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Tim Maas
In Isaiah 6:10 (and as quoted by Jesus in Matthew 13:15), God indicates that willful spiritual blindness can cause people to lose awareness of their need for God's forgiveness. As a result, they will not turn to God that He may forgive them. This (among other similar expressions of the same thought in the Bible) indicates that God's forgiveness is conditioned upon humans' recognition of their need for it through repentance (the root meaning of which denotes feeling intense pain or sorrow for a wrong that one has done). Even for Christians (who will remain sinful in this life, even after coming to Christ), life should be a continuing process of recognizing the ways in which they continue to fall short of perfection (as represented by Christ's example), and seeking God's ongoing forgiveness for those failures. In the very first statement in the list of 95 theses that Luther nailed to the church door in Wittenberg, and that started the Protestant Reformation, Luther (citing Matthew 4:17) said, "Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, when He said, 'Repent', willed that the whole life of believers should be repentance." God in love and mercy has made salvation and eternal life possible through Christ, but people must recognize (in response to the prompting of the Holy Spirit) their need for that salvation and accept it in order to appropriate it for themselves.
Melanie Spindler
Short and sweet: NO. Unrepentant sin is not forgiven. I cite the following: -Luke 24:47 It was also written that this message would be proclaimed in the authority of his name to all the nations, beginning in Jerusalem: ‘There is forgiveness of sins for all who repent.’ -Acts 2:38 Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. -Psalm 7:12-13 If a person does not repent, God will sharpen his sword; he will bend and string his bow. He will prepare his deadly weapons and shoot his flaming arrows. (OUCH) -2 Peter 3:9 The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent. All pretty clear passages linking unrepentance to unforgiveness and/or destruction. Let me also say that forgiveness comes through knowledge and acceptance of Jesus per Acts 13:38. It would stand to reason that continuing in unrepentant sin is a sure sign that one does not know God or His Son, the Savior. Don't take my word for it; let my friend, the Apostle John, tell it like it is: "No one who lives in [Jesus] keeps on sinning. Anyone who keeps on sinning does not know him or understand who he is. But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil. Those who have been born into God’s family do not make a practice of sinning, because God’s life is in them. So they can’t keep on sinning, because they are children of God. So now we can tell who are children of God and who are children of the devil. Anyone who does not live righteously and does not love other believers does not belong to God" 1 John 3:6, 8-10. One more word: part of repentance is confession. Again and again we are told that unmasking our sin is part of our healing and forgiveness: But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. 1 John 1:9 So contrition shows we know Jesus and the Holy Spirit is changing our minds (Scriptural definition of repentance) toward the Father and this assures us forgiveness. Ok, so not so short :)
James Kraft
We do need to keep the meaning of repentance right as it is meant in the bible. The Greek word for repentance is the word metanoia, which means to change your mind and believe the gospel. That Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures, that He was buried and rose again on the third day, according to the scriptures. First Corinthians 15:1-4 When we accept Jesus full payment for all our sin, we are saved and have eternal life. Salvation is a free gift of God, not by our works. Our works can not save us, only Jesus work on the cross can save sinners which we all are. But Christ has given us His righteousness by faith alone. We are to accept Jesus payment for all our sin, and accept His free gift of salvation by grace. Then after we are saved, we should no longer commit adultery, steal, live in drunkenness, fornication, and all the other sins named. We do not do those things because we are saved, not that they have anything to do with salvation which is what Jesus did for us on the cross. He paid for all our sins, so we are under grace and there is no law because if we were still under the law sin could still be imputed to us. But under grace sin can no longer be imputed to a believer, because Jesus paid for all our sins. Should we just go and live in sin because we can? Paul said God forbid that we walk any more in it. But when we sin, grace abounds because we all still sin. No one is ever perfect in this life. We are saved by grace, without works, what we do or do not do. Jesus paid it all and we paid 0. All of our sins have been paid for, but if we go off and live in sin, God does chasten those He loves. We get out of fellowship with our heavenly Father when we sin, but never our sonship. When we confess known sin, it restores us to fellowship with our Father in heaven. All of our sins are paid for even before we ask. We confess our sins to remove the guilt and press on toward the mark. If a true believer goes off and lives in continual sin, God some times takes their life early, but they will be saved. First Corinthians 5:5.
Robert Woods
Sin has been forgiven. Christ died for our sin and sins. Most all verses quoted here are from passages where the Law was still in effect. With a little critical thinking and study the answer is in the scriptures. One must first look at Hebrews 9:22 "And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission." So, if one has sin that isn't forgiven until it's (forgiveness) ask for, it's reasonable to conclude that some blood has to be shed to gain forgiveness. Now, most folks will say 'Christ died for sin, past, present and future.' If one believes that, as I do, there seems to be a conflict with that statement and Heb. 9:22. Most folks also like to refer to 1 John 1:9 " If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." The books of 1,2and 3 John were written to end time, believing Jews. Not age of Grace, body of Christ saints. Furthermore, how many times can one be "cleansed from ALL unrighteousness?' How many times can I spend ALL my money? THE verse(s) of Scripture that apply are in 2 Cor. 5. Mainly V.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." You see, sin as a barrier to a relationship with God, has been taken out of the way by what God did through Christ's work on the cross. All sin has been forgiven and sin is NOT what sends folks to hell. It's their unbelief. Rom_3:22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that BELIEVE: for there is no difference Please don't misunderstand. I'm not talking about universal salvation. However, there is universal forgiveness. Salvation is and always has been about believing what God has said, period. See Abraham as one example. "Abraham BELIEVED God and it(his belief) was account for righteousness" Repentance is all about "changing one's mind" and seeing our sin as God sees it. We definitely need to repent(change our mind) about sin. Constantly asking for forgiveness is making a mockery of what Christ did on the cross. Heb 6:4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, Heb 6:5 And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, Heb 6:6 If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.
Judy Doyle
Jesus was the sacrificial Lamb. He died for our sins, past, present and future. When we accepted Him as Savior, our names were written in the Lamb's Book of Life. When we sin, we must confess that sin and repent. To ask Jesus to 'forgive us' would be to doubt His sacrificial death. He rose from the grave and is sitting at the right hand of the Father where He intercedes for us. To continually ask for forgiveness rather than confessing and repenting would be doubt of His sacrifice. That is how I understand the Bible and the leading of the Holy Spirit.
Aurel Gheorghe
The Word of God says the sinner should repent – there is no salvation without repentance (Acts 3:19). “God has commanded all men everywhere to repent.“ (Acts 17:30) Jesus in Luke 13 in uncertain terms said, “unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3-5). And knowing that all have sinned (Rom 3:23) - all must repent! (Acts 2:38). God is not willing that anyone should perish, but that ALL should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). Christ says when we come to Him in godly sorrow, repenting of our sins, confessing them to Him He will forgive us (2 Cor 7:10; 1 John 1:9). Jesus came to save us from our sins - not in our sins (Matt 1:21). No sinful person will enter the Kingdom unless we repent and confess our sins (1 Cor 6:9; Rev 22:15, Gal 5:19-21; Heb 12:14; 10:26-27) “Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life” (Rev 21:27).
STANLEY S. DRANE
No! To repent means to turn from sin, to change the direction of your life from selfishness and rebellion against God's law. At the same time, you must turn to Christ, depending on him for forgiveness, mercy, guidance, and purpose. We cannot save ourselves, only God can save us. If you want to follow Christ, you must repent, and be baptized.
Myron Robertson
It is impossible to give you a proper answer to this question because the matter is a process and that process is too involved for any short answer to be satisfactory. Doctrine is not complete and true if it does not encompass every text of scripture on that subject, so most of the available teaching is based on a partial truth. The short answers all boil down to these two basic concepts, both of which have scripture to prove them and both of which appear to completely contradict each other. 1) All sin for all time was forgive by Jesus death on the cross and there is nothing more anyone needs to do, and 2) No sin can be forgiven until there is first acknowledgment that it is a sin (confession, but more than a simple confession that you did it) and repentance (reversing course) from that sin (here simply changing course to another form of sin will not do; you must change to God's course.) The truth of the first and least popular of these summaries is that my salvation is based totally on Jesus work, but it ignores that the death-work on the cross is only the beginning of a process and that Jesus life-work within me is also necessary. That life-work, as it is performed begins to transform me so that the good works demanded by the law are something I do quite naturally instead of something I must make myself do. The thing that is right with the second answer is that it does acknowledge there is more to be done after the work Jesus did on the cross, but the thing that is wrong with this in the way it is most often taught is that the onus for my salvation then gets placed back on me. This always leads back to works based salvation, which is Old Covenant salvation. The entire point of God instituting that covenant with us was to prove that it is impossible to be saved by our own works; and as those teachers teach it, my confession and my repentance are always my own works of my flesh. Salvation is a process. It is prophesied by the three primary feasts of Israel, among other prophecies which show the same thing. Paul discusses this in several of his books. Passover represents Justification by Faith. Works are an important part of salvation, but those works are the natural result of Jesus writing God's law on our hearts (the New Covenant - Jer 31:31-35 quoted in Hebrews 8). The works are only the outworking of the work God does in us, but so is our repentance and confession. In John 6:44 Jesus tells us that no one comes to him except those the Father has dragged. The Greek word used there indicates those dragged to the judge in chains, not simply those subpoenaed. None of us can come to Jesus by our own decision. We only come to Jesus if the Father has first worked within us, and our confession and repentance are only the first outward evidence of that inner working of the Holy Spirit. No one can complete the process of salvation without it, but only Jesus death on the cross can make this repentance possible.
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