The question is, if God has already forgiven us why can’t we just sin anyways? This is a fairly common wonder/question by Christians and question by skeptics If God has already forgiven you what’s the point of trying to live a good life? Consider Romans Chapter 6: 1-2
“6 What shall we say then?
Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?
2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?”
The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:17 that once someone is saved the Holy Spirit gives them a new heart, he is a new creature and old desires have passed away and you now produce fruits of the spirit Galatians 5:22-23
“22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control;
against such things there is no law.”
And stop producing the fruits of the flesh Galatians 5:19-21
“19 Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are:
immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities,
strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions,
factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these,
of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you,
that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God”
Now Christians may answer this question in a way similar to this ” Well God died for you, you should live for Him” or “You shouldn’t take advantage of God’s mercy”. While these are all fine and dandy and even true the problem is much more deeper than that, If a Christian does not have any change in lifestyle when they are saved then it is very possible they are not saved, someone truly converted under grace and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ has no longer a desire to sin because they have been given a new heart, it doesn’t mean we do not sin anymore it means the overt desire to sin no longer resides within you. Now I would like to go over a huge problem that exists within the Church that is false conversion. Someone who believes they are Christian but are actually deceived, false conversion stems from many different starting points the most obvious is diverging on primary doctrines, for instance denying the Deity of Christ, you cannot fully understand the sacrifice made and cannot accept the gift if you deny the Deity of Christ. Another obvious one is The inerrancy of the Holy Scriptures if someone believes only parts of the Bible, or selected scriptures of the Bible are true especially those that deal with the meaning of sin they can’t be saved. I was having a conversation with someone who was confused about something, he had read online about a “pastor” who had recently converted in atheism and no longer follows the faith and he asked how could this be? I answered explaining that if someone quote “falls away from the faith” that means they were never in the faith to begin with. The Bible says come and taste the Lord and see that he is good Pslam 34:8, how can anyone ever taste and see that Lord is good and walk away from it? Logic and by connection the Bible says that is impossible, I told him that man probably never even got up to the plate. Personally ill tell you this probably my first 1-2 years of being “saved” I actually wasn’t saved and I could tell by how I was living still in sin with no remorse or even resentment to it, this tends to be a problem kids like I who grow up in Church, my Father a simple Church goer my Mother a Methodist we went to a Methodist Church and we switched to a non denominational when was about 12 or 13 and made a “profession of faith” by asking Jesus into my heart around then, now mind you this a personal story but after that I really had no change in lifestyle kinda just went on. Barley, in fact almost never read my Bible and it wasn’t for a while until I kinda thought this isn’t right I looked into it and realized I had no idea on what it meant and what it means to be actually saved, its not just saying a few words and moving on with your life, it is understanding that we are lost and you have misrepresented God’s holy character by sin and have to be punished, yet by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ we can now be saved because God’s wrath was satisfied on His son John 3:16.
So our question was if God is going to forgive us why can’t we just sin anyway? The answer? By the chaining of the Holy Spirit believers no longer have an innate desire to sin and when one falls he is in regret, if one still desires to sin and feels no remorse Biblically it is time to examine yourself to see if you are in the faith, 2 Corinthians 13:5 “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?” If you have questions about what it means to be saved send me a dm on my main account @Duku_Kevin or email me. Soli Deo Gloria thanks for reading.
All text was written By Kwabena Duku sourced from God’s expressed written word the Bible and sources include Gotquestions.org and AnswersinGenesis.org 2020.
Bible Answers by Bra Kwabena 