And Such Were Some Of You

1Co 6:9  Know ye not 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,

1Co 6:10  Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

When believers are taught about the ETERNAL SECURITY or ETERNAL SALVATION they have in Christ, verses like the ones I just quoted above often become a challenge for them. They will often ask, why are you saying "no believer will go to Hell" when it's obvious in the scriptures like the above that some who still sin will not inherit the Kingdom of God?

The real reason for these kind of questions is that most of us came from backgrounds that are experts in lifting scriptures out of context to either create fear in us or subtly shy away from a truth revealed in the scriptures.

We'll do well in our understanding of the Bible if we start considering not only the verses or chapters of scriptures we want to study but also the ones that precede and succeed them.

Now, let's take a look again at that 1 CORINTHIANS 6. This time I'm going to attach some of the verses that followed after:

1Co 6:9  Know ye not 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,

1Co 6:10  Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

1Co 6:11  And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

What did you observe now? He told them in verse 11 that the people who would not inherit the kingdom of God is not them the believers in Corinth. They were like that in the past but have been sanctified, justified, washed and now have the Spirit of God living within them.

They have new identities in Christ and is not ones used in verses 9 & 10 but verse 11 and also in Chapter 1 verse 2:

1Co 1:2  Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours.

SAINTS, THE SANCTIFIED, JUSTIFIED, WASHED AND THE DWELLING PLACE OF GOD.

Halleluyah!

To say that a believer or a christian can still go to Hell today is to say that the CROSS didn't work and that God lied. But thanks to God, the cross worked!

Glory to God!