Can I Live A Sinful Life & Be A Christian?
WRITTEN BY D. R. Silva
When it comes to the question “is once saved always saved biblical?” one of the most common questions that accompanies it is “can I continue to sin and also still have faith in Jesus?” or “Can I sin all my life and still go to heaven?”
The short answer is yes, but some explanation is needed.
Firstly, God’s judgment for us is eternally positive because it is completely and eternally founded in the person of Jesus and his work on the cross. God is not angry at the world over sin.
God isn’t angry at you if you sin, but that is most certainly not an endorsement from God to live in sin. The wages of sin is still death, and acts of sin still does carry natural consequences, even if not divine punishments.
A few years ago I was talking to my dad about these things. I said, “Listen, under grace I can go right down the street and get myself a prostitute. God wouldn’t get angry at me, he wouldn’t judge me, he wouldn’t separate himself from me. But there are still risks and consequences to that decision that I would have to deal with (STDs, etc.)
Can I Still Sin?
Could I technically go and live a sinful life? Yeah. The Apostle Paul said, “all things are lawful…” So I can technically do whatever I want. But Paul immediately included, “not all things are beneficial.” He said, “all things are lawful, but I will not be mastered by anything.”
So even if I could get away with it, I don’t want to. I don’t want to pursue every physical urge of my body because I will not be mastered by my body. I am free from sin. Because Christ lives in me I want to do what is good. In fact, the Bible says that I am created in Christ to do good. It’s not in my nature to pursue sin.
Titus: 2:11–12: “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age,”
No matter what you do do, and no matter what you don’t do, God will never change his mind about you. It’s that concrete kindness, that certainty in His view of you that allows us to start building an unwavering view in ourselves.
He’ll never separate himself from you. He’ll never hurt you. He’ll never guilt-trip you or try to make you feel bad about yourself for something you do. It’s that refusal to change his mind about us that is meant to help us change our mind about him.
Romans 2:4: “Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?”
But because I understand he has unlimited kindness and love for me, and because I believe that how he sees me is the true me because he never wavers in that view, it makes me want to do anything but live a sinful life. I don’t want to get away with it because I don’t desire to do it at all.
God Changes Our Desires
I’m no longer obeying rules to satisfy the religious quota and have an impressive checklist of religious chores to compare to my Christian peers (“Look how much more I obeyed than you!”). I obey rules because I don’t want to take advantage of his kindness. I obey rules because I understand that the rules were given to teach me how to walk in the love of God.
Everything Jesus did was to free us from the want to’s and have to’s of sin.
So if there is a rule, I am not keeping it simply for the sake of the rule, but for the sake of walking hand-in-hand in love with my creator. Because I know that when I cross boundaries, it doesn’t make him angry, it makes him hurt. He’s not offended at me because I disobeyed a rule, he’s offended at the disobedience because of what the disobedience does to me. He doesn’t want to see me in positions that leave me vulnerable to destruction, because the only plan he has for me is life.
I live by a want to not a have to. I want to do good, even if I don’t have to to skate by.
Do You Still Want to Sin?
If you think you know Jesus but still want to live a sinful life, something is wrong. If you think you know Jesus and still think you have to live a sinful life (i.e. it’s your nature to sin), something is wrong.
Everything Jesus did was to free us from the want to’s and have to’s of sin. Paul went as far as to say, “You have become slaves to righteousness.” That means our compulsion was changed from “do sin!” to “do good!”
You can live a sinful life and still believe in Jesus, but as soon as you truly come to know Jesus, the only question in regards to sin is, “Why in the world would I ever want to do that?”
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