Okay, today we're going to take a look at an article that I certainly find misleading when it comes to the Apostle Paul's revelation to the church, the body of Christ.
It's written by a gentleman out of Indiana.
This was sent to us from Michelle, a listener to the broadcast since 2012.
She recently dealt with someone who got a bit confused after reading this article and she sent me what she wrote to them, her response, and it was spot on.
She dealt with them perfectly, didn't need my help, but she sent this our way and asked that we address it.
The article is titled, Is Everyone Forgiven?
This guy starts with Colossians chapter 1 verse 14, in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins.
Now for his commentary, he says, The forgiveness of sins is made possible by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
By His grace, God offers forgiveness of all sins to any man in Christ.
That's incorrect.
Here, like so many, he added his own personal assertion.
God's not offering forgiveness to anyone today.
Hey, if He is, then Paul wrote 13 letters and left that out.
In not one of his letters to us, the church, the body of Christ, does he tell us how to get our sins forgiven.
That's a problem here, an inconsistency.
Paul doesn't speak of forgiveness as being something we can get.
Those who are in Christ have forgiveness, and those not in Christ have forgiveness.
The difference is being saved or not saved.
Those who are not saved have forgiveness.
Sins are not being imputed to anyone in the world.
Paul couldn't have been any clearer in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 19.
Today, folks are not separated by forgiven or unforgiven.
They're separated by saved and unsaved.
You're either in Christ or not in Christ, and the in Christ are believers of the gospel.
The not in Christ are not believers of the gospel.
That's the separation.
It's not about those who are forgiven and those who are not forgiven.
What separates the two is one group has been given the righteousness of Christ, and the other have not.
Let's continue here.
He then writes, This does not mean everyone is already forgiven.
For not all men are in Christ.
Not all men have faith.
So here he's telling you that it's your faith that gets your sins forgiven.
Your belief has the power to forgive.
Not the blood of Christ, not the actions that he took on the cross, not by what he did.
It's actually by what you can do if you believe you can get your sins forgiven.
Unbelievable.
Then he says, The benefits of the gospel of Christ, including benefits of the blood, are only given to those that first trust the gospel, and he cites Ephesians 1:13.
Well, Ephesians 1:13 has nothing to do with what he just said.
When you read that verse, there is nothing about the benefits of the blood only being applicable to those who first trust the gospel.
He goes on, now listen, he goes on to say, Even so, there is a wrong idea that sin is no longer a problem for the unbeliever, because they are forgiven even in unbelief.
Hey, sin is a problem for the unbeliever and the believer.
But it's not a problem for salvation.
Sin has been taken out of the way.
It has been put on the person of Jesus Chrst.
2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 21.
Next he addresses the Son problem and sins.
This is a subtitle here.
And he says, For centuries, the true saying has been, It is no longer a sin problem, but a son problem.
Some preacher said this after teaching on John 8:24.
Okay, so thus far he has failed to make his point, and now he attempts to drag us back to the Old Testament doctrine of John chapter 8.
John 8:24.
Listen.
I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins, for if you believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.
Then he says, This statement explains that the only way to receive forgiveness is through Jesus Christ,
but it does not teach that all are already forgiven without faith in the gospel.
Well, of course it doesn't.
We're reading Old Testament doctrine from the book of John.
This is John chapter 8 verse 24.
No Hebrews chapter 9 verses 16 and 17 bloodshed of Jesus Christ.
No New Testament yet.
So of course this doesn't.
The fact that sins are not being imputed to anyone on the planet are not yet made known back here.
This fact is only later made known through the writings of Paul.
I love it when these guys go outside of the epistles of Paul, outside of the parentheses, to try and prove their point.
That's like going to Matthew chapter 24 to try to prove the rapture.
Not going to work.
Okay let's continue.
He says, Sin is no longer the problem, because Christ is the one who will redeem them from their sins.
Removing the sin problem without first faith in Christ is to ignore the second part of the bromide, the problem of the Son.
Okay the second part is they need a belief in Christ when He said, I am He.
That was precisely what they need a belief for.
Not in the finished work of Christ, which at that time wasn't finished.
Then he writes, It is not that there is simply no longer a sin problem for anyone, it is that for everyone there is a problem of faith toward the Son.
Without faith in the Son, the sin problem remains.
Yes, the sin problem remains and will continue to remain while we remain here on earth wrapped in this sinful flesh.
But that's not even the point.
The point is the ministry of reconciliation found in 2 Corinthians chapter 5.
The point is that the sin problem which stood in the way of salvation, it was done away with.
The sin that kept God from dealing with us was put on Christ.
He died for them all.
He was buried with them all and He didn't bring any of them out of the grave.
So just where would one have to go to get those sins back?
To have them re-applied so that they can stand before God and be judged?
That sort of teaching is beyond the pale of ludicrous.
But there's more.
He then writes, If someone has a curable disease and they resist the cure, they have a problem with
both the cure and the disease.
To accept the cure means there will not be a problem with the disease.
Okay, let's deal with this very bad analogy.
The problem here is it has nothing to do with what took place at Calvary.
This analogy is built on a faulty premise which only leads to a straw man argument.
Hey, you had no choice to resist the cure.
It happened 2,000 years ago.
You were not even present.
Furthermore, the cure was not only for us but for God.
Reconciliation is not one-sided.
It's always between two or more parties.
The cure was completed almost 20 centuries ago.
The decision to impute man's sins onto Christ so that God could stop imputing them onto mankind was the cure.
That solved it.
No choice on your part is needed.
That was the solution.
God had to put sin out of the way so that He could deal with humanity concerning their salvation.
Sins had to be forgiven first, the sin issue was taken out of the way, the wall that separated God and man was removed by the acceptable payment made by the blood of Jesus.
Okay, then He says, The unbeliever still has a problem with sin that can only be cured through Christ.
Again, we all have a problem with sin, but it doesn't stand in the way of salvation.
That's what all of this is about.
As concerning salvation, the world's sins were removed.
They were put on Christ.
He then writes, just because the cure exists and is available does not mean the disease is gone.
They must receive the cure to remove the sin.
Only if we accept your faulty premise.
Hey, listen, the disease was the sin that stood between God and man, and the cure was Jesus Christ our Savior.
As pertaining to salvation, sin no longer stands between God and man.
Then we come to his section of the article titled, Still a Sin Problem.
He writes, the only people in the Bible for whom all sins are forgiven are those in Christ.
The Bible clearly teaches that if someone rejects the Son, they still have a problem with their sins.
Paul says in 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 verses 5 through 8 that the unbeliever will receive tribulation
and punishment for their disobedience to the gospel.
Disobedience is sin.
Their troubling of the Thessalonians is a sin, and anything that is not of faith is sin.
Romans 14:23.
OK, let me show you what he did here.
He stopped at verse 8.
How about reading verse 9?
In flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Verse 9.
Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the what?
From the presence of the Lord.
Did you catch that?
Does that term, the presence of the Lord, sound familiar to anyone?
This is the Apostle Peter's language in Acts chapter 3.
Verse 19 is where Peter says, Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come, and here it is, from the presence of the Lord.
Hey, this pertains to time future.
And if you find yourself out there having missed the rapture, guess what?
You're not saved.
And unless you at that time find yourself a group of Jews and latch onto their coat tail and get proselyted into their little flock and follow the gospel of the kingdom, God with flaming fire will take vengeance on you just as Paul said.
Avoiding God's wrath for sin is our dispensational good news.
It is not good news for those who miss the catching away of the body of Christ.
So this is just another failed attempt here at trying to convince someone their sins are still an issue when it comes to being saved.
Sounds like the Baptist church.
Not much difference here.
And next, he cites Hebrews 10:26 and says, There is no more sacrifice for sins committed after the remnant received the knowledge of the truth and fell away.
They would be left to deal with their sins.
Hey, newsflash, Hebrews is written to Hebrews.
Has nothing to do with us.
This has no application to Paul's reconciliation or good news.
He's trying to get you to look out into a time future, another dispensation, so he can make his argument.
A waste of time.
And next, here he goes.
He does it again.
This time he cites Revelation 18:5.
He says, This speaks about Babylon's iniquities being remembered by God in the future.
Okay, and what's your point?
Since when does 2 Corinthians chapter 5, the reconciliation of the world, have anything to do with those in John's revelation?
What does Babylon's future iniquities have to do with Paul's dispensation of the grace of God that's going on now?
One is future.
One is now.
Okay, now we move on to the section of the article, subtitled, Forgiveness in Hell.
He says, Poor preaching propagates the problem by proclaiming, Everyone in hell has their sins forgiven.
What a pitiful presentation of the cross.
Well, that's a mistake on your part.
Not everyone in hell has their sins forgiven.
So this is straw man.
The best way to win an argument is to first build a straw man.
You first build the straw man, then present facts to destroy the straw man.
That appears to be the attempt here.
But let's deal with the real man.
Not the straw man, let's deal with the real man.
The truth is that during the but-now time in which we are living, and according to our present dispensational news, no one is dying and going to hell for their sins that Jesus already died for.
That defies logic.
For those who die before the close of this dispensation, they will NOT go to hell for their sins.
They can't.
Their sins were put on Christ.
They can't be both on Christ and on us at the same time.
No, but for those who do not trust Christ, do not rest their faith in Him by believing Paul's gospel, and they live past the catching away of the rapture, they'll indeed be accountable for their sins.
Not sins they drug from this dispensation into the next.
No, God's not going to re-impute sins to anyone.
They've been paid for.
The sins they'll be held accountable for are the ones they commit during the tribulation.
This dispensational truth won't apply out there in time future.
They will no longer be under the sins not being imputed of 2 Corinthians chapter 5.
That time will have come and gone.
It'll be over.
But they'll commit new sins, and the sins they commit WILL be imputed.
No need for a straw man.
Just deal with the real man.
There it is.
Okay, let's move on.
Next he says, If all sins are forgiven for unbelievers even in hell, then why are they there?
Hell was created for the devil and his angels, because they first sinned.
Well, I just answered that.
All sins are NOT forgiven for all unbelievers in hell, only those who pass during this dispensation.
I don't know where he gets the idea that the reconciliation of 2 Corinthians chapter 5 pertains to all people of all dispensations.
I mean, this is the core of rightly dividing the word of truth, recognizing the change in dispensations.
And 2 Corinthians 5 is a dispensational truth, this current dispensation.
It has nothing to do with time future.
Remember, time passed, but now, and ages to come.
Ephesians 2:11 verse 13, and then you can look at verse 7.
Funny how quickly one forgets this when they're trying to make a point to further their agenda, only dealing with the straw man argument.
Okay, back to the article.
He says, Are they in hell because they fall short of the glory of God?
It is a sin not to manifest God's glory.
Romans 3:23, Romans 10:3.
Are they in hell because they do not have enough righteousness?
There is a word for that, unrighteousness.
And all unrighteousness is sin.
First John 5:17.
Everyone in Christ will be judged according to Christ's work on their behalf.
Everyone in hell will be judged according to their works.
Wrong.
Not everyone.
As I've already said, the unsaved who die during this dispensation will be in hell for not believing Paul's gospel.
They cannot be there for their sins because their sins have been paid for.
That's what happened on the cross.
Sins have been put out of the way.
Next he writes, If their works are not good enough, it is sin.
James 4:17.
If their works are bad, like in Revelation 21:8, then it is most obviously a sin.
Again, what a stretch.
Notice how he cannot prove his position without wandering outside of Paul's epistles.
Going outside of Paul's writings is fine when you're doing it for the right reasons.
This is not.
Why?
Because all sins, having been forgiven, is a dispensational truth.
For those alive in the but-now time period.
So it would only stand to reason that for us to have a profitable discussion about this, we would need to rely on the but-now verses in order to do so.
Okay, then he writes, People are in hell because of their sins.
There is forgiveness of sins offered through faith in the blood of Christ, but they rejected that and are left to deal with the consequences.
Well I don't know if there's anything more that I can say that hasn't already been said.
I mean, what the author here is implying is that you're not forgiven until you have faith in His blood.
I've heard these who teach this sort of thing also say, sins were paid for but not forgiven.
Yeah, that's what they say.
Think about that.
Sins were paid for but not forgiven.
Hey, not imputing, forgiven, and paid for all go together.
Not imputing, forgiven, and paid for all go together.
God cannot not impute an unforgiven sin.
Likewise, God cannot not impute an unpaid sin.
That's impossible.
If it's unforgiven, it has to be imputed.
If it's unpaid, it has to be imputed.
If you owed a debt to your bank and I paid it, your debt was forgiven.
Call your bank.
Ask them.
A paid-for debt is a forgiven debt.
Christ paid the world's sin debt, and their sins were forgiven.
My wife said it best.
If the world's sins were not forgiven, then God reconciled Himself to sin.
My friend, that's blasphemous.
Next here is the subtitle, Believe it to Receive it.
He says, Paul preached among the Gentiles that they may receive forgiveness of sins upon their faith in the gospel, Acts 26:18.
Faith was required.
Yes, faith in what they already had.
You can't receive something that hasn't already been done for you.
Forgiveness was completed on their behalf, and Paul is simply telling them to receive it.
Receive it as truth, not receive it to make it true.
Listen, this is a salvation verse, not a get my sins forgiven verse.
Receiving forgiveness of sins made them saved, not forgiven.
The gospel is that Christ died for our sins.
It's a done deal, past tense.
In Acts 16, Paul's preaching the gospel.
It matches what he said in 1 Corinthians 15.
There he said, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have
received.
That received fits perfectly with Acts 26 where he said that they may receive forgiveness of sins.
That doesn't mean when you receive it, that makes it so.
It means it's so, now receive it.
1 Corinthians 15, by which also ye are saved, how that Christ died for our sins.
How does one receive this?
Through faith.
The very next thing here, he cites Acts 13:38-39, which makes my point.
Notice the verse says, Through this man Christ is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and by him all that believe are justified from all things.
Acts 13:38-39.
Now think, let's stay on course here.
Through Christ is preached the forgiveness of sins.
This is not an offer of forgiveness, but rather a statement of fact.
Paul's telling them about Christ and His finished work.
Next he says, Salvation has been secured and assured for those that believe, but without faith it is impossible to please Him.
Hebrews 11:6.
What?
When you subject hop, you confuse people.
Hopefully that's not his intent, but as you see, he hopped from forgiveness to salvation without missing a beat.
Let's move on.
He says, Unbelievers need forgiveness before they die.
No, unbelievers need to become believers before they die.
They were forgiven before they were born.
We all were.
That's like a Baptist who once said to me, Our past sins are forgiven, but not our future.
Hey, all our sins were future to the cross.
Back to the article, Forgiveness is only found in Christ.
Any man can be in Christ by faith in the gospel.
Okay, the second part of that is true.
Any man can be in Christ by faith in the gospel.
But forgiveness is NOT only found in Christ.
Being in Christ is not a prerequisite for getting sins forgiven.
Think about it.
When we get in Christ, we get what He's got.
And He never got forgiven.
You ever thought about that?
Those in Christ are forgiven, but they were forgiven before being placed in Christ.
He goes on to basically say the same thing, which changes nothing of the truth.
He says, If someone is without faith and outside of Christ, there is no forgiveness.
God has done everything necessary for souls to be saved, including providing the means for forgiveness.
This gospel of grace, God's riches at Christ's expense, is preached unto all nations for the obedience of faith.
Romans 1:5.
It is offered to you freely, but you must believe it to receive it.
Listen, we live during a time when righteousness is imputed, sins are NOT.
Can the righteousness that's imputed be unimputed?
No.
And neither can the sins that are not imputed be re-imputed.
What's done is done.
So those who are bent on convincing us, on persuading any sane person that someone today, during this dispensation of grace, can go to hell for their unforgiven sins because of their unbelief, well, they've yet to grasp a full understanding of Christ and His completed work at Calvary.
You see, this is a dispensational truth.
For those who reject Paul's gospel during the but-now time of this dispensation, they'll remain, and during Israel's tribulation, any sin they commit will be imputed at that time.
They'll be accountable for that.
God doesn't have to re-impute any of their past sins, sins from this dispensation, no, they'll commit new ones.
Those are the ones they'll be accountable for.
Anyone who rejects Paul's gospel, who misses the rapture and is still alive during the coming tribulation, will be held responsible for any sins they commit during that time, not for sins they committed prior.
No way.
Those were not imputed, remember?
When the parentheses is lifted, when it's removed, 1 John 1:9 will be reinstated.
So get your Bible, go through the books of Hebrews through Revelation, or go back before the writings of Paul, all those books, find and collect all the verses you can, all the verses you want to, that deal with someone being judged for their sins, but understand that none of them, not a one, present any problem whatsoever to what Paul calls the ministry of reconciliation.
All the world's sins not being imputed is a dispensational truth.
Put Paul letters in parentheses and realize that the world's sins not being imputed does not apply on either side of the parentheses.
This isn't hard.
The world's sins not being imputed is a dispensational truth given to us by our apostle Paul.
And if you're listening and you're not saved, regardless of what some have fed you, your sin is not what's standing in the way of your salvation.
That's not the good news.
Romans 5:13, For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
It couldn't get any clearer.
Until the law, sin was in the way, but sin is not imputed when there is no law, meaning sin has been taken out of the way.
Now that's good news.
That's 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 19, sins are not imputed, verse 21, they're put on to Christ.
Simple question here, is the law in effect today?
Then believe your Bible, quote, Sin is not imputed when there is no law.
That's easy.
Romans 4:15, Paul says it again, For where no law is, there is no transgression.
If sin is not in the way, then what's your belief have to do with it?
That's what this article's trying to convey, that's what some try to sell us, that your belief is needed before sin can be taken out of the way, something that's already happened.
Listen, the pathway to salvation has been cleared.
The reason everyone in the world can be saved today is because sin was taken out of the way.
God does things in decency and in order, and the order was to take sin out of the way first, and then a person can be saved.
These new confused gracers that are popping up that I'm hearing about, they don't differentiate between forgiveness and salvation, spelled different are different.
They miss part of the good news.
That's why they're right dividers, but they're not ministers of reconciliation.
Sin is not imputed where there is no law, for where no law is, there is no transgression.
Just believe the Bible.
If you run into a verse here and there that seems like it may be a little hard to understand, just go back to these.
I mean, that's clear.
Sin is not imputed where there is no law, for where no law is, there is no transgression.
Paul repeatedly says this, but the confused gracers are blinded, perhaps by their former denomination.
They're dragging in a little of their old belief, haven't fully let go, still haunted by it.
Just listen to Romans 6, verse 18.
Being made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.
Did you see that?
These here at Rome who were saved, they were in Christ, they could not become servants of righteousness until they were first made free from sin.
Something had to take place first.
They had to be free from sin.
No one can get into Christ until you're first made free from sin.
No one can become servants of righteousness until you are first made free from sin.
You see, there's an order, and these confused gracers are trying to blend this, to make it all happen at one time.
It does not.
Sin was forgiven first, now you can get in Christ.
How?
Through faith.
By grace through faith, by believing the gospel.
The free from sin came before getting in Christ.
God through the work of Christ has done everything necessary for the whole world to be saved and become servants of righteousness.
Listen, you'll never get anyone to become a servant of righteousness as long as they think they're still in bondage to sin.
It's only when they understand that the cross made them free from sin that they'll want to get saved and become a servant of righteousness.
Free from sin does not mean you'll never sin again.
Free from sin means sin cannot effect where you'll spend eternity.
Not during this dispensation.
Paul's good news is that sin no longer stands between humanity and God.
You want to see someone get saved and start chasing after righteousness?
Get their focus off themselves and their sin and their belief and whatever they can do.
No, a servant of righteousness is one who has their focus fixed on Jesus and His finished cross work.
Romans 6:22 speaks of fruit unto holiness.
Having fruit unto holiness is not a result of something we did, but a result of what Christ did for us.
By His finished work we were made free from sin to become servants of righteousness, able to produce fruit unto holiness.
The sins that these confused gracers are telling you you gotta believe before you can be forgiven from have been put out of the way.
The wages of sin is death.
Christ took the death for every person in the world, for everyone.
Most of the world still don't realize this.
They have no clue as to what the cross work achieved on their behalf.
Good news for everyone, not just believers.
Don't let anyone place a condition on this truth.
There is no condition.
Belief won't change or add anything to what's already completed.
God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not, listen, not imputing their trespasses.
The confused gracers.
Their message is filled with doublespeak.
Praise the Lord, where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.
But some have muddied the grace waters by insisting that a person needs to do something about their sins before getting them forgiven.
They're teaching limited atonement.
One camp will say, you gotta first turn from sin, stop sinning.
Another camp comes in and tells you, you gotta first believe.
On one side is the confused Calvinist, on the other is the confused gracers.
I'm happy to not be in either camp.
For me it's not either or, it's neither nor.
There's no shortage of those who call themselves right dividers, but there's not many ambassadors
equipped with the ministry of reconciliation.
Believing the gospel is what saves you.
Your belief cannot earn your forgiveness.
The world's sins were dealt with by Jesus on the cross, and not by me when I believed.
Today I want to tell everyone, not just believers, but everyone, that by His death you were made
free from sin.
Now through faith you can become servants of righteousness.
The peace you've been longing for, you've been searching for, hey, it's already been
made.
Just receive it through faith.
Rest your faith in His finished work.
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