Shut Up, Devil by Kyle Winkler

Author:Kyle Winkler
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Spiritual Warfare;Truthfulness and falsehood—Religious aspects—Christianity;REL079000;REL099000;REL012120
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2022-02-25T00:00:00+00:00

❚ Are There Unforgivable Sins?

To bolster the feeling of not being forgiven, the enemy twists Scripture so that people read it to believe that certain sins are unforgivable. The accuser knows the Law far better than any of us, and he will spin it to fit whatever narrative leaves us the most hopeless.

That is what happened to a man who wrote to me a few years ago. Reacting to a fear that had been incited suddenly in him by a single passage from the Bible, he frantically wrote, “Kyle, I’m scared. It seems that I have committed an unforgivable sin. I’m afraid God doesn’t love me! I’m afraid I won’t go to heaven!”

Reading the first couple of sentences of his email, I was initially perplexed. What could have possibly given him the idea that there is a sin that can’t be forgiven? But as I kept reading his worried words, he mentioned some verses the enemy loves to twist:

[Don’t you know] that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

1 Corinthians 6:9–10 KJV

Without any other context, it is easy to see why we might fear that we have done something that disqualifies us from God’s Kingdom. After all, this list describes kinds of people who do things that we have all done at some level.

But that is just it—it describes kinds of people. This is not a list of sins, nor is it a list of experiences. It is a list of identities.

Is it true that Christians still engage in some of what these identities are known for? Sadly, yes. The reality is that Christians still make some colossal mistakes. This is why, as I explained in chapter 6, that the Bible never assures that sin is dead. It assures, instead, that sin’s ability to separate us from God is dead (see Romans 6:6).

A principle of studying the Bible that I was fortunate enough to learn early in my faith is that Scripture interprets Scripture. In a book the size of the Bible, all kinds of wacky beliefs could be supported if you only read a verse here or there. But in instances when you are confused about what the Bible means or to whom it is speaking, it is best to interpret it based upon what you know from other verses. This is especially crucial for understanding 1 Corinthians 6:9–10.

You see, while the passage lists people who are unrighteous, we know from plenty of other verses that it cannot be talking about Christians. The Bible is clear that Christians have been declared righteous (2 Corinthians 5:21). What follows after the list affirms this all the more. “And such were some of you: but [you] are washed, but [you] are sanctified, but [you] are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11 KJV).

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