I have to agree with the stance that the phrase "for the remission of sins" doesn't mean "to get" the remission of sins, but "because of" the remission of sins.
Jesus didn't merely come to forgive sins, He came to take them away completely. Sins had been being forgiven since Genesis 4 by the blood of bulls and goats, but Jesus blood is the only blood that will redeem them, not merely remit them.
Rom 3:25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
Rom 3:26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
This is the verse that really clears things up. Jesus is the sacrifice that appeased God, that will clear the sins that God had been putting up with for thousands of years. His righteousness could now be applied to the sins of the past that, through His forbearance, He had been forgiving. Notice verse 26, it has to do with a period of time not just the sins of a man's life.
Mat 26:28 For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.
Notice His blood is shed for the remission of sins. If it was just shed to get forgiveness, then it was no better than the blood of bulls and goats. It was shed to get redemption. It was shed to clear the guilty, which the blood of bulls and goats couldn't do. It was shed because of the sins that have been forgiven by the blood of bulls and goats.
The people of John's ministry were showing that they were repenting because their sins were forgiven. Notice in Isaiah 40:2 that their sins had been forgiven before John shows up. In Acts 2:38 they were repenting of crucifying Jesus Christ, being baptized to show they have repented, their sins had already been forgiven when they repented, and when they did that, they would receive the Holy Spirit.
Heb 9:15 And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
Heb 9:26 For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
Heb 9:19 For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people,
Heb 9:22 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.
Jesus did not come to remit sins, but to redeem them. This is clearly stated in Hebrews 9. He came because the sins of the past had only been forgiven. Yes, Col 1:14 says we can get forgiveness through Jesus blood. I believe that the people in Acts 2 had already been forgiven by Jesus blood, but the only way to get redemption is through the new birth.
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