Dr. Bock:

When I personally accepted Christ by faith, the gospel that was presented to me was that God wanted me to go to heaven and enjoy his love forever. That is what I turned TO. However, I was not making any conscious decision to say "I am now turning AWAY FROM my sins and to God." I just don't remember "sins" being a part of the gospel presentation to me. It was all about turning TOWARD heaven. I didn't ask a lot of question at that time, but I did later learn that all sins were imputed to Christ, not the person committing them. I don't believe that Christ's payment for sins is conditioned on whether or not I accept God's offer of salvation. All of Hitler's sins were paid for. This is why I have stated before that sins only have a temporal effect. Gen 3 lists the consequences of the Fall, but not one of the consequences goes beyond the grave. In other words, there is nothing about the Fall that determines a person's eternal destiny!! Christ says a person is justified by his words and is condemned by his words (not his position in Adam). And, hypothetically, if a person lived 75 years without ever sinning, and then died, his eternal destiny would be based on "his words" (Mt 12.37). Living a perfect life (hypothetically) does not qualify someone to enter heaven.