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What does the Bible teach about sin in a Christian's life?
What about a Christian who commits commits adultery and remarries?
Will a Christian who is unrepentant go to hell?
Answer:
The Bible says that Christian will and does sin.
1 John 1:8, says, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." It is important to understand that God, through the Apostle John, wrote this to saved born again Christians. The next verse gives us how we are to deal with sin that we commit.
Verse 9, says, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
Thus, when a Christian sins, God tells him to immediately confess the sin to God and ask for forgiveness. God says he has already forgiven all our sins when He saves us, but by confessing our sins, when we commit them, God helps us to put sin our of our lives and overcome them. The process of confessing our sins to God shows we acknowledge our wrong doing and God works in our lives to keep us from committing the sin again.
This does not mean that God condones sin in a believer's life.
Romans 6:2-6 explains this: "God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin."
Surely, God is telling the believer that he should live for Christ and not allow sin in his life.
1 John 1:6 says, "If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth." In other words, when a believer sins his relationship or fellowship with God is weaken or broken. It is like a son or daughter who disobeys their parents. If a child sins against his parents it does not change the fact that he/she is still a child of their parents. You are the son of your parents and that cannot be changed. In the same way when a person believes and received Jesus Christ as their Savior they become a child of God. They are born into the family of God forever. When God saves a person he gives them "eternal" or "everlasting" life ( John 3:16, 36). Thus the saved person remains eternally a child of God and will go to heaven when they die.
However, as stated above we can and will sin. 1 Cor. 10:13 tells us, "There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man:, but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it."
God is saying when a Christian is tempted to sin, that at the same time God helps him and provides a way that the believer need not to sin. However, there are times of weakness that we willingly go head and sin anyway.
In James 1:14, God again is talking to Christians and says, "But every man is tempted, when is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin when it is finished, bringeth forth death." Clearly, God is saying that a Christian can sin if he yields to his lust. But God, the Holy Spirit is there in the believer's life giving him the means to overcome temptation so he does not have to sin.
Every Christian when be is saved gets a new nature (2 Cor. 5:17). Getting this new nature is what Jesus was talking about in John 3:3. This new nature is the nature of God, and comes when the Holy Spirit of God indwells us at the time of our salvation. This new nature, which is the nature of God, makes us not want to sin. It draws us to God and makes us want to live godly righteous lives. It also gives us the ability to resist sin and live for God.
Thus, a believer has two natures. They have the old carnal nature they were born with (Romans 6:6) that all men have and when they were saved they received the new nature that only born again Christians have.
Note how Paul talks about this conflict that a believer has in his life between the new nature of God and the old sinful nature.
"For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin." (Romans 7:18-25)
Do you see the problem? Christians have two natures and they are at war with each other. The one we yield to is the one that controls us. But the answer is to give in to God's nature by obedience to God. As we obey God and fight sin we overcome it and sin less and less.
I have gone to some detail about this because so many have misunderstood the Bible and thus are teaching people false things. 1 John 1:8,10 clearly says this: "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. . .If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us."
The true believer hates sin and realized how destructive it is in his life and in the world. Further he understands that Jesus Christ had to suffer for every sin that you and I commit. Thus the one who has truly accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior will fight sin daily and if he fails confess it to the Lord, asking for forgiveness and strength to overcome all sin in their life.
This does not erase the negative consequences of our sin nor can it undo the harm done in our lives by the sin or the lives of others. You will always bear the memory and results of your actions. However, this does not mean that you cannot live a life now and in the future for the Lord Jesus Christ. It does not mean that we cannot once again have the joy and peace of our salvation.
Think about alcoholics, drug addicts, thieves, etc. God forgives them of their sin and after they are truly saved many live fruitful lives that honor the Lord. You seem to have sinned after you were saved, but the same principle applies. The day we truly repent begins a new day. Every day we live in repentance, obeying the Lord, honors God.
David sinned by committing adultery and then murder. It destroyed his family and hindered his role as the king of Israel..however, David being truly repentant went on to be used of the Lord to write many of the Psalms that are such a blessing to so many down through the ages.
We never can forget our past sins, but we take our comfort and the strength to go with our lives, knowing that God has forgiven us and that we can serve Him today and for the rest of our lives. It is said that God is the God of new beginnings and that is surely true.
I would make it a daily prayer to thank God every day for His wonderful mercy and forgiveness and for His strength He gives to keep us from sinning as we have in the past.
You have the rest of your life to show God your appreciation for His mercy and Grace. Read Psalm 40.
You should remain in your present marriage. It did not have a good beginning, but you cannot change the past. What you can do is make this marriage one that honors the Lord. Even though your husband is not saved, you can live a godly life before him and be a testimony to him.
In 1 Cor. 7:10,13,27, God say not to seek to be loosed from an unsaved spouse. Verse 16 says, "For what knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shall save thy husband or how knowest thou O man, whether thou shalt saved thy wife."
The verse is addressing one's first marriage, but I believe that the principle applies as well to a second marriage. If the wife, lives a faithful and godly live before her husband he may be saved in time.
Is it possible to believe that we are free to reject God's free gift of salvation and at the same time believe that Christ died for only the sins of those who are saved? If Christ died for my sins, and I reject God, am I not free from just judgement, since my sin was paid for? This is why I have trouble with an atonement that is not limited to the specific sins of specific sinners. Can you confirm that this is the the belief that you hold: We are all born into a sin nature, but are only judged on sins we commit. We can't help but sin, so we all are effectively born sinners, but are not necessarily born with any specific sins which require atonement? I ask because of the impact this has on abortion. If a human life is terminated via abortion, is that soul with God or separated from Him?
Answer: When God saves us He forgives all past, present and future sins. Thus for a believer all our sins are forgiven by God's mercy and Grace. 1 John 1:9, tells the Christian to ask God for forgiveness when we fail. If we ask in repentance God will forgive (He already has) and cleanse us from doing the sin again.
"And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God." (1 John 5:11-13)
Here is the problem which confuses people . . . there are many who falsely profess to be Christians and were never saved. (1 John 219, Matt. 721-23). This is not a matter of a person being saved and then losing their salvation, it is a matter of them never truly being saved in the first place.
If you see a person who professes to be a Christian living in gross sin and refusing to turn from their sin . . . look for the chastening hand of God and if it is not there . . . you know you are looking at a person who not is a child of God. (Heb. 12:8) God says He chastens every child that is His (Heb. 12:6) and the absence of God's chastening is proof the person is not saved.
Over these many years I have seen both.....lost people who professed to know Christ and saved people who were unrepentant and I watched as God chasten some of them. I have seem the Lord take the lives of a number of Christians who would not repent and turn from their sin. Hebrews 10:31, which is written to believers, says it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. God loves us enough not to allow us to continue in sin...but even if we forsake Him He does not forsake us.
Answer:
The Bible tells us Christ died for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2:2, John 3:16) The Calvinistic idea that Christ paid for the sins of only the saved it simply not taught in Scripture. It is a false conclusion of trying to systematized God's word using human wisdom. The Calvinists says that God's grace is irresistible, therefore God only offers grace to the limited few He has elected to be saved. God says His grace is received by faith and that if a person does not believe they are condemned. God grace is freely offered to all men .
"He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." (John 3:18)
"And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." (John 3:19)
"He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." (John 3:36)
Clearly, a person is saved by believing in Jesus Christ and belief is an act of one's will. Of course a lost man in his natural state, is incapable of believing unless God, the Holy Spirit, brings conviction and gives the person the ability to respond. So believing is an act of a man's will, but it does not mean that man has worked for or merited salvation.
Christ paid the sin debt of us all and therefore His offer of salvation to all men is valid. All men can be saved, but sadly, most reject God's free offer of salvation, ". . .because their deeds are evil." (John 3:19-21)
Revelation 20:15-18 explains the final judgment of the unsaved. They are judged justly according to their works, but they all are lost and will spend eternity separated from God in the Lake of Fire.
Children, under the age of accountability, are under the grace of God. 2 Samuel 12:21-23 explains that when David's new born son died, he stopped weeping and said that the child could not come to him, but he would go to the child. The implication is clear that the child was in heaven and David as a believer would see the child in heaven.
The Bible does not say what the age of accountability is. For the Jew the age was 13 when the boy was declared to be a man. Children mature at different ages and we believe that this is why the Bible does not give a specific age.
A child that has not the maturity to make informed decisions we do not believe are held responsible before God. Young children do not have the ability to rationalize between right and wrong. That is why it is so important for the parent to teach them what is right. They then are able to do right and in time when they mature can make the decisions themselves. Before this they cannot on their own determine what is right.
Christ paid the sin debt of all men and therefore the sins of small children, done ignorantly being immature, are not accountable to that child. God is love and therefore always does what is right. Even under civil law, a person is not held accountable for a crime, if they had no ability to know what they were doing was wrong.
Adam's sin gave us the sin nature that we inherit from our parents and it also brought death to all men. But we are responsible and will be judged by our own deeds.