Some people place an emphasis on the receiving of forgiveness for themselves by God, like they have to go out of their way to receive it, or do something to get it. However, the receiving of forgiveness is a matter of fact, that whoever believes in Jesus does indeed accept "receive" forgiveness (believes it was done and finished on the cross by God) for themselves. No one pushes God's buttons and out plops forgiveness for sins. God is not a vending machine of forgiveness. If forgiveness was not taken care of for all, then no one could come to the Father by faith. There are many that would claim that Jesus only died for those that were to believe. But, how would you know if you really believed, if Jesus did not die for the sins of the whole world? In essence, how would one know that Jesus died for them too, if that wasn't true?
Asking for forgiveness from God is a denial of the forgiveness that God gave to the world to begin with. For the very act of asking is saying to God, "I am asking you to forgive me now." This person doesn't really believe their sins were forgiven on the cross, because they place the emphasis on their asking or their own "believing the process of asking" or "believing the process of believing" forgiveness (that that somehow causes God to forgive them, even though many know in their hearts, that "without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness").
However, God forgave the sins of the whole world on the cross, so that whoever believes in Him has eternal life. Eternal life could not be given before sins were taken care of. For sin had to be taken away before eternal life could be given to the believer, otherwise when a person were to sin, the Holy Spirit would depart.
It is not how much a person believes, but what a person places faith on. Do they place faith on Jesus, the one who took away all their sins on the cross? Or, do they place faith on their own belief system (of asking for or believing in their own believing)? It's a subtle thing that needs to be delved into for everyone. Even some grace teachers do not believe that the sins of the whole world were forgiven on the cross. They can not say to anyone, "your sins have been forgiven on the cross," for they do not know if a person's sins were forgiven or not. All they can do is say, "believe your sins were forgiven on the cross." But, what they won't tell a person is, if you do not believe it, then God did not forgive you, though they will not even imply that either, because they would say a person can believe until they die, then they would know that God forgave them on the cross.
One way is declaring that God forgave the sins of the whole world and placed the emphasis on God. The other way, man places the emphasis on believing, and it is the very act of believing that somehow goes back to the cross that Jesus forgave them. One is a Strong gospel message. The other is a weak man made message of belief.
This is so important for all people to get right and "work out" their understanding of salvation and how forgiveness was taken care of "once for all sins" on the cross. [ref. Philippians 2:12 and 1 Peter 3:18] The righteous just (Jesus) for the unrighteous unjust (includes all of us).
Well, some might ask, "What About 1 John 1:9?" So, let us reason together.
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