Why can't there be another fall?

Question

Some disagree on whether a Christian in this life may fall utterly and lose or forfeit eternal life. However, most Christians do agree that after death, the Christian is eternally secure in heaven (or the new earth). And this seems to be well supported in Scripture:

John 10:28 (ESV)
²⁸  I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

Revelation 21:4 (ESV)
⁴  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.”

So it seems clear that Christians could not be susceptible to another Fall. My question is, Why? What is the fundamental reason why Christians would not be susceptible to another Fall or rebellion against God?

Please answer from a Protestant, non-Calvinist perspective.

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Possible responses I have considered

There will be no law, and thus no concept of sin

But wouldn't rebellion against God would be considered sin, even apart from a "law"?

After death we no longer have a sin nature, and are thus incapable of sin

But weren't Adam and Eve created without a sin nature, and yet sinned?

Satan will be vanquished, unable to tempt us

But didn't Lucifer rebel without being externally tempted? If we are unable to rebel without a tempter, that implies that we will have less free will than Lucifer and the angels had.

We will be unable to sin, either through lack of free will, or prevention by God

The argument that I usually use and hear for the existence of free will is that God would rather have willful obedience than robotic obedience. Is God then hedging on this preference for the sake of our eternal souls?

We have already been atoned for by Christ, so if we were to sin, it could not be counted against us

This allows for sin in heaven, which I can't buy. It contradicts Revelation 21:4 for one thing, and makes heaven imperfect

Answer 1

"If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation." Saved human beings have an old nature and a new nature. At death, the old nature is removed entirely, and only the new nature remains. (This is the "glorification" in the salvation trio of justification, sanctification, and glorification.) You should not think that this new nature is a return to the nature that Adam and Eve had before the Fall. Whatever that nature was like, it is gone forever. "Behold, I make all things new."

One other point: angels have another nature altogether, so making comparisons between humans and angels is problematic. For example, we are told (Hebrews?) that angels don't understand salvation. They long to look into salvation (so they can understand and worship God better, I suppose), but it escapes them. We don't know why. Some hypothesize that they are incapable of repentance, which explains why (apparently) God never redeemed any fallen angels and why (apparently) angels don't fall from time to time. Once angels choose (goes the theory), they have chosen, and they will never choose otherwise. It is not a lack of free will; changing their minds is simply not in their nature.

Answer 2

When I was a Protestant, the most frequent answer that I received from authorities, and one I often used myself, was that the entire purpose of the church (the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth) was to prepare ourselves for our future glory. We, as the bride prior to the wedding, must make ourselves ready for the wedding day. In other words, we are constantly being perfected (shaped and trained to know, understand, and live what is good), so that when this age ends and the age to come is fulfilled we will be perfect at being good--no fall will occur because we will not desire to do it.

Basically, this is different than being created merely without a sin nature, as Adam and Eve were. It is being shaped into a heavenly nature. It is the free will alternative to forcing the "robotic" creation of a heavenly nature in the first place. A being merely without a sin nature does not desire sin because it is not aware of it, but upon being made aware of it can fall (taking on a sin nature). A being with a heavenly nature is aware of both good and evil, but desires only good.

Answer 3

Why are my questions unanswered?

In the passages you quoted, it seems clear that after the resurrection, we can expect that sin will have no more hold over us because the consequences of sin are conspicuously absent. Why? The Scriptures don't attempt to answer that question directly. We could infer two possibilities:

• We are not capable of understanding.
• We do not need to know right now.

What we are told that we can have assurance that our problems (as we see them) will all end after we die (and are judged). For people seeking to finish this race correctly, that is far more important than details about what happens afterward. The fact that the question is not really addressed by the Biblical authors suggests its lack of urgency and perhaps this decision has been made in order to keep us from being distracted from focusing on things that are crucial to this life.

Perhaps the answer to this question is important to composing a comprehensive understanding of how things work, but the best anyone can ever come up with is a story that fits the (known) facts, and it's likely that there could be more than one! No more than one would be true, but in this life we probably won't ever know which one.

Full Knowledge

I suspect that the possibility of sin will be vanquished because we will not be limited in the same way we are now. We will have a substantially more complete understanding of God (he will be our light, Re 22:5). We will see his face and his name will be on our foreheads (Re 22:4). We will be as close to God as he always wanted us to be. Perhaps this is part of what Paul is speaking of in 1 Corinthans 13:

1 Corinthians 13:12 (NASB)
For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.

An Illustration

I'm not tempted (much) to call people names when I get angry. When I was a child, I was, but having seen how destructive it is and how it fails to do any good at all, I've come to understand that it will not help me in any way. I've gotten out of the habit of doing so, and since I see it as foolish and useless, the urge/temptation to do it has (almost) no power over me.

I suspect that Heaven will be somewhat like this. We will probably still have free will, but nobody will want to sin because sin will have no hold on us. We will know better (better than we ever did in this life) and we will have everything we'd ever need. There might be no desire for anything that God isn't already providing. We won't have a limited understanding, like Adam and Eve did in the Garden, because we will (in all likelihood) remember the great story of this life and will have learned our lessons.

Answer 4

The fundamental reason why sin will not exist a second time is due to a greater understanding of God's love.

Before the fall, creations knew of God's love but not to the extent we now know. Through the cross the true extent of God's character is clearly seen, that He is a God filled with self-sacrificing, self-renouncing love. Through this experience we know that all of His laws are rooted in love, that we serve a creator who we can wholly trust in.

Sin never had a reason for its existence. But through this horrifying chapter in eternal history, all creations that remain (not only men), will be safe from finding sin a second time.

Men (Christians) are especially safe from sinning as we would have been tested to a greater extent than those who never sinned. The capability to have faith is from God, but the exercising of perfect faith is gained through trials, experiences, nights of wrestling and countless tears. Jesus has said "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow Me" (Matt 16:24). A Christian at the end of his earthly journey is one who has learned to do exactly this, to deny his flesh, his own very nature, through the help of God, and to partake in divine nature through the merits of Jesus. This is a Christian whose heart has been repeatedly dashed open upon the cornerstone, and over and over responded positively to the precious influences of the Holy Spirit. Such a heart once sealed will never harden.

If you found this explanation helpful, I recommend reading Ellen White's Conflict of the Ages series. I have found those books invaluable in my Bible study in opening up some of the deeper themes in the Bible.

Answer 5

1. The fundamental reason why christians would not be susceptable to another fall or rebellion is:

   a. 1 John 3;9 Whosoever is born of God doth commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.

   b. 1 Peter 1;22,23 Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: 23 Being born again, not of corruptable seed, but of incorruptable, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

   c. Isaiah 55;11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth, it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

2. Some Observations

   a. Those christians who believe that after death, they are eternally secure in heaven(or the new earth) are in error.

   1. They will remain in their graves until Jesus comes.

   2. John 5;28,29 Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, 29 And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.

   b. There will be no law, and thus no concept of sin.

   1. God's law existed prior to Lucifer's rebellion. God's law is immutable.

   2. Ezekiel 28;15 Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. Sin originated with Lucifer, rebellion is sin.

   3. 1 Samuel 23;15 For rebellion is as the sin of wichcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king.

   c. After death we no longer have a sin nature, and are thus incapable of sin.

   1. Our sin nature is not removed by death, but by being born again.

      a. John 3;5 Jesus answered, verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God

      b. Acts 13;52 And the disciples were filled with joy and the Holy Ghost.

   d. But weren't Adam and Eve created without a sin nature, and yet sinned?

   1. Genesis 2;31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And the evening anmd morning was the sixth day. Adam and Eve were without sin at creation. After disobeying God, they became sinful. This is the nature we inherit.

   e.Satan will be vanquished, unable to tempt us.

   1. Revelation 20;9-10 And they went upon the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. 10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

   f. But didn't Lucifer rebel without being externally tempted? If we are unable to rebel without a tempter, that implies that we will have less free will than Lucifer and the angels had.

   1. Lucifer's rebellion remains a mystery. In actuality, when we yield to the Holy Spirit, our will is replaced with that of God's.

   2. Ezekiel 36;27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgements, and do them.

   3. John 14;16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; 17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

   g.The arguement that I usually use and hear for the existence of free will is that God would rather have willful obedience than robotic obedience. Is God then hedging on this preference for the sake of our eternal souls? No.

   1. Unbelievers have free will. Believers cooperate with the Holy Spirit to accomplish the will of God.

   h. We have already been atoned for by Christ, so if we sin, it could not be counted against us.

   1. You cannot sin and be in heaven! Remenber Lucifer was cast out. All have ben atoned for by Jesus Christ, only those who accept his sacrifice and endure unto the end, will have eternal life.

3. We are not given insight into all of God's plans and decisions. However, if we believe the bible, it must be in total.

Answer 6

There are a couple answers, but first a comment on scope: I'm assuming you specify "non-Calvinist" to avoid the theory that they don't sin because their actions will be predestined in the future. There's really no such thing as a "non-Calvinists." There are different specific traditions which are not Calvinists. My answer includes the answer that Calvinists would give, but it's not a distinctively Calvinist answer, but broadly Protestant.

The first answer is that sin throughout all of redemptive history is in some way associated with the body and with the ground. We see this in all the comparisons and contrasts regarding the flesh and the spirit, the body of sin, and even Adam's mortality associated with the dust. A part of the answer is that when we die, at least as a Christian, the part of us that is associated with being the sinful organ is dead with us. An important distinction is that this is not a belief in accord with Gnosticism which considers the material world to be evil. Our resurrection bodies will be material and the new creation will be material. Instead the fleshliness of the body is dead and so with it the propensity and inclination to sin.

The second answer is that we will see the Lord Jesus as he really is.

Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:2 ESV)

Whether this refers to our cessation from sin or our bodily glorification, certainly both are in view. In John's theology, seeing Jesus clearly is the mechanism by which the completion of our sanctification and glorification will occur.

Note that in both of these answers, the freedom of the will is not addressed because they do not need to be. Choosing is a function of the person involved. As a human, I might choose between a salad or a sandwich, but I would not chose a mouthful of razor blades. Likewise, there is real chosing that is not mechanical which can occur with a person whose sin nature is gone.

Answer 7

I could give you a long winded explination: But at the end of the day free will can not be removed in heaven, God doesn't work that way. So all we are left with is, is the text saying sin will not arise again being read properly.

My view is it is simply stating the historical recorded of sins results will make a replay of all this suffering pointless. So either everyone will resist this path or be dealt with quietly. But no great sin conflict will be allowed to arise and threaten the Holy Empire with civil war again.

This is just my personal opinion for what it is worth.