For one to have part with God one must have his sins forgiven.
Why?
B/c sin separates men from God (Isa.59:1,2) (Rom.3:23 ; 6:23).
2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.
The Lord could not tell Paul how to be saved b/c of what (2Cor.4:7) teaches.
You seem to hold some narrow and (I believe) insubstantial views on the matter of forgiveness. AFAIC, the act of Jesus’ self-sacrifice was the sign that God was standing in a posture of forgiveness. Forgiveness is effected by God — not by human beings. Here’s why:
The word “forgive” is a compound word. The “for” part is from an Anglo-Saxon root-word that’s a nautical term. In ancient times, when bays, coves and lakes were full of fishing craft, a member of the crew would sit “fore” in the boat (at the prow). When another boat came too close, he would call “fore!” And push the other craft away. “Fore” means “to push away.” To “give” is to offer something to another.
To for-give is to push away negativity and return it to the sender. We sin when we “push negative energy toward God,” that does not resonate with God’s positive energy. God
for-gives us by divesting God’s Self of that energy and handing it back to us. That act of giving
cleanses the energy — puts it into resonance with God’s “good stuff.”
When we send out negativity, it damages a part of us. When God gives it back to us in pure form, it heals us and restores us to wholeness. That’s how forgiveness is efficacious for wholeness (or salvation). When we
repent, we “turn toward” the pure energy God is handing us, and “turn away” from the negativity. IOW, we open ourselves to what God is giving us: wholeness.
It really has nothing to do with baptism, or a “five-finger exercise,” or who imparts the Gospel. It does have everything to do with
right relationship — with love of God with the whole heart, soul, and mind, and our neighbor as ourself.
When Paul’s eyes were opened and he was restored to wholeness (blindness is code for “not whole”) he was being put in congruity with God. It
was an act of forgiveness.