Don't Do Anything I Wouldn't Do

“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;” Titus 3:5

Salvation is by faith, not works. It’s all through Jesus, and it’s a free gift. Often someone will get saved and continue to drink alcohol or live in fornication. Those are wicked sins that do need to be repented of in the Christian life, but whether someone ever repents of those sins or not, they are still saved if they believed on the Lord Jesus Christ.

When someone teaches that you must repent of your sins to be saved, it raises the question of which sins? A typical repent-of-your-sins preacher might brag that he never smoked another cigarette after he got saved, yet he is morbidly obese. Did he repent of the sin of gluttony?

People often have an arbitrary list of sins in mind, which they feel must be given up in order for a person to be saved. This stems from judging others based on one’s own personal experience. For example, a person who has never touched a drop of alcohol since he got saved might assume that a saved person would never drink.

Even those of us who know better can fall into the trap of questioning the salvation of someone who believes right. Particularly, when it is someone in our own family, we want to see evidence of their conversion. We don’t believe people need to turn from their sins to be saved, but we expect them to make certain changes afterward or progress the same way we did. We need to remember that people struggle in different areas. They grow at different rates and even backslide.

I haven’t repented of all my sins, and neither have you. There is often a change in people’s lives after salvation, but it’s going to be different for different people. Factors such as baptism and church attendance will usually speed up the repentance process. Even if they never show up to church or give up any of their sins, believers will go to Heaven because their salvation does not depend on them.

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. Ephesians 2:8-9

Here is a sermon to go with this article.