This is Truth Time Radio.
Today we're talking about new reconciliationists.
You may have encountered some of these new reconciliationists that they're out there, they're on the prowl.
You'll find one here and one there. Those who will say that even though Christ died and shed his blood for the entire world's sins, forgiveness doesn't go into effect until after someone becomes a believer.
That's their claim.
We'll call today's program, Forgiven at His Cross or at Your Belief?
So the confusion comes from 2 Corinthians chapter 5.
Here's where Paul tells us about reconciliation.
We'll pick up in verse 18.
Here he says, And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
Verse 19, To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
Verse 20, Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.
So we see that verse 19 clearly says that God is no longer imputing trespasses, sins, unto anyone in the world.
This is not just believers, but to all that are in the world.
God stopped counting, stopped imputing sins to humanity due to the accomplishment of what his Son, Christ Jesus, did on our behalf.
So it's like a relationship where two parties are involved and one, in this case being God, has been wronged but has decided to forgive the other party, the entire world.
So he decided to stop imputing their sins because their debt had been paid.
And by the way, if a debt is paid, it's forgiven.
This is simple accounting terms.
So Christ paid the payment.
God forgave the world, stopped imputing their sins unto them.
And in verse 20, Paul says, We pray that you, in Christ's stead, be reconciled to God.
So see, God did his part.
Now, anyone in the world seeking salvation, all they need to do is be reconciled to God.
How do they do that?
Through faith.
As soon as they put their trust in the finished crosswork of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, his death, burial, and resurrection, He died for their sins, was buried, and has risen.
Trust Jesus by resting your faith in the gospel.
And at that moment, you're reconciled to God.
At that moment, your sins are not forgiven.
Your sins were already forgiven.
They were forgiven when Christ died on the cross for them.
Now, you can be reconciled to God by faith, and that's salvation, not forgiveness of sins.
These are not the same thing.
So today, we're asking the question, were you forgiven at the cross or at your belief?
One of the verses that confused the new reconciliationist is found in the book of Acts, Acts 26:18.
But let's start in verse 17.
Now, what this is, what we're reading here in Acts chapter 26, is Paul giving an account of what happened, what took place in Acts chapter 9, when the Lord sent him out, sent him out and began his ministry.
Here in verse 17, we read, Delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee,
That's the Lord speaking.
Paul giving an account of the Lord and what he said to him. Verse 18, now listen carefully.
This is the one they get confused on.
To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.
This is the book of Acts.
Well after the finished cross work of Christ, sins were paid for by the shed blood of Christ, so we must approach Acts 26 from that premise.
The cross is in the rear view mirror.
And we've had more than one listener contact us about the subject of reconciliation, listeners who have escaped religion and gotten saved, only to have someone to sneak in the back door, sort of like those Pharisees in Galatians chapter 2, who came in to spy out their liberty.
They show up and throw Acts 26:18 in your face, as if it's a gotcha verse.
But it's not.
Nice try, but try again.
The new reconciliationists misuse this verse in their attempt to prove that forgiveness of sins only applies to someone after they believe the gospel.
Even though there's a plethora of verses, assurance verses from Paul that assures us of what took place on the cross, they still go to this one verse and get all hung up.
I encourage you to get your Bible out and look at the verse.
It's simply saying you can't receive something that isn't already there.
It says, quote, That they may receive forgiveness of sins, end quote.
You receive what's yours.
To receive something would be to receive what's already yours, not to receive it and then it'll be yours.
No, you can't receive it if it doesn't already exist.
You see, forgiveness of sins was already established and well in place long before we read this account in Acts chapter 26.
So with that in mind, go back and read it again.
You should quickly notice that it makes perfect sense that you cannot receive something that hasn't already been accomplished.
Receive the forgiveness of sins.
These fellows read all the verses where Paul plainly tells us what happened to sin on the cross.
They know these verses.
What happened to those sins, the Lord obliterated them.
And some can even preach some pretty good messages about it.
But then all of a sudden, here comes the old man Adam along, rises up in the flesh and causes them to eiseget, to disrespect the text and insert that you've got to do something to get your sins forgiven.
What they've missed, and listen, Acts 26:18 is a salvation verse, not a get my sins forgiven verse. Realizing this will change how you read it.
You see, our apostle Paul, to many surprise, nowhere in any of his 13 letters gives us even one way to get our sins forgiven.
Nowhere.
And anyone who grew up in religion will find that to be quite amazing.
In Paul's writings, 13 letters.
Now wrap your head around that.
In his writings, you'll not find even one verse that can tell you how to get your sins forgiven.
So if there's not one verse that can tell you how to get your sins forgiven, then surely they already are. Because if they're not, then Paul is a failure.
A failure who wrote 13 letters and forgot to tell us how to get our sins forgiven.
Your flesh can't get them forgiven, your belief can't get them forgiven, and this is quite a low blow to the ego.
Give me something to do so I can get some credit.
These in Acts 26 needed their eyes open to the fact that Christ had died for their sins.
Already done.
And Paul says, receive it, not do something to get it.
It's a salvation verse, not a get my sins forgiven verse.
That will change everything when you see it from that premise.
You can't receive it if it hasn't already happened.
Let's go back to the verse real quick, Acts 26:18, that they may receive forgiveness of sins.
So do you really think Paul is telling them that they're forgiven only if they believe it?
As if God needed their belief to make it so?
It's kind of narcissistic.
God somehow needs our belief to make his cross work true.
To me, that's nonsense.
What this verse says to me is, forgiveness of sins has happened, so receive it.
Just like us today, these here in Acts 26, by them receiving it is what saved them.
It did not get their sins forgiven.
My sins being forgiven was an established fact and in place long before I was ever born.
And my belief don't make it so, my belief makes me saved.
My belief can't make it apply to me.
Hey, it applies to the world. 2 Corinthians 5:19.
Get out of your head and believe your Bible.
Some teachers, and some pretty good ones at that, they get all hung up on this verse.
And to further their confusion, they'll say, sins were paid for but not forgiven.
God doesn't accept the payment Christ made for you until you first believe.
That's dangerous ground.
What they've done is make forgiveness an individual thing when it's universal.
Think of it this way.
Forgiveness was for the world and happened at the cross.
But salvation is for individuals and happens when you believe.
See the difference?
Not universal salvation, it's universal forgiveness.
Forgiveness of the world had to come first.
Now, the world needs to be ye reconciled to God through faith.
If you're telling others that at the moment they believe is when they get their sins forgiven, you've just poisoned the gospel.
You've just muddied the finished cross work.
You've put into the mind of an unbeliever that they need to do something to get their sins forgiven. Believing is doing.
A work, as defined by scripture, is something done in the flesh.
And believing is not a work, but it's still something you do.
And the evidence for that is in Acts chapter 16.
You get the chance to look there in verse 30 and most of you remember the story anyway.
The jailer asked Paul and Silas, he said, Sirs, what must I do?
And Paul and Silas said, oh, you don't have to do anything.
No, that's not what they said.
He asked them, what must I do?
And they answered him.
They gave him something to do.
Their answer? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
So believing is doing is just not doing anything in the flesh.
That would make it a work.
I've heard some say believing is the only thing you can do without doing anything.
Well, to me, that doesn't make sense.
It's the only thing you can do without doing any work.
But make no mistake, to believe is to do, just as Paul and Silas told the jailer.
And we might also note, this was speaking of what to do to be saved.
The question wasn't, how do I get my sins forgiven?
Because they already were.
Contrary to the new reconciliationist, even the Philippian jailer knew sins were already forgiven.
That's why he did not ask the question, sirs, what must I do to get my sins forgiven?
Again, Acts 26:18 is a salvation verse.
It's not a, how do I get my sins forgiven verse.
Those who teach you got to believe the gospel before forgiveness of sins will be allowed to apply to you.
If they're not careful, they'll wind up making some false converts.
Their message is muddy.
And it implies that the individual has something to do with getting their sins forgiven.
This sounds like religion.
Religion says do.
Grace says done.
And I've noticed another common thread some of these guys have between one another.
Almost all of them mess up what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15 concerning believing in vain.
Have you ever noticed that?
In verse 2, when speaking of being saved, Paul says, unless you have believed in vain.
And here comes Mr. Preacher along and fouls it all up.
Swung way too early and almost hit the third base coach.
Slow down and wait on the ball.
Let's exegete, not eisegete.
Let's respect the text.
All we've got to do to understand the believe in vain of verse 2 is to keep reading.
1 Corinthians chapter 15, look at verse 13.
But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen.
And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.
So you see what happens?
This is the confusion.
This is why they believe you're still dead in your sins until you believe.
Even though Christ already died for your sins.
So by the time they get to the verse that says you're dead in your sins, they think it's because you believed in vain.
You just really didn't believe.
When in fact, what it means is, if the resurrection hadn't happened, we would still be dead in our sins.
It has nothing to do with did the individual really believe.
This is not even about the believer.
It's about the good news.
It's about what Paul is telling them.
He says, hey, if I'm lying, lying to you about the resurrection, and you believe it, you've believed a lie.
So your belief's in vain.
That's what believing in vain is.
It's about the good news of the resurrection.
Paul says if what I'm telling you isn't true, if he didn't rise, you believed a lie.
You believed in vain.
Listen, sins forgiven and salvation, now pay close attention.
They have two separate calendar dates.
Two separate calendar dates.
They're not even the same thing.
Forgiveness of the world sins happened almost 2,000 years ago.
But individual salvation, it happens at the moment you believe the gospel.
Two separate events.
Two separate dates.
It's shameful, the amount of errors that have come from having this wrong thinking.
Oh my.
Hey, before I go, think about this.
What happens to children before they have the capacity to believe the gospel?
Something to think about.
This presents a real problem.
Think about this now.
The new reconciliation.
They've actually got children going to heaven with unforgiven sins.
Think about that for a moment.
Children sin, so if you're saying that forgiveness of sins are not credited to a person's account
until they first believe the gospel, then your theology has children in heaven with unforgiven sins.
Because they died and never believed.
You see the doctrinal errors that this creates?
Children sin at very young ages and many pass away.
They die before reaching that moment of where they're capable of believing the gospel or rejecting the gospel.
So they die and they go to heaven according to you with unforgiven sins.
You're in a pickle.
And not only young children, but with that sort of reasoning, the new reconciliationists are also saying,
and I don't think they understand it, but they're also saying that babies will go to heaven with their sin nature.
This is utter nonsense.
None of our sins will enter heaven.
Not our sins, not our sin nature.
This destroys their theory and that's what it is, a theory.
It's not Bible truth.
But it destroys the theory that forgiveness of sins can only apply to someone after they believe the gospel.
And really, this doesn't deserve any more thought.
It doesn't deserve our energy.
But we press on and we come behind some of this garbage and try to clean it up.
Well, that's it for now.
Remember, you only get two educations.
The one you're given and the one you give yourself.
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