This is the final round of questions from the previous two weeks. You can read round 1 and 2 here and here. Once I accept the gift, why should I try to live a life of sin?
This a fantastic question and one that is at the heart of the idea of grace. The answer is simple, because Christ commanded it (Ephesians 4:32, 5:1; 1 Peter 1:15). The application, unfortunately, is not (1 Peter 2:21).
Can you lose your salvation by committing the unpardonable (unforgivable) sin?
It is not possible for a Christian under grace to commit this sin since we are forgiven of all sins. This was not yet the case at the time the unpardonable sin is mentioned in Matthew 12:31. However, now that we are under grace, there is no sin that we commit that we will not be forgiven for (Eph 2:1-8).
See this link for more on the unpardonable sin specifically.
If works does not save us, can you explain how accepting Christ for salvation is not a work?
There is not short answer to this question but hopefully this will get you moving in the right direction. In Ephesians 2:1-9, Paul was explaining to the Ephesians how they had nothing to with their salvation. In using the metaphor of death (2:1) to describe their former state, he helps them to see that they were completely incapable of changing their condition on their own. There was “no work” they could do to move from death to life. Dead people cannot change their condition. Someone else has to do it for them (hence his use of the metaphor of death).
They did not save themselves, Christ did. Belief in Christ is a gift given to us by God. That’s why it is not something that we conjure up, or a work that we do. Paul tried to help them understand this in Eph 2:8-9 when he says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no man can boast.”
As usual, the comments are open below if you want to discuss and ask more questions. Remember, your sermon questions can be answered by sending a text to 469-767-4881.
