Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-9) is one of the best illustrations in the Bible of repentance (being sorry for doing wrong). There is no record of him asking forgiveness from either God or the individuals he had sinned against. However, his acts of restitution (attempting to make up or make right the situation) demonstrated his repentance in a practical way--he paid back four times what he had unjustly taken from people. Then he went further, he gave half his wealth to the poor.
Jesus says we should be reconciled to people (Matthew 5:23, 24). He says, in essence, it is no good going to church with your praise and worship if “someone has something against you” (Matthew 5:23, NLT). He tells us to go and make things right and then come back to church.
If the person is not around to ask for forgiveness or you don’t know of any way to make contact, you will have to leave it with God. You have done all you can.
Will I still be saved if I die while sinning; for example, what if I die while telling a lie?
First, I’m assuming that you are a Christian and you have placed your trust in Christ for salvation, and because of this your desire is to be faithful to Him. If this is the case, the answer is a solid, resounding yes! You will be saved.
We are born with what has been called a sinful nature, and even after giving our hearts to God and desiring only to please Him, this nature still has its impact. We have all sinned and we fall short of “God’s glorious standard” (Romans 3:23, NLT). It is not until we are transformed at the Second Coming (1 Corinthians 15:51-53) that we will attain this “glorious” standard. In the meantime we continue to have the daily struggle with overcoming sin that Paul seems to speak of in Romans 7:14-25. He says he is freed from the domination of sin through Jesus, but there is still a struggle.
What a terrible life we would face if there were always the risk of a mistake at the point of death (such as telling a lie) that would keep us out of the kingdom. Our salvation is in the relationship we have with Jesus. That’s what makes us part of God’s family (John 1:12). In a good family a child is not told they no longer belong because they let their parents down by, say, telling a lie or quarrelling with a brother or sister. Love is stronger than that. Remember, nothing can separate us from the love of God (Romans 8:31-39).
How you feel is not as important as knowing you are forgiven. In other words, trust God to do what He has promised, and don’t put your trust in your feelings.
Here’s what we can put our trust in: If we confess our sins, God will forgive us and cleanse us (1 John 1:9). There is joy in heaven when a sinner repents of sin (Luke 15:10). God casts the sin into the depths of the sea (Micah 7:19) and removes our “rebellious acts” (sin) as far away as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12)--in other words, they are gone and forgotten as far as God is concerned. Our responsibility is to be honest with God about our sins--He knows anyway (Hebrews 4:13)--and to develop a forgiving spirit ourselves (Ephesians 4:32; Matthew 6:12).
David, in his psalms, demonstrated a wide range of feelings, not all of them positive. But he had the right attitude toward forgiveness: “Finally I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide them. I said to myself, ‘I will confess my rebellion to the Lord.’ And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone” (Psalm 32:5, NLT). We can believe that.