The popular version that when the Lord comes He will remove all sin from us and we will become spiritual giants has no foundation in the scriptures. It is true that we shall be changed externally at His return, but such change depends on our having been changed internally in advance. God has no intention of placing a body like that of Jesus Christ on an immature, worldly, lustful, self-willed personality. The very thought is unscriptural and, in fact, illogical if not ridiculous.

But what does the Scripture say about getting sin out of the camp?

The Lord has told us that at the end of the age, probably independently of whether we are alive on the earth or in the spirit realm, His messengers will remove from His Kingdom everything that causes sin, and then all who do evil, and cast it and them into the fire.

We think Christ has begun today to remove sin from those who are seeking Him. The believers who cooperate with the Holy Spirit will be as the wheat that will be gathered into the Lord's barn. The believers who do not cooperate with the Holy Spirit in the removal of sin from their personality will themselves be cast into the fire that is never quenched.

Are you one of those disciples who is living close to God today? Then the Holy Spirit already is speaking to you about your love of the world, the appetites and passions of your flesh, and especially your self-will and self-seeking.

As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear. (Matthew 13:40-43 NIV)

We can notice several ideas in the above passage. The removal of sin from the Kingdom of God will take place at the end of the age. I think the spiritual fulfillment of the Jewish Day of Atonement has begun already. Why don't you go to Jesus and ask Him if I am correct.

Sometimes the great moves of God are missed even by God's people because they are not in prayer. This reminds us of Simeon and Anna who saw Christ because they were people of prayer. The rest of the Jews went about their business not aware their Messiah had been born in a stable. Are you living so close to God in prayer that you will know when God moves forward in His plan for establishing His Kingdom on the earth?

Jesus did not say where the removal of the weeds would take place, only that it would be at the end of the age. Since Peter says God is ready to judge the living and the dead, I would venture that the removal going on now in the earth has also begun in the spirit realm among the departed believers.

To be continued.