Can my daughter be forgiven of her adultery?
Question:
My daughter went abroad to seek for better income for her family. She left her husband and children with me. But as the years went by, she revealed that she is living with another man, and they already have a child. Her kids never knew about the situation, but her husband did. He tried to stay with his children and wait for the return of his wife. But as time went by, he met a woman who changed his stand. He decided to remarry. I was so hurt by the decision because it will end my hope that their marriage would be repaired.
Now, my question is: Will my daughter not receive forgiveness from God and be included in heaven's eternal life, even if she asks forgiveness, repents, but still lives with the other man because of her child? Her live-in partner will never give up the child to her and now her husband will marry another woman.
For her husband, his wife abandoned him. Isn't that, whoever marries a divorced or abandoned one will commit adultery?
Another question: How can I pray for my daughter? She is still with the other man and is too stubborn to leave and make a new life alone. Can God forgive her and still receive her to eternal life? She always tells me that God has forgiven her because she always asks for forgiveness crying. How is that?
They were in a Baptist church when they were still together and believed the doctrine "once saved, always saved."
I am waiting and hoping to read an answer from you soon. May God bestow more blessings on you. God bless!
Answer:
Belief in "once saved, always saved" does not make the doctrine true. People can believe in falsehoods. See: Once Saved, Always Saved for information on why this doctrine is false.
The simple fact is that your daughter committed adultery and continues to live in adultery. "Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God" (I Corinthians 6:9-10). Why she claims to ask for forgiveness, she refuses to give up her sin. "See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled; that there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears" (Hebrews 12:15-17).
Repentance is not being sorry you sinned. Sorrow is what should cause people to repent. Repentance is a complete change in attitude toward sin and a change in behavior. "For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death. For behold what earnestness this very thing, this godly sorrow, has produced in you: what vindication of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what avenging of wrong! In everything you demonstrated yourselves to be innocent in the matter" (II Corinthians 7:10-11). Regardless of her claims, your daughter has not repented of her sins and has no desire to change her life so as to follow after God. She has been deceived into believing that it doesn't matter what she does because God will save her no matter how wickedly she behaves. You and I know she is wrong, but she would rather believe lies because the lies give her what she wants.
Can she be forgiven? Yes. But it would require that she leave her sexual sins. Forgiveness does not require her to return to the husband she abandoned.
In regards to her husband, he does have the right to divorce her and marry someone else since she will not give up her sexual sins (Matthew 19:9). He is not the cause of her adultery -- she is. God allows him to move on with his life. His decision does not change her current status before God, nor does it prevent her from repenting of her sins and return to God.
