Can A Lifetime Drunkard Get Into Heaven?

1st Corinthians 6:9-11, “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”

Can a lifetime drunkard get into Heaven? Yes, absolutely! The reason is because Jesus paid for everyone's sins on the cross. We are not saved by our own righteousness, but by God's righteousness which is imputed (credited) to a person at the time of salvation. What saith the Scripture? 𝗚𝗲𝗻𝗲𝘀𝗶𝘀 𝟭𝟱:𝟲, "𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗟𝗢𝗥𝗗; 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗵𝗶𝗺 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝗲𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀." Abraham simply believed God and it was counted for righteousness. This is the only way that anyone has ever been saved.

Isaiah 64:6 teaches that all of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags in the sight of God. 1st Corinthians 6:9 warns that no drunkard shall enter into the Kingdom of God, but verse 11 beautifully says: "But ye are washed..." The born-again believer's sins have all been washed away by Jesus' precious blood (1st John 1:7; Revelation 1:5).

Please don't misunderstand, God is not okay with His children living in sin. Romans 3:31 says that even though we are no longer under the curse of the Law, we ought to still fulfill the Law. Every believer is commanded to depart from iniquity and walk in the Spirit. But since we are still in a fleshly mortal body, we will struggle with sin all of our life, as Paul did (Romans 7:14-25). But when we do sin, and we all choose to sin sometimes, God's grace abounds more. Romans 6:1, "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?" A believer always falls IN GRACE, never FROM GRACE. Only a Christ-rejecter has fallen FROM GRACE.

When we choose to sin, God's grace doth more abound so that we can NEVER lose His free gift of salvation. Eternal life is a free gift from God (Romans 6:23), not a reward or a trade or exchange of sorts. A gift cannot have any stipulations or obligations if it is truly a GIFT (Ephesians 2:8-9). Noah went from being the captain of his ship to being a drunken sailor. Samson went with harlots. David commit adultery and then had the woman's husband murdered to hide his sins. Lot got drunk and commit incest with both of his daughters. Jeremiah quit preaching in discouragement. When Jesus raised up from the dead, He found Peter butt naked in public.

The Bible is filled with sinful saints. Demas was worldly and quit the ministry. Sarah laughed at God's promise. Abraham lied. Jonah fled from God's will. The only thing that a believer automatically receives at the time of salvation is the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit. One of my favorite sermons by Pastor Jack Hyles (1926-2001) is titled: "Your Salvation Did Not Change You A Bit."

Dear reader, the moment that you receive Jesus as your personal Savior, you are instantly and forever JUSTIFIED (Just-If-I'd never sinned at all). Acts 13:39, “And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.” The born-again Christian is JUSTIFIED FROM ALL THINGS!!! That is eternal security my friend. By the way, Eternal Life and Eternal Security are not two different or separate doctrines, they are one and the same. That is, the man who has Eternal Life also has Eternal Security.

In the sermon, Dr. Hyles uses the true illustration of a strip joint down the street from the First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana. Dr. Hyles pastored the church from 1959 to 2001. The strip club eventually went out of business (thank God). About 2 years later Dr. Hyles received a letter from a man who was the owner of the strip club. He said that he had been saved as a result of the testimony of soulwinners from the church always coming by the front of the strip club to witness to people. God convicted his heart, which over time led to the man coming to Christ to be saved by faith. The man told Pastor Hyles that he was now preparing to become a pastor. He offered to sell the strip club to the church and they did buy it.

Now, even though the strip club had transferred ownership (which pictures getting saved), it hadn't been renovated yet (which pictures growing in the grace of Jesus Christ, growing in the milk of the Word and sanctification). When a lost sinner gets saved, they have transferred ownership from Satan as their father (John 8:44), to God as their Father (Matthew 5:16). It is the job of the local New Testament church to renovate new converts. Dr. Hyles explains this truth very well in his book chapter: "Conversion And Salvation."

So, yes, absolutely, a Christian who sins wilfully their entire life still goes to Heaven. Many people have the flawed reasoning that if a professed Christian continues living in gross immorality, substance abuse and wickedness their whole life that they cannot go to Heaven, or that they were never really saves at all. However, the truth is we all do just that! Psalms 130:3, “If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?” One of my all-time favorite sermons by Pastor Jack Hyles is titled, you guessed it: “If Thou Should Mark Iniquities, Who Could Stand?”

We are ALL horrible sinners. If you make the grave error of looking at other humans by which to compare yourself, you will think higher of yourself than you should. ...

Luke 18:10-14, “Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.”

I was at a Christian brother's home several years ago. A gathering of church members had come for a Watchcare Meeting. We were all sitting around the dining room table and others in some chairs (about a dozen people) One of the church staff members said: “I've never done anything really bad in my life.” I cringed when he said that, realizing how unbiblical and lacking in spiritual maturity he was to say something so ignorant. Upon hearing his naïve statement, I was reminded of what the famous preacher Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) said in his classic sermon titled: “Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God”...

The God that holds you over the pit of Hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked: His wrath towards you burns like fire; He looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; He is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times more abominable in His eyes, than the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours. You have offended Him infinitely more than ever a stubborn rebel did his prince; and yet it is nothing but His hand that holds you from falling into the fire every moment. It is to be ascribed to nothing else, that you did not go to Hell the last night; that you was suffered to awake again in this world, after you closed your eyes to sleep. And there is no other reason to be given, why you have not dropped into Hell since you arose in the morning, but that God's hand has held you up. There is no other reason to be given why you have not gone to Hell, since you have sat here in the house of God, provoking His pure eyes by your sinful wicked manner of attending his solemn worship. Yea, there is nothing else that is to be given as a reason why you do not this very moment drop down into Hell.

SOURCE: Jonathan Edwards, 'Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God'

When a lost sinners comes to Jesus Christ in faith, he or she is saved. All of that person's sins (past, present and future) have all been forgiven. Jesus paid a debt He did not owe, because we owed a debt we could not pay. To be saved, simply believe that Jesus did it all for you.

“It is 'Good News' if no one must have good works before salvation, or after salvation. For salvation to truly be by grace, it must not have any stipulations of any kind at any time. Works before, during or after; works cannot be evidence of my salvation.” —Pastor Ralph Yankee Arnold, “Does Calvinism Change The Gospel?”

Good works are not the payment for sin, the payment for sin is death.

Salvation is not a reward for the righteous, it is a gift for the guilty!

Salvation is not doing your best, it is having Christ's best put to your account through receiving Him by faith.

Turning away from sinful ways would be a work. Faith puts all of the merit where it belongs, on the object of our faith, Jesus and His work.

If to “repent” means to forsake our sinful ways TO BE SAVED, but Jesus already paid for our sins by dying on the cross, then what are we repenting from?

The true Gospel always points you to CHRIST; a false gospel always points to YOU.

We must stay true to the simplicity of the Gospel!! Repentance regarding salvation is a change of mind from unbelief to belief!!! We must earnestly contend for the faith (Jude 1:3).