You deny Hebrews 9:22 in what it says. Yes, God forgives sin, but He cannot do so if there was no atonement for their sins (Which was done by Jesus Christ). It says without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. Meaning, God could not forgive us our sins without Jesus dying on the cross for our sins.
I believe Hebrews 9:22 in what it says.
I believe Hebrews 9:22 but the problem is not with God ability and in need of Blood to forgive, but in man’s need to realize and know he has been cleansed. The people themselves were outwardly cleansed with blood. Everything that comes in contact with the sin offering must be cleansed with blood, but it does not have to be the blood of the offering itself, like in the case in Lev. 5 where a bag of flour which has no blood could be the sin offering on an alter drenched in blood.
I am not saying: “Blood is not needed in the process of forgiveness”, but God is not the one needing it (God is not in the need of anything), but we need the blood for our cleansing.
It is easy to see our need for the blood in accepting God’s forgiveness, but what need do you see God having?
We came go through an understanding of forgiveness since it is a two-way transaction and not just one sided. What part do you see man playing?
I said a lot of stuff is this all you are having issue with?
Note: Please keep in mind that I believe God was able to forgive sin ahead of time in the OT because God knows the future with pinpoint precision. God the Father knew that Christ would shed His blood for our sins as a matter of fact.
That is not what scripture teaches:
Paul talks about those before the crucifixion but you have to really study what he said:
God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished... (Rom. 3:25, NIV)
This verse does provide a lot of information about how sins prior to Christ going to the cross were handled.
First off: Paul is giving the extreme contrast between the way sins where handle prior to the cross and after the cross, so if they were actually handled the same way “by the cross” there would be no contrast, just a time factor, but Paul said (forgiven) sins prior to the cross where left “unpunished”, but that also means the forgiven “sinner” after the cross were punished.
From Romans 3: 25 Paul tells us: God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. …
Another way of saying this would be “God offers the ransom payment (Christ Crucified and the blood that flowed from Him) to those that have the faith to receive that ransom. A lack of faith results in the refusal of the ransom payment (Christ crucified).
God is not the undeserving kidnapper nor is satan, but the unbeliever himself is holding back the child of God from the Father, that child that is within every one of us.
Paul goes on to explain:
Ro. 3: 25 …He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished
I do not like the word “unpunished” but would use “undisciplined” (you discipline your children and do not punish your children).
So prior to the cross repentant forgiven people (saved individuals) could not be fairly and justly disciplined for their rebellious disobedience, but after the cross if we repent (come to our senses and turn to God) we can be fairly and justly disciplined and yet survive.
If you think about the crucifixion, you would realize, at the time Christ was on the cross, God in heaven out of empathy/Love for Christ would be experience an even greater pain than Christ. We as our Love grows and our realization of what we personally caused Christ to go through will feel a death blow to our hearts (Acts 2:37). We will experience the greatest pain we could experience and still live, which is the way God is disciplining us today and for all the right reasons because Loving discipline correctly accepted results in a wondrous relationship with our parent. (We can now comfortably feel justified before God.)
God and Christ would have personally preferred Christ’s blood to remain flowing through his veins, but it is I, who needs that blood outside of Christ to flowing over me and in me cleansing my heart. I need to feel that blood and know it is cleansing me.