How to die in your sins

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It might seem like a silly question to ask how you can die in your sins. The short answer is, you don't have to do anything at all to die in your sins. Indecision about Christ has the same effect on your eternal soul as deciding against Him. Too simplistic?  Okay, here's a short list from Pastor John MacArthur. If you do the things on this list your whole life, you can be certain that you'll die in your sins.
  • Be Faithless
  • Be Self-righteous
  • Be Obstinate
  • Be Worldly

Be Faithless and Self-righteous

In John 8:12-21 Jesus is speaking with the Pharisees. Jesus tells them that they don't know Him because they don't know God the Father. In verse 21, Jesus tells them that they will die in their sins. This is as stern a warning as it gets!

Then in verse 22, we read that the Pharisees then mocked Jesus with scorn and sarcasm, saying “Will He kill Himself, because He says, ‘Where I go you cannot come’?” According to Flavius Josephus, the historian of that time, suicide was the worst sin that a Jew could commit. That was like a slap across the face of Jesus.

In verse 23, we Jesus replies, “You are from beneath; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins."

I'd say that statement is as clear as it gets.

If you still have any doubt about what Jesus thought about self-righteous people, consider what Jesus said to the religious leaders of his day:
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness."
Matthew 23:27

Be Obstinate

Being obstinate means to stubbornly refuse to change your opinion. This was certainly the case with the Pharisees, who weren't willing to believe that Jesus was who He had claimed to be. In John 8:25 we read, "They said to Jesus, who do you think you are?"

In John 9 we read the story of Jesus healing a blind man. Hearing of this, the Pharisees decide to interrogate the man. Not liking his answer, they called the man's parents on the carpet. Again they called the man back for the second round of questioning.
And they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.” The man answered, “Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does His will, God listens to him. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”
 John 9:28-33 (ESV)

Be Worldly

I'm convinced that the reason so many people refuse to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior is because they want to be the Lord of their own lives. They want to live life on their own terms and not feel guilty about it. This is also why there are so many false religions in the world. You can find one that suits your desire to live your life on your terms but with the help of your chosen deity. Unfortunately for them, believing in a false God leads to eternal damnation.
Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
 John 14:5-6 (ESV)
Even after we proclaim our faith in Christ, we can be double-minded about our willingness to give up our favorite sins. We can be torn between our love for God and our willingness to obey Him while clinging to the sins that we love. This is a dangerous condition, as you'll see in the following verse.
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.
 1st John 2:15-17
It's clear that if you love the things of this world more than you love God, you will die in your sins.

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