I have question.
After you are supposedly saved what if you sin and forget to repent or ask for forgiveness and/or change behaviors and you die suddenly is your salvation lost? Or do we have to anxiously be always searching out what sins we did and ask for forgiveness? I understand if we do wrong we should strive to be obediant out of love but non of us are God and perfect so I am truly trying to understand what happens if one sins and I notice many Christians do sin daily and you miss or forget or dont even realize you sinned and die, does Jesus sacrifice and perfectness not cover that? Thanks.
First, if God convicts the world of sin (John 16:8), then how much more do you think God is capable doing that with His own people?
Second, God is the giver and taker of life. God also knows the hearts of everyone. So nobody dies accidentally. So if a believer dies without getting a chance to repent, that means that they were the kind of Christian that was going to justify sin an evil (Whereby God is going to condemn them).
Three, not all sin is the same. Jesus said there is a greater sin (John 19:11). 1 John 5:16-17 says there is a sin unto death and a sin not unto death. Jesus said to the Pharisees that they ignored the WEIGHTIER matters of the Law like: Love, justice, faith, and mercy (See Luke 11:42, and Matthew 23:23). Peter says in 1 Peter 3:21 that baptism is not for salvation. Yet, it is a command as a part of the great commission (Matthew 28:19). But Paul says that Christ did not send him to baptize but to preach the gospel (1 Corinthians 1:17). Psalms 19:12 talks about secret or hidden faults. Matthew 12:31-32 says that speaking bad words against the Holy Ghost can never be forgiven and speaking bad words against the Son (Jesus) can be forgiven. The sin of worshiping the beast in the future is so bad to GOD that their names are not even written in the book of life since the foundation of the world (See Revelation 13:8, and Revelation 17:8). Even life teaches us that not all sin is the same. For do you consider the breaking of the Law of going over the speed limit by 5 miles per hour (in driving a motor vehicle) as the same as the crime as murder? Surely not.
So what about James 2:10?
Well, this is the only verse that suggests (at first glance with a quick reading) that all sin is the same, and a reader who does use this verse to support this view has to do at the expense of ignoring so many other verses in the Bible.
James here is not talking about ceremonial laws in the New Covenant like baptism, the Lord's supper, etc. James is talking about the "Royal Law" (i.e. to love your neighbor) (James 2:8).
8 "If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well:
9 But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors.
10 For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.
11 For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law." (James 2:8-11).
So in verse 10: When James says if you keep the whole Law , he is referring to the whole of the Royal Law (in loving your neighbor) and if you offend in one point in the keeping of this whole law of loving your neighbor, you are guilty of breaking all of God's laws. Verse 11 confirms this by it saying, "Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law." Paul says that loving your neighbor is the equivalent of the Moral Law (like do not murder, do not covet, etc.) (See Romans 13:8-10).
Please keep in mind that we should obey God in even the most smallest things. A Christian should not seek to justify any wrong doing. But the point here is that they have to realize that certain sins will not condemn them like other sins can. A Christian will want to confess, even minor transgressions of faults (See Psalms 19:12).
Four, God's grace does not will cover willful grievous sin. For if we willfully sin after we receive the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more sacrifice for sin (See Hebrews 10:26).
#1.
Numbers 35:16-18 says it only takes on act of murder to be a murderer; And
Leviticus 20:10 says it only takes on act of adultery to be an adulterer.
#2. Jesus Himself regarded just looking at woman once as an act of adultery (
Matthew 5:28).
#3. John says, "No murderer has eternal life abiding in them." (
1 John 3:15).
#4.
Proverbs 6:32 says "Whosoever commits adultery with a woman lacks understanding: he that does it destroys his own soul."
#5. Jesus Himself says that just looking at a woman in lust (Which is adultery) is potential for a person to be cast bodily in hell fire (See
Matthew 5:28-30).
#6. David needed to confess of his sin in order to be forgiven (See
Psalms 51).
#7.
1 John 1:9 says if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
#8.
Revelation 21:8 says, "But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone: which is the second death." Murderers and whoremongers will be cast into the lake of fire. All liars will be cast into the lake of fire. ALL liars, and not just some. NO murderer has eternal life abiding in them (
1 John 3:15).
