Can We Sell Our Soul To The Devil?
Q. I pray that God blesses you and your family greatly for all the insight you share with all of us on a daily basis!
I have a few questions regarding 1 John 5:16-18 that I hope you will answer.
1.) What is the sin that leads to death?
2.)Does verse 18 say that I don’t have a snowballs chance of OSAS seeing how I continue to sin?
3.)Do we own our souls or are they God’s property? (Can a person sell their soul to the devil?)
A. John was writing against the false doctrine of Gnosticism which held in part that Jesus was not God in the flesh but only a gifted teacher, and salvation was attained through the acquisition of spiritual knowledge. The sin that leads to death is denying the deity of the Lord and the sufficiency of His death as payment for our sins. In the context of the letter this meant following the doctrine of gnosticism (which by the way still permeates many of the false religions of today.)
John couldn’t have been speaking in the general sense in verse 18 because he would have been contradicting his statement earlier in the letter that if we claim to be without sin we deceive ourselves. (1 John 1:8) Besides, we know that every believer continues to sin. Even Paul admitted that he couldn’t stop sinning. (Romans 7:19-20) John was referring to the fact that when we come to the Lord we gain a discernment that prevents us from clinging to false doctrine regarding our salvation.
According to 1 Cor.6:19-20, we are not our own. We were purchased with the blood of Jesus. This is what led Paul to use legal language of the day in saying the the Holy Spirit is a deposit (literally earnest money) guaranteeing our inheritance. (Ephes. 1:13-14) In 2 Cor. 1:21-22 He said that God put His seal of ownership on us as well. As it is in real estate today, an earnest money deposit in Paul’s day both obligated the buyer to follow through on his purchase and prevented anyone else from buying the property in the mean time.
By sealing the Holy Spirit within you, God obligated Himself to follow through on His promise to give you eternal life with Him, and at the same time “took you off the market”. No one else can buy you and you can not sell your soul to the devil.
