I'm kind of "lost". Some of earlier posts said only blasphemy against Holy Spirit is unforgivable sin, but here we it sounded like adultery or unrepented sin is also unforgivable sin. Perhaps you can guide me on this.
Sorry...I'm not theologian and not good at scriptures per se. Your clarification is appreciated.
I think I used words inconsistently. Let me try to clarify.
Many people think that the sin against the Holy Spirit can’t be forgiven at all, even if you repent. Personally I doubt it. But that’s what many people mean when they call it unforgiveable.
But the OP asks about adultery. It says that many Christians say it is an eternal sin and condemned eternally. To my knowledge, no one thinks that adultery is like the sin against the Holy Spirit. That is, I’m reasonably sure that all Christians believe it is forgiven if you repent. I believe the only debate is whether it can be forgiven if you don’t repent. That is, can someone who continues living in adultery be forgiven.
So the question I’m looking at is whether sin you *don’t* repent from can be forgiven. I argue that it can be forgiven, because we all have at least some sins we don’t repent from. Maybe we forget them. Maybe we don’t realize that they’re sins. Or maybe we just can’t give them up. I think most people who are honest will admit that this is the case.
But if everyone has some sins they don’t repent from, the next question is whether some sins are special, and if you don’t repent from them you’ll be damned. This is an area where Catholics and Protestants have traditionally disagreed. Catholic moral theology says that there are minor things we do wrong which we should stop but if we continue we can still be saved. However they believe that serious sins such as murder and adultery are “mortal,” meaning that they can’t be forgiven unless we repent.
Protestants traditionally do not accept the distinction between mortal and non-mortal sins. They believe that Christ’s death for us pays for all sins, as long as we have faith in him. I agree with this. So I would say that even an unrepentant adulterer could be saved if they have faith in Christ.
I think most of the responses to this thread agree with me. One response was by a Catholic. Not surprisingly, he gave the correct Catholic answer, which is that adultery is a mortal sin, and you must repent.
There is actually a division even among Protestants. As far as I can tell the people posting in this thread have given the usual Protestant answer. But there are Protestants who hold that people who have truly accepted Christ as Lord won’t sin, or at least won’t do certain sins. This is called “Lordship salvation.” So if someone is living in ongoing adultery I think they would say that this person hasn’t really accepted Christ as Lord, and thus their sin will be condemned. I’m not the right person to defend, or even describe this position. But it doesn’t appear that anyone in this thread holds it.
The problem with Lordship salvation from my point of view is that I don’t think it’s realistic about the fact that even those of us who follow Christ are still a mix of saint and sinner. The traditional term going back to Luther is “simul justus et peccator,” both righteous and sinner. It is based on Romans 7:14-24, where Paul says that he is at war with himself. He wants to be good, but he can’t be.
The reason I’m describing all of these positions is because that’s what you asked for in the OP.
A summary:
* Catholics say that some sins are mortal, and if you don’t repent of one of them you’re in trouble. In principle you’ll go to hell, but I think they recognize that God will judge our hearts and it may not be quite that black and white in the end.
* Traditional Protestants say that if you have faith in Christ all your sins are forgiven.
* Lordship salvation says that traditional Protestants are right, but that if you really have faith there are some things you’ll never do. So people who do them can’t possibly be real Christians. (At least I think this is what they say.)
There’s a little bit of Lordship salvation in most traditional Protestants. Obviously Christ expects his followers to show it in our lives. We will certainly tell an adulterer that God expects him to turn his life around. And if he's part of a Church, we may use Church discipline to encourage that change. But we'll be more inclined to demand that he fix his life than to claim that he isn't a Christian.