Can we fall from grace by our will to sin? What does the Bible say?

QUESTION/STATEMENT:

Heb 10:26-27  For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,  27  But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.

Hebrews 6:4 and several others make it plain that a person may choose their sin over salvation and many do. Saying that they weren’t really saved beforehand is twisting the Word of God to make it say what it plainly does not.

We are in agreement that salvation is by grace through faith alone, without any mixture of works. We seem to disagree that a Christian will continue in grace despite choosing willful sin. The Bible clearly teaches that we can fall from grace by our will to sin.

1 Corinthians chapter 5, and also 1 Cor.6:9–10 could not be more clear that, if a Christian chooses an inappropriate sexual relationship, that person will not see the Kingdom of God. To say that a person who does so wasn’t a Christian to start with defies what we hear almost every day.

Don’t be fooled into believing a Christian can live however they choose and still go to Heaven.

ANSWER:

Hebrews is not doctrine for the Body of Christ. It is in reference to people in the tribulation who believe in the Kingdom gospel. If these people in the tribulation reject the cross of Christ, there remains no more provision for salvation.

As for 1 Cor.5, falling into lust or sexual sin does not cancel your salvation. Salvation cannot be lost just because you fall into sin, just as salvation cannot be earned by doing good works. Salvation is a ‘gift’ of God. Salvation is based on the righteousness of Christ, not your own. Justification is God’s work. It has nothing to do with your performance in life. God justifies a believer the moment they believe in Jesus Christ.

When a person becomes a Christian, they are saved in spirit. Salvation does not affect the flesh until they start to learn and submit to the working of the Word of God within them. Lust does not magically go away. Old habits do not instantly become fixed. There is no Christian on earth who has NOT willfully sinned in some form after being saved. What about lies. If I get saved and then later I willfully lie to save my bacon, you say I get cast into hell. I think your challenge is not so much with willful sin as it is with the fact that you cannot understand how God can remain righteous while saving someone who continues in sin in some degree, which is every Christian on earth. Paul deals with this in Romans chapter 3.

If a believer does not learn and submit to the Word after salvation, they remain babes in Christ. This is exactly what the Corinthians were; babes in Christ,

1Cor 3:1-3  And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.  2  I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.  3  For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?

Even though these Corinthians were still fornicating sinners, they were saints in the Lord, because of justification (based of Christ’s righteousness, not their own). Paul opens his letter to them, knowing their carnal state, but calling them saints,

1Cor 1:2  Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours: 

1Cor 1:6-8  Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you: [the gospel] 7  So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ:  8  Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Notice how Paul calls them saints. Notice how Paul says that the Lord shall confirm you unto the end, that you make be ‘blameless’. The Corinthians were NOT blameless in the flesh, but they were completely blameless in the spirit due to God choosing to justify them because they trusted in Christ.

Regarding 1Cor.6:9–10, you must look at the context of the passage. The ‘unrighteous’ in verse 9 is a reference to the unbelievers in verse 6. These Corinthian believers were taking each other to court in front of pagan, unbelieving secular judges. These are they that Paul refers to as the unrighteous who will not inherit the Kingdom of God. I point you back to 1Cor.1:8 where Paul says the believers at Corinth were ‘blameless’ and confirmed to the end. You cannot be blameless and confirmed by God and then suddenly be the unrighteous a few verses later.

With that said, and as I mentioned in my previous reply, God expects a believer to respond to His Word and allow it to work within them to transform them in righteousness and godliness. This is not achieved by the law and setting rules. It is achieved by allowing the Word to saturate you and then responding in faith and openness to let it work its way out of one in glory to Christ. Christians have a responsibility to get the Word into them, to choose to allow the Word to transform them. God desires this of them and they will be rewarded for their faithfulness at the Bema Seat of Christ, 1Cor.3, but if they remain babes, they will suffer loss of reward, but their salvation remains secure due to Christ’s righteousness imputed to them.

1Co 3:14-15  If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.  15  If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.