your article about deathbed repentance<\/a>, but my question doesn’t really extend that far. Whether it is scriptural or not, I refuse to teach wilful ignorance death bed repentance as a doctrine. The question that I get asked a lot, however, is if someone sinned willfully for most of their life, not close to death or on their deathbed, but if someone lived in sin willfully while being in the body of Christ, would they be saved if they repented late in their life. This whole attitude of “Well, I can sin while I’m young and preach when I’m old.”<\/p>\nAs I said, I did read the article on your website about deathbed repentance and that it’s a dangerous game because we don’t know when we are going to die, and things happen unexpectedly and all that. Those arguments I truly do understand. But for the sake of argument, let’s say you have psychic powers and you know you won’t die until age whatever; if you repented and lived a Christian life, would you be forgiven your sins even though they were done willfully with full knowledge of the sin?<\/p>\n
Kind regards.<\/p>\n\t
Answer:<\/h2>\n
It seems to me that the focus is completely wrong. God said that those who meet His conditions for forgiveness can be saved.<\/p>\n
Hear:<\/strong>\u00a0The message of the Gospel cannot save a person if he refuses to listen to the message (Romans 10:14-17;\u00a0II Thessalonians 2:10).<\/p>\nFaith:<\/strong>\u00a0The message heard does a person no good if he doesn’t believe it (John 8:24;\u00a0Romans 5:1-2).<\/p>\nCall on His Name<\/strong>\u00a0(Christ’s Authority): Faith doesn’t do anyone any good if it doesn’t motivate a person to want to accept Jesus’ authority over his life (Romans 10:12-13).<\/p>\nRepentance:<\/strong>\u00a0You can’t claim to accept Christ’s authority over your life if you don’t change your life to conform to His will (Acts 3:19;\u00a0II Corinthians 7:10-11).<\/p>\nConfession:<\/strong>\u00a0A claimed belief is not real if you aren’t willing to admit that you have it (Matthew 10:32-33;\u00a0Romans 10:8-10).<\/p>\nBe Baptized:<\/strong>\u00a0God selected a simple method by which we demonstrate and declare our acceptance of His offer of salvation — immersion in water. It is a physical act that symbolically represents what salvation is all about (Romans 6:3-7;\u00a0Mark 16:16;\u00a0Acts 2:38;\u00a0Acts 10:47-48;\u00a0Acts 22:16;\u00a0I Peter 3:21).<\/p>\nHope:<\/strong>\u00a0If we didn’t expect God to save us, why would we bother to do His Will? (Romans 8:24).<\/p>\nObedience:<\/strong>\u00a0It would be meaningless to accept Christ’s authority over our lives if we refused to do what he commands of us (Hebrews 5:9;\u00a0Luke 6:46).<\/p>\nWorks:<\/strong>\u00a0Not man-created works, but doing the works of God. Obedience doesn’t exist if no effort is put into doing what God commands of us (Ephesians 2:10;\u00a0James 2:20-26).<\/p>\nNone of these conditions discuss how willfully sin was committed. Even if we talk about someone willfully sinning after becoming a Christian, there is nothing that states he cannot be forgiven if he repents and confesses his sins. The truly difficult part is that a person who willfully sins is not likely to repent, which is why there are strong warnings in Hebrews 6 and Hebrews 10. God knows a person’s heart and motives. He can’t play games with God or think a technicality can save him. However, nothing God said indicates that a sincerely repentant person can’t be saved.<\/p>\n\t
Response:<\/h2>\n
Thank you so much for your answer. It actually answered the exact question I get asked a lot. Thank you so much for your help.<\/p>\n
God bless you.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Good day, minister, I have been faced with this question a few times and even got the question recently again, but I never had any real good answer to it. I have read your article about deathbed repentance, but my question doesn’t really extend that far. Whether it is scriptural or not, I refuse…<\/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],"class_list":["post-67198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-forgiveness"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":90818,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-you-be-forgiven-if-you-intentionally-sin\/","url_meta":{"origin":67198,"position":0},"title":"Can you be forgiven if you intentionally sin?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 26, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I was told by my parents (who are a deacon and a deaconess in a church) that if someone sins intentionally (meaning that they know what they're doing is a sin), God would not forgive them. Is that true? Answer: I assume your parents are thinking of: \"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":2398,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-there-a-point-when-it-is-too-late-to-leave-sin-and-be-forgiven\/","url_meta":{"origin":67198,"position":1},"title":"Is there a point when it is too late to leave sin and be forgiven?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 8, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I grew up in a church of Christ. I was baptized in middle school. I have struggled with sexual immorality beginning from a young age for a long time, along with other sins including taking plan B. I think as a teenager I did not take sin as seriously\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":2426,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-you-explain-what-if-we-sin-willfully-in-hebrews-1026-means\/","url_meta":{"origin":67198,"position":2},"title":"Can you explain what “if we sin willfully” in Hebrews 10:26 means?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 22, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am confused at what I am reading in\u00a0Hebrews 10:26-27: \"For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries\" (ESV). 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":45281,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-willfully-sinning-blaspheming-the-holy-spirit\/","url_meta":{"origin":67198,"position":3},"title":"Is willfully sinning blaspheming the Holy Spirit?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 9, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I'm ashamed of my sin. I know you and others say that God forgives, but I committed the sin willingly. Is that not blasphemy of the Holy Spirit that Jesus discussed? Answer: We need to get a good definition of what blasphemy is: Smith Bible Dictionary: \"in its technical\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":18886,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-there-be-repentance-without-confession\/","url_meta":{"origin":67198,"position":4},"title":"Can there be repentance without confession?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 23, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a question about repentance.\u00a0 I have always wondered if there was such a thing as a lack of repentance? For example, when someone lies to another and later on they repent and change their mind about lying, but they don\u2019t want to bring up the details 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":39700,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-willful-sins-irremissible\/","url_meta":{"origin":67198,"position":5},"title":"Are willful sins irremissible?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 14, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I repented wholeheartedly and believed that I would never (willfully) sin again.\u00a0 I was determined to not sin.\u00a0 I was overjoyed to be baptized for the forgiveness of my sins because I knew what Jesus went through to make it possible, and I thought that surely 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\/67198","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=67198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67198\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}