Many people say they believe God exists and that there will even be a day of judgment, a day of reckoning, but that God will save most despite how they chose to live. This doesn’t even make sense, but the devil has successfully convinced people it is true — “When [the devil] lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44).
Jesus made it clear that “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). As James put it: “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (James 1:22). Notice the deception is to oneself — “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:7–9).
In a different letter, the apostle Paul urged Titus to “insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people. … And let our people learn to devote themselves to good works, so as to help cases of urgent need, and not be unfruitful” (Titus 3:8, 14).
The Bible does not teach that when a person is forgiven of all their sins (Acts 2:38) that they can go back to living in them!
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. (Romans 6:1–7)
The process begins and ends with God’s grace. We should never try to deny His grace because without Him and what He did through His Son and Holy Spirit we would have no hope at all (see Romans 5:6–11; 8:23–32; 1 Corinthians 2:9–16).
For some, the problem is that we act as if once saved, always saved. We might not go so far as to think that we cannot sin, but we might act as if our sins “in Christ” don’t have the same dreadful consequences of death (Romans 6:23). We rely on ourselves to earn eternal salvation through checks and balances — as if that were even possible. We come to Bible studies and worship, but our heart is elsewhere. What’s the difference between what we are doing and what Jesus accused the Pharisees of doing: “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me’ ” (Mark 7:6; see Ezekiel 33:30–33).
“To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work” (Titus 1:15–16).
If we believe God exists, and that He judges everything, then we should live like it.
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