Asking for forgiveness is one of the most dignified things a person can do when they have done something wrong. But asking God for forgiveness is more than that: it’s bowing down to the highest authority, and it’s also appeasing the Infinite. What do we need to know when we ask God for forgiveness?
Defined in the Bible as just, true, holy and the one who “cannot be tempted by evil” (James 1:13-14), God stands face to face with human beings without obligation. When people look up to heaven and say, “Forgive me,” they must be aware that God owes them nothing. When we were little and our parents or teachers caught us misbehaving, we often excused ourselves by saying that it was not us who started it, but someone else who provoked us. But such circumstances, though perhaps partially mitigating, do not oblige God to forgive us. If He does forgive us, it is because of His character, not because of any merit on our part. The Bible says that we have all sinned (Romans 3:23).
Although God is not externally compelled to forgive us, the Bible portrays Him as more than willing to overlook our offences and give us a chance to start again.
Here are some of the most important ways the Christian God deals with sinners.
In a dialogue with the prophet Moses, who wanted to know more about the greatness and nobility of God, the Sovereign of heaven answered him as follows: “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation” (Exodus 34:6-7).
If there is a quality or an attitude with which God wants to describe or present Himself, it is mercy, compassion or justice—facets of the same basic quality: forgiving love.
God has always been like this, but this welcoming and reconciling attitude of His never shines more brightly than at times when His people have really turned away from Him because of their sins. Two very telling examples are the testimonies of the Prophets Isaiah and Micah, when God makes an offer to His people that is hard to refuse for those who want to be reconciled.
Isaiah says the following: “Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and He will have mercy on them, and to our God, for He will freely pardon” (Isaiah 55:7). The statement that God “will freely pardon” is a treasure. It is a truly overwhelming picture of a sovereign God who is not bound by anything external, and yet reaches out to the peace-seeking sinner with an attitude of mercy and forgiveness. Of course, the prophet also points out that God considers that the true search for forgiveness is accompanied by a determination to renounce the evil committed (in deed or thought). In this case, heaven is ready to rain down grace and mercy.
The prophet Micah, on the other hand, compares the God of Israel with the gods of the pagan nations, who had to be appeased with many sacrifices in order to grant forgiveness: “Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7:18-19).
Several images in this passage deserve special attention. Of all the gods of the nations, only one “delights to show mercy”—the God of Israel. And He does not just forgive. The hardest thing to do when someone has wronged you is to forget. Sometimes not even a bad human memory can completely erase the memory of someone’s wrongdoing. How can the omniscient God do this? The promise given through Micah says that God will “trample down” our sins, and what is left of them will be “hurled into the depths of the sea.” The God of Scripture is determined to destroy not only sin but also the memory of it. The omniscient God will treat us as if we had never done anything wrong. Just as a shipwreck lies hidden at the bottom of the ocean, so forgiven sins are forgotten forever.
In the New Testament, the situation is no different at all. Jesus said that “every kind of sin and slander can be forgiven” (Matthew 12:31). There is no sin committed that God’s mercy cannot cover and remove. There is no need to give examples of sins here. Jesus said that “every kind of sin” will be forgiven.
However, I would like to say something that often tortures the conscience of the sinner. What happens to the sin that is repeated? What happens to the person who has become an addict and is treading on ground that he or she no longer wants, but can no longer avoid? Are these sins forgiven? Jesus said “every kind of sin.” So yes! But let us remember what God said through Isaiah: “Let the wicked forsake their ways” (Isaiah 55:7). God is always interested in the change of the sinner.
As long as sinners are committed to the work of restoration, even if they still commit errors, God will not refuse their request for forgiveness as they progress along the path of transformation for good.
The Apostle Paul is well aware of this struggle. In his letter to the Christians in Rome, written sometime in the mid-60s of the first Christian century, the apostle describes how God reacts to the multiplication of sin in one’s life. It is quite surprising by human standards. Paul says, “Where sin increased, grace increased all the more” (Romans 5:20). Although God is hurt by the sinner’s departure from the morality of His law, He responds with grace. After the sacrifice of Jesus, the heavenly Father has no response to the sin of the repentant except forgiveness.
Towards the end of the first century, another writer, the last surviving of the apostles, John, wrote: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9); “My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:1-2).
The key point of what has been said so far is that God remains love to the end, and when people are asked to forgive “seventy times seven” (Matthew 18:22), God will do it all the more.
What can’t God forgive?
The very good news of the first part needs clarification. Although God’s love for the sinner does not change with the addition of more sins, there is an end to divine mercy, best expressed in the Letter to the Hebrews: “Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?” (Hebrews 10:28-29).
Here a comparison is made between the law of Moses and, let us call it, the law of forgiveness through the death of Jesus. The author notes that for the most serious offences caused by breaking the Law of Moses, the guilty party was ruthlessly put to death. The fact that we now live under the protection of Jesus’s forgiving death does not mean that we can do anything and still be forgiven indefinitely. The limit is set by the sinners. If they disregard forgiveness and mock grace, they will not only be punished, but will suffer more than if they were killed (as in the case of the Law of Moses). This is an allusion to eternal death as the wages of sin (cf. Romans 6:23).
Courage and trust
The conclusion can only be drawn from Hebrews 4:16, where the author urges us as follows: “Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”
I cannot find a better illustration of this trust than the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15. A son spends all the money he inherits and ends up a ragged, hungry man in a far-off land, despite having a job. In this miserable state, he realises that even if he had left to spite his father, back home he would be at least as well off as his father’s slaves, who were now better off than he was. This is because his father is a good, just, and reasonable master. The prodigal son decides to return, and his intuition does not disappoint him: his father—a symbol of the heavenly Father—has been waiting for him for a long time, welcomes him as a son, not as a slave, and celebrates his return with great ceremony.
In conclusion, I would like to leave the reader’s imagination with the following image: a wasp that feels crushed in the palm of your hand will sting you before its last breath; a sweet-smelling flower will perfume the heel that crushes it. Divine forgiveness is the perfume that the wounded heart of God gives to the guilty, so that the guilty may be enveloped in a new destiny.
Laurentiu Moţ invites the reader to reflect on the rich theme of divine forgiveness, perhaps the best news that the Christian scriptures have to offer.
