Misconceptions About Salvation
#4 "God is love and God will just forgive our sins out of leniency."
The cause of this misconception is the failure to realize that God is a God of justice.
That God forgives is a truth taught everywhere in Scripture. But He forgives because His justice has been satisfied on the cross, not because He is lenient. God forgives, yes, but in a righteous manner and not at the expense of His justice.
The penalty of sin must be paid. And that penalty was paid at the Cross of Calvary. God forgives but He forgives only in Christ Jesus. Because it is only in Christ that sin was paid.
Eph 1:7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace
Hebrews 9:27 ".........without shedding of blood there is no remission."
Often people just ask for forgiveness and carry on thinking that just because they asked for forgiveness, God will therefore forgive them. As simple as that. They are counting and depending and relying on the fact that they have asked for forgiveness.
Not so. Forgiveness is based on what Christ did on the cross. And it is only the sinner who confesses his sins and with his heart CONSCIOUSLY TRUSTING IN WHAT CHRIST DID ON THE CROSS that God will forgive. The former is trusting in what they said to God, while the latter is trusting in what God did for them in Christ.
Many people ask God for forgiveness without Christ and His work on the cross in mind. If Christ did not die on the cross, even if you daily and hourly ask God for forgiveness, God will never forgive you. And even if Christ died on the cross, even if you confess your sins to God regularly, if your heart is not trusting in Christ for salvation, God will never grant you salvation forgiveness.
Many people want to die a slow and gradual death because they want to buy time and opportunity to ask God for forgiveness just before they breathe their last, believing earnestly that their good works coupled with their asking for forgiveness will ensure them salvation forgiveness.
P.S. If God just forgives because we simply ask for it and that's all, nothing more and nothing less, then there is no need for Christ to die on the cross for sinners. They can simply be forgiven by simply asking for it.
