Salvation: A License to Sin?

“Jesus will forgive you.” This phrase, and many others like it, is something Christians have been telling themselves repeatedly while living willfully sinful lives. Some venture even farther, acknowledging Jesus’ omniscience to make the case that Jesus has already forgiven all the sins they will ever commit. In either case, that argument feeds into a chain of logic concluding that since the debt of sin has already been settled forever through Jesus, any sins they commit after being saved simply do not matter.

If confronted on this point, many would often reject the claim outright, counter it with the acknowledgment that they know God wishes for them to be good, and then admit that they struggle with sin. To be fair, we all struggle with sin; but in practice, knowing how God wishes for us to behave oftentimes has little sway in the decision to sin if a person also has a foundational belief that all sin he or she commits is already forgiven. To illustrate the point, picture the classic cartoonish scene of a tiny angel & devil arguing while standing on opposite shoulders, except in this scene both argue in favor sinning. The only difference is that the devil appeals to the desires of the flesh while the angel merely says you shouldn’t sin, but the debt is already paid if you do.

That lack of zeal on the Angel’s side is why the “Jesus will forgive you” arguments are preferred by sinful Christians. Preferences aside, it is important to realize that such arguments would not be nearly as effective if the underlying premises were nonsensical. Notice that their claims are not unfounded: God does know every sin we have ever committed, and as Christians, Jesus’ sacrifice has paid the price for every one of them. So is the underlying point valid? Is the gift of salvation really a license to sin?

Proponents of that view have come up with some pretty creative arguments to push their case. Most follow the style as those I have already mentioned: they take a Biblical truth and then stretch it to try to prove something else. Others simply take a verse out of context to make their point. One example of this involved an argument based on a verse from 1 John 3:

Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. - (1 John 3:9 NKJV)

This particular argument conflates being born again with being born of God, and as such, a born-again Christian can never sin. Since this is so readily debunked with real-world examples, proponents have to declare that sinful behavior can only be defined as sinful if a person is not saved. By this they mean that if a Christian murders someone, it isn’t really murder. This is completely ludicrous! If we take the verse in its proper context, we see that it is simply part of John’s argument to show that Jesus is born of God. All that is needed to refute that interpretation is to back up a few verses.

Those who pay attention to only what is preached in the pulpit might fall victim to such thinking, but avid readers of the Bible will come across many warnings of judgment that Christians will face at the Judgment Seat of Christ. In his many epistles to the churches, the apostle Paul warns Christians that their sinful behaviors will be judged (2 Cor 5:10), and that very sinful Christians face exclusion from the 1,000 year reign of Christ, (1 Cor 6:10, Eph 5:5, etc.). Jesus showed us this directly as well in Matthew 5, and through several of His parables. (More on that here) The Bible is very clear here, we are saved and our sins are forgiven, but that does not exempt us from God’s just punishment and exclusion from his conditional promises if we misbehave. To put the nail in that coffin, I bring you the words of the Apostle Paul to the Hebrews:

For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.” Hebrews 10:26-27 (NKJV)

I know a lot of people dislike this teaching, but that doesn’t change the fact that it is there in our Bibles. And it’s obvious why God made it this way. If he didn’t, and the gift of salvation was really a license to sin, then God becomes an accomplice in the evil we commit. Think of it this way: Let’s say that a young adult who told a parent that they wanted to go on a vacation to Cancun, where they planned on getting drunk and having casual sex, and the response of the parent was, “Well you shouldn’t do all that, but if you do send me the bill for the trip and I’ll pay it.” Can we conclude that the parent enabled the bad behavior of the child? Absolutely! In the grand sense, a god that does the same with sin is also an enabler. That’s not the the work of the God of the Bible.

When I speak with atheists, this enabling “god” is oftentimes who they think God is. It is also, to them, one of the most repulsive elements of their perception of what Christianity is. From the outside, the idea of a god showering someone who lives deeply in sin with blessings, gifts, and an exception from real punishment, while an atheist who lives righteously, but simply doesn’t believe is sentenced to an eternity in Hell, is repugnant to them. Rightfully so. It is important that we dispel such a notion not with just words, but with our actions and how we live. If we do, we can make winning souls a much easier task, and live far better lives in the process.