If I struggle with a habitual sin, does that mean I am not saved?

When the believer sins it does not mean that he has lost his salvation. Many a child of God has been harassed through ignorance, and imagined that he committed the unpardonable sin. The sin of a believer does not make him unsaved or lost, but it makes fellowship with the Father and the Son impossible till the sin is judged and confessed. This is accomplished by His advocacy.

Nor does this verse in Leviticus mean that if we sin, it is a proof that we never were saved. How often the devil has tormented young Christians in this way. A sheep may fall into the ditch and get dirty, but that does not mean it is not a sheep, and it is unhappy till it gets out and is clean once more. A pig delights in the dirt and filth of the ditch. The one "practises" dirt, the other does not but hates it. A sow that is washed will always return to its wallowing in the mire. (See 2 Peter 2:22.) But it has always been a sow — it never became a sheep.

"Will a believer be saved, no matter into what course of sin he may fall, and die in?" A true believer will, infallibly, be saved; but we consider that salvation includes, not only full deliverance from the future consequences of sin, but from the present power and practice thereof. And, hence, if we find a person living in sin, and yet talking about his assurance of salvation, we look upon him as an antinomian and not a saved person at all. "If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth." The believer may fall, but he will be lifted up; he may be overtaken, but he will be restored; he may wander, but he will be brought back because Christ is able to save to the uttermost, and not one of His little ones shall perish.

The sinner, then, sins, and in this merely shows in it his state and the moral root of his nature as a sinner, which is lawlessness. But the born one, the child of God, is in a different position. He knows that Christ was manifested to take away our sins and that in Him there was no sin. If one knows Him and abideth in Him, that one sinneth not. If the believer sins it is because he has lost sight of Christ and does not act in the new life imparted unto him. Another object usurps the place of Christ, and then acting in self-will he is readily exposed to the wiles of the devil using his old nature and the world to lead him astray. If a man lives habitually in sin, according to his old nature, he hath not seen Him nor known Him. A child of God may sin but he is no longer living in sin; if a professing believer lives constantly in sin it is the evidence that he has not known Him at all. There were such who tried to deceive them. Their teaching was evidently a denial of holiness, that there was no need of righteousness. But the demand is for righteousness, while those who practise sin, live habitually in it, are of the devil. No true believer lives thus, for he knows the One whose life he possesses was manifested that He might destroy the works of the devil.

The fact, however, is made clear that this eventual triumph of grace must not be abused to condone present licence. The apostle asks the question: "Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Let it not be. How shall we that are dead to sin continue any longer therein?" (vers. 1, 2). The habitual practice of sin by a believer is an utter denial of the delivering power of God. The concurrent reign of sin and grace is incompatible with the divine nature. And the fact that a man cannot deliver himself from the power of indwelling sin is no evidence that God will not deliver him.

Hardly for in that case who amongst us would not be a backslider? We must distinguish between the one who persists in sin and the one who is "overtaken in a fault," though even the latter needs restoration (Gal. 6:1).

It is interesting and instructive to note that it is in this connection the apostle reiterates what he has taught before, that the practice of sin is not characteristic of the one who is born of God (ver. 18). He has just been speaking of a brother falling into sin, and also under specially aggravating circumstances, but this is not the brother's practice. There is a difference between falling into the mire and wallowing in it. It is true of a child of God, notwithstanding his falls, that he does not practise sin — sinning is not his uniform practice. He is in the hands of the Father and of the Son (John 10:28-29). Satan may trip him up, but cannot seize him out of their hands.

“Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen Him, neither known Him.” There is no middle ground here. John is emphatic in rejecting mere false profession. The very nature by which a believer abides in Christ is a nature that repudiates sin: therefore if one’s character is that which practices sin, he is an utter stranger to the blessed Lord. It is the proper character of a believer not to sin. The apostle of course does not here take into account the failings of a true believer, such as he does in ch.2:1, where the word is applicable to the true child of God, — “If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” This is the case of one overtaken by evil, and acting contrary to his character as born of God, and for whom restoration is immediately available. But in ch.3:6, “whosoever sinneth” refers to one unsaved, characterized by sinning.

Let every believer watch himself with earnest godly care. Flesh must be treated as a dead and judged thing, and then all is well; but if it be allowed to work, though but for a moment, any evil may follow. Those who persist in an evil course the apostle repudiates altogether here. He presses it in this place on the Galatians, as elsewhere on the Ephesians (Eph. 5:5), that those also who live thus shall not inherit God's kingdom. The truest believer may, through unwatchfulness, fall into the gravest sins; but such cannot be said to live in them — they do not characterise their lives. The believer, through the action of the Spirit of God on his conscience, owns and confesses his sin, and gets forgiveness and cleansing. Such statements are not intended to encourage doubts in the hearts of saints, but to test and sift profession. There is much of it in this day. On every hand there is boastful profession of Christianity; but in how many cases is the fruit lacking which God looks for! 2 Tim. 3:1-5 may well be pondered in this connection.

"He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved." Some say, Oh! that is said to the Jew. True, it is so: but it is as true of you and of me as of the Jew. Do you understand scripture so little as not to see that while there is a present salvation there is also a salvation which is future; see, for instance, 1 Thess. 5:8-9. Who are the people who get this? Are they the ones who prove their reality by continuance or the reverse? The passage is as true of me as of the Jew, and I say, If I remain to the end I shall be saved. Does this disturb me? Not at all. I know God has wrought in me, and I know that He will continue to do so. I am quite at rest about it. If, however, a professed believer turns away, and does not endure, but lives in sin, can we say that it is sure to be well with him? Never. The proof of reality is continuance. The proof that it is going to be well with you at the end is that it is well with you to-day. There is every comfort in scripture for the man who is connected with Christ to-day. I believe we do not half enough press the living present reality of God's blessing, but rather try and rest on the past.