Hi, Francis Drake:
So are you saying it does not matter what your sins are or whether you repent or stop practicing them, you will be saved!
It is obviously true we all sin many times throughout the day, but it must be noted, some sins are clearly in direct violation of God's standards and cannot just be forgiven. Such sins are mentioned in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, where Paul wrote: "Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God."
Notice they were washed clean by the blood of Christ and by stopping the serious sins they were practicing. That is why we must repent or stop doing such serious sins, you cannot expect to be able to commit very serious sins then just expect God to forgive you if you do not repent, that is not what the Bible teaches.
Notice how Peter describes some men in his day who had slipped into the congregation and were declaring they were saved while at the same time committing serious sins: 2 Peter 2:14-22, says: "With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed—an accursed brood! They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness. But he was rebuked for his wrongdoing by a donkey—a beast without speech—who spoke with a man's voice and restrained the prophet's madness. These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of sinful human nature, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him. If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. Of them the proverbs are true: "A dog returns to its vomit," and, "A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud."
Can you honestly say these people Peter was describing while writing under the influence of the holy spirit were saved? They were once but had cut themselves off by practicing unrepentant sin. So although one may be saved now, that does not mean we will always be saved if one unrepentantly practices serious sins.
I'm not really sure what connection your comment has with mine. However one thing I know, just like the prodigal son, and the thief on the cross, sonship is not gained by the good things that you do. Sonship is about being born of the seed of our heavenly father, just like Jesus told Nicodemus in Jn3.
Likewise eternal life has nothing whatsoever to do with being a good person, eternal life, again is about sonship. I am a son because I called on his name. All my efforts to be good never helped one jot.
I was born on earth from the seed of my earthly father, impregnating an egg in my mother. Strange as it may seem, there is nothing I can do about that. Moving to another part of the world, changing my name, having plastic surgery to change my looks, none of these things can ever change the history of my earthly birth. I carry the DNA of both parents in my flesh.
Likewise my spiritual Father, I have his heavenly DNA within me. All the rebellion in the world can never change my new birth. Like it or not, God is stuck with me. The only way to stop any disgrace I might bring to his name would be for God to give me the reward of my sinfullness and shorten my life to call me home.
I suspect that this will ruffle a few feathers, but God made man in his own image and that includes the facts of life on both heaven and earth!
To comprehend where I am coming from lets look at the verse you quote.
1Cor6v9-12
Do you not know that the unrighteous ones shall not inherit the kingdom of God...................etc.
The kingdom of God here is clearly not meaning heaven when we die. Read the previous context and you will see that Paul is talking about the reign of God on earth. Remember what Jesus said when He started proclaiming the Gospel? "
The Kingdom of Heaven is nigh unto you." The whole of Jesus's walk and ministry on earth, and that of the early church was a demonstration of the reign of God through his Son, and sons. It is this sphere that Paul is referring to, not when we die. Just look at the context. Both religious self righteousness and immorality equally enable the reign of Satan in a person's life.
Many verses that people quote regarding heaven are actually about the reign of God working on earth through his children. I am most certainly
not talking about the institutional church system. I am talking about the activity of the Holy Spirit working like He did through Jesus and like He promised he would with his saints. That all changed when people decided to chase theological knowledge instead.
