Salvation Isn't Getting Your Sins Forgiven, It's Believing They Already Are!

Oh, it's amazing, it's amazing.
I, I found something I never found in my life.
Thank you so much.
Thank you for showing me the truth.
I'm so free.
So free.
So free.
Just, I cannot explain.
Is that... Your heart cannot explain the love and the joy.
I never had this joy in my life.
I never had the joy.
It's amazing, amazing truth.
Yeah.
My life has shifted.
I say, God, I see different things.
I say, when the way I read the Bible, is not the way I used to read.
I can't explain the peace assurance for your eternal life.
We are so hungry.
We are so hungry for the Word of God.
Every morning, 7:30, we have fellowship.
We discuss your radio and discuss this word of truth.
Thank you for helping millions of people now to understand this truth, what Christ has done for us.
We'll continue to support your ministry.
Thank you so much, dear.
Okay, God bless you.
WTTR, your home for mid-Acts Bible study and songs of grace.
What a joy, what a joy and what a privilege, such a privilege it is to serve our Lord.
1 Samuel 2:2, There is none holy as the Lord, for there is none beside thee. Neither is there any rock like our God.
Was listening closely to a song we played earlier.
I think it's... I think it was last hour, Joseph Haberdanks, Religion Isn't Working Anymore.
What a song.
What a song.
Religion will have you doing, doing, and then doing some more.
And most are simply unaware of the psychological effects and damage caused by religion and the, the false teaching of you having to keep short accounts with God to get your sins forgiven.
If they only knew that when Christ was crucified, God stopped imputing sins, problem solved, right?
But there's, there's always someone trying to stick a do between you and forgiveness, a do between you and the finished work of Christ.
It's one of Satan's oldest tricks.
Many place a, a physical act between you and forgiveness, and others, even some grace teachers, they know better than that, but they, they place a mental act between you and forgiveness.
Various groups, they have different roads, different avenues, different trails and bunnyholes for you to walk, hop, and skip through, so that you can try to get your sins forgiven, which is something that's already finished.
But you know what, prayer still works.
Prayer still works no doubt, so we continue to pray for their spiritual eyes to... for their spiritual eyes of understanding to be open.
Paul said he'd never cease to give thanks for those over there in Ephesus, the Ephesians, making mention when he prayed that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, would give them the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him.
So, like our pattern Paul did, we pray for eyes to be open to this magnificent mystery truth.
Truth only found in Paul's epistles, a mystery, a Bible mystery, it's not something hokey, it's not something spooky, it's simply a secret, hidden wisdom.
Secret wisdom made manifest.
As opposed to the twelve men Jesus trained to carry out his earthly plan, see, they only spoke things that were known.
They had no knowledge of the secret hidden wisdom he later revealed to Paul, and God's Word is perfectly divided.
In your Bible there's a prophetic program that has prophetic information, and there's a mystery program with mystery information.
And if you blur the lines, you'll, you'll have an awful time trying to understand it, trying to understand God's Word.
There's a teaching going around that says the Lord only revealed seven mysteries to Paul.
Well, if, if it's money you're after, that, that may sell a few books, it sounds pretty good, but it's false.
There were more than seven mysteries revealed to Paul.
But this is the problem with word searchers who avoid actual Bible study, study to show thyself approved, approval requires more than word searching.
Listen, once you learn what a mystery is, you don't have to see the word mystery to know when you're reading about one.
Give that some thought.
2 Corinthians 5 verse 19, that was a mystery, and unfortunately, still is to some.
There, Paul tells us that God stopped imputing sins to the world.
Was that known before the Lord revealed it to Paul?
No, it was not.
Then why didn't they include that one on the seven mysteries revealed to Paul list?
In 2 Corinthians 5:19, God had Paul to tell us that he stopped charging sins to the world, yet it didn't make the list.
We knew the list was made by a limited forgiver first time we laid eyes on it.
Some genius, you know, they'll go make a Facebook post and here comes Pavlov's dog, salivating and lapping it up without giving it an ounce of scrutiny.
The keyboard warriors, they remind us of the Acts 17 Athenians who, Luke said, spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or hear some new thing.
Listen, forgiveness is in the rear view mirror, done deal.
That's an old thing.
That, that was written in the first century by your Apostle, the Apostle Paul.
Don't need to add anything new to it, something already achieved through the finished work of Christ, and not something dependent upon an individual's action to secure.
You don't have to do anything for forgiveness.
For those of us who understand the finality of the crosswork, and what it means for us, from our perspective, forgiveness cannot be earned, because it's unconditional.
Such glorious freedom when you can escape living beneath the shadow of the do system.
And that'll happen, it'll happen when you come to terms that your salvation is not about getting your sins forgiven, but believing they already are.
Believing what's already accomplished and embracing that reality.
Paul's gospel declares that there's no prerequisite to forgiveness.
You often hear someone talking about grieving the Holy Spirit in the sense of committing some sort of worldly sin, but what about the grief we bring on him by trying to get forgiven from the sins we've already been forgiven for?
Talk about grieving the Holy Spirit.
Now, what pleases the Holy Spirit is when we agree with God that the sin issue, the sin that once stood in the way of relationship, is no longer being imputed.
And that's for the world.
The path is clear for salvation.
If you've never tasted, if you've never had a taste of this transformative truth, you need to get on a new information diet.
Check your sources.
It's important, it's important what you put in your brain.
The denominational preacher, he'd rather us lay in bed 1 John 1:9'ing ourselves to death.
The Lordshipping legalists wants us on the dance floor doing the turn and burn.
And even some grace teachers, they've got you having to get saved before you can get forgiven, as if your sins that were put on Christ, the ones he took with him to the tomb and didn't bring out, God is going to somehow retrieve those from some undisclosed location, by the way, and, and put them back on the unbeliever one day so he can be punished.
That's seven flavors of nuts is what it is.
Got you chasing what you already have.
This hamster wheel theology has led to spiritual, emotional, and even physical damage.
For some, it turns into OCD.
Just look up our podcast on religious scrupulosity.
The Bible is not hard to understand, it's just hard for some to believe.
Take Acts 16, for example.
Starting here with verse 27, And the keeper of the prison awakened out of his sleep.
And seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled.
But Paul cried with a loud voice saying, Do thyself no harm, for we are all here.
Then he called for a light.
This is the keeper of the prison.
He called for a light and sprang in and came trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas.
And brought them out and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
And they said, Get your sins forgiven.
Of course not.
That's not what they said.
They looked at that man dead in the eye and said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.
But see, some think Paul and Silas made a mistake here and should have told the man how to get his sins forgiven.
God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, not hard to understand, just hard for some to believe.
God stopped imputing sins because Jesus paid the debt in full, making the only condition of salvation, being belief in the gospel just as Paul and Silas said.
And at the split-second moment of the person's belief, they received the 2 Corinthians 5:20 promise to, Be ye reconciled to God.
They received the Titus 3:5, regeneration.
They're Romans 5:1 justified, they're Romans 5:19 made righteous.
So, don't be fooled.
There's no lack of assurance.
Just receive the gift and be sealed.
2 Corinthians 1:21, Now he which stablished us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us is God, verse 22, Who hath also sealed us and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.
Extraordinary news, is it not?
You mustn't allow yourself to be placed under the law of Moses or any law of men.
The modern-day Pharisees are out there.
They're running amuck.
We talk to folk all the time who say they believe they're under grace and not the law of Moses, which they're correct, but after a couple of minutes of dialogue, it becomes apparent that they're, they're under a law of modern men.
Law of Moses, law of men, doesn't matter.
Neither one is a good place to be.
The modern-day man has convinced them to do this for forgiveness, to do that for forgiveness, to do the other thing.
They've allowed themselves to be put in bondage.
Galatians 4:9, But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, where unto, ye desire again to be in bondage?
It's crazy, is what it is.
People who want to be in bondage.
Okay, that's bad enough.
But, there's some who, after they're free, the, the, the door is open.
The no more bars to conceal them.
They're free.
Go free.
Be free.
And they return to bondage.
Don't do it.
Instead, just keep reading, next chapter, verse 1, Stand fast in the liberty, and be not entangled again with a yoke of bondage.
It's a disgrace.
A disgrace and a disservice of Paul's gospel for anyone to peddle the lie that says, Under this current administration, one must do something before God can forgive you.
They say all of this without being able to produce even one verse from Paul that says that.
There is no condition for forgiveness today, forgiveness is unconditional,
salvation is not.
Salvation is based on a condition.
What condition?
You must believe.
Believe the gospel of Christ.
Christ died for your sins.
How many?
All.
He was buried with those sins, and how many did he come out of the grave with?
None.
The stone was rolled back, He made his exit, and no one's sins came with him.
And now, there he is, awaiting you to believe that good news, and to be saved.
Not forgiven, saved.
Salvation is not getting your sins forgiven, it's believing they already are.
That's the reason Paul doesn't provide you with a how to verse.
Hey, if it's a how to verse you're looking for, a how to get my sins forgiven verse, you ain't going to find it.
Not in Paul's epistles, can't do it.
He don't provide us with a how to verse, because there's no sins being imputed, just as he wrote.
Hard to understand?
No.
Hard for some to believe.
Hard for some to digest.
I remember putting out a challenge about 14 years ago for someone to show us a verse, just one, where Paul explains how to get your sins forgiven.
A challenge that I might add, hasn't been met yet.
14 years later, and no one can do it, because salvation isn't getting your sins forgiven, it's believing they already are.
And anyone who's read through his 13 epistles should not have to be told that.
His books aren't about how to get forgiveness from God.
They're about salvation and your worthy walk, bearing fruit, how to present the gospel to the lost, and on and on it goes, packed full of great detailed information on how the believer is to live, but not how they're to get forgiveness.
It's how to be saved and how to live after you are.
That's Paul's focus.
Years back, did a podcast and taught on there being no forgivable sin, no forgivable sin.
Some about lost their mind, contacted my wife on Facebook saying, I think y'all made a mistake with the title.
They thought, they thought we meant to say there is no unforgivable sin.
No mistake.
We said what we meant.
This is the Pauline dispensation of grace and there's no forgivable sin.
It's impossible for God to forgive a sin he's not imputing.
That's not difficult.
That's not difficult to understand, or shouldn't be.
The truth is liberating.
Not mama said, daddy said, preacher said, but God said.
Through Paul, God said there's no forgivable sin.
Through Paul, God said he doesn't forgive and forget, because he forgave and forgot.
Very different.
A new dispensation requires a new mindset.
Some still think justification and forgiveness are the same.
They teach they, that they mean the same thing and occur at the same time.
They're wrong twice.
Being wrong once wasn't good enough.
Justification always requires faith, without exception, and it doesn't spontaneously happen at the same time as forgiveness.
Forgiveness and justification, two words, two spellings, two meanings.
The calendar date for forgiveness goes back almost 2000 years.
God required a perfect blood sacrifice, and the requirement was met.
It doesn't include you.
The calendar date for justification is at the moment you believe the gospel that does include you.
We do not get forgiveness when we're, quote unquote, "Saved by faith in the gospel."
That may be something you heard taught by a man you admire, but it's not biblical.
They throw around these bumper sticker slogans, but they can't back them up with scripture evidence.
And that's a problem.
For some it's difficult to understand that justification requires belief, but, forgiveness doesn't.
And reconciliation requires two, but forgiveness only requires one.
A limited forgiver listener recently told me, he said, God reconciled the world, but that's not the same as forgave the world.
And my response was, correct.
You're right.
God had to forgive the world first, otherwise, he would have been reconciling himself to sin.
Which would be what?
Well, that would be blasphemy.
How blasphemous to say that God reconciled the world unto himself, but he didn't stop imputing their sins.
Yet, that's what they're teaching.
They say, God reconciled himself to the world, but doesn't forgive them until they believe.
Well, that means he reconciled himself to sin, that's blasphemous, and that's a lie.
I don't think they realize what they're saying.
That teaching has a holy God reconciling himself to sin.
Again, they fail to realize that forgiveness takes one, reconciliation takes two.
That's why 2 Corinthians 5:19 says, God reconciled the world into himself, and verse 20 says, Now ye reconcile yourself to God.
Reconciliation doesn't mean forgiveness.
Justification doesn't mean forgiveness.
Righteousness doesn't mean forgiveness.
Salvation doesn't mean forgiveness.
This should go without saying.
Hey, to help with these terms, go find our terminology folder on YouTube.
We took a deep dive into several biblical words, and used scripture to define their meanings.
Guys, we should always be willing to examine ourselves.
Examine and challenge our beliefs with scripture.
Are you saved or just playin' the part?
Have you completely trusted that what Jesus did was enough, or are you holding on, claiming a, a tiny bit of credit for yourself?
Where's your focus?
On what Christ finished, or on what we can help him finish?
This is the dispensation of grace where the do's are done.
Salvation isn't getting your sins forgiven, it's believing they already are.
You can't be forgiven by how you believe any more than you can be saved by how you live.
Separate issues.
Your forgiveness, your salvation, how you live.
Separate issues.
Your forgiveness happened on the cross, your salvation happens when you believe, and how you live, follows.
God is a God of order.
In his word, he places divisions, and we must not conflate them.
Forgiven on the cross, saved when you believed, now it's time to live.
To walk in newness of life.
Christ died for every sin, was buried, rose for your justification, rest in that.
Something to consider from all of us here at Truth Time Radio.
Grace and Peace.