An interesting issue came up this past Wednesday during our mid-week prayer meeting. The question posed was “will believer’s sins be revealed/exposed/displayed on Judgment Day?” I confess, I’ve never studied this issue closely, and wasn’t sure. Our Pastor expressed his belief the answer to this question is yes. So I went home and did some research. The 1689 Baptist Confession is pretty clear. As a 1689 guy, I adhere to the confession unless someone can show me in Scripture that it’s wrong, so I had to agree. I checked my systematic theologies, and found that theologians as diverse as Southern Baptist scholar Millard Erickson and reformed theologian Louis Berkhof largely agree with the 1689, although Erickson wonders why such a review of our sins is necessary in light of our justification. However, Wayne Grudem’s opinion is more nuanced. He largely agrees with the others, but on p 1144, Grudem indicates the secret words, deeds, and sins of believers won’t necessarily be revealed on that day. I think we’re on safe ground if we agree with Erickson who writes quoting Berkhof “Scripture leads us to believe that the sins of believers will be revealed, though they will, of course, be revealed as pardoned sins.”
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Paul, this is very good - thank you for the post! It does seem to agree with both doctrines, that of the exposing of our sin at the judgement and that of our constant forgiveness, to conclude that on that "day of Assiz" our sins will be exposed and tallied as debts paid. I have wondered in the past if this exposing of my sin will be the impetus for my sure and eternal appreciation of the glories of God and heaven. That is to say, I've wondered if heaven will be so wonderful precisely because I will have learned how terrible I, and fallen life, was. Or, if heaven would be infinitely sweet because I will have learned how infinitely sour I had been beforehand. Thanks for shedding light on the issue. It seems then that we can look forward to the day of judgment, as the day when we will see the magnitude of our forgiveness; and also we may dread it as the day when we will see how much pain God endured to pay for us. Which two emotions are the perfect recipe for daily humility.
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