searching for insight

Tonight I was posed with a very difficult question. The queestion went something like this: "If the cross and Jesus death was the only way for our sins to be forgiven then how could Jesus have told people that their sins were forgiven before He was sacrificed?"

Many things went through my head. First I thought "well Jesus was God so He has that power, right?" This didn't satisfy me because that would deem His death on the cross useless. That would raise seriouse issues with God's character, why would a loving God watch His son be beaten and killed for no reason at least not for the reason of forgiveness of sin. He could do it anyway right?

I also thought that maybe there were circumstantial relations between the instances Jesus told people that Their sins were forgiven that made them special. Well, this simply raised the same issues as before.

I guess what I am doing in posting this is searching for insight. If you have any Ideas on the subject I'd like to hear them. I'll continue thinking about it and we'll come to some sort of conclusion.