In his book So Great Salvation, Charles Ryrie wrote, “Through faith I receive [Christ] and His forgiveness. Then the sin problem is solved, and I can be fully assured of going to heaven. I do not need to believe in Christ’s second coming in order to be saved… I do not need to settle issues that belong to Christian living to be saved… Matters of carnality, spirituality, fruit bearing, and backsliding relate to the Christian life, not to the issue of salvation.”

Ryrie touches on some critical questions: What does it mean to be saved, and who will receive eternal life? He argues that matters like living in an incestuous relationship or being consumed by greed pertain to Christian living, not a person’s ultimate salvation.

When we hear these kinds of shocking claims, some might wonder if there is not some validity to them. Christians can commit horrific sins, which does not make them unbelievers or result in a loss of their salvation. We know obedience is not the means of our justification, nor the instrument of our right standing with God; faith alone is the instrument by which God justifies the ungodly. So, what role does obedience have, if any, in our salvation?

Believers are often puzzled over what to do about these types of questions. How do we understand the doctrine of justification by faith alone along with the truth that sanctification is a necessary component of salvation? Over the next two posts, I want to answer this question.

The Corinthians needed to understand – both with the man living in sexual sin and the people in their church who were wronging and defrauding one another – that no one can live a life of unrepentant ungodliness and inherit the kingdom of God! This critical principle is vital for all believers to understand. The unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. Paul presents this theme in three parts.

First, Paul begins with a question. He asks, “Do you not know?” The thing they should know, but apparently didn’t based on their behavior, is that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. As much as this reality is debated today, there really is no need for argument because all Christians should know this truth.

What Paul means by unrighteous is twofold. The unrighteous are those who have rejected the gospel – either overtly or secretly. Furthermore, those who reject the gospel are marked by ungodly living. The unrighteous cannot hide over the long term because their evil actions will eventually reveal their true spiritual condition.

Notice how Paul says that those whose lives are marked by disobedience to Christ will not inherit the kingdom of God. This is the kingdom believers will inherit at the resurrection from the dead if we are in Christ through faith. Some have tried to avoid the future-oriented nature of the phrase because they know this causes major problems for their theological system that says people can live like the devil and still be God’s children. Therefore, they interpret the kingdom of God to mean enjoying God’s blessings in the present.

However, this view presents several problems. The first is that the unrighteous here are not disobedient Christians who are failing to enjoy God’s blessings, but they are unjustified people who prove their standing through evil works. The second is that the entire concept of the inheritance is not present but future! Those whose lives are defined by sin now will not inherit the kingdom in the future when Christ returns.

It’s fascinating how Paul begins the verse with a question, expecting readers to know the truth that ungodly people will not inherit God’s kingdom. One reason for that format might be that Paul taught this when he previously ministered in Corinth. Another reason could be because this teaching is something the Corinthians should have discerned from Scripture itself.

In Leviticus 18-20, we have “the holiness code,” which gave God’s people instructions about His rules for daily living. If the Israelites wanted to inherit the Promised Land, they had to live a certain way. A few verses show the links between the Old Testament and Paul’s list of vices in verse nine: sexual immorality (Leviticus 18:8), idolatry (Leviticus 19:4), adultery (Leviticus 20:10), homosexuality (Leviticus 20:13), stealing (Leviticus 19:11), covetousness and greediness (Leviticus 19:9-10), slander (Leviticus 19:16), and taking advantage of others (Leviticus 19:13).

Nine of the ten vices listed by Paul in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 come straight out of the holiness code in Leviticus. The reasoning for why Paul raises the question, “Do you not know?” is because this was well-known biblical teaching that formed the heart of ethics for God’s people under the old covenant. The Corinthians, therefore, were expected to understand the Lord’s demands of His people when it came to their ethical behavior.

The holiness code ended with an understanding for the Israelites, that, without any question, if they did not follow God’s commands, they would not inherit the land (Leviticus 20:22-24). God had set them apart to be His holy people, but the inheritance would not be given to them if they were determined to worship idols and live godless and sexually immoral lives.

There is an important principle in this warning to the Israelites – one that Paul draws from in 1 Corinthians 6. The only people who inherit God’s kingdom are those who are holy. Those who do not believe God and His promises are condemned, and they manifest their unbelief through their idolatrous and immoral lives. Those who believe the Lord’s promises receive the inheritance, and they manifest their faith by obedience. This question Paul asks the Corinthians comes to us all – those who live lives marked by sin will not inherit the kingdom of God.

The writer to the Hebrews, drawing upon Israel’s experience of failing to enter the promised land, applies that history lesson to his readers (Hebrews 4). The Israelites were supposed to go in, take possession, and receive the inheritance of the land, but they all died in the wilderness because they disobeyed the Lord. As this writer says, if we follow Israel’s example of disobedience, then we have not believed any more than they did – no matter how much we might protest. Obedience is the fruit of faith, and everyone who believes the gospel manifests that faith in genuine obedience to Christ.

One of my greatest concerns pastorally is how many people in our world are totally deceived about their spiritual condition. Millions upon millions of people in our nation profess to be Christians but live ungodly lives marked by sin. Countless people who attend church regularly are not much different than Israel of old, hearing good news but not profiting from it because their hearing is not combined with faith.

I pray that no one reading this would be so deceived as to think they could be unrighteous and still inherit the kingdom of God. I pray that anyone reading this, who sees they are outside the kingdom, would turn from their sins, and put their trust in Christ alone to save them and to provide for them the inheritance of His glorious kingdom.