1) If there is supposed to be no sin in heaven, then how could Lucifer have become prideful while still in heaven and rebelled?
2) The "sinful nature" is defined as our flesh, but isn't the soul part of our sinful nature, too, since we sin in our soul (will, mind and emotions)?
1) I'm not sure where we get this idea that there's "no sin in heaven". That idea isn't in the Bible. What I think we can see is that-
ReplyDelete- we'll have different bodies (like Jesus' resurrected body: he ate, he talked with friends, but he also WALKED THROUGH WALLS. Mm!
- ALL of our hangups, strongholds, lies, rebellions, etc. will be judged, dealt with, and purged at the Great White Throne. That will be wonderfully freeing.
- In this way, we'll be Fully Free to experience "life to the full" (without our fleshly confusion about what that means) and to worship God in just the way we were made to do so, without concern for others' opinions, our own self-doubt, etc. It'll be awesome.
So I think "there's no sin in heaven" is a bit farther than we can say. What we can definitely say is that there's freedom there, and freedom in the LORD always includes the freedom to rebel- but not without consequences (it is his love, after all, that gives us consequences for choices that will hurt us). The devil rebelled, seeking to throw off the rightful lordship of the Father, and was completely unrepentant about it. He was banished for that reason. It seems crazy to think that any being could, at seeing the glory and wisdom of God for ages past, have the chutzpah to defy him like that, but there it is. Pride was found in the devil's heart and he was ousted. Our lesson? Live in a constant state of repentance!
2) The 'sinful nature' isn't just 'defined as the flesh', as if we just like to think of it that way; that's actually the proper translation of all those references in places like Galatians where the NIV says "sinful nature" everywhere. The best translation is 'flesh'. Or when Paul says in Romans 7 that "no good lives in me, that is in my..." FLESH is the word, there. What Paul's saying in that verse is that THERE IS NOTHING GOOD IN OUR FLESH. IT CANNOT LEAD US TO GOD. I cannot follow the cravings of my flesh and end up in a relationship with the Holy Spirit.
As Dora says, our flesh, the world, and the devil are in league: they speak the same language. Our flesh is like an antennae of the world's messages: sexual perversion, overindulgence in everything, self-glorification, pride before others... all that stuff appeals to our flesh. The soul (mind, will, emotions) are neutral. They're free agents, and can be used to gratify the flesh (if they take their cues from our bodies and, by proxy, the world and the devil) or to gratify the Spirit (if they take their cues from our spirits).
Think of the 'sinful nature' as the wellspring. Where does sin originate in your life? Biblically speaking, the doorway is the flesh, and our soul always has the option of receiving from that well, or receiving from the "spring of living water" that Jesus talked about, which is His Spirit inside us.
So again: the spirit in us communes with God and is our on-ramp to all things God. It is GOOD and PURE if we're in Jesus.
The flesh in us feeds of the detritus of the world, and is the on-ramp to sin. It's like a dumb, petulant child and must be coached very specifically.
Our minds, wills, and emotions can go either way, taking their cues from either the pure spirit in us, or the dumb flesh. So we make it our goal to train our minds, wills, and emotions to agree with the Spirit at all times, regardless of the kicking and screaming of the flesh.