Who in the world are those involved in religion asking for forgiveness? From God! Therefore the assumption is, God’s not reconciled when they sin. In their mind they are separating themselves from God by their sin. Justification...Redemption...Propitiation...Remission...and Forbearance...all terms God wants people to acknowledge, to become familiar with, and to come to fully appreciate. Never make the mistake of thinking that these terms all mean the same thing. They do not. Each one has a distinct meaning all its own. Oftentimes, people will look at these terms and sort of lump them all together under a heading called forgiveness.
To many people are trying to Christianize the flesh. One should never drive the train from emotions, but there are denominations living in the caboose, driving the train from the emotion standpoint, not living it from the doctrinal standpoint. But think about this: Is forgiveness the same thing as being justified or having someone else’s righteousness freely attributed to their account? They are not one and the same. The human race’s sins have all been forgiven, but forgiveness alone does not mean the person having forgiveness is as perfectly and totally righteous as the one who is doing the forgiving.
