Proverbs 24:15-16 …For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.
Nothing in this verse suggests that Christians may deliberately continue in sin because God will forgive them. Scripture explicitly rejects that idea: “Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid” (Rom. 6:1-2). Hebrews 10:26-27 warns: “For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.”
The “falling” here is best understood in the context of adversity and calamity, especially considering verse 15, and not as backsliding into sin. The righteous may be knocked down by circumstances, but God enables him to rise again.
There is an important distinction: A righteous person may fall into adversity; he must not deliberately fall into sin. When a believer does sin, however, he must repent and return to God rather than use grace as an excuse to remain in it. Revelation 3:15-18 explains God’s counsel to backsliders: “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.”
