Tim Maas Retired Quality Assurance Specialist with the U.S. Army

Salvation through faith in Christ indwells the believer with the Holy Spirit, thus beginning the process of sanctification, or the Spirit's work of steadily conforming the believer more and more to the image of Christ.

However, this process will not reach its total culmination in this life and world, where the believer will still be subject to the commission of sin (and even deliberate sin) due to continued possession of an inborn sin nature (with the inner conflict that that creates following salvation), as well as the temptations that are still present. Paul described his struggle with this in passages such as Romans 7:14-25 (despite the fact that he had undoubtedly been saved). 

That does not serve as an excuse for the commission of deliberate sin, but it also does not mean that such sin disqualifies a believer, or indicates that he or she is not truly saved, as long as the believer continually acknowledges the sin, asks God's forgiveness for it for Jesus' sake, and seeks the Spirit's help in overcoming or avoiding the repetition of it (especially on a perpetual or ongoing basis) through measures such as changing the habits or conditions that facilitate the sin.

November 02 2020 • 1 response • Vote Up • Share • Report