Rom 5:10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
Rom 11:15 For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?
2Co 5:18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
2Co 5:19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
2Co 5:20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.
I’m going to make a bold statement: The whole world has been reconciled to God. The issue of sin has been taken off the table of God’s justice – past, present and future.
I will further state that no one’s sins will keep them out of heaven because, as can be clearly seen from the verses above, God has reconciled the world to himself and does not count our sins against us. It couldn’t be any clearer and yet preachers and teachers for millennia have told their hearers that their sins will send them to hell and unless they ask forgiveness and repent of their sins they are doomed.
The problem with this view is that it’s not what the Bible teaches. Of course, hellfire and damnation is a compelling motivator compared to telling your listeners that God isn’t going to judge you for your sins. If your sin is an issue, as far as your salvation is concerned, then how do we explain that Christ died for our sins and not the believers sins only but for the sins of the whole world as is clearly taught by the Apostle Paul and John as well in 1Jn 2:2 “And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”
You see, from God’s perspective the entire world has been reconciled but that doesn’t mean that the entire world has reconciled itself to God or accepted God’s reconciliation. The bible clearly teaches that Christ, who knew no sin, became sin for the world and he did that over 2000 years ago when your sins and my sins were still in the future. Furthermore, how could those in the past sins be forgiven by Christ’s death if they are required to have believed in something they had no knowledge of? The Mystery of Christ and what Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection would accomplish was unknown to them and yet, does not the Bible teach that Christ died for their sins as well? Of course, it does. So, if his death way back then, didn’t settle it and God is still holding our sins against us until we believe then Christ died in vain and his death didn’t accomplish what God claims it accomplished and we know that that isn’t true or at least, as believers, we should know it.
You see, the only thing that will keep you out of heaven is unbelief. When you take God at his word (faith) and agree with him about what he says about his Son and what his death accomplished on your behalf, paying for the sins of the world, the bible says the Holy Spirit baptizes you into the body of Christ. This simply means he identifies you with or joins you to Christ and therefore, what belongs to him now belongs to you. What does this mean?
Just because sin is no longer an issue there’s still a problem: Rom 3:10 says “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:” so, even though our sin is not counted against us we still lack the righteousness and there’s not amount of good works or anything else we can do to muster it up. There’s no way we can attain to the perfect righteousness of God but thankfully God has made a way. God has resolved this problem by judicial decree placing Christ’s righteousness on your account. This is what it means to be “in Christ”. Paul describes it analogously to the marriage of a man and a woman where what belongs to one also belongs to the other. For example, the money that is in my and my wife’s bank account was all earned by me, only my name was on the paychecks that were deposited into the account but since it’s a joint account all the money in that account belongs to her as well.
It’s just that simple. God no longer counts the sins of the world to the world of sinners and when we take God at his word that Christ’s death was sufficient payment for sin he imputes Christ righteousness to our account and at the point of belief he joins us to Christ the righteous one. God has indeed reconciled the world to himself, not counting their sins against them and as believers and ambassadors it’s our job to let the world know that truth.
If you have not put your faith in what Christ did, taking God at his word that Christ’s death paid for the sins of the world and that means your sins, you have still been reconciled to God but you have no righteousness of your own. Only the righteousness of Christ is acceptable and by the grace of God it is freely given to you the moment you believe.