7.What do Christians know with certainty?

We know that no person, who is a fornicator or is unclean or covetous (an idolater), has any inheritance or share or place in the Kingdom of Christ and God.

The wrath of God falls on those who practice these things.

We should view these words seriously. The gift of God’s grace in salvation has been emphasized to the point that multitudes of God’s people would not receive such a warning. They would protest that we are saved by grace, and if we are fornicators or unclean we will be saved in any case because salvation is not by works but by faith.

How are we to address ourselves to such confusion? Those who take such a position on grace are basing their arguments on the teaching of the Apostle Paul in the early chapters of the Book of Romans. But in Ephesians 5:5 and in other passages the same Paul is telling us that those who are practicing sin will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

Is Paul addressing the unsaved, in Ephesians 5:5? Indeed he is not. He is warning the Christian people in Ephesus concerning their behaviour,

What do we conclude? We conclude that those who are stressing grace to the point that behavior is not a crucial aspect of the Christian redemption are in error. They will be responsible for the people whom they lead astray with their overemphasis on grace.

If we will receive the Apostle Paul as Christ’s spokesman, let us not saw his writings in half. Forgiveness has its place and godly living has its place. To overemphasize one at the expense of the other is to create confusion in the Kingdom of God and to invite destruction on ourselves and on those who follow us.