Was Forgiveness Completed, or Only Made Possible?

2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 15, Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
This is W-T-T-R.
The word of reconciliation and songs of grace.
Today we're asking the question, was forgiveness completed or only made possible?
A problem we see with those who limit God's forgiveness is, instead of putting in the work to define biblical terms, they allow someone else to do it for them.
Well, he's the preacher, he's the teacher, he wouldn't steer us wrong.
Don't be so sure.
Maybe not on purpose, but we're to prove all things, 1 Thessalonians 5:21.
Understanding the terms in your Bible is critical.
Forgiveness is not the same as justification, righteousness goes beyond being forgiven, and reconciliation is the culmination of God's grace, not simply a theological abstraction.
Limited forgivers, they can't handle us because we challenge their assumptions and denominational dogma.
And we let scripture define its own language.
Philippians 1 verses 9 and 10, Paul wrote, And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; That ye may approve all things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ;
This is a wonderful passage on discernment.
Discernment gives us the ability to think for ourselves, to make sober judgments, to be wise in our decision-making.
King Solomon in all his wisdom, he said, Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad.
And the writer of Hebrews wrote, For everyone that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness. For he is a babe, but strong meat belongeth to them that are a full age. Even those who by reason of us have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
Which sounds similar to Paul over there in Ephesians 5 where he said, We should walk circumspectly, not as fools, but to be wise and redeem the time, because the days are evil.
As we see, God placed emphasis on using discernment throughout all dispensations.
It's not about just knowing right from wrong, but right from almost right.
Discerning the gospel from almost the gospel.
When discernment is used, we're able to separate truth from error.
With all readiness of mind, we receive the word by searching the scriptures daily,
to see if what passes through the ear and eye gate is true.
Paul said those over there at Berea did their own homework.
They thought for themselves.
Hey, thinking for yourself has become a lost art.
A thing of the past.
Look around and you'll notice that today most would rather be told what to think than to actually put in the work to think for themselves.
They're tribal, brain lazy, group thinkers that trust whatever the rest of the tribe says.
Okay, was forgiveness completed or only made possible?
Well, it depends on where you get your information.
Man or God?
Man says forgiveness was made possible, God says having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself, Colossians chapter 1. Having made peace through confessing your sins?
Having made peace through your being water baptized?
Having made peace by your belief and being saved first?
No, having made peace through the blood of his cross.
Be aware that there's a big push going on right now to take the focus off the cross
and put it on self.
False teachings are not only coming from denominations anymore, they're also coming from grace circles.
From those who have physically left the church building, but their mind is still there.
You'll encounter them if you haven't already, you will, and you'll know them by their fruit.
Matthew 12:33, Jesus said, Either make the tree good and the fruit good or else make the tree corrupt and the fruit corrupt. For the tree is known by his fruit.
What fruit is he talking about here?
Next verse, Oh generation of vipers, how can ye being evil speak good things?
For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.
See, the fruit Jesus is speaking of is words.
And telling someone that the blood of Jesus isn't sufficient for forgiveness unless they add something with it, that's rotten fruit.
Rotten to the core.
Rotten fruit produced by those who place limitations on God's forgiveness.
We're hearing from a lot of you lately who are discovering that in the grace circles,
there are those who have never graduated from their denominationalism.
Teaching that the blood of Christ and his sacrifice didn't forgive your sins, but only made forgiveness possible.
This one gentleman, a former limited forgiver, I asked him, I said, In the Old Testament, when the priest made a blood sacrifice, did Israel's sins get forgiven?
He said, sure did.
I said, So, you're telling me that the blood of an animal was enough to forgive those
in the Old Testament, but we have to add something to the blood of Jesus?
In that case, you're saying the blood of an animal was more powerful than the blood of Jesus.
He was speechless.
And he had a light bulb moment and realized the error that he had been taught.
Taught by someone by the way who mentioned us.
Before that, he had no clue who we were.
But he began listening, praise God, and ended up catching on and understanding
reconciliation.
Something that happens a lot.
All things work together for good, right?
See, if you think the blood of an animal was good enough to forgive Israel's sins,
but the blood of Jesus needs you to add something to it to forgive yours, then your belief system needs a makeover.
Or a complete overhaul.
You're saying that animals' blood forgave their sins, but for us, the blood of Jesus only made forgiveness possible.
Hmm.
That's pretty hard to believe that there are actually people who think like this.
In the Old Testament, on the day of Atonement, the High Priest, he would act as mediator for Israel.
He'd enter the Holy of Holies and provide a blood sacrifice.
When he did, their sins were forgiven right there on the spot, and peace was restored.
This was how reconciliation with God was made.
It was forgiveness done, not forgiveness possible.
And the same goes for us today.
When the blood of Jesus atoned for our sins, our sins were forgiven, right there.
Again, forgiveness done, not forgiveness possible.
Limited forgivers, they miss the mark on this.
Saying forgiveness only occurs after we add something to the blood of Jesus is error.
His sinless blood was enough.
Adding sin confessing, water baptism, or human belief, human prayers, anything involving us, that only taints the pure and perfect blood of Jesus Christ.
Telling someone they need their sins forgiven is not the gospel.
Forgiveness is not in our hands, it belongs to God, Daniel 9:9.
He required one final blood sacrifice and he got it, Jesus supplied it.
He needs nothing from us.
We're filthy rags and not capable of triggering a holy God's forgiveness.
This dispensation didn't begin at the cross.
It was still hidden and secret at that time, because if Satan and his cohorts would have known about it, they would not have crucified Jesus.
If they had known that the cross of Christ was going to make a way for a new dispensation where God was going to stop imputing the world's sins and take Satan's best man, Saul of Tarsus, and use him to Acts 17:6 turn the world upside down, if they had known that, they would not have had Jesus hung.
1 Corinthians chapter 2 verses 7 and 8, But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory, which none of the princes of this world knew, for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
Satan is the God of this world and what Christ accomplished at the cross was kept secret from him until Paul, the due time testifier, came on the scene.
1 Timothy 2 verses 5 and 6, For there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time.
What happened at the cross wasn't testified at the cross, it wasn't the right time yet, and if left up to the modern day limited forgivers, it still wouldn't be being testified today.
Some say they're a Pauline grace believer but claim that God is still imputing sins.
We had been in ministry for almost 10 years before encountering a limited forgiver.
That's when we first heard a grace pastor teach that God only stopped imputing sins to believers, which flies in the face of what Paul clearly wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:19, To wit that God was in Christ reconciling the world (unbelievers) unto himself, not imputing their (the unbelievers) trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us (believers) the word of reconciliation.
This is not a difficult verse to understand.
Nothing vague about it.
The Son accomplished the world's forgiveness on the cross, 1 Corinthians 15:3, and is why the father stopped imputing sins.
According to this present dispensation of grace, no one has to do anything for forgiveness.
Now for salvation?
Oh yeah, you got to believe Paul's gospel.
No belief, no imputed righteousness, no imputed righteousness, no justification.
2 Corinthians 5:19 assures us that God from his side has already reconciled the world unto himself, and he's not charging anyone's sins against them.
No one can do anything to get their sins forgiven, all they can do is Acts 26:18, receive forgiveness.
My friend, this is the gospel of your salvation.
Think about this now.
The first sin on earth was committed where?
In the garden.
Which brought what?
Sin and death for all humanity.
And Jesus was buried in the tomb located where?
In a garden.
And when he resurrected, he defeated what?
Sin and death.
So, the first place sin and death entered is the place where Jesus defeated sin and death.
In a garden.
Adam brought in sin and death.
Jesus rose and took out sin and death.
Now, here's where the limited forgivers run the train off the track.
Being forgiven alone does not save anyone.
Never has.
To be saved, you must be justified.
Forgiven and justified, spelled different, are different.
They're not the same and occur at different times.
Forgiveness occurred at the shedding of blood, justification occurs at the moment of belief.
If they could only get that.
Forgiveness occurred at the shedding of blood, justification occurs at the moment of belief.
This is what scripture says.
It's not debatable.
Forgiveness occurred at the shedding of blood, justification occurs at the moment of belief.
Say that over and over until you get it.
This doesn't line up with the limited forgiver theology.
Paul says, And be ye kind one to another. Tenderhearted. Forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
We forgive others as God forgave us.
He forgave us while in unbelief.
And knowing this should make us so tenderhearted that we too freely forgive those who have offended us without them having to do anything for it.
We forgive others like God forgave us.
Our forgiveness toward them shouldn't hinge on whether or not they deserve it.
The beauty of forgiveness is, we forgive without their belief.
They don't have to believe it.
Because it's not up to them.
Same with God.
Him forgiving you doesn't depend on you.
And you'd have to have sort of a narcissistic attitude to claim that it does.
Our forgiveness depended on what Jesus did and not what we can do.
If you hung a forgiveness picture on your wall, you better not be in it.
Forgiveness belongs to God, Daniel 9:9.
And he forgave us for Christ's sake.
Not our sake.
The lack of understanding Bible terminology has caused many to miss this incredible truth concerning forgiveness.
To help untangle the terms that tradition conflates, go to our website and get our new book, Understanding Biblical Terminology According to Scripture, not Tradition, and remember, everyone wakes up at different times, so just keep being the alarm clock.
We take this moment to remind you the gospel is not, he forgives and forgets.
It's he forgave and forgot.
Place your trust in the risen Christ Jesus and receive the free gift of salvation today.
Truth Time Radio.
Celebrating the word of reconciliation, and songs of grace.