Last updated on October 3, 2020
Question
I am a college student and my girlfriend and I have sex a lot. My question is: Will I be forgiven if I say, “Lord, forgive me for my sins known and unknown, past and present” after sex? Basically if I had sex and asked for forgiveness and died after that, would I go to hell? I’m a Christian and I was baptized in the church of Christ. I just need a good understanding of this.
Answer:
While you are claiming to be a Christian, you are not living as one. The name “Christian” means a follower of Christ, but you are not following Christ’s laws in regard to sex. “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God” (I Corinthians 6:9-10).
When a person realizes he has sinned, he is required to admit his sins to God in order to gain forgiveness. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (I John 1:9). However, this confession of sin is based on our decision not to sin again. “This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin” (I John 1:5-7). While you understand that what you are doing violates God’s teachings, you have no intention of stopping. You are only hoping that if you apologize each time you take your clothes off that God will overlook your sins.
Paul discussed this attitude when he said, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?” (Romans 6:1-2). A Christian is repulsed by sin, not seeking a way to get away with sin.
“For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death. For behold what earnestness this very thing, this godly sorrow, has produced in you: what vindication of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what avenging of wrong! In everything you demonstrated yourselves to be innocent in the matter” (II Corinthians 7:10-11). Leave the snare of sin, radically change, and be a true Christian.