The forgiveness of sins is not salvation. Why? Jesus died for the sins of the world. Jesus died to sin, for all and for all time. But it is obvious that not everyone is saved. I mean, we do know this, that not everyone will receive life from above.
Salvation is by grace, and that of faith. Grace is drawing near to God, but how can we draw near unless we believe? And we could not truly believe because we were dead in our sins. Sin cannot be in God's presence. He will not look on sin. He will not tolerate sin. But we were dead in our sins. Jesus died to death for us also. For us who are saved, or, who are being saved, we are joined with Him in His death for us, to be raised to newness of life in His resurrection. And this resurrection is to God, to have fellowship with God, to draw near to Him in Christ Jesus. This is salvation.
Salvation is by grace, and that of faith. Grace is drawing near to God, but how can we draw near unless we believe? And we could not truly believe because we were dead in our sins. Sin cannot be in God's presence. He will not look on sin. He will not tolerate sin. But we were dead in our sins. Jesus died to death for us also. For us who are saved, or, who are being saved, we are joined with Him in His death for us, to be raised to newness of life in His resurrection. And this resurrection is to God, to have fellowship with God, to draw near to Him in Christ Jesus. This is salvation.
vw up to now I have really been impressed ( not that this should mean anything to you) with your post on this thread , but will have to say I don't think Jesus died to sin, but Jesus died for our sins, I know romans say that we have died to sin but this is because we had sin, and we can now die to sin through Jesus, meaning that our sin nature can be killed that we may walk in righteousness, Jesus didn't have that sin nature, though so He would not had to die to sin.