Will Sins Send A Christian To Hell?

Real quick, how I define Sin:

1 John 3:4, Whosoever commits sin transgresses also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.

1 John 5:14, All unrighteousness (wrongdoing) is sin.

In other words, I look at sin as anything that misses the mark; anything that fall short of perfection.

Now with that being said, the short answer to this question is: No!

Our right standing with God isn’t based on our performance, or our ability to live up to a certain standard of Holiness. Our justification, and right standing is based entirely on what Christ did for us, and our sins will never change that right standing before God. The truth is that our sins have already been paid for and forgiven (Hebrews 10). God is no longer holding them against us, nor is he keeping a list of the sins we commit after we receive salvation (he will not play back every sin we commit on some big projector when we are being judged (Hebrews 10:17)). When Jesus died on that cross he purchased eternal redemption (Hebrews 9:12, Colossians 1:14, Ephesians 1:7) for us; and not eternal redemption up until you commit your next sin and then you have to get that sin replaced under the blood either. When He says eternal, he means just that, eternal.

In short, the forgiveness of sins is a completed work in Christ, and every sin we commit after being born against isn’t a new offense against God because Christ’s Blood was powerful enough to cover all of our mistakes. His blood not only covered our past, and present sins, but it has even covered our future sins as well. Yes, he has already forgiven us of the sins we have not yet committed. I heard a preacher say this, and I loved it; But he gave the mental picture of Jesus handing God his credit card, and telling Him, "What ever sin they commit, charge it to my account." And God did, therefore settling our account throughout all of eternity. How awesome is that!

Now, don’t get me wrong, this doesn’t mean we now have a free pass to sin just because God is no longer holding our sins against us. What this forgiveness did was bring us back into relationship with God, and it also moved out us out of a performance based relationship (legalism) as well. God made peace between Himself and man once again (2 Corinthians 5:19). Therefore, we now have access to the Father (Access into his presence) through the death of his Son, and we will never have to worry about our shortcomings, or mistakes (performance) ever changing God’s love, or attitude towards us; and better yet, we will never have to worry about our sins being the cause up us ending up in Hell either. Thank you Jesus!

So, I pray that this answer blesses you as much as it blessed me knowing that God isn’t dealing with me based upon my performance, and that my mistakes do not change the love that God has for me; but most importantly, that our mistakes, or sins will NOT send us to Hell. This is an amazing truth, and I pray that this truth sets you free!


So, do our personal sins like lying, stealing, lusting, vanity (idolatry), and coveting, send us to Hell? The post is actually in direct response to videos I viewed online. In which the creators of those videos were talking about how born again believers were being sent to Hell for the sins they were committing. They had visions, and they dreamt dreams where they were told to warn others that being vain, masturbating, or not living up to Jesus’ standard of being a disciple was sending people to Hell. But fear not! And also brace yourself, because this is going to shock some of you, but I’m here to tell you that is not the case, and that sins are not going to send you, or anyone, to Hell. Because the amazing truth is that we have already been forgiven and cleansed of our sins (1 John 2:2), and that Christ has already suffered the wrath, and took the punishment for them as well. So we as believers do not need to be in fear of being punished for our mistakes, or shortcomings, because God already chose to deal with them in Christ (1 Corinthians 5:21), and as an added bonus he promised that he would remember them no more (Hebrews 10:17).

"So why did those people experience those visions and dreams then?" Truth be told, I don't know. In a couple videos that I watched, the person watching them expressed how they were watching videos on people going to Hell, and so they prayed that they would have an experience like that, and I guess they had their prayers answered. Now by whom, I don't know. But I will tell you that what they talked about did not line up with the word of God. For as much as I wanted to believe them, their visions and dreams sounded more like religion, than it did the word of God. But that is just my opinion.

Anyways, now, even though our personal sins do not cause us to end up in Hell, what would cause a person to end up going to Hell is their willful rejection for the payment of that forgiveness (rejecting salvation). Believers and unbelievers alike have already had their sins paid for, and forgiven, but if one decides not to accept such an amazing gift, that rejection will result in them going to Hell. As for Christians specifically, our shortcomings, and mistakes (sins) do not cause us to "lose" our salvation. Our sins do not cause us to lose our justification, and right standing before God. The price Jesus paid over compensated for the debt the human race owed because of sin. Meaning that our sins cannot undo what Jesus did for us. Jesus made one sacrifice for sins, for all of eternity (Hebrews 10:12). Therefore there will never be another need for Jesus to come back down and re-sacrifice himself for our sins because Jesus’ one sacrifice satisfied God for all of eternity.

You can study this out for yourselves by reading the book of Hebrews, but more specifically Hebrews 9 and Hebrews 10. So, sins are no longer an issue between us and God, but that doesn’t mean we are now free to live the life of sin we always dreamt of (saying it sarcastically, of course), because as I stated earlier, this forgiveness didn’t set us free to sin, but rather, what it did was set us free from a relationship with God based upon our performance (whether or not we can live up to some certain standard). So we will never have to worry about our shortcomings, or mistakes (sins) changing God’s love, or attitude towards us. Because God took care of, once and for all, the very thing that separated us.

But so you know, even though sins will not send a believer to Hell, what WILL send a believer to Hell is if they chose to forsake the amazing gift they were given, or in other words, if a believer were to renounce their salvation. A believer is born again as long as they choose to be, and if they ever desire to, they can throw away their hope and confidence in Christ (forsake their faith). That’s the ONLY way a born-again believer will ever end up in Hell. But if you want to get technical, the person renouncing their salvation would no longer be a believer, so you can say that someone who has truly been born again will never end up in Hell . All other arguments for going to Hell because of your sins are arguments based on one's performance, and that's what those videos were based upon. But thank God He doesn’t deal with us based on our performance. He deals with us based upon what we do with Christ, and whether we make him our Lord and Savior, or not.

But If sins were sending Christians to Hell, I want to let you know right now that sin isn’t only the bad that we do, but it’s also the Good we know we should be doing, but fail to do (James 4:17). We all know we should be reading the Bible more, we all know we should be spending more time with God. We all know we could love others more; that we could love our in-laws, or our president more. We know we could all defiantly be witnessing to others more. One might say then, “obvious I am not referring to THOSE sins. What I’m referring to are the major sins like adultery, murder, rape, you know, the BIG ones. The ones they warn us about over and over again in the Bible, "Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-10).”

Are you sure about that? Because according to God, there is no such thing as big or little sins - there is just sin. Because according to James 2:10, if you are guilty of breaking one command, you then become guilty of breaking all of them (all 613 of them). So, if you lie, even if it is a friendly white lie, you are just as guilty as someone who is running around committing adultery. So, if sins did send us to Hell, which one would God use to send us there (God now has any excuse to send us there )? Because according to that belief, sins ranging from not reading the word as you should, to mass murder, would land us in Hell. Man, that’s a terrible way to live.

But you may be saying, “Okay, so sins aren’t sending us to Hell because Christ paid for them on the cross, but every time you commit a sin, it’s a new offense against God, so therefore you need to get that sin placed back under the blood otherwise you WILL end up being held accountable for it.” Or in other words, you need to repent every time you commit a sin, and get the blood reapplied onto your life (1 John 1:9). And depending on what you were taught growing up, some will go as far to say that a believer "loses" their salvation every time they commit some major sin (you backslide); with the less extreme version of that being that you may not "lose" your salvation, but you will certainly fall out of fellowship with the Lord, and that he won’t answer your prayers, or bless you until you repent of those sins (Isaiah 59:2).

Again, those are all incorrect. But, if any of that were true, then what would happen if you forgot to repent of a sin? What would the outcome be if you died with unrepentant sins in your life? What would happen if you forgot to get a sin placed back under the blood before you moved on from this life? Are you immediately casted into Hell because of it? So even if a person, who loved the Lord with all of their heart, and served God faithfully for over 50 years of their life, and they were personally responsible for leading hundreds of thousands of people to the Lord; are you saying that if a person like that were to have one moment of weakness and commit some "major" sin and then suddenly die shortly after, are you telling me that because that person didn’t get that sin placed under the blood, or because they didn’t repent of committing that sin, they would then end up in Hell despite committing their entire heart and life to the Lord? God help us!

You do realize that we constantly committing sins throughout the entire day? As I stated before, sin isn’t only the bad we do, but it’s also the good we know we should be doing, but fail to do it; And that there is not such thing as big or little sins in the eyes of God. So, if you choose to watch T.V. over fellowshipping with God: Sin! If you choose to get coffee over giving money to someone in need: Sin! Don’t talk to your unbelieving friends or co-workers about Christ: SIN! You eat that extra piece of cake instead of giving it to someone who didn’t have a piece yet: SIN!!! Jaywalk (I had to throw this one in here ): SIN!!!!!!!! I think you get my point. To make matters worse, we are constantly committing sins we have no idea we are even committing; we are constantly commit sins in ignorance. I mean, for crying out loud, if our salvation were dependent on our ability to repent of every single sin we commit, then we’d all be screwed. If it were up to us, none of us would get into Heaven, unless someone killed you the moment you got born again, that would be the way you’d ever get there.

So tell me, how do you repent, or put under the blood a sin you have no idea you even committed? You can’t; it’s impossible! “Well, just-in-cause, I’d make sure to repent morning, noon, and night, for any possible sin I could have committed that day.”

*Sigh*

What to know one the worse thing about that teaching is (repenting, or getting sins placed back under the blood)? You become your own personal savior. You are making yourself responsible for your own salvation. You are moving out of faith, taking your trust off of Jesus, and placing it upon yourself.

“Oh, thank you Lord, for dying on the cross for me, but that was only part of the answer. You only partially saved me. I still have to live holy, go to church, witness to others, give my tithes, say my prayers, confess my sins, etc."

You might as well be slapping Jesus in the face because that right there at its core is self-righteousness, and we all know how Jesus felt about that. For you to say you need to add onto what Jesus did belittles what Christ did on that Cross. You are basically telling Jesus that what he did wasn’t good enough. That it’s now up to you to finish His work. You may not even realize it, but what you are doing is trusting within your own performance, rather than trusting in the finished work of Christ. You have taken your eyes off of Jesus and placed the burden of salvation back upon your shoulders (despite it already being a finished work). And that my friends is wrong, Wrong, WRONG! So, unless "Ye be perfect" just as your heavenly Father is perfect, you better start relating to God on the basis of Grace, instead of what you need to do.

Here are 2 simple equations I highly recommend you memorize:

Jesus + Nothing = Everything

You + Jesus = Nothing (You cannot add anything more to what he already did… Period).

So it's either all you (Works), or it's all Christ (Grace); it cannot be both. The two do not mix!


So what did we learn today? For me in particular: Thank God that my dependence on getting into Heaven isn’t based on anything I have to do (other than make Jesus my Lord and Savior); and thank God that my mistakes, or sins do not send me to Hell - otherwise I’d be screwed.

So there we have it. If you have any further questions about what I posted on, go ahead and place them in the comment section below, and as always, I’ll do my best to answer them.


Side Note: Now don’t get me wrong, I know the Bible encourages us to live a Holy life. But, you need to understand that we don’t live a Holy life in order to gain anything from God. We don’t do it to gain acceptance, or fellowship; or that we live a Holy life otherwise we’d lose our Christian benefits (salvation, fellowship, answers to prayers, blessings, etc.). We live a holy life because we desire to. We do so because we want to have a good witness for Christ. We do it because we are new creations in Christ, freed from the power sin had over us, and so we should no longer desire to live our old sinful lifestyle. We also do it because we don't want to give Satan and his cronies a free shot as us. So let us chose to live a Holy life, not because if we don't, God will throw us in Hell (because he won't), but rather, because we Love God, and we want to live a life that screams his name.

Thank you for Checking out this post, and God Bless!