# Limited Atonement and forgiveness of sins



## ReformedBaptist (Mar 2, 2014)

A friend of mine recently asked me "if Christ atoned for God's elect on the cross, then why must we repent of our sins to be saved?", I wasn't sure what to tell him, any advice?


----------



## Hemustincrease (Mar 2, 2014)

Because _we are commanded_ to ‘repent and believe the Gospel’.


----------



## KMK (Mar 2, 2014)

ReformedBaptist said:


> A friend of mine recently asked me "if Christ atoned for God's elect on the cross, then why must we repent of our sins to be saved?", I wasn't sure what to tell him, any advice?



He is equivocating on the word 'must'. The atonement is applied to us by means of saving faith. Repentance is of the essence of saving faith. (It's what makes saving faith different than bare historical faith) We must have repentance in order to be saved, not because it is a required 'work', but because it is a part of what saving faith is. He might as well have asked, "If Christ atoned for God's elect, then why must we have saving faith to be saved?" Because saving faith/repentance is the means by which the atonement is applied to us.


----------



## JimmyH (Mar 2, 2014)

The Apostle Paul anticipated that very question in Romans 6 ; 
6 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.


----------



## Sylvanus (Mar 2, 2014)

"...human redemption is the combined activity of Father, Son, and Spirit, in that (1) it is predicated on the love of God, whose love sets it in motion; (2) it is effected historically through the death and resurrection of Christ the Son; and (3) it is actualized in the life of believers through the power of the Holy Spirit."
(Gordon Fee, Pauline Christology, 589; quoted in From Heaven He Came and Sought Her, 364)

Distinctions must be made for redemption predestined, applied, and consummated (see Romans 8:29-30)--as well as recognizing that God transcends our notions of time--otherwise not much of Scripture will make sense.


----------



## KGP (Mar 3, 2014)

It might be helpful to determine what me means by the word "saved".

You must repent of your sins to be saved eschatalogically, or in the last judgment; simply because repentance of sins marks those who have passed from death to life, and only these will be saved. (as was said earlier by Mr. Klein) 

But repentance of sin is not a prerequisite for regeneration, nor justification, nor reconciliation with God, nor a host of other events wherein God unilaterally acts within and upon sinners to cause them to be "saved" in the here and now.

Dead sinners are not required to show signs of life before they are resurrected (spiritually speaking), but all who have been raised to such life are required to display the nature of the resurrection life they now possess; both to manifest the quality of this new life and the grace of God to the visible and invisible realm. The command also serves to practically distinguish the works of God from it's counterfeits.


Though most of this has been said previously.


----------

