Quote:
It's a God thing.
Unquote.

No better explanation for this?

In His love

James S

Yes, it is a God thing. That is, only God can inhabit eternity. Only Jesus can be the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world forever and ever. His death on the cross will never cease being a present reality. His death has been and will be efficacious forever, which is why God was able to forgive sins before Jesus died on the cross. In other words, God is not bound by our time-space continuum. He inhabits eternity, which transcends our time-space continuum.

If Christ failed, if he didn't take the "cup", what happened? These three guys in heaven would descend back to earth, and all men are still in their sins.

The question is: are the sins of the people before the cross forgiven? If yes, whatever the result of Christ mission would have no effect to their status, but seems to me it is not so, it must wait till the fulfilment of grace.

In His love

James S

Yes. And all who have ever sinned would reap the wages of sin - eternal death.

I am not satisfied with yours arguments here, because I think there is something lacking.
Rom the bible texts we may see that the basic of sin’s forgiveness is Christ’ sacrifice on the cross, “without blood there is no forgiveness.”
But since “Christ is the lamb slain from the foundation of the world” and the fact that there are three guys (Enoch, Elijah and Moses) in heaven, we think that their sins must be forgiven for good, otherwise they would be not there.
But this view, I think is not in harmony with what the bible told us, so I have my own opinion, and seek your counter opinion to find a satisfactory answer to my question.
I think, these guys sin’s were not forgiven yet because Christ has not been sacrificed, how could He that bore the sins of the world forgives them and justify them to live eternally while He was still in heaven and hasn’t come down yet as a man?
But since He was appointed and chosen as the lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world, God dare to transfer their sins to Christ, for He knew that Christ would be successful in bearing the sins of the world and its penalties through his death. Thus, in this view, the guys were stand righteous before God that He may justify them to live in heaven, but owing all to the future event that would take place at Calvary one day.
God is in debt, that He must pay one day through Jesus death.
So, the question: are their sins forgiven, is answered, not yet! Just transferred to Christ and owing to an future event that would take place at Calvary, where at His resurrection, the sins of the world is at once all forgiven, giving humanity the right to live, because they stand righteous in Christ.
I think, this is clarify in the Sacrificial laws of the Jews, where the sins of the nation is transferred to the ark and must wait till the Day of Atonement for a symbolical forgiveness, cause this too is just a shadow of the thing to come.
(Read Romans 3:23-25)

In His love

James S.

James, the sins of Enoch, Moses, and Elijah were "forgiven" the moment they confessed them, however, their sins were not "blotted out" until sometime after 1844.

As I mentioned before, you're amalgamating forgiveness and atonement.

But realize that sins were NOT blotted out at Christ's resurrection. If you're thinking about sins being erased from the record, that has to wait until the close of probation.