Scriptures Warning Christians of Peril
A significant part of the today’s evangelical industry is devoted to giving assurance to people who are in bondage to various forms of sin that they do not need to fear for their souls. In other words, people desperately want to hear that they are safe, and there are plenty of people out there to cater to that market.
The ministry of Jesus to people caught in sin often contained the words,
“Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.” (John 8:11). Or,
“See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.” (John 5:14).
The encounter with God’s grace not only brings undeserved forgiveness and acceptance with God. It also comes with a warning to “sin no more”. The reason for this is hidden in plain sight. If we keep on sinning after encountering the grace of Jesus Christ, there comes a time when “something worse” than being crippled and powerless.
“If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.” (Hebrews 10:26-27 NIV)
Notice that this Scripture was not written to the world, but to Christians. It does not say, “If THEY [the people outside of Christ] keep on sinning …” but “If WE [the believers/Christians] deliberately keep on sinning AFTER receiving a knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins remains, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and raging fire that will consume the enemies of God”.
In contrast to this plain teaching of Scripture, there is a veritable army of so-called “grace teachers” and so-called Bible teachers whose whole emphasis seems to be on the idea that because of the cross, God is now blind to your sin and He unconditionally guarantees you heaven regardless of how you live – just because you believe He does. For them, the gospel is that Jesus did it all so you don’t have to live righteously at all, and some go so far as to teach that only those who believe this way will be accepted by God. If you want to know if Jesus is really blind to the sin in the church, please read the words of Jesus to the churches in the Book of Revelation chapters 2 and 3. Folks, this all happened AFTER the cross.
There is a difference between believing that God requires a surrender of heart and life and a belief that you can “earn your way to heaven”. We can NEVER earn our way to heaven by any good works of faith or obedience. All we can do is cast ourselves on the mercy of God, and surrender to the Lord. We then need to follow Jesus through faith, love, prayer, obedience, the Word, and self-denial. Our acceptance with the Lord is because of the ongoing cleansing of His blood – but there are conditions for this, as the Bible reveals. See 1 John 1:7 for some of them.
Whatever is not of faith is sin.
Whatever is not of love is sin.
Prayerless living is sin.
All disobedience is sin.
Rejecting the Word of the Lord is sin.
Self-indulgence contrary to the leading of the Spirit to deny ourselves is sin.
We are not permitted by Jesus to keep on sinning.
He said, “Go and sin no more”.
It would not be fair to say that to one person if he did not mean it to apply to all who hear His Word.
Believing and Repenting
There is this idea that you can believe without repenting. In the gospels, repenting and believing are like two sides of the same coin.
You can only fully “believe in Jesus” without “turning from sin” if the “Jesus” you believe in does not say things like “Go and sin no more”.
But which Jesus is that? It could well be “another Jesus”, couldn’t it?
Repentance in Greek [metanoia] is a “change of mind” but it is more than changing your opinion on religious matters. It means turning to God, away from both self-dependence AND willful carnal sin. It means a 180 degree change of direction.
It is a change from unbelief to faith, from doubts to trust, from fear of doing God’s will to delight in doing God’s will.
Some try to redefine repentance to mean: “It is a change of mind from thinking God requires something of you to realizing that because of Jesus’ work God requires nothing from you”. That definition cannot be true in the light of what the apostle Paul said in the Bible. I will show that shortly.
The way of salvation as taught by Jesus in the gospels is something we should consider carefully. Some people teach that everything Jesus taught about salvation was out of date after the cross and resurrection. But these gospels recording the words of Jesus were written decades AFTER Jesus died and rose again. Not once do these gospel writers say, “Oh, and by the way, since Paul came along, we learned that none of Jesus’ commandments are bindings, and his warnings were all for someone else – not you”. That would be ridiculous, but this is essentially what many people are swallowing.
Warnings from the Apostle John
“If we say we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie,"...
“Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.” (1 John 2:3)
“He who says, ‘I know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” (1 John 2:4)
“But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes” (1 John 2:11).
“If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in Him” (1 John 2:15).
“Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous” (1 John 3:7)
“He who sins is of the devil” (1 John 3:8)
Warnings from the Apostle Peter
For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error. 19 While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage. 20 For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. 21 For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them.