Here is  the opening comment of another persons’s teaching, addressing the question of whether or not a saved person has to give up their sin.

“The answer is no! You do NOT have to stop sinning to be saved. No one can stop sinning (Romans 3:23)! No one can live above sin-no one (Isaiah 64:6). Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. You do NOT have to give up anything to be saved except your UNBELIEF. However, you DO need to realize your sinful condition and “confess” (or admit) to God that you are a sinner, deserving to hell. This is Biblical repentance, i.e. “a change of mind.”

There is so much wrong in this one paragraph. The author of this article is actually perpetrating that Biblical salvation brings no real effective change into a person’s life. You would literally have to ignore thousands of scriptures throughout the Bible to believe such nonsense.

Allow me to begin with his opening comment; “you do not have to stop sinning to be saved”. Compare this comment with the following text of Romans 6:1-3:

1 What shall we say then? SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN, that grace may abound?

2 GOD FORBID. HOW SHALL WE, THAT ARE DEAD TO SIN, LIVE ANY LONGER THEREIN

3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

Biblical salvation is a call to live a holy life (see Titus 2:11-15: 1 Peter 1:13-18).

Secondly, the author peddles an ideology which is very pervasive among some Christians and that is the concept that no one can stop sinning. He references Romans 3:23 to support this notion. Yet Romans 3:23 has nothing to do with whether or not a believer in Jesus Christ can stop sinning or not. Romans 3:23 is a reference regarding Jews and Gentiles alike – as sinners – in need of salvation. It is a reference to the unsaved, not those who have been born again.

We see from Paul’s comments (Romans 6:1-3 above) that we are not to continue in sin once we have experienced the grace of God.

The author of the aforementioned article continues by saying, “Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. You do NOT have to give up anything to be saved except your UNBELIEF.”

He is, in essence, peddling the idea that Biblical salvation brings no real change into a person’s life. According to his doctrine, a person could go on living as an adulterer, an ax-murderer, or a blasphemer . There is no end to how far someone might take such unholy teachings.

In view of this author’s comments, notice what Paul continues to say throughout Romans 6:

4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:

6 Knowing this, that OUR OLD MAN IS CRUCIFIED WITH HIM, that the body of sin might be destroyed, THAT HENCEFORTH WE SHOULD NOT SERVE SIN.

7 For he that is dead is FREED FROM SIN.

8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also LIVE WITH HIM:

9 Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.

10 For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.

11 LIKEWISE RECKON YE YOURSELVES TO BE DEAD INDEED UNTO SIN, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

12 LET NOT SIN REIGN IN YOUR MORTAL BODY, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.

13 NEITHER YIELD YOUR MEMBERS as instruments of unrighteousness UNTO SIN: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

14 FOR SIN SHALL NOT HAVE DOMINION OVER YOU: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

15 What then? SHALL WE SIN, because we are not under the law, but under grace? GOD FORBID.

16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, HIS SERVANTS YE ARE TO WHOM YE OBEY; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

17 But God be thanked, that ye WERE the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.

18 Being then made FREE FROM SIN, ye became the SERVANTS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.

19 I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now YIELD YOUR MEMBERS SERVANTS TO RIGHTEOUSNESS UNTO HOLINESS.

20 For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.

21 What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.

22 But now being made FREE FROM SIN, and become servants to God, YE HAVE YOUR FRUIT UNTO HOLINESS, AND THE END EVERLASTING LIFE.

23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Finally the concept that repentance means to “change your mind” is misleading within the context of the way it is used by the author whose teaching is being refuted. He is not teaching Biblical repentance, but mental assent which brings about no fruit unto holiness. True Biblical repentance brings a change of heart, resulting in a holy lifestyle.

Notice Romans 6:17 again:

But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have OBEYED FROM THE HEART that form of doctrine which was delivered you.