I have been involved in homosexuality. Will it affect my salvation?

Question:

Hello,

I'm a baptized Christian. But after I was baptized, I used to do gay sex. I never had been in a relationship but did gay sex with some guys. Now I'm really tense because my mind tells me that it will affect my salvation, and I know it will. Will I be forgiven after baptism? How can I overcome the feeling of lust, receive the Holy Spirit, and live in the light of Jesus?

Please help me!

Answer:

"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. Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God" (I Corinthians 6:9-11).

The basic principle is that you cannot be involved in sin and expect to go to heaven. "If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin" (I John 1:6-7). The type of sin doesn't change this basic principle.

You became a Christian, but you got involved in sin. I don't know if you were continuing your sins that you committed before your baptism or if it started after your baptism -- it doesn't make much of a difference. When a Christian realizes he is in sin, then the proper response is to change so that he stops sinning. "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). In addition to changing, there is a need to admit your sin to God. "If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us. My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (I John 1:8-2:1).

Being a Christian is not about never sinning, which is an impossibility, but not staying in sin.

If you want to walk after the Holy Spirit's guidance, then you need to start conforming your life to what the Spirit says. "Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit" (Galatians 5:24-25). You'll still have to face temptation, but you don't have to accept what you are being offered. "No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it" (I Corinthians 10:13).