Okay, I have a question for those of you who have been studying this a while longer than myself.
Today, my husband and I watched a teaching by Ray on Repentance from Nashville 2005. It was great by the way. But he was asking the audience to put 3 things in order.
They were: repentance, cleansing and forgiveness.
His point was that the church doesn't put forgiveness first as it should be, with repentance 2nd, and cleansing 3rd. I completely understood this and agreed with it. At the cross, Jesus said, "It is finished." "Father forgive them for they know not what they do."
Then I found this scripture which clearly gives the church their reasoning for putting the order as:
1)repentance, 2)forgiveness, and 3)cleansing.
It is:
1Jn 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Now the Strong's has the IF as a condition of forgiveness.
My question is: Is this translation incorrect? I did a comparison and all the translations I have had the IF in there.
Perhaps there is a translation out there that I don't have that makes this clearer?
Thanks for your help in advance!
Lin