Forgiveness

 Jesus prayed from the cross, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." Luke 23:34 (KJB). God would never fail to grant Jesus' plea. God would certainly answer His Son's prayer, and He would have forgiven all the sins and evil of the entire human race that nailed Jesus to the cross. This prayer of Jesus ensures that God has forgiven the sins and evil of the entire human race.

In Mark 11:25-26, Jesus taught His followers that when they pray, they should forgive everyone that had wronged them, even if they had not asked for forgiveness. Since God would never command humans to do anything He would not do Himself, then Jesus' teaching in this verse provides evidence that God has forgiven every human whose sins and evil nailed His Son to the cross. In verse 26, Jesus did not mean that God would never forgive those who refuse to forgive others, but only that God would temporarily withhold His forgiveness from those who do not forgive. Eventually, God will purge all sins, evil, and spiritual deaths from all of His living humans, some by His grace and all others in the end of the world, and that will cause them all to become completely meek and righteous so that they all will forgive every wrong that has ever been done to them. Genesis 1:27; John 5:24; Revelation 5:11-14 (KJB). The fact that God has already forgiven the entire human race ensures that He will eventually save the entire human race.

The fact that Jesus would call Judas Iscariot His "friend" when Judas came with a mob to arrest Jesus provides almost irrefutable evidence that Jesus had already forgiven him. Matthew 26:50 (KJB). God forgives every human who has wronged Him because He intends to save every human who has wronged Him. When Christ appears to all of His living humans confined to the regions of death in the end of the world, and He causes them all to repent and return to the faith that He put into them when He created them in His image, He will save them all from their sins, evil, and spiritual deaths to a recreated, eternal life on His recreated earth, including Judas Iscariot. Matthew 26:50; John 15:13; Revelation 5:11-14 (KJB). In His final judgment, Christ will cast only the separated, spiritual deaths of those living humans into the eternal lake of fire. Mark 9:43-48; Isaiah 66:22-24; Revelation 20:11-15 (KJB).

Forgiveness of sins and evil is not the same as the remission of sins and evil. God has forgiven the entire human race because He intends to save the entire human race, but He does not make that salvation actual until He has remitted; that is, has purged all of the sins, evil, and spiritual deaths from all humans. Repentance means to turn from one's sins because one hates evil, and one turns to a desire to love and serve Christ. Repentance engenders God's compassion for His living humans He has already forgiven so that He can purge all their sins, evil, and spiritual deaths from them. God must purge all sins, evil, and spiritual deaths from all of His repentant, living humans so that He can recreate them all to be meek and righteous. John 5:24; Revelation 5:11-14 (KJB).

When a human alive in the flesh hears the gospel, repents and believes that Christ has saved him, then the Holy Spirit purges his soul and spirit of all of his spiritual sins and evil by His use of the blood Jesus shed on the cross, annuls his spiritual death, and recreates his soul and spirit by giving him the perfect righteousness of Christ Himself so that God can accept him into Heaven to live there forever. I Corinthians 6:11; John 5:24; I Corinthians 5:21; Revelation 1:5 (KJB). That person saved by God's grace will love God, and he will no longer be able to commit any spiritual sins such as disbelief in God or a hatred of goodness. I John 3:9 (KJB). However, that saved person will still retain his fleshly nature that will cause him to be able to commit sins of the flesh such as adultery or thievery. But God will cleanse him of such sins as he daily repents of them with the water that Jesus shed on the cross. But unless a saved person happens in a moment to be overcome by temptation, he will have no desire to commit such sins. I John 1:9-10; John 13:1-13; Romans 7:18 (KJB). The very fact that Jesus could describe salvation by grace as having "passed from death unto life" proves that every living human that God creates and loves also has a spiritual death within them injected into them by the Devil. Genesis 3:15; John 5:24 (KJB). The Devil hopes that that spiritual death, and all of the sins and evil that results from it, will be able to utterly destroy the spiritual life of at least one human so that the Devil can prove that God's Love can fail. Job 1:11-12; Job 2:5-6; Job 2:9 (KJB). But God's Love for all of His living humans can never fail. Job 13:15-16; I Corinthians 13:8 (KJB).

Humans who do not become saved by grace will still retain all of their sins and evil and their spiritual deaths. When they physically die, Christ will not be able to accept them, and so He will judge them and consign them to one of the three regions of death. John 8:23-24; Hebrews 9:27 (KJB). According to Revelation 20:13, there are three regions of death: the Sea, Death, and Hell. Although no one has the right to speculate on how Christ will judge any individual, as a general rule, one can suppose that humans who have led good and moral lives Christ will cast into the Sea; those who have led immoral lives Christ will cast into the region of Death which is the same as the bottomless pit, and those who have led cruel and evil lives Christ will cast into a burning Hell. But God has already forgiven them all, and since God can never lose anything He has ever created, then Christ will come to them in the end of the world, and He will cause them all to repent and return to faith in Him as the Lamb of God their Savior so that He can raise them to live on His recreated earth. Luke 23:34; Ecclesiastes 3:14; Revelation 5:11-14; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 21:1-5 (KJB).

God has two methods of salvation. He uses the blood and water Jesus shed on the cross to save by His grace, and He uses His fiery wrath against evil to save by His mercy. The Old Testament sin offering symbolizes His salvation by His grace, and the Old Testament burnt offering symbolizes His salvation by His use of His fiery wrath against evil. Leviticus 4:1-8; Leviticus 5:10; Genesis 3:20-21 (KJB). God will use His fiery wrath against evil to melt down every living human confined to the regions of death, and upon their repentance and faith in Christ, He will use His fire to separate and purge all of their sins, evil, and spiritual deaths from them so that He can save their repentant, living natures and condemn their spiritual deaths to the eternal lake of fire. I Corinthians 3:11-15; II Peter 3:9-13; Psalm 75:3 (KJB).

I Corinthians 3:11-15 describes the salvation by the fire of God. These verses use the phrases "every man" and "any man," not believers saved by grace. Every man's evil and sinful works will be burned, and he will be rewarded for his good works.
"Any man" will be saved "by fire." Humans saved by grace cannot be saved by fire because they have already been saved by the blood and water that Christ shed on the cross. Genesis 8:20-21; Psalm 75:3; I Corinthians 4:5; II Peter 3:9-13; Revelation 22:11-12; I Timothy 4:10 (KJB).