I have decided I will be getting baptized this Sunday. I have been very conflicted lately because my fiance and I have decided to be intimate, but I know it is a sin before marriage. I keep having these thoughts that if I repent once we are married everything will be okay, but that means I will be purposefully sinning for two years. Will God forgive me?<\/p>\n\t
“Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit<\/em>” (Acts 2:38).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I really question whether you know that fornication is a sin since you have decided to remain in this sin until it is convenient for you to stop it. “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 homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God<\/em>” (I Corinthians 6:9-10). This idea that you can enter a covenant with God while keeping your favorite sins is absolutely foreign to the teachings of God. You cannot become a part of His people, His church, His kingdom while remaining in sin. “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? 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<\/em>” (Romans 6:1-4).<\/p>\n
Notice that Peter said that people had to repent and be baptized. Repentance has to come first. You have to first change your mind about having sin in your life and change your behavior to reject sin from your life. Without repentance, then all you will be doing is getting wet because you haven’t changed your heart.<\/p>\n
“For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries<\/em>” (Hebrews 10:26-27).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
You need to be saved\u00a0from<\/em>\u00a0your sins, which means you need to let them go. Tell your boyfriend that you are becoming a Christian and the Lord says that sex only comes after marriage, so you won’t be having sex with him again until after he says “I do” in your wedding. Then tell him that you want him to become a real Christian too. But if you refuse to do this, don’t make a mockery of Christianity by pretending to get baptized while remaining in your sins.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: I have decided I will be getting baptized this Sunday. I have been very conflicted lately because my fiance and I have decided to be intimate, but I know it is a sin before marriage. I keep having these thoughts that if I repent once we are married everything will be okay, but that…<\/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":[52,99,1572,50],"class_list":["post-36112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-baptism","tag-becoming-a-christian","tag-fornication","tag-repentance"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":51228,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-i-marry-someone-who-has-not-repented-of-the-sins-we-committed\/","url_meta":{"origin":36112,"position":0},"title":"Should I marry someone who has not repented of the sins we committed?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 30, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is it okay to marry someone who has not fully given in to salvation and has not repented for the fornication we've done in the past? I have been with him for over ten years. We've had several breakups but we still made up. I decided to give my\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":5434,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-you-get-baptized-if-you-are-pregnant-but-planning-to-get-married\/","url_meta":{"origin":36112,"position":1},"title":"Can you get baptized if you are pregnant but planning to get married?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 8, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello servant of God, I have a question which my friend has been asking to help and give her some advice: Can a woman get baptize when she's in early pregnancy and not married yet, but they're planning to get married? Answer: The physical consequence of sin isn't what\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":48779,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-i-get-baptized-even-though-im-still-living-with-my-boyfriend\/","url_meta":{"origin":36112,"position":2},"title":"Can I get baptized even though I’m still living with my boyfriend?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 5, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have been with my partner for 19 years, but we are not married.\u00a0 I started going to church three years ago, but my partner isn't a believer.\u00a0 Some in the church say that in the eyes of God we are married and, therefore, I should be baptized. However,\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":29692,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-cant-my-sister-get-baptized\/","url_meta":{"origin":36112,"position":3},"title":"Why can’t my sister get baptized?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 23, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In a second marriage where a non-Christian is wanting to become a Christian but was divorced for reasons other than adultery, is the sin the adultery or the remarriage?\u00a0I am asking this in the context of repenting.\u00a0Do you repent of the adultery in this second marriage or repent of\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":6222,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-a-person-be-baptized-who-is-living-with-someone-but-not-having-sex\/","url_meta":{"origin":36112,"position":4},"title":"Can a person be baptized who is living with someone but not having sex?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 20, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Can a person be denied baptism if he is living with his fianc\u00e9e but isn\u2019t committing fornication because they saw the error of their ways Answer: Paul declared \"that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds appropriate to repentance\" (Acts 26:20). If a person realizes that fornication\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":52701,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-marriage-bring-forgiveness-for-fornication\/","url_meta":{"origin":36112,"position":5},"title":"Does marriage bring forgiveness for fornication?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 23, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have read a number of things that you have written, and I find you to be very well-spoken, and you explain points very well in an understanding way. However, I'm still a little lost. I'm trying to find out if, when two people who have committed premarital sex\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\/36112","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=36112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36112\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}