Does Revelation 21 suggest that the impure, the sinner, workers of iniquity, will be present on the New Earth within the New Jerusalem?
It is written,
24 And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.
25 And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there.
26 And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it.
27 And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life. Revelation 21:24-27 (KJV)
Some suggest that the sinful, those who reject Jesus Christ as Mediator for their sin, will escape the final judgment of Revelation 20:11-15 and enter the New Heaven and New Earth and that sin and iniquity will be present there. Is this correct?
The Holy Spirit does not say that iniquity exists in the Kingdom of God but that the potential exists for iniquity due to free will which is extant by necessity. There will be nothing impure allowed to enter the Kingdom of God as God will NOT allow evil to exist in His presence due to His absolute holiness and due to the destruction that is inextricably linked to disobedience/sin. All impurity has been cleansed by fire (2 Peter 3:10) the dross of impurity removed (Revelation 20:10-15). The passage never says that there is iniquity present in the Kingdom of God but that same will never enter the Kingdom though we know that iniquity was once present and it was extricated and dealt with here on Earth through the Gospel by Jesus Christ at Golgotha (Luke 10:18; 1 John 3:8b).
Free will remains extant in the Kingdom by necessity and our existence in Time, the tangible observation, the experiential relevance, of unfathomable horror and suffering resulting from iniquity acts as a bulwark against future rebellion. Will the possibility of rebellion and sin be present in the New Jerusalem? Of course, as the angels and the redeemed possess free will but the previous 6000-years of unfathomable suffering, death, sorrow, will be an ever-present deterrent as will our redemption and our new-nature (2 Corinthians 5:17) integral and amplified with/by our resurrected bodies fashioned after the glorious body or our Lord Jesus Christ (Philippians 3:21).
There will be no desire to return to the former things that have passed away in sorrow as that which God has prepared for those who love Him will surpass all human expectation and the focus of the Kingdom will be God’s glory and honoring Him as our King (1 Corinthians 2:9).
