Can Just One Sin do It?

One doctrine held by some people is that only habitual or 'lifestyle' sinning causes us to lose our salvation. Does the Bible support this view?

The example of adultery

We'll take the example sin of adultery. Logically enough, the Bible seems to define an adulterer as someone who commits the act of adultery.

" 'If a man commits adultery with another man's wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death. Leviticus 20:10 (NIV)

It doesn't say that only habitual adulterers come under judgment. It is clear what the spiritual state of adulterers is.

but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
"If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. Matthew 5:28-29 (NASB^®)

Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. Hebrews 13:4 (ESV)

It doesn't seem as though Jesus intended to mean that only habitual unrepentant adulterers are flung in Hell. And the Hebrews reference doesn't say that only repeated adultery will be judged. It seems that adultery means you forfeit your salvation, full stop.

David

David was one of Israel's kings in ancient times. He lusted after a woman who was married, and so he slept with her and had her husband killed in war (this story is found in 2 Samuel chapters 11-12). If we apply the above verses about adultery, then until he repented and returned to the Lord, David must not have been saved. Maybe we can see this in the following passage.

Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.”
Nathan replied, “The LORD has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. But because by doing this you have made the enemies of the LORD show utter contempt, the son born to you will die.” 2 Samuel 12:13-14 (NIV)

Notice how David admits his sin, and straight away he is basically told he has been forgiven for it. Interestingly, this doesn't mean that there was no Earthly punishment for his forgiven sin. David's need for repentance is also illustrated when he asked for mercy for his evil.

Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin!

For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words
and blameless in your judgment. Psalm 51:1-4 (ESV)

If he remained in the Lord during his adultery and murder, it doesn't seem to make sense that David would ask for mercy and cleansing, and speak of God judging. It seems reasonable to conclude that David's one act of adultery and one act of murder left him under God's judgement, and not counted among God's children, until he confessed and repented.

Adam and Eve

Another example of the fall of the righteous through one sin is Adam and Eve. They were apparently created in a righteous state, and were allowed to stay in Eden with God. God said:

but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die." Genesis 2:17 (NASB^®)

The Lord didn't say it was ok to eat just a bit, or not eat it habitually. He said not to eat from it. But they did, and that one act of disobedience caused Adam and Eve to be under the curse of death. It was Satan rather than God who said doing it would not bring death.

The serpent said to the woman, "You surely will not die! Genesis 3:4 (NASB^®)

Deadly sins

The belief that only habitual adulterers and sinners go to Hell if they are unrepentant is not accurate. This gives us a broader application to verses such as the following, which list some sins that lead to spiritual death.

Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 (NIV)

Perhaps reading this passage as a checklist of "don'ts" isn't the best approach. It may be examples rather than a checklist of deadly sins. It is really useful either way though. Everybody, including Christians, should be afraid of committing the above sins - not just of living a lifestyle of them! They are pretty wilful acts. Nobody can indulge in them and expect to be with the Lord for eternity.

It doesn't mean that if you've ever committed them, you're not going to Heaven - it means that if you haven't repented of them and sought God, and are still in them, then you aren't going to Heaven. This is true for people who believe in Jesus too. Remember, repentance is turning away from sin and towards the Lord. Confession is also involved in this.

Interestingly, as well as sins which lead to death like those in the above passage, there are sins which don't result in spiritual death.

If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that he should pray about that. All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death.

We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him. 1 John 5:16-18 (NIV)

We don't know what the sins that do and don't lead to death are. We really don't feel we have the understanding to say. Maybe we shouldn't even take these verses to be referring to specific sins. We don't know. It's worth noting, however, that we are still told that prayer and relying on the Lord for life are appropriate even regarding sins that don't lead to death. In addition, the final sentence of the passage shows that being in God and continuing to sin are mutually exclusive things. There is something else worth pointing out, too.

Paul's sin nature

Paul said that he still had sin dwelling in him - though we know he was a very holy man and was definitely saved.

I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. Romans 7:15-20 (ESV)

Paul was saved, but he still had sin dwelling in him, in his sin nature or flesh. He didn't literally have no goodness in himself, because he knew Jesus and had the Holy Spirit in him. However, he did have a sin nature, which had no goodness in it. The sin nature is part of us all, and it is corrupt. It means that we are always going to be imperfect on Earth, no matter how much we get rid of wrongdoing. Even Paul still had this sin nature in him, though with God's help and enabling, he was strict with himself, didn't commit evils, and properly repented of his sins. He didn't indulge this sinful nature, and he couldn't have won against it apart from God. The fact that Paul was spiritually saved despite his flesh shows that God doesn't require us to be perfect (though we should strive for it). Rather, Jesus was the perfect sacrifice for us. This is encouraging.

However, it's very important to realise that even though Paul had a sin nature, he definitely wasn't doing evils like those listed in the 1 Corinthians passage above, and he wasn't always falling into sin. One Bible section showing this is in 1 Corinthians 9 and 10 (see the earlier discussion in the Salvation Loss (http://www.dansfriends.com/osas3.shtml) section). There, Paul said he disciplined and controlled his body, and that sinning means death even for God's people. If he controlled his body to avoid spiritual death, surely it means Paul didn't indulge in sin! Therefore in the Romans passage above, when Paul says that he can't do right and keeps doing evil, he must have been describing his sinful nature rather than an ongoing problem of sinful behaviour in his life. We can further think this because of what Paul wrote in continuing this part of Romans.

Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. Romans 7:24-25 (ESV)

So Paul was relying on Jesus to save him from this sin nature. Without Him he had no hope of controlling his sin nature, no matter how much he truly wanted to. Christ is the One who saves us, by faith rather than works, but Paul knew to be saved by Him we still absolutely cannot live by our sinful nature. God enables us to achieve this through Jesus.

For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,
so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Romans 8:3-4 (NASB^®)

Paul makes it abundantly clear that our salvation doesn't give us permission to be sinful.

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. Romans 8:5-11 (ESV)

This passage shows that to live sinfully means death, being hostile to the Lord, not submitting to His law, and not being able to please Him. This seems to be equated with not having the Spirit and not belonging to God. In contrast, if we have God's Spirit and Christ in us, and live by the Spirit instead of obeying our sinful flesh, we have peace and life and we belong to God. God gives us life despite our corrupt sinful nature. This is such an opposite situation than for the people who live by their flesh and don't have Jesus.

Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. Romans 8:12-17 (NIV)

If we live by our flesh, we will die spiritually and lose our salvation. The Holy Spirit enables us to live for God though, rather than sinfully. This is a necessary characteristic of our salvation and our being called children of God, who are the ones who will go to Heaven.

It seems obvious that Paul didn't think he could commit sin, be unrepentant, and still expect Jesus' blood to be covering him. Instead, Paul lived by putting his sincere faith in Christ, seeking God wholeheartedly and obeying and relying on Him, and genuinely repenting of his sin. Doing this didn't stop Paul from having a sinful nature, which he had to battle and guard against so it didn't control him and lead him back to his sins - which would have made him unsaved. But his seeking and obedience and faith resulted in Jesus' blood truly atoning for his sins and making him clean in God's eyes. We don't have to be perfect to be saved, but at the same time we can't indulge in evil. Doing so is spiritual death.

Thus far...

Committing sin is dangerous even for Christians. We can say that even one instance of sins such as adultery, murder, homosexuality, swindling, or so on, leads to spiritual death for a Christian until they return to God. This doesn't mean that God requires us to be perfect, as He knows we have a sin nature, but it does mean He requires us to put our faith in His Son Jesus, live by the Spirit and be a sincere repenter. But if a believer dies because of sin, does it mean they were never really saved to begin with, or that they did lose their existing salvation?

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