Forgiveness?

The issue of forgiveness is fraught with complications. My small group recently grappled with this thorny problem, namely, whether or not we should petition for God’s forgiveness on a continual basis, and whether it is incumbent upon us to forgive others in order to receive God’s forgiveness. 

Matthew contains several passages that address this issue. 6:14-15: “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” Pretty blatant, huh? No wiggle room there. Our forgiveness from God is directly proportional to our forgiveness toward our fellow man. 

Similarly, in chapter 18, Jesus answers his disciple’s question about forgiveness with a parable, the upshot of which is that the unforgiving man will not receive forgiveness from the Father. The message is clear: in order to receive God’s forgiveness, we must forgive. That means that our righteousness, our rightness with God depends upon what we do. Fair to say? Our standing with Yahweh is in our hands. 

Hmm. Does this sound right? That our salvation and forgiveness of sin depends upon ourselves and our own ability? First, it’s directly contradicted by a later New Testament book, Titus, where in 3:5 Paul explains, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.” This passage states categorically that forgiveness of sins, salvation, is entirely dependent upon God’s work, not ours. Ephesians 2:8-9 echoes this sentiment, as well as Galatians 3:1-5. Paul spends a great deal of time hammering this point home in Romans 3-5, as evidenced in 3:28: “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from the law.”

Well, we seem to find ourselves in a bit of a bind here. On the one hand, Jesus dictates that forgiveness comes through the efforts of man; on the other, Paul claims that grace and salvation are solely works of Jesus Christ and our faithful acceptance of His work on the cross and in the tomb. Who do we believe? On the one hand, Jesus is the Son of God and Messiah, so He seems to be the more credible source. On the other, the entire Christian message is predicated on this fact, that man cannot earn his way into God’s good graces, that through effort and devotion alone he cannot fulfill the demands of God’s righteousness. How do we reconcile these seemingly contradictory messages?

Here’s how I do it. And this may seem like a cop-out, but it’s quite possibly the only way to do it. Jesus was outlining the true demands of the Mosaic Law when He laid down these strictures. Remember that the Sermon on the Mount, which is where we found the first reference, featured Jesus defining the true meaning of the Law. Not that merely an outward abstaining from sin would suffice (i.e. committing adultery through the physical act) but the thoughts and feelings of the heart were enough to condemn people of sin (i.e. that a married man merely lusting after a woman constitutes adultery). God judges the heart, not just the behavior, Jesus preached, because He sought to debunk the myth that observance of the Law would justify people before God. No one ever completely fulfilled the demands of the Law perfectly, in thought and deed. Which meant that salvation and justification must come another way. Jesus was, in essence, knocking out the last wobbling supports of the righteousness man could produce to clear the way for the righteousness that He would offer after His resurrection was complete. 

So when He ordered men to forgive in order to receive God’s forgiveness, the undercurrent went something like this: “You have to forgive perfectly, completely, unconditionally, and utterly. Can you do it? Can you forgive like God forgives? Can you muster the strength of will, the compassion, the grace and mercy that God can muster? No? Then neither shall you be able, of your own ability, to obtain God’s forgiveness. Are you ready to give up and admit that you need help? That you can’t do it yourself? Good. Now you’re ready to hear some good news…”

The passages in which Jesus lays down the Law occur before the Crucifixion. They were setting the stage for the new kind of righteousness, a radical and utterly subversive understanding of the way people were to behave and live. As the Galatians reference I mentioned outlines, we received salvation through no work or worth of our own, relying completely on the sufficiency of Christ to provide for us. Even as we were saved, so should we also live. And here is the wonderful nature of the Gospel, because now the old passages of Jesus take on a new meaning. Because if we live as we were saved, completely relying on Jesus to live for us and through us, then we can forgive as God forgives because we have the life of God in us, animating us through the Holy Spirit. Isn’t that cool?

So now in light of this understanding, the two seemingly incompatible philosophies are reconciled by this simple principle, that conversion and redemption, joining the family of God through the death and resurrection of Christ, marks the switch from ego-centric activity to Christo-centric activity. The source of our activities and will in our lives no longer originates within ourselves, our minds, emotions, and will, but rather from the Holy Spirit who indwells us. And this should help us answer the other issue mentioned earlier, namely, whether or not we should continually petition God for forgiveness. 

If it is true that all our sins were forgiven at our redemption, as I John 1:7 and 9 suggest, and it is true that we are indwelled by the Holy Spirit and that nothing will ever separate us from that union (Romans 8:35, 38-39), if we are in fact the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21), then should we continue to ask for God to do what He did at Calvary? It would be like a man who owed another man ten thousand dollars continuously asking his debt-holder to forgive him the debt even after the debt-holder had forgiven it. 

But wait, you might rejoin, suppose the debtor continues to run up debt beyond that initial ten grand? Wouldn’t the debt-holder have to keep forgiving that debt? In my flawed analogy, according to the worldly context of justice, yes. But God’s forgiveness, as Hebrews 10 discusses, covers all sin: past, present, and future. In the analogy, it would be akin to the debt-holder saying, “I forgive you for your past debt, and furthermore, for any debt you may incur henceforth.” 

Hebrews 10 outlines this explicitly, drawing the distinction between the old covenant, which required sacrifices again and again, to pay for the sins as they were committed, and the new covenant, through Jesus, which covers all Sin past and future. Verses 10 through 12: “By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God.” 

The common objection to this free grace message runs something like “well, if we’re covered by Jesus’ blood and have unlimited forgiveness, let’s go out and have a ball, and if we sin, well, it’s all good.” The answer to this occurs in Romans 6, where Paul rebuts this argument soundly by explaining the fact that Christians no longer live in obedience to their sinful natures. We are dead to sins, he claims in verse 11, that we might live to God’s righteousness. And this brings us back to our first conclusion, regarding the indwelling Holy Spirit. As we walk in the newness of life that the Holy Spirit brings, we must choose to allow the new life of the Spirit to control. This will diminish the need for asking for forgiveness as we will commit fewer sins as the Holy Spirit takes over more of our hearts and behaviors. 

(Also, if a “Christian” decides to keep his sinful ways after having a conversion experience, without the slightest indication that his heart and attitude has been changed, then we have to question the genuineness of the conversion. The Holy Spirit hates sin; therefore, the continued presence and enjoyment of sin would be intolerable to the true convert, whereas the false convert, lacking the presence of Righteousness Himself, may freely wallow in sin without a scorched conscience.)

All that said, I believe that Christians should ask for forgiveness of God. Now, calm down, steady on. Before you froth at the mouth, let me clarify. I’m not saying we ask for forgiveness for the sins we commit; I’m advocating we ask for forgiveness for the breaking of the fellowship and relationship with God. In terms of marriage, a husband might ask for forgiveness from his wife (or, theoretically, vice versa. But let us remain in reality). Does it mean that until he does so their marriage is broken, that asking forgiveness “remarries” them? Certainly not. But their relationship is damaged and their fellowship, their intimacy might be marred, and asking for forgiveness can restore that intimacy. Similarly, when I sin, that sin does not come between me and God in the sense that it did before my conversion, which caused spiritual death and separated me from Life Himself. It is not as creature and Creator, as God and man, that sin sunders me now; rather it is as Father and son, as Husband and bride, the relationship I now share with Him that needs to be mended. For it is possible to grieve the Holy Spirit, as Ephesians 4:30 tells us, and like any person who has wronged another, to restore a right relationship with them we must admit our culpability and turn back to Him.