Question:
If a person is having trouble with certain sin, and he tries to stop but it keeps coming up in mind and some times he can “shake it off” so to speak and at other times he can’t and gives in to it even though he knows it is wrong,does this mean he don’t have salvation? And what should he do about it?
Answer:
Was there a time in your life that you realized that you were a sinner, and that Jesus Christ died to save you? Did you repent of your sin and receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior? I Corinthians 15:3,4 says, “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.” Luke 13:3 says, “I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” John 1:12,13 says, “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” If you truly received the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, then you can never lose that salvation. John 6:37 says, “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.”
Our salvation does NOT depend upon our works. If we have good works, it does not gain us salvation. Ephesians 2:8,9 says, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: IT IS THE GIFT OF GOD: NOT OF WORKS, lest any man should boast.” On the other hand, if we commit some bad works, it does NOT cause us to lose our salvation. A saved person is declared righteous through the blood of Jesus Christ. II Corinthians 5:21 says, “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
Does this mean that a Christian can do anything that he wants, and live a life of sin? No, it does not mean that, because when the Christian sins, then God chastens him if he does not repent. Hebrews 12:5-11 says, “And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.”
If a person claims to be saved, but then goes off into sin and never experiences chastisement, then that person is not truly saved. “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth EVERY son whom he receiveth.”
Can you look back in your life and see that when you have gotten off into sin, that the Lord has sent chastening into your life? If you cannot, then that is a clear indication that you have never truly been born again. If you have placed your faith totally in Jesus for your salvation, and can look back and see how the Lord has chastened you when you have sinned, then that is an indication that you are His child.
The Christian life is not one where you are exempt from temptation. Paul testified in Romans 7:14-8:1 says, “For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 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. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”
How could Paul’s life and ministry have been so successful, when he faced such temptations? I Corinthians 15:31 tells us the secret. “I die daily.” The secret of a successful Christian life is EVERY DAY dying to self and to sin.
God can provide a way to escape any temptation. I Corinthians 10:13 says, “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.”
That is a wonderful promise, but many people say, “I tried that when I was under temptation, and it did not work!” Why did it not work? Matthew 26:41 tells us why. “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: THE SPIRIT INDEED IS WILLING, BUT THE FLESH IS WEAK.” Their problem is that they gave the FLESH a vote in the matter, as to whether to sin or not. THE FLESH WILL ALWAYS CHOOSE WRONG. We have to die to self (the desires of the flesh), and submit to the Holy Spirit.
Matthew 26:41 tells us of a wonderful weapon against temptation, “Watch and PRAY, THAT YE ENTER NOT INTO TEMPTATION…” How much better to start out every morning praying that we would not enter into temptation, than to find ourselves in the middle of it, desperately trying to find a way out of it.
The place to stop temptation is right in the mind. Some people say that “Thinking wrong thoughts is not sin — it is only if you act upon those wrong thoughts.” But they are wrong. THINKING WRONG THOUGHTS IS SIN, and it needs to be confessed as such. Isaiah 55:7-9 says, “Let the wicked forsake HIS WAY, and the unrighteous man HIS THOUGHTS: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” An UNRIGHTEOUS man has WRONG THOUGHTS.
Proverbs 16:3 says, “Commit thy works unto the LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established.” Get busy serving the Lord in a faithful, Bible-preaching local church. Have your mind on serving the Lord, instead of idle, and ripe for temptation.