2 Thessalonians 1.9-Those Who Reject the Gospel Will Experience Eternal Destruction Separated from the Lord's Presence
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday June 24, 2021
Second Thessalonians: 2 Thessalonians 1:9-Those Who Reject the Gospel Will Experience Eternal Destruction Separated from the Lord’s Presence
Lesson # 15
2 Thessalonians 1:3 Each of us is under obligation to always make it our habit of always giving thanks to the one and only God on behalf of each one of you brothers and sisters because it is appropriate for your faith is growing to an extraordinary degree. Correspondingly, the divine-love of each and every one of you is increasing to a considerable degree for one another. 4 Consequently, each one of us, we ourselves regularly expressed great pride in all of you in the congregations belonging to this one and only God, specifically about your perseverance as well as faith in the midst of all your persecutions as well as your adversities, which each of you are regularly enduring. 5 This is evidence of the exercise of this God’s righteous judgment so that each of you become worthy of this God’s kingdom for the benefit of which, each of you are regularly experiencing suffering. 6 Indeed, to repay with adversity for the detriment of those who regularly cause each of you to experience adversity is righteous in the judgment of this one and only God. 7 Correspondingly, to pay back rest for the benefit of each and every one of you who are regularly experiencing adversity along with each one of us at the revealing from heaven of our one and only Lord Jesus with His mighty angels. 8 The one who will as a certainty cause those who do not possess a personal knowledge of God to experience retribution by means of flaming fire. Specifically, to the detriment of those who do not obey the one and only gospel about the Lord Jesus. 9 These who are characterized by disobedience will suffer a righteous punishment, namely, eternal destruction away from our Lord’s presence, specifically away from His glory, that is, the manifestation of His victorious power. (My translation)
2 Thessalonians 1:9 continues the thanksgiving section of Second Thessalonians which begins the body of this letter, which began in 2 Thessalonians 1:3 and ends in 2 Thessalonians 1:12.
So therefore, like 2 Thessalonians 1:8, Paul’s prophetic statement in 2 Thessalonians 1:9 serves to encourage and assure the Thessalonian Christian community that God the Father will judge the unrepentant, unregenerate Gentiles in the city of Thessalonica who persecuted them because of their faith in Jesus Christ.
It also assures them that ultimately, He will judge every unrepentant, unregenerate person on the earth during the last three and a half years of the seventieth week of Daniel and when He returns at His Second Advent to establish His millennial kingdom.
In fact, it assures them that the Lord Jesus Christ will judge every unrepentant, unregenerate person in history-past, present and future at the Great White Throne Judgment.
At that time, the Lord will execute the sentence against the unrepentant, unregenerate sinner by casting them alive into the eternal lake of fire.
Now, in 2 Thessalonians 1:9, the apostle Paul solemnly communicates to the Thessalonian Christian community another prophetic statement as it relates to those mentioned in 2 Thessalonians 1:8, who we noted were unrepentant, unregenerate people who will living during the seventieth week of Daniel and Second Advent of Jesus Christ.
He asserts that these individuals who are characterized by disobedience to the gospel about Jesus Christ will as a certainty suffer a righteous punishment, which he defines as being eternal destruction away from the Lord’s presence.
He then uses another prepositional phrase to define or specify what he means by the previous prepositional phrase.
He asserts that every unrepentant, unregenerate person living during the seventieth week of Daniel and Second Advent of Christ will as a certainty suffer a righteous punishment away from the manifestation of the Lord Jesus Christ’s victorious power over sin, Satan and his cosmic system.
The antecedent of the nominative masculine plural form of the qualitative relative pronoun hostis (ὅστις) is two-fold: (1) Those who do not possess a personal knowledge of God the Father. (2) Those who do not obey the one and only gospel about the Lord Jesus.
Both these statements in 2 Thessalonians 1:8 describe the Lord Jesus Christ exacting retribution against every unrepentant, unregenerate person who reject the gospel of Jesus Christ, which would include the unrepentant, unregenerate Gentiles of the city of Thessalonica who persecuted the Thessalonian Christian community.
Ultimately, He will judge every unrepentant, unregenerate person who persecute those who trusted in Him as their Savior.
Therefore, here in 2 Thessalonians 1:9, the referent of the nominative masculine plural form of the qualitative relative pronoun hostis (ὅστις) is every unrepentant, unregenerate person who rejects the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Specifically, the contents of 2 Thessalonians 1:8-10 indicate that the referent of this word are every unrepentant, unregenerate person living on the earth during the seventieth week of Daniel and Second Advent of Jesus Christ.
This qualitative relative pronoun is used to emphasize the characteristic quality by which the preceding statement in 2 Thessalonians 1:8 is confirmed.
It also emphasizes that these people are of a certain type of character, which from the context is that they are enemies of Jesus Christ and His heavenly Father.
Therefore, this word hostis (ὅστις) emphasizes the disobedient character of these individuals who do not possess a personal knowledge of God because they have not obeyed the gospel about His one and only Son, Jesus Christ.
In 2 Thessalonians 1:9, the noun dikē (δίκη), “a righteous punishment” refers to the righteous punishment every unrepentant, unregenerate person will experience in the eternal lake of fire as a consequence for rejecting the gospel about Jesus Christ.
It is synonymous with the noun ekdikēsis (ἐκδίκησις), “retribution,” which appears in 2 Thessalonians 1:8 to also describe the divine judgment every unrepentant, unregenerate person will experience during the seventieth week of Daniel, Second Advent of Christ and ultimately, in the eternal lake of fire.
The apostle Paul then goes on to describe this righteous punishment or retributive justice with the genitive phrase olethron aiōnion (ὄλεθρον αἰώνιον), “eternal destruction.”
This expression speaks of experiencing eternal condemnation in the lake of fire as a result of rejecting the gospel about the Lord Jesus Christ.
Then, Paul employs two prepositional phrases to describe this expression olethron aiōnion (ὄλεθρον αἰώνιον), “eternal destruction.”
The first prepositional phrase apo prosōpou tou kyriou (ἀπὸ προσώπου τοῦ κυρίου), “away from our Lord’s presence” describes eternal destruction as being separated from or disassociated from the Lord Jesus Christ’s personal presence.
The second apo tēs doxēs tēs ischyos autou (ἀπὸ τῆς δόξης τῆς ἰσχύος αὐτοῦ), “away from His glory, namely, the manifestation of His victorious power” explains in greater detail the first prepositional phrase and describes eternal destruction as being separated from or disassociated from the Lord’s glory, which is the manifestation of His victorious power.
The second prepositional phrase is describing the personal presence of the Lord Jesus Christ from the perspective that He manifests His omnipotence which has overcome or is victorious over sin, Satan and his cosmic system.
Now, the sinner who is declared justified by the Father through faith in His one and only Son, Jesus Christ is identified with the latter in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the right hand of the Father.
This identification takes place at the moment of justification through the baptism of the Spirit.
Through this identification, the Holy Spirit appropriates the omnipotent power to overcome sin, Satan and his cosmic system, which manifested itself through the Lord Jesus Christ’s crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the right hand of the Father.
Therefore, the sinner who obeys the gospel of Jesus Christ by trusting in Him as their personal Savior enables the Holy Spirit to appropriate for them the omnipotence of God, which was manifested through Jesus Christ’s crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the right hand of the Father.
These events in our Lord’s life provide the omnipotence to deliver the sinner from the sin nature, personal sins, condemnation from the Law, spiritual and physical death and eternal condemnation.
Consequently, the sinner who disobeys the gospel of Jesus Christ by not trusting in Him as their personal Savior does not appropriate the omnipotence of the gospel of Jesus Christ which delivers them from the sin nature, personal sins, condemnation from the Law, spiritual and physical death and eternal condemnation.
The result is that these unrepentant, unregenerate sinners suffer eternal destruction in the eternal lake of fire.
As we noted, in 2 Thessalonians 1:9 Paul describes eternal destruction as being separated from the personal presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Specifically, he describes eternal destruction as being separated from the manifestation of the Lord Jesus Christ’s victorious power which delivers the sinner from the sin nature, personal sins, condemnation from the Law, spiritual and physical death and eternal condemnation.
So therefore, as was the case in 2 Thessalonians 1:6-8, the apostle Paul is teaching in 2 Thessalonians 1:9 the principle of lex telionis which is also called the law of retribution.
It means that the Father’s repaying with adversity these unregenerate Gentiles in the city of Thessalonica who persecuted the Thessalonian Christian community fit the sins they committed against Him and the Thessalonians.
As we noted, these individuals are described in 2 Thessalonians 1:8 as not possessing a personal knowledge of the Father and not obeying the gospel about the Lord Jesus.
As we also noted these two descriptions indicate that these unrepentant, unregenerate Gentiles in Thessalonica who persecuted the Thessalonian Christian community did not possess a personal knowledge of the Father because they did not obey the gospel about His one and only Son, Jesus Christ.
Therefore, their just punishment was eternal condemnation in the eternal lake of fire, which corresponds to the sin of rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior or in other words, this punishment fit the sin of rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior.