A Bad Example Of A Christian?

Q

I was such a bad example of a Christian when I first asked Him to save me, and lived in immorality for 5 years. Although I have fully repented and been faithfully married for decades, and am fully committed to the Lord and careful about my walk, I still worry about the passages in Scripture that say that the unrighteous will not go to heaven. What would you say to people who were washed as I Cor. 6:11 says, but who fell into sin again?

A

First, you must understand that ours is a righteousness that comes from God through faith in Jesus Christ, not because of anything we have done. We have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God, but have been justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Jesus (Romans 3:22-24).

Even though we still sin, God continues to see us as righteous because from His perspective anyone who is in Christ is a new creation. The old has gone, the new has come (2 Cor. 5:17)

For God made Him who had no sin to be a sin offering for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21).

He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior so that having been justified by His grace we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life (Titus 3:4-7).