deuteronomy 8, I led you through the wilderness so that I could see what was in your heart.  You know if it’s all peaches and cream who can’t serve God then.  This is why you have basic training in the Marines or whatever.  You don’t take someone out to a battlefield and they have never been tested and tried and they are not fit.  So, I think—

T. A. McMahon:

Even though God knows.

Dave Hunt:

Oh, He knows.

T. A. McMahon:

So we can see, so we can understand what our hearts are like.

Dave Hunt:

He says, to show your heart, yes.  It’s not an easy topic, Tom, and we had a few minutes to try to cover it.  But maybe we started someone out there thinking more deeply and that will drive them back to the Word of God.