Why doesn't God just forgive everyone?
"When you sin, the pay you get is death. But God gives you the gift of eternal life because of what Christ Jesus our Lord has done" (Romans 6:23).
"Christ didn't have any sin. But God made him become sin for us. So we can be made right with God because of what Christ has done for us" (2 Corinthians 5:21).
"...But now he has appeared once and for all time. He has come at the end of the ages to do away with sin. He has done that by offering himself. People have to die once. After that, God will judge them. In the same way, Christ was offered up once. He took away the sins of many people" (Hebrews 9:26b-28a).
God requires us to believe in Jesus in order to receive forgiveness because He died in our place.This was God's perfect plan. God tells us in the Bible that the only way to pay for our sins is for someone to die. In the past, God's people had to kill animals for sacrifices to pay for their sins. But after Jesus came, we no longer need to do that. When Jesus died, He took the punishment, once and for all, that we should have had to suffer.
God can't forgive everyone in the world because there are a lot of people who don't believe that Jesus died for them. We have to personally believe that Jesus is our Savior who died for us in order to receive forgiveness.
For more information about receiving God's forgiveness, click here.
