Short Work
This question was posted to my friend's Formspring page and I couldn't resist writing up a reply myself despite the fact that she answered it well and beautifully.
Q: “What you are saying about sin seems to me to just make believing in GOD (not that I don't) something for the sick and dying? If you are always guaranteed forgiveness for your faith then why not party your brains out till the end?”
A: There are several points that could be focused on in that question:
1) True children of God don’t desire all the same things after conversion that they did before their conversion (Romans 6, John 12:25).
2) Christians do not only have faith that God is faithful to save repentant sinners (1 John 1:9), but also that He is faithful to damn unrepentant sinners for all of eternity (Matthew 18).
Repentance is not just saying you’re sorry, it’s feeling penitent, genuinely desiring to not repeat the transgression.
3) You don’t know when “the end” will be. Luke 12, Matthew 24
With such high stakes, who would risk their eternal destiny on a little fun right now? If you are asking “how far is too far?” you should question whether you’re truly saved (trusting in Christ’s work alone for your salvation) or whether you've been (self-)deceived.
It would be the basest ingratitude to willfully continue in sin without any remorse when the innocent Son of God sacrificed Himself to save us from that very slavery.
“Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.’”
John 8:34
“...knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;”
Romans 6:6
(The whole chapter speaks to this subject)
“For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’”
Romans 8:15
“Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.”
Galatians 4:7
Praise God!
Q: “What you are saying about sin seems to me to just make believing in GOD (not that I don't) something for the sick and dying? If you are always guaranteed forgiveness for your faith then why not party your brains out till the end?”
A: There are several points that could be focused on in that question:
1) True children of God don’t desire all the same things after conversion that they did before their conversion (Romans 6, John 12:25).
2) Christians do not only have faith that God is faithful to save repentant sinners (1 John 1:9), but also that He is faithful to damn unrepentant sinners for all of eternity (Matthew 18).
Repentance is not just saying you’re sorry, it’s feeling penitent, genuinely desiring to not repeat the transgression.
3) You don’t know when “the end” will be. Luke 12, Matthew 24
With such high stakes, who would risk their eternal destiny on a little fun right now? If you are asking “how far is too far?” you should question whether you’re truly saved (trusting in Christ’s work alone for your salvation) or whether you've been (self-)deceived.
It would be the basest ingratitude to willfully continue in sin without any remorse when the innocent Son of God sacrificed Himself to save us from that very slavery.
“Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.’”
John 8:34
“...knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;”
Romans 6:6
(The whole chapter speaks to this subject)
“For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’”
Romans 8:15
“Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.”
Galatians 4:7
Praise God!