# Galatians 6:19-21



## cih1355

Galatians 6:19-21 says, &quot;Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambition, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.&quot;.

If you commit the things mentioned in the above passage just once, does that mean that you are not truly saved? You only have to commit adultery once in order to be an adulterer. You only have to commit murder once in order to be a murderer.


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## alwaysreforming

[b:9377e91beb]If you commit the things mentioned in the above passage just once, does that mean that you are not truly saved?[/b:9377e91beb]

Of course not! If so, then none of us would be saved. Have none of us ever ENVIED since we have been saved? Probably. Maybe the word &quot;practice&quot; in the verse should be the one emphasised. Those whose disposition and practice are caught up in the above list are showing by their lives that they have not been regenerated and empowered by the Holy Spirit. The only power within them is the FLESH, with all of its natural outworkings.

The main thing that separates us as Christians from the unbelievers/unregenerate is that while we might commit any one of the above, we do not love our sin, and are not comfortable with living in that state. When we sin, we are not at peace, we are not &quot;at home,&quot; we wish that we would not have wanted to act as we did; we experience shame, and guilt, and remorse. And on the occassion we we don't experience remorse, we still WISH that we had and we pray to God to give us a repentant, broken, contrite, or softer heart.

Look at David, was he &quot;saved&quot; before and after he commited adultery? Certainly. It is not our own righteousness (subjectively) that is most important in our salvation, but that of Christ, and His finished work on the cross. No sin, no matter how great, is going to repeal God's love and faithfulness to carry us through to salvation.

If we are struggling because we may have committed one of the above acts, we should not lose heart. The fact that we struggle shows us that the Holy Spirit resides in us. The unregenerate don't struggle or battle with sin; they LIVE in it.


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## pastorway

The question should be:

Are you a sinner because you sin, or do you sin because you are a sinner?

We are sinners, and therefore we sin. 

One who commits adultery does so because he is an adulterer. It starts in the heart - with what you [i:254aeaad72]are[/i:254aeaad72]. If you are a liar you will lie. If you are a murderer, you will murder. In other words, committing the sin does not make you a sinner - you already were one of you would not have committed the actual act. 

While we will continue to sin while living in these fleshly bodies, as we are sanctified we will become more and more aware of our every sinful thought and motive. We will say as Paul did, I am the chiefest of sinners. Our desire will ever grow toward holiness and conformity to the image of Christ.

We will continue to sin until the redemption of the body at glorification. But the Scripture is clear that those who live a lifestyle full of these sins is not bearing good fruit - and a good tree cannot bear bad fruit!!! (food for thought, huh?)

Phillip


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## Contra_Mundum

*When does a thief stop being a thief? Can he stop?*

Is it when he stops stealing? That might meet some people's definition, but it falls short biblically. Paul says in Ephesians 4:28, &quot;Let him who stole steal not more, [b:4d231a3278]but rather[/b:4d231a3278] let him labor working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give to him who has need.&quot; In other words its not enough to &quot;put off&quot; stealing; he needs to &quot;put on&quot; contrary virtue. And not for its own sake but for Christ's sake. 

So I argue against this quote from the first post:
[quote:4d231a3278]You only have to commit adultery once in order to be an adulterer. You only have to commit murder once in order to be a murderer.[/quote:4d231a3278]
A person who has truly repented of sin is not a &quot;thief&quot; &quot;murderer&quot; or &quot;adulterer&quot; any more. So says Paul elsewhere, &quot;...and such [b:4d231a3278]were[/b:4d231a3278] some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of Jesus and by the Spirit of our God&quot; (1 Cor. 6:11). 

And in agreement with other responses, I must add that Christians have been known to sin most wickedly against the Spirit and against the new nature recreated in him (2 Cor. 5:17). And this is aberant and appalling (Rom. 6:2). But it cannot by definition define them as it once did. God has been known to end lives to keep his own people from gross sin (1 Cor. 11:30). Church discipline (which is in fact the discipline of Christ) is, in its ultimate form, still a kind of last resort of recovery for a true believer (see 1 Cor. 5:5). 

Christians are still sinners in the flesh. And they need to repent of sin daily or they will soon resemble thieves, adulterers, murderers, etc. Or it will be discovered they never were believers at all, just liars or deluded fools. Exactly the opposite is to be expected from a genuine believer who is growing in grace. They less and less resemble what they were formerly. 

Soli Deo Gloria.


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