John 3:16-21 NIV
[16] For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. [17] For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. [18] Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. [19] This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. [20] Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. [21] But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
I was watching shorts the other day, as I usually do, and a short of an interview with a guy critiquing Christianity popped up. So, like usual I listened to his critique and honestly felt a little confused by why it was an issue for him. The guy stated that his issue with Christianity is that Jesus died for the sins of everyone except for non-believers. There’s forgiveness for murderers, rapists, child-molesters, but not for those who are good people but just don’t believe. Now, on the surface, many can think, yeah, that’s a good point, but when you actually assess what he’s said and how Christianity works, that’s not at all a good point.
Forgiveness only comes to those who repent and then “sin no more.” So, for the murderer to receive forgiveness he has to repent and then stop murdering. The rapist has to repent and stop raping. The child-molester has to repent and stop child-molesting. Do you see the pattern? Do you see the issue with the statement? If the unbelievers wants forgiveness for the sin of unbelieving, that unbeliever has to then repent for his unbelief and now believe. Therefore, yes, there is forgiveness for the unbeliever. The issue isn’t that there isn’t forgiveness, the issue is that the unbeliever doesn’t want to believe.
How can you receive forgiveness if you refuse to believe? You can’t receive forgiveness without repenting and asking for it. And you can’t repent and ask for it if you don’t believe. It’s an impossibility.
If we want God to forgive us and give us that free gift of Salvation He requires one thing. Faith. That’s it. All we have to do is have faith. Then to continue in that salvation, we have to stop doing the thing we just repented of doing. That’s it. Jesus already cancelled the debt. He already took sin upon Himself and took it away from us. All we have to do is choose to believe in Him and stop sinning. He doesn’t ask for much, but because we are selfish human beings, we want our flesh satisfied, we will try to twist and manipulate who God is in order to justify the way we wanna live our lives.
When we do this, all we are doing is further allowing the enemy to use us and keep us away from the love God.
Peace. Love. Go Forth and Believe In God.