Someone asks, “Can a Christian sin and be lost?” Writing to Christians, the apostle Paul said, “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12 NKJV). “Fall,” here, refers to a spiritually fallen condition—or becoming lost. The same word in Greek and in English appears also in Revelation 2:5. “Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.” Clearly, in this case, a congregation of Christians were at risk of being lost unless they repented. The apostle Peter declared the certainty of Christians who turn from the practice of Christianity returning to a worse condition of being lost.
For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: “A dog returns to his own vomit,” and, “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.” (2 Peter 2:20-22)
Receiving the forgiveness of one’s past sins is conditional upon obeying the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Mark 16:16). Not obeying the Gospel of our Lord leaves non-Christians in their sins, and they remain lost (2 Thessalonians 1:8; 1 Peter 4:17). When a child of God sins, his prayerful penitence is the condition by which those sins are forgiven—to keep him from being lost to a devil’s hell (Acts 8:20-22). Yes, clearly, a child of God can sin so as to be lost.
