Some People Only Want Salvation From Sin's Penalty, Not From Sin Itself!

Here's a quote from American-Chinese pastor Francis Chan on lukewarm people.  I have found how many people want salvation, want change but they refuse to start with themselves.  How often is it that people want to be saved in their sins, not from their sins.  Nowhere in the Bible is there a verse that says or suggests you are saved in your sins.  

Ephesians 2:8-9 has been commonly misquoted by the Antinomians but they skip verse 10 which says that Christians are ordained to do good works.  It is true that salvation is by grace through faith but salvation is not just salvation itself, it's salvation from sin.  I have no power over sin apart from the saving grace of God.  When God saves a person, He does not merely save them but He also sanctifies them.  Sanctification and holiness are traits that grow daily in the Christian life against their old nature.  When a person is saved by God's grace, they are ordained unto good works which they will perform by God's grace.

Matthew 1:21 is clear that Jesus came to save people from their sins and not in their sins.  When a person is saved - they are saved from their sins and not just the penalty of their sins.  I find it heretical to teach that a person can sin all they please.  Only false converts will teach that grace is a license to sin.  Anybody who is truly saved does not want to live his or her old life anymore.  A "gospel" that promises that, "You can be saved and sin all you want, can't live the way you want equals works salvation." is just as heretical as, "You better keep doing good or you're out of God's family."  

There are people who are complaining that pastors who preach that salvation changes one's life are making salvation "complicated".  I am sorry but such people are really preaching a demonic doctrine and a certain degree of Antinomianism that sings, "I am free from the Law now I may sin forevermore." either directly or indirectly.  They call preachers who say that salvation changes your life and that true converts differ from the false converts, they are quick to call names and take things out of context to justify their heresy.  They act like as if they never even had an encounter with the Holiness of God that makes them want to sin no more.  

Christians still fall into sin and I do not dare deny it.  No Christian has ever achieved sinless perfection and some of them may have sinful compromises.  The big difference comes in when the Christian sins and the false converts sin.  Romans 7:13-25 we read Paul's struggle with sin and he was not happy about it.  Christians cannot continue in the indefinite state of carnality.  They can fall into carnal states but not indefinitely.  Hebrews 12:5-7 says that God chastises His children when they are disobedient so there's no way that they can live in sin all they want.  

The idea that a Christian can remain carnal indefinitely is repugnant to anybody who is truly converted in Christ.  If you read the Bible, converted sinners do not continue in a lifestyle of sin.  Matthew left his dishonest trade as a publican.  Zacchaeus restored to people whom he had cheated.  Rahab stopped being a harlot when she became part of the people of God.  Ruth renounced the Moabite gods for the living God thus the curse was no longer part of her.  As 1 Corinthians 6:11 says that once a person is saved, they are no longer unrighteous and no longer live the lifestyle of those unfit to inherit God's Kingdom.  Instead, they are sanctified and justified before God that they do not want to live their old lives anymore.


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