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The stumbling block in our conversation was two fold. First, the idea of actually losing one’s salvation seemed to horrify my friend. Second was his statement: “Well, everyone in the church is a sinner!” Translated, I took the comment to mean: “No big deal, we can’t do anything about that with Jesus. Can we?” Part of today’s pulpit teachings is the erroneous idea that since we are all sinners, sin no longer matters to God. Especially to Jesus. After all, isn’t this the object and purpose of the blood of Jesus? Not only that: “Remember grace; this sounds like a ‘works’ thing to me.” Works?
If I ask you: “Is everyone in the church a sinner?” Your answer would certainly be YES. If I asked you whether Jesus forgave all of your sins, you would again answer YES. And at least one false teacher named Keith told me that that forgiveness extended to all sins I have had in the past as well as those sins I could ever commit in the future. Keith and others like to pick out selected verses and then develop a theology around them. Keith liked Romans 6:10 and similar verses that talked about how Jesus died for all sins. All in this particular verse meaning 100% of the sins of 100% of the people born from time immemorial. All sin … period … Once for all.
“For the death that he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life that he lives, he lives to God.” Romans 6:10
Keith’s intellectual argument had two main points. First, Jesus saves us from all our sins. No argument with that point. Second, we are free to sin, as we want to because of this fact. There can be no doubt that this is a very popular theology among Christians around the world. In fact, very nice indeed. We get to do what ever we want on planet earth. Then when we leave, we get eternal life in Heaven by the blood of Jesus. Pretty cool, huh?
Well, I decided to take Keith’s theology to its logical conclusion. I wrote Keith who referred to himself as the “teacher.” Dear teacher: You have taught Fred that all his sins are now forgiven not only from the past; but, also those sins that will occur in the future. In fact, you have taught Fred that he is free to sin any time he wants to and in any manner he wants to because Jesus died once for all sins.