Q&R: Does universal hope minimize sin? Brad Jersak

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QUESTION:

I’m curious, in your personal experience, do you think that those who embrace ‘ultimate redemption’ tend to become softer on sin in their own lives? Or that they don’t take sin as seriously?

RESPONSE:

It depends, I suppose. There are ‘pop universalists’ who certainly seem to disregard sin. Some even say there’s no such thing. Others figure that if it all works out in the end, why live righteous lives? It’s all grace anyway, right? In that case, it’s just as likely that their prodigal propensities led them to an anything-goes universalism rather than vice versa.

On the other hand, those early Christian teachers who taught ‘ultimate redemption’ (Origen, Athanasius, Gregory of Nyssa, or Isaac of Syria) also insisted, with Christ (in Mark 9) and Paul (in 1 Corinthians 3), that we will all face the Judgement Seat of Christ, that we’ll pass through the ‘Refiner’s fire’ (Malachi 3) of cleansing, and get away with nothing. We’ll all face the meaning of our lives and whatever tears of grief we shed will be washed away by the grace of God.

In that sense, there’s an accountability there that I see lacking in those who believe saying the ‘sinners prayer’ exempts them from the final judgement. Their sense that grace lets us ‘skip the line’ rather than owning up to our failings and experiencing God’s mercy may produce two outcomes. Some are far laxer concerning sin, and others are, ironically, more moralistic.

It’s instructive that the early church error called Gnosticism had these same two opposing symptoms. They believed the human body (and all matter) was tainted. Not seeing that Christ had sanctified our humanity—body, soul, and spirit—they sought to escape it. But in the meantime, some said, “Well then, I may as well just use my body for whatever pleasures I can find.” And others thought, “Ew, the body is dirty and defiled,” and became hyper-religious.

So it’s not that we don’t believe in a final judgment. We just don’t believe that a just and merciful judge would assign anyone to eternal torment, damning them to perpetual flames, boiling their blood, and incinerating their ever-regenerating flesh in unending torture. Nothing like that would ever enter God’s mind—according to God! (Jeremiah 7:31). 

Such scenarios misrepresent the heart of God and miss the testimony of the gospel in our Scriptures. In fact, those very notions, elevated to doctrines, will be consumed by the fiery love of Jesus. 

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