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Originally Posted by Esaias
So repentance and belief aren't required to receive forgiveness
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So repentance and belief are the response to being forgiven. You have God forgiving a person by grace, which results in that person becoming a believer who repents.
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Which means the thief on the cross is not an example of how people get saved.
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The work of God causes us to believe, repent, be baptised, receive the Spirit, and continue steadfast in the original apostolic faith. It does not cause us to believe that alien sinners enter covenant with God apart from repentance and baptism.
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“For the repentant” is in the very first sentence I wrote. We obviously have faith if we are repentant. What I was meaning is Gods free gift of forgiveness is to the repentant. Gods Forgiveness is not manipulated by a sinners prayer or any other physical observances. When we repent, God freely forgives, and obedience is a continued result of repentance. Therefore, we have the example of the thief on the cross being saved.
The thief was forgiven after (faith)repentance, and if he would of lived to tell it, he would have been baptized and filled like all the rest of Christ followers.