Should you be sinless at the time of your death to go to heaven?
“According to Protestant teachings, if a person becomes saved, are his future sins forgiven? Can a person lose his salvation? If not, can assurance of salvation become a license to sin?”
Yes, all sins are forgiven through Jesus’ redemptive work on the cross, for those who believe. No, you can’t lose your salvation. No, it is not a license to sin.
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“If Ted Haggard had gone to be with the Lord early last year, while in the process of getting a ‘massage’ from his male ‘friend’, would he have gone straight to heaven?”
Yes, if he was truely a Christian, i.e. if he had a personal relationship with Jesus and had a true conversion (was born again, was a new person in Christ). We don’t know if he was/is or wasn’t/isn’t.
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“Another Example - If you repented your sins last month, and got saved. But you then ended up dying suddenly, today, without fresh repentance for any sins you may have committed over the past month. Will you go to heaven?
Should you be sinless at the time of your death to go to heaven?”
Yes, you would go to heaven. Salvation is not dependent on confession of each and every sin. No, no one is “sinless” except for Jesus.
Romans comes first in order of the great doctrinal epistles. And rightly so, for it contains the ABC of the believer's education. Until its lession is learned, we know and can know nothing. The Holy Spirit has placed it first in Canonical order because it lies at the threshold of all 'church' teaching, and if we are wrong here we shall be wrong altogether.
Romans 6
Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ
1What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
5If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 6For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with,[a] that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.
8Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
11In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. 14For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.
Slaves to Righteousness
15What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. 18You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
19I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. 20When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in[b] Christ Jesus our Lord.
There’s really nothing complex about it. Salvation is based on faith. My Bible simply says “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.” I am taught that Christ’s pain at Calvary was less from the nails in his hands and feet but more from the heartbreaking burden of taking onto himself all worldly sin, present and future. As a Christian, I know that I will sin until the day I die but as the song lyrics say, Jesus is enough for me.
After twenty years of shaving himself every morning, a man in a small Southern town decided he had enough. He told his wife that he intended to let the local barber shave him each day. He put on his hat and coat and went to the barber shop, which was owned by the pastor of the town’s Baptist Church. The barber’s wife, Grace, was working that day, so she performed the task.
Grace shaved him and sprayed him with lilac water, and said, “That will be $20.”
The man thought the price was a bit high, but he paid the bill and went to work. The next morning the man looked in the mirror, and his face was as smooth as it had been when he left the barber shop the day before. Not bad, he thought. At least I don’t need to get a shave every day.
The next morning, the man’s face was still smooth. Two weeks later, the man was still unable to find any trace of whiskers on his face. It was more than he could take, so he returned to the barber shop.
“I thought $20 was high for a shave”, he told the barber’s wife, “but you must have done a great job. It’s been two weeks and my whiskers still haven’t started growing back.”
The expression on her face didn’t even change, expecting his comment. She responded, “You were shaved by Grace. Once shaved, always shaved.”
**If You Are Saved, Are Your Future Sins Forgiven?**
No
All your sins were paid for 2000 years ago. If you believe that God came to earth to be born of flesh and shed his blood to save you from your sins, then all your sins are forgiven. No further redemption is needed, or possible.
The Early Church Fathers on Salvation Outside the Church [Catholic/Orthodox Caucus]
The Early Church Fathers on Justification - Catholic/Orthodox Caucus
The Early Church Fathers on Hell - Catholic/Orthodox Caucus
The Early Church Fathers on Purgatory - Catholic/Orthodox Caucus
There is no way to know another person's mind, we can only know our own. A sin committed in ignorance is not held with the same consequences as sin with knowledge what sin is. Our Heavenly Father is perfect in His judgment as to the mind of each of us, something that we cannot judge. There is no way to know what takes place in the transition of death of flesh and that soul returning to the Maker that sent it.
All souls return to the Maker that sent them, although there is a 'gulf' that describes a separation of those who did not overcome... meaning accept Christ. Remember at death Christ went and preached the Gospel... salvation to all those who had come before, back to even Noah.. I think is the reference.
Do the Good.
once you receive salvation, it’s not in you to sin anymore. Jesus told Mary to go and sin no more after he saved her life. There is an art to being still and allowing the spirit to do the saving in us which is taught simply at fhu.com. It’s biblical and should be taught in all churches. If you claim to be saved yet continue to sin you are diminishing the great power of the spirit and totally watering down the meaning of christianity.
The bible says, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." (1 John 1:8)
The Apostle Paul in Romans 7 says, "18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. "
None of us is any better than any other. All of need mercy.
The only difference for any of us will be the Grace of God.
Ping to read later
Yes, otherwise saved doesn't mean saved.
If you look at some of the trends in the early Church, there were those who refused to be baptized until their death bed. Mainly out of fear that if they did get baptized and then sinned, they would be damned with no way to be forgiven.
Later on, in reaction to this, you see the trend to private confession (at least in the West, in the East they would do public mass confession at times). This would give the penitent a chance to be “washed clean” like after baptism. Of course their church discipline was pretty harsh in those days!
Now, as to your question, I could ask the same from the Roman Catholic view. What happens if you miss a fast and then are hit by a bus?
While I can not answer for the Reformed/Calvinist here, I can give the Lutheran view a shot. It all depends on your heart.
If you have a heart for God, and are trying to live according to His will, then a last minute slip up won’t damn you. If, however, you have turned your heart from God and remain in that state when you die, your chances of ending up in the bad place are a lot greater. For we all have sinned, and will keep on sinning until we die. It is the nature of our fallen flesh to do so.
How much will swing you one way or the other? Honestly, we on earth can not know. That is in the Court of the Lord, and not human opinion.
In short, it is much like the RCC view. If you commit (with full knowledge and understanding of what you are doing and the consequences) a mortal sin, and don't repent of that before death, then you have a big problem. Now this isn't of the "forgot" or a quick slip of the tougne type of thing, but along the lines of a man with malice and for thought committing the murder of an innocent person.
Repentance admits I need Christ and finished work on the cross, but repentance does not save me, Christ’ finished work on the cross saves me. All my sins are forgiven and all of them are after the cross.
There is only one sin that will kill you eternally, the rejection of Jesus Christ and His salvation. Add or omit anything to that and you do not have salvation but religion. Religion kills by the way, Christ saves.
My understanding (when I was raised Protestant) was that your future sins were not forgiven without repentance and asking for forgiveness. Some Protestants, like certain Baptists and others, do not believe you can lose salvation once obtained as it is a completely transformative moment that makes you a different creature and cannot be undone (rather you are punished in this life for unrepentant sin), but most do believe that you can lose your soul as do Catholics and the Orthodox.
Romans 6:1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? 3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: 6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 7 For he that is dead is freed from sin. 8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: 9 Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. 10 For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. 11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. 13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. 15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. 16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? 17 But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. 18 Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. 19 I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. 20 For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. 21 What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. 22 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. 23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Certainly.
But you then ended up dying suddenly, today, without fresh repentance for any sins you may have committed over the past month. Will you go to heaven?
Yes. This assumes, of course, that the individual was truly saved. Only God can know that for sure.
Should you be sinless at the time of your death to go to heaven?
Yes, and we are because of what Jesus did for us.
read later