Throughout his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul has addressed problems in the local church that were contrary to the gospel of Christ and the wisdom of God. Amid this teaching, Paul pauses to highlight that the problematic behavior is inappropriate for God’s people because of its incompatibility with the reality of salvation. The Corinthians were failing to apprehend the true nature of their salvation, and their lives reflected their confusion about this crucial point. So, the question comes to us all – as it did to the Corinthians: what does it mean to be saved?

This question is as relevant as it has ever been, because confusion abounds over the meaning of salvation. Heretical movements such as Word-Faith and the so-called prosperity gospel teach that salvation is focused on things of this present age, and that being saved is about living a good life. Other false gospels promise salvation based our contributions to it – or works.

Some teach that salvation is little more than going to heaven, which wrongly assumes that works have no connection to salvation. These people declare we can live like the devil and still be saved if we have intellectual agreement with the facts of the gospel. Salvation, in this movement, is almost entirely future oriented with no present implications.

These various unbiblical teachings create massive confusion in people’s minds as to what the gospel really is and what it means to be saved.

The Apostle Paul dealt with this confusion in his readers as well. On one hand, he battled the Judaizers, who taught salvation by faith in Christ plus obedience to the Law. He also debated others who took the opposite perspective, that works were totally irrelevant to faith, and that people could sin even more because these transgressions magnified God’s grace.

The problem in Corinth mirrored this last view, that salvation comprised a future hope without a present transformation. The Corinthians wrongly believed they could be saved with lives that were disobedient to the Lord. Paul, therefore, exhorts them to reassess their view of salvation (1 Corinthians 6:9-11). In sum, to avoid spiritual deception, we must be certain our faith is manifest in obedience to Christ. Salvation is not about doing good works to be saved in the future, nor is it disconnected from obedience in the present. Rather, it is a fundamental transformation of the entire person – a new creation.

One reason people are often deceived about their spiritual condition is because they do not understand the transformational nature of salvation. Thus, Paul reminds the Corinthians that true salvation is so revolutionary that our faith will express itself in obedience.

So, Paul begins this passage with a question: “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?”

This rhetorical query presupposed the Corinthians should have understood the basic nature of salvation. The unrighteous – those who do not have a saving belief in Christ as manifested with their unbelief through unrighteous living – will not inherit the kingdom of God. Paul here is looking ahead to Christ’s glorious return and the future dimension of the kingdom that only those who have been glorified in resurrected bodies can experience.

Paul follows up this question with a warning, which was familiar to students of the New Testament: “Do not be deceived.”

Whenever we see this warning in Scripture, we must recognize the Spirit is highlighting something people are often deceived about. This warning reminds us to be careful lest we deceive ourselves or others about what it means to be saved and what salvation produces in believers.

The warning that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God is one of the most common warnings throughout the New Testament. Furthermore, the Bible repeatedly warns us not to be deceived about our spiritual condition.

For example, John the Baptist told religious leaders that the unrighteous would not inherit the kingdom of God, warning them not to be deceived nor to think that because they were born children of Abraham they would get into heaven if they were unrighteous (Matthew 3).

Jesus also issued a dire warning to those who thought that because their lives or ministries demonstrated powerful effects, they must have had a relationship with Christ. The proof of a relationship with Christ is not if we are influential or if we can do mighty, impressive, and spectacular works. Instead, the proof of salvation is our transformed life of obedience to God’s will (Matthew 7). Many will be deceived, thinking they are going heaven, but will tragically wake up in hell.

James warns about people who think that since they have proximity to the Word by hearing or reading, they must be saved (James 1). However, there’s an eternal gulf between being in proximity to salvation and possessing salvation. Many people who experience God’s eternal judgment will have been very close to those who experience eternal salvation. To hear God’s Word, disbelieve it, and prove that unbelief by disobeying it, is to deceive and delude oneself.

John tells his readers to ensure they are not deceived by all kinds of fine-sounding arguments which state that God only wants their heart and isn’t concerned about their bodies (1 John 3). The one who practices righteousness is righteous – just as Christ is righteous. Anyone who says he is righteous but has no evidence of that righteousness in his life is deceived. Many people are self-deceived, thinking they are saved while they are still dead in their sins.

In Ephesians, Paul states that believers know with certainty that immoral, impure, and idolatrous people will not inherit the kingdom of Christ and God (Ephesians 5). People who live lives of open rebellion against God will not receive a share in the inheritance of God’s kingdom regardless of what they might claim or do. Those who say we can live like the ungodly and still be a Christian does not understand the transformation the gospel brings about by divine power.

Paul also gives an irrefutable truth that what a person sows, he reaps (Galatians 6). If we sow to the Spirit, we will reap eternal life. Yet if we sow to the flesh, we will reap eternal condemnation. We should not be deceived. As Paul brings his argument in Galatians to a climax, he says that what truly matters is a new creation (Gal 6:15).

So, Paul gives this warning, sounding the alarm that we should not be deceived.

This point leads to a concluding declaration (verses 9-10), where Paul gives a sample list of what he means by the unrighteous. The people who practice these sins are so entrenched, that they are identified by those transgressions. If a sin defines us, we will not inherit the kingdom of God. If sin is our identity, we are part of the old creation and of flesh, and we will perish.

It’s so vital we understand the meaning of salvation. Salvation isn’t saying a prayer, being baptized, walking an aisle, or checking off a box to escape eternal judgment. Instead, salvation is nothing less than being made a new creation by the Spirit of God. Salvation severs believers from all our old identities that linked us with sin and brings us into union with Christ our Savior. That is why the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God – because they are not in union with Christ. If your life is marked by sin rather than obedience, recognize your need of salvation. Call upon the name of the Lord, and you will be saved. And that salvation will be evident in your transformed life.