My Christian Answers

There are a few main beliefs about the forgiveness of God and to whom it is given. First, there is the belief that anyone who asks for forgiveness is forgiven. This point of view puts the work of forgiveness in the hands of the person asking. If he wants it, he can get it. If not, he won’t. That is where this belief is extremely flawed. God gave the forgiveness of sins when he applied the blood shed on Calvary to the mercy seat in heaven (please see Part 1). Man has nothing to do with whether or not he is forgiven. God expects us to forgive others when we are wronged by them. Would God be just in asking us to forgive without others asking for our forgiveness if He did not do the same? If God wants to forgive, there is nothing in man that is going to stop Him.

Another belief that people hold is that of Calvinist doctrine. That belief states that the sacrifice of Christ atones, or provides forgiveness for, a limited number of people. They call these people “the elect”. While the bible does use the terms chosen and elect, that is an entirely different subject and deserves an article of its own. So, I will not go into that right now. Calvinist are right about when people were forgiven they just miss the mark a little bit when it comes to who.

Christ is portrayed as the second Adam. Adam messed us up and Christ fixed us up. “Therefore as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life” (Romans 5:18). Adam, the first man, plunged all of humanity into sin. From Adam all the way up to this very instant, man is born into and lives in sin. Each of you reading this sin more often than you would like to admit. It all started because of Adam. Christ, like Adam, did something that would affect all of humanity. He, instead of plunging man into sin, redeemed man; he purged sin, put it away by the sacrifice of himself (Hebrews 9:26). Just as Adam’s fall affected ALL, Christ’s offering affected ALL.

“Therefore as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life” (Romans 5:18)

The word used for justification in this verse is the Greek word “dikaiosis”, which means acquittal, or to declare not guilty. Notice that in this verse the righteousness of one, that is Jesus Christ, causes the free gift of being declared not guilty to pass upon all men. The Calvinist would say, “That really means that the free gift passes to all of the people chosen before the foundation of the world to be saved”. The person who believes you are forgiven upon asking would say, “That just means it passes upon whosoever will ask”. The bible does not support either of these answers. God inspired men to write this book; his word is perfect. Therefore, we should not have to explain anything in his word by adding something to it. We should be able to explain anything in his word by comparing scripture with scripture, no adding or subtracting. If God in verse 18 did not mean all men he would not have said all men. This passage proves something that most people would consider absurd; that removal of sin does not mean the addition of righteousness. Therefore, while all men are forgiven, not all men are saved. God said in verse 18 all men are declared not guilty, but in verse 19 many are made righteous. God used two different words for a reason. Some people will tell you that they are interchangeable words, but that is only to make the scripture fit their beliefs. People are not willing to just believe what the bible says.

Keeping in mind that God means what he says in his word let us look at another verse. “He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2). God told believers that Christ was the propitiation for their sins and FOR THE SINS OF THE WORLD. Without adding or taking away from the word of God try to explain that verse. I have never heard a Calvinist try, but I am sure they have some very unscriptural explanation to give if you will listen to them. I know what most other people will tell you. They will tell you that by propitiation it is meant that Christ made forgiveness available for the whole world, but that is not what the word means. The word propitiation in the verse above means, “an atonement, or an expiator”. Look it up for yourself if you do not believe me. Atonement or an expiator is something or in this case, someone, that makes amends for or brings into concord. So Christ made amends for the sins of the whole world. The verse clearly states that. Why not believe it.

“Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). God took away the sin of the world. If he did not then this verse need not be in the bible. Many other verses tell us that Christ died for the world, by that I mean everyone. “For therefore we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those that believe” (1 Timothy 4:10). Christ is the savoir of unbelievers according to this verse.

I could go on and on with forgiveness being given to the whole world, but that would do no good. If you want to find Christ, if you want to get out of traditional lies and believe the truth, then I have given you enough information to provoke you to look for yourself in the scriptures. Jeremiah 29:13 gives us the promise that if we seek him with our whole heart, we shall find him.

The big question going through many of the minds of the readers of this article is this, “If everyone’s sins are paid for, then why does anyone go to hell?”. I mentioned something a little earlier in this article that touches that topic, but if you will continue on to part 3 I will explain it in detail.