These People Will Not Inherit the Kingdom of God
by Michael Edwards If you are a Christian, you would probably agree that anyone can be saved, that is what my Bible states. A person just needs to confess with their mouth and believe in their heart and they will be saved. For example, if a person who had committed murder sincerely accepts Jesus as Lord and Savior, they are saved. But would this mean a murderer would go to heaven when they die? How about your own personal story Christian? When you die and go to heaven, will a liar and thief go to heaven? What about a person that rejects God all of their life, like the thief on the cross next to Jesus. He only believed that Jesus was the Messiah immediately before his death. Did a thief along with all of the other sin titles he acquired during his life, inherit the Kingdom of God? The answer is "NO". Liars, thieves, murderers and any other sinners you can name, will not inherit the Kingdom of God. This is easy to see when we read any of the following verses. In Gal 5:19-21, 1 Cor 6: 9-10 and Rev 21:8. These and other verses provides a long list of people we know can be saved by trusting Jesus but the Bible says will not inherit the Kingdom of God. The list includes many heinous sins and others such as telling a lie, cowardly, greedy, drunkards, anger, envy and jealousy. So if we have committed some of the sins in the list, how will we inherit the Kingdom of God? “And such were some of you. 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 Cor 6:11. In this verse, the Greek word for JUSTIFIED is the same word for made righteous, right with God - HERE. I think it is pretty easy to understand that all who are saved will inherit the Kingdom of God as a new creation not as a liar, thief or anything else. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” 2 Cor 5:17 Believers Need Not Fear These Verses Thinking They Can Lose Their Salvation What about after we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior? Some use the verses I have referenced (Gal 5:19-21, 1 Cor 6: 9-10 and Rev 21:8) to say that if a Christian does these things, they will not inherit the Kingdom of God. Here is something to consider if you think this, or fear these verses. 1)To me it is pretty obvious that liars and thieves and any other sinner you want to name will not inherit the Kingdom. Those who believe have been washed in the blood of Jesus and no sinner will enter. "I said to him, Sir, you know. And he said to me," “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” Rev 7:14 2) We were made a sinner by Adams disobedience, without sinning one time. (Rom 5:12-21) Our sins are simply a symptom of that inherited sin nature. We are made righteous by believing God, without doing righteous acts, we inherit God’s own righteousness in Christ as a gift by God’s grace. It is impossible for us to do acts that will make us righteous before God or to maintain our salvation after we accept Jesus. This is because: ...all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment... Isa 64:6. We are righteous by faith in Christ alone. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. Rom 5:19 3) Paul said the only way we can recognize sin is by the law (Rom 3:20). John said this: for sin is the transgression of the law. From both of these verses we see that the only way we can call sin a sin is by the law. 4)Romans says this: “To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone’s account where there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come.” Rom 5:13-14 In other words, there were no liars, murderers or thieves from Adam to Moses because there were under grace, no law to transgress so sin is not counted against man. During this time Cain killed Able and you will not find God calling Cain a murderer. In fact you will see God protecting Cain from those who might want to kill him in vengeance. If God left those from Adam to Moses under grace, no law to transgress so sin could be counted. Why would anyone think God cannot do the same to those who place their faith in Jesus? The truth is he can and did. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. Rom 6:14 5)Now in Timothy we see a verse with a list of sins similar to (Gal 5:19-21, 1 Cor 6: 9-10 and Rev 21:8). But we know that the Law is good, if one uses it lawfully, realizing the fact that law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted. 1 Tim 1:8-11 If you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior you are already righteous – SEE HERE. Therefore the above verses clearly tell us the law that declares an unbeliever guilty and points out they are a liar, murderer, unholy, profane, etc, does not apply to the righteous, any person who has placed their faith and trust in Jesus. This truth that these sinner subtitles do not apply to belivers can be further verified in Romans 7. These verses tell us how death releases us from the law. Paul uses a natural example of adultery. He explains that once a person is freed from the law, they can not be called an adulterer. He then coorelates this with those who are dead to the law in Christ. Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress. Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. Rom 7:1-6 ESV I go into depth with Romans 7 HERE. There is also further evidence. 6)In Acts 15 we see what is called the Jerusalem council. There were some who were trying to place the Gentile believers under the law of Moses. Peter points out that they were given the Holy Spirit by faith and thus saved never having the law of Moses. The law of Moses was only given to the Jews. Peter says “NO” to placing them under the law of Moses. Later in 15 we see that after meeting together the disciples agree with Peter and give the Gentiles three things to abstain from instead of the law of Moses. Read Acts 15 HERE. 7)In the book of Galatians, we see Paul pronouncing a double curse on those who were trying to add keeping of the Mosaic law as a requirement in addition to faith for salvation. Paul states this: “You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.” Gal 5:4 8)Jesus disarmed satan taking sins power to condemn away. …the power of sin is the law. 1 Cor 15:56b Jesus nailed the law to the cross, disarming satan. “Then you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” Col 2:13-15 The Only Ones Who Will Not Inherit the Kingdom of God The only people who cannot inherit the Kingdom of God are those who blaspheme, reject, ignore the Holy Spirit’s conviction (Mark 3:28-30) of their unbelief. Those who refuse to believe. The Holy Spirit convicts the non-believers of unbelief John 16:8-9. Rejection of the Holy Spirits conviction that they need Jesus is the one unpardonable sin. Believers obviously cannot commit this sin. The Holy Spirit actually convicts a believer of their righteousness in Christ - John 16:10. Here is a great article and video offering 37 verses that a believer is not under the law. I encourage you to watch it. http://www.phildrysdale.com/2013/10/37-scriptures-that-prove-christians-are-not-under-the-law/ To make it clear, I am against all sin. I believe the law is holy, just and good when used properly to identify sin in the unbeliever and lead them to Jesus (Gal 3:24. 1 Tim 1:8-9). I believe that people who are trusting Jesus as their savior are not looking to sin, they are looking for a way out of sin. Find out how to Biblically stop outward acts of sin HERE. Jesus saved us from the law’s power to condemn us to defeat satan, He came on an all-out rescue mission to save us, placing us under grace where satan and the law cannot touch us. The truth is, you do not want to be caught dead under the law. More New Covenant articles.
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