Thanks Charlie
Its not that I won't be moved. I think many forget in the OP I start with 'claim'. I am not 100% convinced. It is a hypothesis. Chiefly off of the points I mentioned to you #165.
In reality, it doesn't really matter either way. Among Christians its actually much ado about nothing.
But to the unsaved, especially atheists, it helps explaining free will in heaven and how God is always good.
Everyone on the planet knows that no free will is evil. I find free will one of the hardest topics to discuss among Christians and the unsaved.
Yet, as God is one who righteous in all His ways Psalm 145:17 and light with no darkness in Him at all 1 John 1:5, true free will is a reality. It is not half measure.
I am probably 50/50 on the topic of this thread. I do not see God being overbearing on us anymore then a loving parent would on their 'imperfect' children.
I understand why you believe sin could exist in heaven, this is not the first time I have had this conversation. I try to avoid it because the concept in itself is difficult to understand. It's the sin nature that must be understood and that is difficult. It doesn't help that I'm lazy now and just don't want to get into it. But I'll do my best to explain what I have learned on the matter.
Where in the Scripture is the sin nature clearly presented? In Romans 6-8 Paul discussed the sin nature in detail, giving us the results of the sin nature and what to do about it. He uses the words "sin" and "flesh" many times in describing it.
In the original Greek, Paul places before the word "sin" the definite article "the" it reads "the sin," the word "sin" used alone is a verb, describing the actions of sin. But when Paul places the definite article with it, "the sin" becomes a noun. This is the sin nature Paul is referring to.
Those who have much more knowledge than myself, theologians and scholars, say that Paul is referring to the sin nature through the "The first sin" of Adam and Eve that brought the sin nature on man.
The other word Paul uses many times in Rom. 6-8 is "flesh." He is referring to the body of man's flesh where the sin nature thrives. Paul also tells us this "sin nature" can be controlled by "walking in the Spirit and denying the flesh." He gives examples of the sin nature reviving in the believer and why. He actually uses examples from his own life.
The problem we have in this life of serving Christ is the flesh. Satan knows this and it's through the flesh that he attacks us. The desires and lusts of the flesh is what brought the first sin into this world and it's still alive in us, unless we heed to what the great Apostle has given us.
The point of all this and returning to the topic, "sin never ends," our problem with sin, the flesh, goes to the grave when we pass away. The soul and spirit of believing man goes to be with our Lord. Sin and it's nature is separated from the real us.
But God originally intended for man to live forever in the flesh, which is accomplished through the resurrection of the body, a new body with no sin nature and no sin.
So we can see that when the body goes to the grave, sin is left behind, and at the resurrection we are rejoined with a new body of flesh with no sin, and forever shall we be with God free from sin.
