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Can someone be justified without being sanctified? Can habitual sin coexist with salvation?

20 Questions with Pastor Mike (Episode 29) 00:58:02 – 01:03:09

Question from Kate Channel about justification, sanctification, and habitual sin.

Winger notes both justification and sanctification are used in multiple senses in Scripture, so the question depends on definitions. In the sense of ongoing process: every genuine believer is being sanctified by the Spirit. Salvation involves indwelling the Holy Spirit, bearing fruit, and freedom from sin's dominion (John 8:36). If someone shows no evidence of changed life, Winger won't pronounce them unsaved but says he has no evidence they are saved, and neither should they. On habitual sin: most Christians have persistent areas of sin (pride, lovelessness) they struggle with even decades in. The question is whether a pattern of life looks broadly Christ-transformed. A person 10 years into an affair, lying constantly, embezzling, while claiming Christianity — that is a red flag for self-examination. 2 Cor 13:5: "test yourselves whether you are in the faith." The solution is not anxious hand-wringing but getting serious about following Christ and bearing genuine fruit.

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