If someone professed to be saved but still leads a gay lifestyle does this keep them out of heaven? She is not giving up this sin. If so, are the rest of us in trouble because even though we’re born again we still sin?
We have covered the subject of homosexuality before but since this is a “hot topic” that comes up frequently I’m going to answer your question. A key passage which answers your question is 1st Corinthians 6:9-11. It reads, “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, NOR HOMOSEXUALS, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such WERE SOME OF YOU. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of God” (NKJV). Verses 9 :10 clearly teach that if one “professes to be saved” yet they “continue in a lifestyle of sin,” they will “NOT inherit the kingdom of God. In other words, their lifestyle of committing sins “will keep them out of heaven.”
The key issue here is having an ONGONG LIFESTYLE OF SIN. The believer can “fall into a sin” but they will not be characterized by that sin. For example, a believer may drink too much alcohol and become drunk, but they will not have a lifestyle of getting drunk. If one professes to be saved and never gives up getting drunk, they will be known by their family, friends, neighbors, and others as a DRUNKARD (which is one of the sins mentioned in verse 10). A believer could even fall into the temptation of having a sexual relationship with someone of the same sex/gender, but they will not have a lifestyle of homosexual relations. One may profess to be saved, but if they continue in that sin they will be known by their family, friends, neighbors, and others as a HOMOSEXUAL. That person may “think they are saved,” but their lifestyle of ongoing and unjudged sin reveals “they were never saved.”
Now let’s talk about verse 11. After speaking about the unrighteous person and their sinful lifestyles, he speaks of the believers and can say, “But such WERE SOME OF YOU.” Before their conversion they had “lifestyles of sin” that betrayed they weren’t saved, but after believing the gospel of Jesus Christ they were no longer known by the various sins mentioned in verses 9 & 10. They had been “DELIVERED from those lifestyles.” Their belief in Jesus Christ as their Savior resulted in them being WASHED, SANCTIFIED, and JUSTIFIED. They were “WASHED from their sins” by the blood of Christ (Revelation 1:5) and “WASHED daily from sin” by the Word of God (John 3:5; 15:3 and Ephesians 5:25-26). They were “SANCTIFIED (set apart) by the blood of Christ” (Hebrews 9:11-14; 10:10) and are “SANCTIFIED daily by the Word of God” (2nd Thessalonians 2:13 and John 17:17). They were “JUSTIFIED by the blood of Christ” (Romans 3:24 & 5:9).
Finally, let’s talk specifically about believers who still sin. I already mentioned how a believer can still “fall into sin” but they won’t be “characterized by that sin.” We have a prime example of this in 1st Corinthians chapter 5 where a true believer fell into the “sin of FORNICATION” (verse 1). Paul instructed the saints to put him out of fellowship for that sin (verses 2-13) so he could learn to judge his sin and repent. The discipline of the assembly had its desired effect, for he did repent of his sin and in 2nd Corinthians 2:3-11 Paul instructs the believers to forgive him and allow him back into fellowship. If that man had never repented of the sin of FORNICATION, people could rightly call him a FORNICATOR since that would be a “lifestyle of sin” and it would prove he never was saved. Another possibility is that he could have refused to repent even though he was a true believer and then God would discipline him. There were cases of believers committing sins in 1st Corinthians 11:17-22, 27 and we read of God’s discipline in verse 30, “For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep.” God judged them with sickness and even death! But verses 31-32 go on to say, “For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.” God will judge the sins of His children “in this life” but He will judge the unrighteous unbeliever and condemn them to the lake of fire after they die (see Revelation 20:11-15). (DO) (603.5)