Lesson 13

Righteousness: Required For Heaven

I Corinthians 6:9-11

I Corinthians 6:9-11 is an important passage in helping us to understand the character of a true Christian and the nature of genuine salvation. Let's read it together.

Twice in this passage, Paul uses the phrase "shall not inherit the kingdom of God" (vs. 9, 10). What does it mean to"inherit the kingdom"? It means simply to be within the sphere of salvation; it means to be saved. Matthew 25:34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 1 Corinthians 15:50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Galatians 5:21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Another similar phrase which Jesus often used was to "enter into the kingdom". Mat 5:20 For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. Mat 7:21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Mat 18:3 And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Mat 19:23-24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.

John 3:5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. The kingdom is both our future inheritance and our present relationship as servants of the King of kings. We enter the kingdom at the point of our repentance and faith in Christ. We will ultimately inherit the kingdom when we go to be with the Lord.

But in this passage, Paul speaks about those who "shall not inherit the kingdom." It is important that we are not ignorant and that we are not deceived about our future. "Know ye not", Paul writes. "Don't be ignorant". "You ought to know this", he is saying. "Be not deceived." "Don't be fooled, led astray, seduced".

The truth is that there are many who are ignorant or deceived about their future destiny. There is an old Negro Spiritual which says, "Everybody talkin' 'bout heaven, ain't gonna be there." In Matthew 7:21-23, Jesus taught that some will awaken in eternity surprised that they are not going to heaven.

Now the passage before says that righteousness is required for entering the kingdom. "The unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God." Righteousness is a requirement for going to heaven, for being saved. Matthew 5:20 For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. Righteousness is required for inheriting the kingdom. We need to understand just what this statement means.

It does not mean that we are saved by doing good works or religious deeds. The Bible is so clear on that. "For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourself, it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9). Titus 3:5 "Not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us." We are not saved by doing good things. It is often expressed idea that we will stand before God in judgment and if our good deeds outweigh our evil deeds, we will go to heaven. That, my friends, is not what the Bible teaches.

Well, then, if we are not saved by doing good deeds, what does Paul mean when he says that righteousness is required in order to go to heaven?

It does not mean that we can lose our salvation by committing certain especially wicked sins. This is another often believed idea. That we are saved by faith, but that, thereafter, we must keep ourselves saved by good works or by not committing certain sins. Again, the Bible is very clear on the eternal nature of our salvation. Jesus said, "I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish." He said that we are held securely in the Father's hand. In his letter to the believer's at Rome, Paul indicated that there is nothing that can separate us from God. Peter says that we are kept by the power of God.

The requirement of righteousness does not mean that we are saved on the basis of works. It does not mean that we are kept saved by doing righteous things. There is one other thing that this does not mean.

It does not mean that a Christian can never sin, that we can somehow achieve sinless perfection while in this body of flesh. We certainly desire to be perfect, we truly hate to sin, we strive for sinlessness but, in this flesh we can never fully achieve it. As we grow in the Lord there should and will be more obedience and less sin, but we cannot achieve sinless perfection. Paul wrote about his ongoing struggle against sin in Romans 7. Romans 7:18-19 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. I John 1:8-10 - If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

The requirement for righteousness is not salvation by works, not security by works and not sinless perfection. But what is it?

There is an error being propagated about the nature of salvation. It is an error which we Baptists are often accused of. It is an error which indeed many have embraced. Let me give it a name. It is known in theological terms as anti-nomianism. Now, I know that that is a technical word but it basically is the often accepted idea that any profession of faith in Christ is enough to take you to heaven, no matter what you do or don't do thereafter. It is the error of easy-believeism that makes some verbal commitment to Christ but never produces a changed life. It is the error that faith and behavior are totally unrelated. This error is rampant within the ranks of Christianity.

We find it everywhere. A person attends a revival or camp or crusade and "walks the aisle" and claims to become a Christian. Maybe there is some crisis in their life and they are hoping that God will fix everything for them. Maybe there is a young lady whom they are interested in and they are willing to do whatever it takes to get her. But there seems, thereafter, to be no change in their life. They have no interest in church or Bible study, no desire to be with Christians, no growth. They continue the same sinful lifestyle which was before their profession - they still do whatever they did before the profession - drunkenness, sexual sins, the worldly lifestyle. Now some would say, "It doesn't matter what they do, just by claiming Christ they are going to be in heaven." That is anti-nomianism and that is error.

This error comes in extreme forms. There are groups like "Homosexuals For Christ" or "Strippers For Jesus". I recently read an account of a pastor who was robbing banks in order to finance his involvement with prostitutes. Unbelievable. And the author was arguing that this man was a Christian. The point is, there are many who claim that there is not a relationship between belief and behavior.

It is this subject that is addressed in our text. Paul makes it very clear that there is a connection between behavior and eternal life. He says that righteousness is required for inheriting the kingdom.

Now, Paul speaks more plainly about righteousness. Verses 9-10 contain a list of sins. This list is not, I believe, to be an exhaustive catalogue of unrighteous behavior. Paul's point is not that if ever you commit one of these sins once you were never saved to begin with. Clearly, the Scriptures include the examples of believers who committed heinous sins. David was guilty of adultery and murder. Lot was guilty of drunkenness.

But the sins listed here are to be understand as a chronic behavior, an ongoing lifestyle. They are not an occasional occurrence, nor a once in a lifetime collapse. They are continuous. The people described here are immoral and their character reveals the condition of their heart. Someone will be quick to say, "You cannot judge another man's heart." True. But I can inspect his fruit. In fact, Jesus said, "By their fruits you shall know them."

Notice the list... Fornicators - sexual sin between the unmarried. The Greek word is "pornia" from which we get the word pornography. "Idolaters" - not simply those who bow down to idols, but those who worship any false god or false religious system. We live a day of great idolatry. Worship of self, of other people, of money. It's all idolatry. "Adulterers" - specifically married people who indulge in sexual activity outside the marriage partnership.

The next two go together - "effeminate" and "abusers of themselves with mankind". The phrase "abusers of themselves with mankind" is actually only one word in Greek. It literally means "male intercourse" and is stated a little more delicately in the King James. It refers to the sin of sodomy. "Effeminate" enlarges the idea to any homosexual activity - including transvestism, transsexualism and other gender perversions. These two sins together refer to those who exhange and corrupt normal male-female roles and relationship. God uniquely created each of us male or female (Genesis 1:27) and it is wrong to blur our gender. That goes for both men and women. In our culture, it seems to be a lot more acceptable for women to dress and act like men than for men to dress and act like women. But both are equally wrong. Deuternomy 22:5 The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD thy God. You should rejoice in whatever gender God made you and not blur it. If you are a man, emphasize your masculinity. If you are a woman, emphasize you femininity. Both in the way you dress and act.

Verse 10 continues the list. "Theives" and "covetousness" are basically the same sin of greed. The covetous person desires that which belongs to someone else, the thief actually takes it. "Drunkards" is self-explanatory. It is those who get drunk, who put themselves under the control of alcohol. By the way, not only does the Bible condemn drunkenness; it also magnifies total abstinence from alcoholic beverages. Stay completely away from the stuff. People who never drink never become addicted to alcohol. "Revilers" are those who destroy with their tongues, who wound with their words. Jesus said that which proceeds out of our mouths indicates that which is in our heart - wickedness and lust and hatred and malice. "Extortioners" are those who take unfair advantage of others to promote their own financial gain.

Those who chronically and continually behave like this, Paul says, are not going to inherit the kingdom. The character of their lives, reveals the condition of their heart. It isn't that they weren't good enough to earn salvation. It isn't that they lost salvation by bad behavior. They never were saved to begin with. Belief and behavior go together. Where there is genuine repentance and faith, there will a changed life. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, old things pass away, behold, all things become new" (II Corinthians 5:17). Salvation does not simply add Christ to our sins, it totally transforms our life. It is not a changed lifestyle that causes us to be saved; it is that our changed life reveals that we have been truly, genuinely saved.

Verse 9-10 are the hard part of this text. Righteousness is required for salvation. The unrighteousness are not saved.

But verse 11 is the sweet, blessed, good news of the text. "And such were (past tense) some of you". Prior to repentance and faith in Christ, some of the Corinthians had been fornicators, some idolaters, some adulterers, some homosexuals, some greedy thieves who took advantage of others, some had ripped others apart with their words, some had been drunkards. "And such were some of you." Some of Corinthians and perhaps some of us.

But guess what? God's grace is bigger than our sins! For where sin abounded their did grace much more abound." There is no sin too great for God to forgive! God is willing and able to save the worst of sinners! Now, notice the nature of salvation. "Ye are washed". Salvation washes away our sins. Salvation makes us clean. It gives us new life, a new beginning, a total forgiveness. We are washed.

"We are justified". To be justified is to be just-as-if-I'd never sinned. We are given a new standing before God and declared to be righteous by God himself.

"We are sanctified." Here's where the behavior comes in. Salvation makes us holy inwardly and makes it possible to live a holy life outwardly. Sanctification is not separate from salvation. They go together. To be saved is to be washed, to be sanctified and to be justified. What we have believed does indeed affect how we behave.

None of this is by self-effort. It is in "the name of the Lord Jesus and by the (power) of the Spirit of our God." The same God who saved us by his power, changes us. The righteousness that God requires to inherit the kingdom is the righteousness that God provides in His Son and through His Spirit. It is imputed.

My hope is that you will learn the true nature of salvation and the character of a Christian's life. It may be that this will cause you to have questions. I don't claim to know it all, but I am available to talk to you about these things.

My hope is also that you will examine yourself to make sure that indeed the fruit of your character reveals the genuineness of your salvation.

It is possible that you have made a profession of faith in Christ, but have never truly through repentance and faith been washed, been sanctified, been justified.

You are invited to come to Christ today.