So do you think that after the fact of the tattoo being done and now reading that verse that you are no longer saved?
No, of course not. 2 Peter 1: 9.
Why would you think I'd think I was not saved because of a tattoo? Really, explain that Cross Over.
Is this a sin that is repentance?
Hmmm... I can see attention to detail wasn't happening when this post was written. No sin is repentance. I assume you mean something like is this a sin from which I cannot repent and again the answer is "No," and I again I wonder why you would think I would think such a thing. Do please explain the impetus bhind these inquiries.
I believe we have a merciful God, one that saves even those with tattoos. I would have to pray about this more and read more on this. I ask in a desire to talk about the topic.
So someone with tattoos repents of their sins and asked Jesus to be their Lord and personal Savior, go through the steps of becoming involved in the Church. By this scripture that person is saved but should not get any more tattoos based on the laws of scripture.
Yep. Yep to all of it.
We are saved by grace through faith being created in Christ for good works (Eph. 2:5-10)
We are
not saved by an absence of tattoos and no tattoo any Spirit regenerated person gets after having been converted from life to death can wrest the blood of Christ from its accomplishments or purpose. That's like thinking a moth can fly into a nuclear explosion and survive.
That being said, there is a difference between living in Christ and living fruitfully in Christ (John 15). We might stretch the context and say all things are lawful or permissible, but not all things are beneficial or edifying (1 Cor. 10:23). Paul wrote that because the goal is fruit-bearing, profit or edification, not what is merely permissible. All the scriptures about fruit-bearing are rooted in the first command God ever gave humanity: "
Be fruitful and multiply, subdue the earth and rule over it," a command that has oft been repeated in various wordings but never a recanted.
There are of course many reasons people use to get tattoos but which one is the Spirit prompting a person, "
Go get tattooed"?.
Culturally speaking, the Levitical code was intended to prevent identification with tribes and idols. The Hebrews were God's tribe, and their identity was not in the world. Their God was not a finite anthropomorphized god of man-made imagination and design and their religion was not a harvest religion ritualizing the cycles of seasons. Their identification and thereby their identity was in God alone, just as ours is in Christ alone.
Sure, you and I could get a tattoo and God might roll His eyes and utter a divine "
Sheesh," but I suspect something more profoundly sad would occur on His end.
Even getting tattoos for evangelistic purposes is dubious because the best apologetic is a life well-lived and if and when God shows up during moments of proselytizing all human effort beyond the preaching of the gospel becomes irrelevant. It is never eloquent words and intellectually unassailable arguments or well-attired presentation that saves. It is God Who saves. Can he use our shortfalls to save another? Sure? Does He? Yep. Need He? Nope.
In the end I suspect the tattoos will be removed.
1 Corinthians 3:10-15
"According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw — each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire."
Only the things surviving testing remain. We'll all emerge charred and covered in soot (free of tattoos), even if we're still holding good works that survived because we're not perfect this side of the grave.
Romans 6:1
"What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?"
It's only a tattoo, after all.
Or shall we consider another standard?
Philippians 4:8
"Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things."
So pure, lovely, good repute, excellent praiseworthy tattoos are okay
.
Let's revisit Romans 6 again.
Romans 6:1-15
"What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!"
We're all trying to find the healthy place between legalism, antinomianism, and hypocrisy. That "
We..." is us, the regenerate believers in the Most High God Who purchased while we were still helpless sinners headed for destruction.
Those who don't believe and aren't regenerate? They don't fret over tattoos. This op gets discussed much differently in an atheist forum.
(my apologies for the length)
