if everyone can be saved in their last moments then what is the harm of delaying repentance?
Good question. Of course, no one knows when their last moment will arrive and if there will be the time to repent. Anyway, the Bible offers quite a list of reasons why thinking to repent at the last minute is a VERY bad idea.
1. Loss of fellowship with God.
God made us to be in fellowship with Himself (
1 Corinthians 1:9; 2 Corinthians 13:14; 1 John 1:3). It is the way to be most fulfilled in life. The joyful, contented, meaningful life we're all striving for in one way or another can only be encountered in intimate communion - fellowship - with our Maker. One misses out on this wonderful fellowship under the thinking that at the end of life one will repent and come to faith in Christ.
2. Hardening. (
Hebrews 3:7-8; Proverbs 28:14; Proverbs 29:1)
Humans form habits very readily, habits of thought and behaviour, in good directions and bad. It's the way God has made us. As habits form and are strengthened over time through repetition, one becomes hardened in those habits. Eventually, a habit can have such momentum in one's life, one can't resist it at all and doesn't even think to do so. It becomes reflexive and at such a point often develops a physiological/biochemical component that powerfully reinforces the habit, making it extremely difficult to undo. Depression is like this, as is anxiety, and various addictions (drugs, booze, inappropriate content, food, gaming, etc).
Living in rejection of God becomes, over time, a habit. And as such a habit is maintained, the one maintaining it grows hardened in it. And the greater the hardening, the more unlikely it is that a person will turn - sincerely - toward God in the last moment of their life. It's doubtful they will even think to do so, except perhaps selfishly, having spurned Him all throughout their life. If such a person has any thought of God and the hereafter in their last moment, it will be to serve themself, as has been their habit all along, to make repentance, not about honoring God, not about responding to His love, but about protecting and serving themself. And God, of course, will respond accordingly.
3. A life of rebellion and sin blinds, deafens and scars. (
Romans 1:18-32; Titus 1:15-16; 1 Timothy 4:1-2)
Not only does one grow hardened in sin over time, but one also becomes blind and deaf to moral and spiritual things, blunted to the conviction of the Spirit, calloused toward the things of God (
Ephesians 4:18-19). This compounds the effect of hardening, making it even more unlikely that, in the last moment of their life, a person so affected will turn to God in sincere repentance.
4. Sin always produces death. (
Romans 6:23; James 1:15; Galatians 6:7-8; Romans 8:12-13)
When one sows the "wind" of sin, one will always "reap the whirlwind" of sin. And God promises us that the harvest of our sin is always some sort of death: death of joy, of peace, of fellowship with Himself, of truth, of meaning, of conscience, of relationships, of physical and psychological health, and, ultimately, eternal "death" in hell.
5. Sin never just affects the sinner. (
Romans 5:12)
Sin sends ripples outward from the sinner, harming others in a multitude of ways the sinner cannot always see. Consider the sin of Adam and Eve. Consider the sin of King David with Bathsheba. Consider the sin of Achan. And so on. As a person grows corrupted by sin, their thinking fouled and twisted by it, they behave in reflection of that corruption which always, in one way or another, hurts others. There is no sin, really, that doesn't have this effect in some way and measure. This is why Paul the apostle wrote to the Corinthian church, "A little leaven leavens the whole lump." (
1 Corinthians 5:6-7)
These, then, are some of the reasons why "I'll repent in my last moment" is a powerfully foolish notion.
put your trust in Christ for salvation to forgive all your previous sins but faith without works is dead so you need to confess to others you have put your trust in Christ and does what good you can do with remaining time as you read bible God will prepare good works for you to follow as you look for opportunities to follow the gospel
Oh, dear. This is works-salvation which the Bible denies is possible. (
Ephesians 2:8-9; 2 Timothy 1:9; Titus 3:5-7) You can't escape this fact by saying, "God initially saves you, but then
you must preserve your salvation by doing good works." This is just pushing works-salvation back a step; but it is still works-salvation, nonetheless.
Imagine a man who falls from a boat into the ocean. He's about to drown, floundering wildly in the water, gasping his last, and then there is a man next to him who lifts his head above the water, encircles him with his arms and keeps him from drowning. The rescuer holds the drowning man for a moment and then says, "Well, I saved you from drowning. Now its up to you to stay afloat. Bye." And then the rescuer swims off, leaving the man to make it to shore - or not. Has the drowning man actually been saved by the "rescuer," if he must get himself to shore by his own effort? No. How will the drowning man get to shore if he has already nearly drowned, showing in this his utter inability to save himself?
This is exactly the case with you and I. We cannot save ourselves and we haven't the wherewithal to keep ourselves saved. God saves us
and He keeps us. (
Philippians 1:6; Philippians 2:13; 1 Corinthians 1:8-9; 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24; Hebrews 12:2; Jude 1:24-25)
When James wrote "faith without works is dead," he was pointing out, not the
necessity of good works to Christian living, but the
inevitability of such works to genuine Christian belief. Think of it this way: It is inevitable, if an apple tree is healthy and sufficiently mature, that it will produce apples. But this doesn't mean, therefore, that an apple tree
must produce apples in order to be an apple tree. It isn't an apple tree only when it produces apples, right? An apple tree can only ever bear apples
because it is an apple tree.
But, when we say, "A Christian
must bear the fruit of good works in order to be a Christian," it is just like saying, "An apple tree
must bear apples in order to be an apple tree." In both cases, though, the fruit can only be produced
because of the
nature - not the activity - of the thing producing the fruit.
Another example of confusing inevitability with necessity can be seen in the matter of personal possessions. Do I not first have to possess a thing in order to use it? If, say, I own a lawnmower but never use it to mow my lawn, do I not therefore possess the lawnmower? No. It's sitting in my garage; I still own it. Is it
necessary to my possession of the lawnmower that I use it? No. It could sit unused in the garage for decades and still be my possession. What's more, if I don't
first possess the lawnmower, I cannot cut my grass with it. I certainly don't come to possess a lawnmower
by the act of mowing the grass. Now, it is
inevitable that, if the mower works well, and the grass needs cutting, I'll use the mower to shorten my lawn. But, as you can see, though this is the case, it doesn't follow that using the mower to cut grass is therefore
necessary to being the possessor of a lawnmower.
In the same way, I possess salvation first and then inevitably - if I'm spiritually healthy and sufficiently mature in my faith - produce corresponding good works. But the inevitability of good works to the Christian life is no more necessary to that life than using a mower is necessary to possessing it.
