Tentpegs

Sometimes a questioner shows me where I left something hanging or where I really didn’t make my point as well as I should. I appreciate that! Too many people read these blogs for me to be lackadaisical about the answers, especially if my answers leave the wrong impression.

Regarding the security of our salvation, I have a follow-up question. About point #2 “consistent, nonrepentant sexual immorality”, why is “nonrepentant” specific to this sin? Why would consistent, nonrepentant child abuse or consistent, nonrepentant lying or consistent, nonrepentant not sharing with others not bring the same result?

The questioner is referring back to a blog I wrote some time ago about what sins would be so bad that they might negate our salvation. I was asked if there were sins so bad that our state would return to what it was before our baptism. The Bible says that there are three sins in that category and I listed them thusly:
1. Denying that Jesus is the Son of God. (as in John’s epistles)
2. Persistent, nonrepentant sexual immorality (as in Corinthians)
3. Being divisive (or “heretic” — found in several places, including Timothy and Titus)

The questioner is right — with one proviso: if a person knowingly sins and yet refuses to repent, they are in danger of losing their soul. In that case, they are in rebellion. There is a huge difference between sinning because of a mistake, ignorance, a weakness, or a failure to execute and sinning because you decide that your will is superior to God’s. Let’s define some terms.

A “mistake” is exactly that — something we did unintentionally. It might be a sin of omission or commission and it might have been committed out of carelessness or ignorance, but it wasn’t intentional. Most of us would admit that we’ve made lots of mistakes and we expect to continue to make them.

A “weakness” is a hole in our defenses. There might be many such holes but most of us have at least one — whether we know it or not. We tend to judge those with different weaknesses as inferior to us. For example, the egotist may understand his weakness and wish it would magically disappear, but he doesn’t despise himself. He despises alcoholics, though, because he can’t empathize with them. The alcoholic despises the porn addict who despises the charlatan who… you get the point. All of us need to recognize our weaknesses and take precautions such as joining accountability groups or rearranging our lives to avoid the thing that makes us fall. If we get comfortable with our weaknesses, it is easy to fall into rebellion.

A “failure” is when we don’t live up to the standard we have set for ourselves (usually, we set that standard because we believe it pleases God).

I slipped in the word “unrepentant” in the line on sexual sin because, in the Corinthian example, the man was committing sexual sin and rather proud of it (he later repented). God never tells us to drop people who have made a sexual mistake or who — to put it another way — failed. I have found churches to be far too eager to judge such people (perhaps in fear of their own sexual cravings and weakness or, less likely, because they don’t share that particular weakness). We need to stress that sexual sin wasn’t the thing that caused this man to be put out of the church — it was that his sin was persistent and nonrepentant. It wasn’t a mistake — it was rebellion, hubris, and willfulness.

Add rebellion, hubris, or willfulness to any sin and, yes, it becomes fatal, spiritually. Remember the phrase “the soul that sinneth, it shall die”? (Ezekiel 18:20) In context, it was correcting the idea that sins were inherited. Each person, Ezekiel said, was judged according to their own sins, not those of their sons or fathers. However, this applies to our discussion because of two things: first, in the King James, the “eth” on the end of a verb form indicates a continuing action. In other words, it isn’t “the soul that sins will die” but “the soul that continues to sin shall die.” Think of Mark 16:15,16 where we are told — again in the KJV — that “he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.” The “believing” is continual action — not to be ended.

A person who continues to sin — in rebellion — will forfeit their salvation. However, Ezekiel gives us this good news: “But if a wicked man turns away from all the sins he has committed and keeps all my decrees and does what is just and right, he will surely live; he will not die.”