Q. The Bible says that when one receives Christ as their savior, that God is gracious to forgive us of ALL our sins and cleanse us from  ALL unrighteousness. That seems absolute in its wording, but I am still left with two questions:

1) Why do we continue to sin after we are saved? and
2) Are there any sins for which we can NOT be forgiven after becoming saved?

The reason I ask these questions is that a young man at my daughter’s Christian school killed himself this past week. God, being all-knowing, had to know this was going to happen.  If this young man was saved (and I do not know if he was), would God have already forgiven this particular sin in advance? I’ve been looking into scripure to find an answer to this with little progress. Can you help?

A. The reason we continue to sin is because we still have a sin nature (Romans 7:18-20).  In other words, sinning is our default setting.  This setting will be changed when we’re raptured/resurrected but until then, while the Holy Spirit helps us to greatly reduce our willful acts of sin, we can’t eliminate sin altogether.  It’s too much a part of us.  In the meantime God, who knows all the sins of our life and has already forgiven them, chooses to see us as we will be after he’s perfected us, not as we are now (2 Cor. 5:21). He can do this because although Jesus only died once, He died for all time.  That means past present and future. (Hebr. 10:12)

The only unforgivable sin is the refusal to accept the provision God has made for our sins in the death of His Son. If the young man who took his own life was saved at the time, then He’s with the Lord today.  He will not receive the Crown of Victory (1 Cor. 9:24-25) but his faith will have saved Him.

How Can Deceitful Hearts Believe?

Q.  I have a question.  Jeremiah  17:9 says the heart is deceitful above all things,and desperately wicked:who can know it?  In Acts 8:37  Philip said “If thou belivest with all thine heart, thou mayest (be baptized).  And he (the eunuch) answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”   These two passages almost seem to be contradicting each other.  How can we believe with all our heart if our heart is incurably deceitful?

A.  Since the time in the wilderness the commandment to love the Lord with all our heart has been a requirement (Deut. 6:4-5).  Jesus called this the greatest commandment (Matt. 22:36-38).  Like all God’s commandments it’s impossible to obey completely as long as we have a sin nature, but when we’re perfected we’ll become able to obey.

In the meantime God chooses to see all believers not as we are, but as we will be then. (2 Cor. 5:17,21).  He can do this because all the sins of our life were forgiven at the cross (Colossians 2:13-14).   To God it’s as if we never sinned at all, and He accepts our flawed ability as being pure in motive.