God’s Overcompensating Justice and the final destiny of lost angels vs. lost human beings

If it is true that according to the New Testament lost human beings actually get ultimately destroyed or exterminated for the ages to come, then why do Satan and his messengers, the Beast and the False Prophet, not likewise get exterminated instead of experiencing agelong torment (provided Scripture is not indulging in rhetorical metaphor, which would seem incongruent, even in this book of prophetic symbolism, Rev. 1:1, cf. Acts 11:28)?  Might not the reason be precisely because those beings have been intentionally instrumental in the ultimate destruction of all those precious human souls?  This would appear to be quite in line with God’s style of overcompensating justice.  God not only overcompensated Jesus, the ultimate Victim, but He likewise overcompensated Satan, the ultimate Victimizer.  It is not because Satan or his messengers (any more than God’s) have been endowed with some sort of ‘inherent immortality’ (about which all Scripture appears significantly silent).

However, there appear to remain a couple of kinds or degrees of destruction/loss (απωλεια): 1) extermination (ωλεχθρ-, 2 Thess. 1:6-10; cf. Rev. 20:8-9) for unrepentant human beings, and 2) torment for the ages of the ages (Rev. 20:10, 14:9-11) for Satan and his minions, the beast and his image, along with their worshipers (which are not in that contextual scenario intimated to symbolize ‘all unbelievers’, as some readers may wish to infer).

Jesus, the Messiah, because of his voluntary suffering of abuse has been exalted to be Master of the whole universe and Head of the church, his body of spiritual contents with which everything in the universe is getting filled (adapting Eph. 1:22-23).  [4/10/02]

77 Questions about the Atonement (Q&A #74)

74.     How is the Atonement related to sanctification?

The strenuous labors of Jesus to remain faithful to his Father’s desire, even under humiliating and excruciating attacks and pitiful demise as an executed traitor to Rome, rendered him perfect in human wholesomeness and evoked God’s justice to display his complete acquittal by raising him miraculously to life again right out of the dank tomb.  By way of further restitution, God poured forth for the sake of Jesus’ reputation a greater magnitude of His Spirit than ever possible under less extreme circumstances.  In turn, God gives portions of that indescribable Present to all who trust Christ as Master, energizing us to keep the directives he conveyed from the Father and so develop into mature offspring in preparation for assuming appropriate ruling functions in the new creation that’s ahead.  Hence our Lord’s teaching is essential to our becoming mature in wholesomeness; reflecting his Father’s own personality, which he ideally modeled for us.  Our participation in the Spirit of holiness that enabled him to rise above abuse successfully also leads us along the way his directions point—that same true path of wholesome love and thriving vigor despite daily troubles and disheartening difficulty.  Our sanctification is instantaneous the moment we trust the Proclamation and get baptized, entitling us to be called “saints”!  But then, of course, we have to practice the art!  Practice makes perfect.  So sanctification is parallel to justification, which similarly possesses both instantaneous and progressive features.  Our holiness and uprightness alike turn on the axis of faith in the Proclamation that God exalted Jesus by means of “Crossurrection”, and both stay activated only by the energy of Christ’s own resurrected life dwelling in us by his living Explanation and sanctifying Spirit.

77 Questions about the Atonement (Q&A #42)

42.     Does the atonement have a primarily Godward or manward focus?

The Levitical sin-offerings foreshadowed the terminating atrocity of the ancient nation of Israel, namely, the slaughter of the flawless, blameless Lamb of God.  This episode rightly evoked God’s virtually immediate response from heaven, i.e., restitution for the divine Victim with life immortal and surpassing honors.  Moreover, this cosmic overpayment, in truest fulfillment of the Mosaic Law concerning compensation to victims of offenses (miraculously extending its stipulation, for the occasion, even into the sphere of capital crime!), freely benefits all who merely accept it by faith.  This is how the cleansing that’s necessary to forestall God’s indignation gets accomplished in tangible terms.  But what would that be worth in practical terms unless, upon hearing the Proclamation of God’s graciousness in Christ, people are moved by the intrinsic potency of its Storyline to change their minds (repentance) and attitudes (conciliation) toward God, make a turnabout from their sins, and then get baptized to receive his gratuitous gift of Holy Spirit to wash them all away, down the drain of cosmic forgetfulness?  That’s the humanward trajectory of the Explanation-of-the-Cross = the Resurrection-from-the-dead.  Yet how could either of these have been emergent without the genuinely menacing role of the Adversary’s forces plying their black arts against the Light?  Still, they were no match for the martial art of the Cross.  So the atonement was not narrowly focused but radiated shock waves in all directions like a cosmic nebula.