Identifying Sin, Tiers of Heaven, & the Law & the Gospel | Q&A With Rev. Joel Beeke & Mary Beeke (Part 2)

Abide was blessed to have Rev. Joel Beeke of the Heritage Reformed Church speak at a 2021 Retreat at Forest Home Retreat Center in California. The theme of the retreat was “Union with Christ & Christian Unity”. The following information is a summary of the questions and answers. For all the videos from the weekend, click here for the full playlist on YouTube.

Q: Do you have any suggestions on how to identify sin in my life? Is it even important to be able to identify what sins are active in me? (Mary & Joel)

A: Let’s address the second question first. Yes, it is very important to identify the sins that are active in you because sin is the reason Jesus died on the cross to save us. Jesus hates sin but loves grace, mercy, and His people so much that He had to die for us.

We must identify the sins in us. How do we do that?

• By being in the Word and praying so that our eyes are opened to see what those sins are.

• By examining ourselves and possibly having an accountability partner.

• By mortifying those sins—putting them to death—because Jesus is pure, holy, loving, gracious, and merciful.

Why? Because Jesus is pure, He’s holy, He’s good, He’s loving, He’s gracious, He’s kind, He’s merciful—and all those things are things that, when we’re believers, we love too. We love purity. We don’t just say, “Oh, I don’t have to follow that commandment because that’s just legalism.” Legalism is something you do in the motives of your heart in order to gain favor with God. But living a godly and holy life that honors and glorifies God is a beautiful testimony to others of God’s grace in you. So, when we love Jesus, when we love God, then we love purity, we love holiness, and we want to identify those sins and put them to death. It’s an ongoing thing—it’s a lifelong thing to identify sin and to fight it. But God will help us when we’re humble when we pray, and when we’re in His Word.

There was a medieval writer, by the name of Anselm, who wrote a book called Why God Became Man. It’s really a dialogue between an experienced pastor (Anselm) and a beginning disciple whose name is Boso—which sounds like “the beginner.” They go back and forth, and Boso asks all these softball questions to Anselm, and Anselm knocks them out of the park. One of the softballs Boso throws at him is, “Why do I have to know my sin? Why is that so important? Why can’t I just live righteous and be done with it?” They go back and forth, and Boso keeps objecting that he’s not such a bad sinner. Finally, Anselm gets frustrated with him and says, “Boso, your problem is you can’t understand the magnitude of grace in Christ because you don’t yet understand the magnitude of sin.”

Understanding your own sin is actually a help to your Christian life. It throws you into more dependence on Christ, and it makes you realize what Christ means to you. That’s why, in heaven one day, we will be able to—let me say it this way, and this is my own wording, but you’ll get it—we’ll be able to out-glorify the angels because we’ve been saved from sin. We know what we’re saved from. That’s actually a blessing because we’ll be even more astonished than they are at the salvation of man. Why? Because we are men and women—we’re sinners. Understanding your sin is actually the gift of God so that you will praise His amazing grace forever and ever and ever.

Q: What about the idea of seven heavens or tiers of heaven? Is there any biblical support for that? (Joel)

A: There was a lot of speculation about heaven in the ancient church. Some early theologians, like Irenaeus, entertained ideas about multiple levels of heaven. However, later reformers and Puritans generally settled on three heavens as outlined in Scripture:

1. The sky (atmosphere).

2. Outer space (celestial heavens).

3. The dwelling place of God.

While a couple of Puritans mentioned four heavens, there is no biblical evidence to support the idea of seven heavens. Such notions are speculative and not grounded in Scripture.

Q: How should we understand the natural inclination toward works-based righteousness in light of the covenant of grace? (Joel)

A: Thomas Boston writes in the preface to The Marrow of Modern Divinity that the natural bent of the human heart is toward the way of the covenant of works. That’s true—a natural man always thinks, because he doesn’t see the magnitude of his own sin, that he can somehow please God, patch things up, make things right, and be saved by his own works. Think of Zacchaeus. Immediately, he said, “I’ll restore, Lord, everything I took from anyone else fourfold!” But he had a lot to learn yet, you see. Once we realize the law condemns us, think of the way Jesus used the law in this way: If you have a sinful thought, you’ve committed adultery. If you call your brother a fool, you sin against the sixth commandment. Once you understand how deeply the law cuts, there’s no hope for you outside of Jesus. The law drives you as a schoolmaster to Christ, with the gospel inviting you at the same time.

Once you’re in Christ—once the law, as Luther says, has whipped you to Christ and emptied you of all your righteousness—then, in Christ, you return to the law. Now, you live out of gratitude according to God’s commandments, never thinking to merit anything by it. You’re no longer living out of the covenant of works, but out of the covenant of grace. The law sends you to Christ, and Christ sends you back to the law. But now, the law has an entirely different function—it helps you live for the glory of God. A lot of Christians today don’t understand that. Let me give you a quick illustration.

I was in Fort McLeod, Alberta, sleeping in a basement one night. When I got up in the morning, the parents of the home were just weeping profusely. I asked them, “What in the world is wrong?” They said, “Didn’t you wake up last night?” I said, “No.” They told me they accidentally left the gate open where the horses were on their farm. In the middle of the night, one horse broke through the gate, ran across the road, and collided with a car. The horse’s body went through the windshield and tragically killed an 18-year-old boy. This was devastating.

The reformers and Puritans taught that the law—the Ten Commandments—is like a fence. Each commandment governs an entire area of life:

• The seventh commandment governs marriage.

• The eighth, property.

• The ninth, truth-telling.

• The tenth, desires of the heart.

Each commandment is not just a “Thou shalt not,” but by implication, a “Thou shalt.” If we open the gate and part from God’s law—even though we’ve been saved—tragedy can result. We need to be brought back with fresh repentance and fresh faith. We need to be locked in again to God’s Ten Commandments as our guide for life. But now, it’s not to merit salvation; it’s out of gratitude.

In Christ, we say, “Oh, how I love thy law—it is my meditation all the day” (Psalm 119:97). That’s why something like the Heidelberg Catechism spends two Lord’s Days on the function of the law driving us to Christ, and then eleven Lord’s Days expounding the law, commandment by commandment, in the section on gratitude.