Is a Christian, who commits a sin, considered a sinner at the time he is committing the sin? Is salvation restored once repentance is made?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nThank you so much for answering my questions.<\/p>\n\t
Answer:<\/h2>\n
I can’t answer for other Christians as I’m not a mind reader. In the passage you cited, “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting<\/em>” (Romans 1:28), Paul is recounting how the Greek society had reached its level of moral decay. This verse discusses the fourth stage. Stage one was a rejection of God and the establishment of false substitutes (Romans 1:18-23). Stage two was sexual immorality and worldliness (Romans 1:24-25). Stage three was corrupted sex (homosexuality) (Romans 1:26-27). The final stage was a break down of all morality and society (Romans 1:28-32).<\/p>\nA debased or reprobate mind is translating the Greek word\u00a0adokimos<\/em>, which means “not passing the test,” “incompetent” or “unqualified.” According to\u00a0The Complete Biblical Library<\/em>, “No single English equivalent adequately translates\u00a0adokimos<\/em>\u00a0since the central idea behind\u00a0adokimos<\/em>\u00a0is something that has been proved false, worthless, or useless as a result of testing.”<\/p>\nThe word would be accurately applied to someone who despite efforts to bring to the truth and seeing his life fall apart, moves deeper and deeper into sin. It would not apply to a person who has left sin, no matter how grave the sin, or who is just starting done the road of sin.<\/p>\n
You are correct that when a person has repented of his sins, Christians are required to forgive him. “Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, ‘I repent,’ you shall forgive him<\/em>” (Luke 17:3-4).<\/p>\nWhen you talk about a person being saved, have you considered from\u00a0what<\/em>\u00a0he is being saved? “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief<\/em>” (I Timothy 1:15). God offers us salvation from our sins.<\/p>\nWhen a person becomes a Christian, he is freed from the bondage of his past sins. “Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin<\/em>” (Romans 6:3-7). But in this new life, it does not mean the Christian might not occasionally slip back into old habits. “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall<\/em>” (I Corinthians 10:12). If a Christian remains in his sins, then, yes, he has lost his salvation.<\/p>\nIt would be much like a man rescued from the sea, but who then later falls back in. You would hope that for most it was accidental or due to carelessness. Once in, he would once again strive to get out. There are some who decide they rather be in the sea than on the ship.<\/p>\n
“For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame<\/em>” (Hebrews 6:4-6).<\/p><\/blockquote>\nThis passage is directed to those who are trying to rescue such a person. When a person knows what it is like to be saved from sin, but purposely chooses sin over salvation, there is nothing that the rest of us can do for him to convince him to leave his sins. He has to choose to reject sin, and sadly for many in this condition, they never make that choice. It is one of the hardest things to see and accept. I hope it is obvious that a person choosing to stay in sin is a sinner.<\/p>\n
But happily, not everyone stays in sin. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just 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, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous<\/em>” (I John 1:8-2:1). The goal is not to sin, but God through Jesus Christ has provided a way out of sin when the Christian falls.<\/p>\n\tResponse:<\/h2>\n
Thank you for breaking down the Word for me; you’re all right with me. Have a wonderful rest of the week!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: I read your response to “What does God do if you make a deal with Him and don’t keep it?” Question: When a broken promise has nothing to do with another person, does the Bible state anything about a person repenting for breaking a promise made specifically to God?\u00a0 What are the consequences of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[1571,648,647],"class_list":["post-23610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-forgiveness","tag-promises","tag-vows"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":44843,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-broke-a-promise-upon-my-salvation-does-that-mean-i-cant-be-saved\/","url_meta":{"origin":23610,"position":0},"title":"I broke a promise upon my salvation. Does that mean I can’t be saved?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 10, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I made a promise to God on my salvation and broke it. I accepted Jesus back, but did I lose my salvation because I broke my promise? I made my promise in my mind, so I don't know whether I meant it or not, so please answer if I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":33507,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-can-a-broken-vow-to-god-be-forgiven-but-remarriage-remains-adultery\/","url_meta":{"origin":23610,"position":1},"title":"Why can a broken vow to God be forgiven but remarriage remains adultery?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 22, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: If God can forgive someone who breaks a vow to Him, although we know that vows should never be made, then why is remarriage possibly considered adultery when they're breaking a vow of marriage? What is the difference between a vow to God and a vow made for marriage?\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32155,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/when-are-promises-binding\/","url_meta":{"origin":23610,"position":2},"title":"When are promises binding?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 15, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Does it work like this? When we make a promise we are bound to do what we promised. The moment we confess and are sorry for making any promise we had made that very moment the binding is removed and has no more hold over us ever again after\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20708,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-are-the-consequences-of-breaking-a-vow\/","url_meta":{"origin":23610,"position":3},"title":"What are the consequences of breaking a vow?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 5, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I made a vow to the Lord that I should die a painful death any day I do a certain thing. I have the urge to break the vow. What are the consequences of breaking such a vow? Will I be forgiven for breaking the vow? After seeking for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31336,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-a-person-to-keep-a-sinful-promise\/","url_meta":{"origin":23610,"position":4},"title":"Is a person to keep a sinful promise?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 12, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I want to know if someone made a sinful promise to God, what happens then? Is the person to keep that promise still? Are we to keep our promises no matter what? Answer: \"Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6846,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-my-marriage-invalid-because-i-broke-up-with-my-earlier-girlfriend-despite-promising-not-to\/","url_meta":{"origin":23610,"position":5},"title":"Is my marriage invalid because I broke up with my earlier girlfriend despite promising not to?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 27, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I read a response from somebody where they were married for over 50 years, but the marriage was not valid.\u00a0 I am wondering if my current marriage is valid or not.\u00a0 Here is my situation: Before I met my wife, I made a promise to God that I would\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23610\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}