The End of Sin as Soteriological Discriminant: Enacted Love as Mercy, and Final Judgment in a Constructive Reading of the Synoptic Tradition

Abstract

This working paper advances a falsifiable proposal in constructive systematic theology concerning the relation between Christ's definitive redemptive act, sin, enacted love and final judgment. It asks whether, if redemption is construed as definitively exhausting the soteriological consequence generated by sin qua sin, sin can continue to function as an independent ultimate soteriological discriminant. The proposal argues that it cannot: sin remains morally real and historically destructive, but no act determines the final outcome because it is sin. A second, canonical-Synoptic movement asks what remains under judgment if sin no longer performs that discriminating office. Reading Mark 12:28–34, Luke 10:25–37, Mark 14:24 and Matthew 25:31–46 as a coherent canonical sequence, the paper identifies neighbour-love, concretely enacted as mercy, as the determinate positive content placed under eschatological examination. The proposal does not claim that love first becomes soteriologically relevant at the cross: what the redemptive act is proposed to change is the independent soteriological office of sin. Redemption therefore precedes fruitfulness and is not purchased by it, while freedom and differentiated final judgment remain. Universal redemption does not entail universal salvation. The paper explicitly presents this account as a constructive theological hypothesis rather than confessional, catechetical or pastoral teaching. It identifies its own exegetical and systematic costs, including unresolved canonical tensions, and offers the proposal for critical assessment rather than as received doctrine.