People who are brand new Christians or who are just starting to learn about often have questions about Heaven including whether you can still get there if you continue to sin or not.
Of course God does not want us to keep sinning intentionally but it is impossible to live without sinning. So can we still go to Heaven if we keep sinning?
Despite continued sin we can still go to Heaven as us stopping sinning is not what gets us into Heaven in the first place. To go to Heaven you have to put your faith in Jesus Christ and ask Him for forgiveness of your sins.
In Acts 16:31 the Bible says:
“And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.”
That verse clearly says that going to Heaven has nothing at all to do with us stopping our sinful ways. Instead it is all about believing on Jesus and trusting Him to take us to Heaven when we die.
In 1 John 1:8-9 the Bible says:
“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.”
Based on that Scripture it is obvious that we are all sinners and if we say that we aren’t then quite simply we are liars. However, despite our sins we can still go to Heaven if we confess our sins as mentioned in verse 9.
If God can forgive us for the sins we have committed in the past why wouldn’t He be able to forgive us for the sins that we commit in the future as well?
Now some people believe that you have to continually have to ask for forgiveness over and over again and everytime that you sin that you must again ask for forgiveness for that sin and if you fail to do so then you won’t go to Heaven. However, that isn’t what the Bible teaches at all.
In Ephesians 2:8-9 the Bible says:
“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”
If we are not saved by our works then how could we possibly lose our salvation because of them? Salvation (going to Heaven) is a gift of God. He already knows all the sin that we have committed and all that we ever will commit yet He still chooses to give that gift of salvation to us.
God knows all the sins that you and I will ever commit and He still chose to give that gift of Heaven.
If we could lose Heaven by our bad works then people in Heaven would be able to boast (brag) that they lived a good enough life to get there and the people that aren’t in Heaven didn’t but the verse above specifically says that since it’s a gift there is nothing that we can boast about!
It is a gift!
In one of the most popular verses on the Bible (John 3:16) it says:
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
The key words in that verse that I want to hone in on are the last two… everlasting life. This and many other passages of Scripture refer to being saved as having eternal life or everlasting life. If something is eternal or everlasting then can you really lose it?
Could you lose everlasting life or eternal life by sinning after salvation? If that is true then it really isn’t eternal life!
All of that being said we shouldn’t use having eternal life and not being able to lose our salvation as an excuse or reason to sin.
In Romans 6:1-2 the Bible says:
“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?“
Just because our sins are forgiven doesn’t mean that we should continue to sin or even want to do so. Now that we are “dead to sin” should we then continue to sin? God forbid!
I like to use an example of being pulled over by a police officer.
Imagine you were speeding and got pulled over. The officer took your information and then came back with a warning. After receiving the warning (instead of a ticket) would you then peel out and immediately go right back to speeding?
Of course not!
Instead you would likely carefully signal and slowly accelerate while maintaining the speed limit.
Why?
Because you don’t want him to regret just giving you a warning!
The same should hold true for believers. God has forgiven us for our sins but should we go right back to our sinful ways with no thought to how that would make Him feel?
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What Happens If You Sin After You Are Saved?
I have gone over some verses in the section above that go into detail of whether you can still go to Heaven even if you keep sinning after you are saved but what are the results of sinning after salvation?
Since you don’t lose your salvation is there anything that will happen to us when we sin?
Although you will not lose your salvation if you sin after you are saved you will lose blessings from God because of the sin as well as receive correction (punishments) because of your sin.
Proverbs 3:12 says:
“For whom the Lord loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.”
When we sin after salvation we can expect to receive correction from God himself just like a child would receive correction from their parents.
As a child I often received correction from my parents when I disobeyed them or the rules of our house. That correction was a punishment for the wrong that I had done. God will do the same for His children.
Sometimes that correction comes in the loss of a job, something breaking, health issues, and more but the correction always comes.
Just like my parents loved me too much to allow me to continue to do wrong without punishment so too God loves us too much to allow us to continue to sin and not punish us for it.
In James 1:22-25 the Bible says:
“But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.“
The Bible says that when we are a doer of God’s Word (obey and follow what it says) then we will be blessed in our deeds (what we do). So then if we are not a doer (follower) of God’s Word and we choose to ignore it or disobey it then we will miss out on those blessings.
Although we cannot lose our salvation once we are saved, even if we sin, we will lose God’s blessing on our lives and will also receive punishment from Him.