If My Sins Are Paid For, Then Why Not Just Sin All I Want?
I have been having an extremely difficult time lately with something. One member of our family stood up for another family member’s evil, sinful ways by saying that her sins ‘have been PAID for.’ End of story. Nothing further to discuss. After I picked my jaw up off the floor, this got me to thinking… if our sins are paid for, then why not just sin all we want? God may not like it but Jesus ALREADY paid for them, right? When I became born-again, I was saved. I have eternal life through Christ Jesus and I will be in Heaven one day. That’s it and that’s all. Regardless of what I do from now until the time of my mortal death, I WILL be in Heaven. That is all true.
The family member who stood up for evil, did nothing to condemn it, now SHARES in this sin as well. That same person claims to understand this, but how could you understand it and yet still go along with it because now YOU TOO are GUILTY and will be held responsible of the same sin! Why…. WHY… would you claim to understand that and yet not speak up to what you have seen and heard? I am actually MORE worried about the person covering up the sin than the person committing it.
“Do not hate your brother in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor frankly so you will not share in his guilt.” ~LEVITICUS 19:17 (NIV)
“If anyone sins because they do not speak up when they hear a public charge to testify regarding something they have seen or learned about, they will be held responsible.” ~LEVITICUS 5:1 (NIV)
Now, I know we ALL sin. But those of us with a true intimate relationship with the Lord, who LOVE the Lord and honestly WANT to live up to his expectations of us, wouldn’t purposefully go about sinning. It’s just not in our born-again nature to do that.
The family member that actually did the sinning, commits evil acts so often, that if you asked me to name just a couple nice things she has done to help others, I could honestly not tell you even one. Her evil ways are born out of extreme selfishness and everything she does has a self-serving basis. She claims to love the Lord and that the things she does is only because she wants to be ‘happy’, and the Lord wants her to be happy, right? (She has actually said this while engaged in an affair with another man, while married to her second husband.) What she cannot grasp is that if you do things out of sheer selfishness… if you do things that hurt others… you can and never will be ‘happy’ and will never know ‘peace’. That completely goes against spiritual law. You will not receive peace and happiness from sin… you cannot receive something good by doing something evil.
The Lord helped me understand the true problem with this woman. She is born-again. She claims to love the Lord. But she is ‘on the fence.’ She can be good or she can be evil but she CANNOT BE BOTH. Until she CHOOSES A SIDE, she will NEVER have peace and NEVER be happy.
Here’s how the Lord explained it to me:
GOOD: If you are engaged in a loving and intimate relationship with the Lord, then He is all you need to find peace and happiness. If you are looking anywhere but to the Lord for help in being happy, you will fail. Only through the Lord will you succeed.
EVIL: And if you are not born-again and do not know the Lord, then you are on the other side of the fence. Evil will be dominant in your life and those who seek to keep you in the dark will probably offer you tokens of happiness to keep you there. The devil will bring you wealth or whatever else you desire to keep you away from the Lord. He will make you believe that you have ALL you need to be happy and therefore, you need nothing else. You will never seek the Lord because you don’t feel you need Him. These forms of happiness might make your life on Earth easier but you will never know eternal life. The devil’s job is to deceive and he is really good at it.
Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.” ROMANS 8:5-8
SO…. WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?
the11thhourworker 
I understand your frustration. As I read your post, I was reminded of a few people I know.
It sounds like your family member has the attitude that says, “I have the freedom to sin as much as I want. If forgiveness is guaranteed, why not give God more to forgive? If God loves to forgive, why not become the best sinner on the block?”
Such an attitude – deciding ahead of time to take advantage of God – shows that a person does not understand the seriousness of sin. God’s forgiveness does not make sin less serious; His Son’s death for sin shows the dreadful seriousness of sin. Jesus paid the penalty of our sins with His life so we could be forgiven. The availability for God’s mercy must not become an excuse for careless living and moral laxness. The fact is, Christians died to sin. Death to sin is separation from sin’s power (not extinction of sin). Being dead to sin means being “set free from sin” (vv. 18, 22). Believers cannot live in sin if they died to it.
In modern times, some have denied that a Christian needs to confess his sins and ask forgiveness. It is claimed that a believer has already received forgiveness in Christ (Eph. 1:7). This point of view confuses the perfect position we have in Christ with our needs as failing individuals on earth. It is perfectly understandable how a son may need to ask his father to forgive him for his faults while at the same time his position within the family is not in jeopardy. A Christian who never asks his heavenly Father for forgiveness of sins can hardly have much sensitivity to the ways in which he grieves his Father. I question the salvation of any person who claims to be a Christian, but is living in constant disobedience to God without repenting.
If we do not confess our sins, we will become hardened. I’ve seen many Christians – judicially forgiven and eternally secure – who are hardened, impenitent, and insensitive to sin. Consequently, they are also without joy because they do not have a loving, intimate fellowship with God. The true Christian does not see God’s promise of salvation as a license to sin, a way to abuse His love and presume on His grace. Rather, he sees God’s gracious forgiveness as the means to spiritual growth and sanctification.
When we are confronted by God’s Word about our sins, we should admit them rather than deny them. To deny our personal sin in the face of God’s testimony to the contrary, is to “make God out to be a liar.” By contradicting His Word, a person rejects God and refuses to give Him the proper place in his life.
“What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” (Rom. 6:1-2).
When people are “convinced” that doing wrong is ok because they “think” that God wants them to be happy I remind them that God is far more concerned with holiness than He is happiness. This is a lesson that must be learned because of the deadliness of sin! Sin is no game. We think we can play it when it’s actually playing us (Romans 6:23).
Have a great night.