Just encountered another "born again", who was caught in an affair with her preacher, costing him his job and her the marriage she was in. The response: "we all fall short" but she says that she is saved because she is born again in Christ (before the affair) but people who aren't "born again" but [live] righteous and pious lives are going to hell......................
Uhh...........................
This broke my heart. Incidences like this have been all too familiar in my life. It is terrible and awful. It rips people apart.
Many comments followed this original post. You can only imagine people's thoughts. Problems in the church....hypocrites....how can bad people go to Heaven and good people go to hell....church today is a joke...would Hitler have gone to Heaven if he confessed right before he died...do the people who broke the 10 commandments have a blank check?...etc. etc. etc.
I wanted to ignore it. I wanted to remove the post so it wouldn't upset me. But, I couldn't. My God is sovereign and righteous and just. And, I too am a sinner. I had to respond.
My response was too long to post on Facebook, so I ended up sending it through a message. I also wanted to share my response on here for the purpose of trying to preserve the gospel. I want to shed a bit of truth where there is much confusion and darkness. There is no better way of doing this than through the gospel itself.
Here is my response:
I don’t in any way condone the behavior of these two you posted about, but the message of the gospel is this:
Romans 3:21-26
21But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Yes, they sinned—we are all sinners—and…
Romans 6:23
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Because of our sin, we all deserve death. Yet,
John 3:16
16"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
God sent his son to die so that those who believe may have eternal life—not those who have lived good lives.
Ephesians 2:8-9
8For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
There is nothing we can do—no righteous life we can live—to deserve or EARN Heaven.
Romans 10:9-10
9because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
That is the only way to receive grace and eternal life!
1 John 1:9-10
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
Just because a believer sins, that does not mean that he can lose his salvation. If that were the case, Heaven would be empty…
Titus 3:3-7
3For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. 4But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
There is nothing we can do that will make God love us any more. There is nothing we can do to make God love us any less.
May God continue to speak his truth into the lives of people. May we, his children, not keep silent.
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