So far in this lesson, we've seen how wrong it is when one believer takes another to court. Now Paul expands on his gospel correction to include other forms of wickedness.
“Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, 10 or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people—none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God.”
1 Corinthians 6:9-10
Question 1. According to 1 Corinthians 6, what happens to people who reject God’s standards and maintain a lifestyle against Him?
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To sue a fellow believer in court is just as wicked as worshipping idols or living in drunkenness, sexual immorality, greed, or deceit. In God’s court of law, these are all “legal infractions against His law – calling for divine retribution for disrespecting His justice”.
There is a call here to make sure we are not self-deceived or fooled into thinking we can live carelessly, thumbing our nose at God and disrespecting His Word, His will, and His ways.
Does this mean that we who have rebelled against God and lived in sin will be cut off from God, doomed to remain in the kingdom of darkness?
No! Paul leads us to the cross to prove that there is hope for all:
“Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
1 Corinthians 6:11 NLT
Question 2. From 1 Corinthians 6:11 NLT, please list the things that happen at the cross when we call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ:
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Have you ever heard the statement, “We cannot change; our lives are fixed from birth”? Or maybe “You were born this way so embrace who you are.”? Satan intentionally uses statements like these to deceive and keep us in our prison of sin and practicing lives of rebellion against God.
The truth is that by focusing on the cross, a wonderful transformation comes about in the lives of all who believe the gospel. At the cross, we are:
Cleansed: “But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness” (1 John 1:9). When we look at the cross, we see Jesus taking on the dirt of our sin, defiling Himself in our mess to cleanse us through His blood.
Made holy: “Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault” (Colossians 1:21). On the cross, Jesus was made sin, treated as a criminal, and hung up in public view as if He, the spotless and sinless Son of God, were a vile and wicked person. Because of this act, all believers are now holy.
Made right with God: “For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin so that we could be made right with God through Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:21). The cross shows us Jesus being made “wrong” with God, being overwhelmed with our sin that we might be made right and righteous.
Only the power of the cross can enable us to say, “some of you were once like that,” but not anymore! Even if we were indeed “born this way,” it is entirely possible to be born again, receive a new heart and a new spirit (Ezekiel 36:26), and live a new life. “Some of you were like that. But you were cleansed….”
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