The sin unto death is physical death that God brings on a believer who persists in open, unrepentant sin — not the loss of salvation.
Les Feldick says that when a believer starts dabbling in sin, God chastens him; if chastening does not wake him up, God will 'take him out' — that is the sin unto death. In 1 Corinthians 5:5, Paul describes turning such a sinning believer over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, but the spirit is still saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. The purpose is to keep open sin from continuing to bring reproach to Christ's name.
1 Corinthians 5:5 — The key verse Les uses to show a sinning believer being turned over to Satan for destruction of the flesh, not of the spirit.
Romans 6:23 — States the foundational biblical relationship between sin and death.
Ezekiel 18:4 — Declares the fundamental law that the soul that sins shall die.
The Bible establishes that sin incurs death. In Genesis 2:17 God warned Adam, "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Ezekiel 18:4 repeats the principle: "Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die." Paul restates this in Romans 6:23: "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." This is the background for the disciplinary death described in 1 Corinthians 5:5, where Paul instructs the assembly to deliver an openly sinning believer "unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus." The verse distinguishes between the destruction of the flesh and the salvation of the spirit.
Les Feldick treats the 'sin unto death' as God's final discipline for a believer who refuses to come away from open sin. He says God chastens the believer who starts dabbling in sin; when the chastening does not wake him up, God will 'take him out.' This is what he calls the sin unto death, and he says Paul certainly teaches it. Les is careful to separate the flesh from the soul and spirit. In 1 Corinthians 5:5, the man is a believer, and the destruction of the flesh is physical, not the destruction of his soul and spirit. The goal is to stop open sin from continuing to bring reproach to the name of Christ. As with Job, Satan can only go as far as God permits.
No. Les points out that the flesh and the soul and spirit are not the same. When Paul instructs the Corinthians to deliver the sinning man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, he is not demanding the destruction of his soul and spirit as a believer. The man is still a believer, and the spirit may still be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Les says God is not annihilating him spiritually.
Les says Paul's instruction is, in so many words: if this man will not clean up his act and come away from his open sin, turn him over to the power of Satan to destroy the flesh, to take his life physically. The purpose is so that he no longer keeps bringing reproach to the name of Christ. Les also notes that Satan cannot go beyond what God permits, just as in the book of Job.
Les explains that God does not chasten the unbeliever, but He will chasten the believer who starts dabbling in sin. If the chastening does not wake the believer up, God will take him out. Les calls this the sin unto death. He adds that this is a sobering warning to believers, because God is the originator of discipline and knows how to chasten His children.
Les takes the listeners back to the first law God gave Adam: the day he ate of the tree, he would surely die. He connects this to Ezekiel's statement that the soul that sinneth shall surely die and Paul's words that all have sinned. The human race is faced with death because we are born in sin, but there is a loophole: we can die in the person of Christ on the cross by faith, so that when He died, we died.
Physical Death Versus Spiritual Destruction
Les teaches that turning a sinning believer over to Satan destroys the flesh, not the soul/spirit, and that the believer's spirit may still be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
The Eden Law and the Loophole
Les shows that the day Adam disobeyed, death was certain, and that the only way out of the death sentence is dying in the person of Christ.
Sin Brings Death Immediately
Les uses the Genesis account and Ezekiel 18:4 to show that sin immediately brings about death.
Wages of Sin
Les uses Romans 6:23 to show that death is what sin earns, while eternal life is a gift in Christ.
What the Holy Spirit Reveals to Believers - 1 Corinthians 2:9-13 Explained
Every one of us are guilty of having gone against the revealed will of God, and so now just in three sections, and there are many, many more, I've been able to show you that in Romans 3.9-23, we find that all have sinned, all have sinned consequently. Now So all have died spiritually again, is what we're referring to, although they're also going to die physically.
God's Final Discipline
Les explicitly defines the sin unto death as God taking a believer out physically when chastening does not wake him up.
What Happened When Adam Sinned? Genesis 3:14-24 Explained
They were functioning bodily, physically, A-OK. The seeds of death are within them. They're going to die someday, but the body is alive and well. Within the body, they have a soul. They haven't lost that, like they lost, you might say, the spirit part of them.
The Mandated Penalty
Les repeats that the soul that sins must die and that God has mandated death as the result of sin for all who have sinned.
Genesis 2:17: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Les begins with this as the first fundamental law of death for sin.
Ezekiel 18:4: Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.
The repeated Old Testament law that the soul that sins shall die.
Romans 6:23: For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The New Testament summary of sin's wage and God's provision.
1 Corinthians 5:5: To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
The passage Les uses for the sin that results in destruction of the flesh while the spirit is saved.
No. Les teaches that the destruction of the flesh is not destruction of the soul and spirit. The man in 1 Corinthians 5 is still a believer, and the passage shows the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
Les explains that God chastens the believer who sins; if the chastening does not wake him up, God will 'take him out.' The purpose is to stop open sin from continuing to bring reproach to Christ's name.
Les takes it as physical death or the ruin of the body, not the destruction of the soul and spirit. Paul says the church should turn the sinning believer over to Satan for this destruction, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
Watch the Teaching: What Does the Bible Say About Church Discipline and Sin?