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Why would you lose your righteous standing in Christ because of the sin of unbelief?

Don't ask me; but the Fella that wrote the Book!

Hebrews 3:7-19

7 So, as the Holy Spirit says:

“Today, if you hear his voice,
    do not harden your hearts
as you did in the rebellion,
    during the time of testing in the wilderness,
where your ancestors tested and tried me,
    though for forty years they saw what I did.

That is why I was angry with that generation;
I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray,
and they have not known my ways.’

So I declared on oath in my anger,
‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ”

See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end. As has just been said:
“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts
as you did in the rebellion.”

Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies perished in the wilderness? And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.

Don’t forget who the author of Hebrews is talking to: the Hebrews, the Jews.

Entering into rest is not about how one is justified by Christ, but how one lives a victorious Christian life on this earth. Israel was FIRST delivered from Egypt and Pharaoh by going through the waters of the Red Sea, a picture of one being delivered from the world and Satan though receiving Christ.

Entering into rest, however, is how a Christian walks by grace into his destiny of victory and rest in God’s finished work. Millions of Israelites failed to walk into their promised land of rest because they were consumed by self righteousness and self effort which blocks the faith, belief, and rest of grace. Nevertheless, they has still been delivered from Egypt. In the same way, there are many defeated Christians who never realize the victorious rest of Christ’s finished work and the destiny God has for them on this earth, but that doesn’t mean they’re not saved.

Again, Jesus died 2000 years ago for everyone’s sins of unbelief. Receiving Christ is the ONLY issue of eternal justification. Learning to trust the Lord and rest in his finished work is how we become victorious Chritians.

Lazarus was raised from the dead, another picture of our being born again into Christ and life. But when Lazarus walked out of the gave, he was still bound by grave clothes and Christ commanded those around him loose Lazarus of those grave clothes. Likewise, when we are born again, we are still bound in our mind, will, emotions, and body, by our former life. Christ commands his people around us to help us loose those bondages and help set us free. But bound, defeated Christians are still saved and going to heaven. God just wants his children to live a victorious life HERE and NOW.

Full circle to the application here. What was my initial post? “There’s a lot of sodomite Christians. Jesus saves by grace, not works. But to call sodomy normal is like saying “I’m a Christian and have leprosy but leprosy is normal, so I don’t need healing or help.” Keeps a person from finding health and wholeness.”

Another way of saying, “Here is a defeated Christian who probably doesn’t know, as many Christians, probably including you, don’t understand.” Sin is NOT defeated by the works of the law which actually make sin worse (1 Cor. 15:56). Sin, guilt, and condemnation is defeated BY GRACE. “For sin shall not have dominion over you because you are under grace, and NOT under the law” (Rom. 6:14).