Will Those Who Crucified the Lord Go to Heaven Because They Were Forgiven?

The Lord Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34, NIV).
Does this mean that everyone who took part in crucifying Him was forgiven of all their sins—to the point that if they had died at that moment, they would have gone to heaven?

Answer:
The sin that was forgiven was specifically the sin of crucifying the Lord. The Lord Jesus forgave them from His heart, and therefore the Father also forgave them.
However, being forgiven for that one act does not mean they were forgiven for all their other sins. It does not mean they were forgiven for murders committed earlier, insults spoken the day before, killings carried out the previous week, or theft committed months earlier.

No!
They were forgiven only for that one sin—the sin of crucifying the Lord Jesus.

It is like when you forgive someone today who cheated you yesterday and decide not to report them to the police. That does not mean they have been forgiven for all the fraud they committed against other people. You may truly forgive them, and God may forgive them as well—but the guilt of the wrongs they committed against others remains until they repent.

In the same way, those who crucified the Lord were forgiven only for that one sin. For the rest of their sins, they still needed to repent—to confess all their sins in order to be saved.

Moreover, if they died without believing in Jesus, they would still be judged for their sins, even though they had been forgiven for crucifying Him.

As Scripture says:

“Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.”
—John 3:18–19 (NIV)

Therefore, although God may have intended to punish them for crucifying the Lord and then withdrew that punishment because of Jesus’ prayer, His wrath for their other sins remained. Most importantly, the wrath that comes from not believing in the Lord was still not removed. That wrath is taken away only when a person surrenders their life to Jesus.

This teaches us that we must confess all our sins before the Lord.