Two little brothers, Harry and James, had finished supper and were playing until bedtime. Somehow, during their play, Harry hit James with a stick and tears and bitter words flowed. The accusations and denials were still being tossed back and forth as their mother prepared them for bed. Before she tucked them in, the mother looked firmly at James and said, “Now James, before you go to bed you’re going to have to forgive your brother.” James thought about this for a moment and then replied, “Well okay, I’ll forgive him tonight, but he’d better watch out in the morning!”
I’m sure this was not the forgiving spirit his mother had intended. Yet, lives all over this earth are torn apart because of this type of attitude of forgiveness—“I refuse to forget the pain and agony you put me through, but I forgive you… for now.”
What if God’s forgiveness was like ours? In short, we’d have no hope. Unfortunately, many squeeze God into our way of thinking and assume that God does forgive like we do—“I forgive you for now, but you just wait until I come!” As if God doesn’t really want to forgive us, but is forced to because of some inconvenient rule He made up.
Is this what God’s forgiveness is all about? Do we have to beg Him to forgive us? Or, worse yet, is He like us and will bring back all of our wrongs as soon as we mess up again and smear them in our faces? Fortunately, the Bible says God’s forgiveness is MUCH different than ours.
Micah 7:18 tells us that God wants to show us mercy and forgive us and Nehemiah 9:17 says He is ready to forgive. Unlike mankind, God actually desires to forgive. Some believe that God likes to hold grudges and that He is waiting on His throne with a lightning bolt for someone to mess up so He can punish. On the contrary! God says that He does not enjoy the destruction of the wicked (Ezekiel 18:23), but would rather work with us toward salvation: “Come now, let us reason together, though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow, though they are red like crimson, they shall be like wool” (Isaiah 1:18). What a beautiful promise!
You see, God is ready and willing. He’s actually waiting for us. 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” You see, we have a part in it: confession. This does not mean that we are to simply list off all the no-no’s that we’ve done. Confession is owning up to the crime. Confession is someone saying, “I did it.” In other words, this means I am not merely telling God that a sin was committed, but that I am the one who committed the sin. (Unlike what Adam and Eve did.) When we are willing to admit that we are sinners, God is able to, and faithful to, forgive us.
The amazing thing is what His forgiveness looks like. He doesn’t just sweep our sins under a rug only to have them pop up sometime later. Acts 3:19 says that when we repent, He will blot out our sins. This is a complete erasing. it’s a multi-pass, greater-than-government–security, deletion of our sins. They’re gone—sins no more. Isaiah 44:22 tells us that God sweeps our sins away like a cloud. He separates our sins from us as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12). In Micah 7:19 we are told that our sins are sent “into the depths of the sea.” (Ever wonder why the creatures in the deep sea are so ugly and evil looking? That’s where all of our sins are!)
This is all possible because God does something in forgiveness that we seem to be unable to do: forget. When God forgives, He does not remember them anymore (Hebrews 8:12). God says in Isaiah 43:25 that He forgets for His sake. He chooses to forgive and forget.
A great example of God’s forgiveness is seen in the life of King David. 2 Samuel 11 contains the story of David and Bathsheba. It’s not a pretty story. David really messed up and thought that he had covered it up pretty well. But in the next chapter (12), David learns through Nathan that he didn’t hide it from God. In fact, it was really God he had sinned against. David was crushed. He wasn’t sorry he was caught, he was sorry he did it in the first place. We know this because after his encounter with Nathan, David wrote Psalm 51. That’s the one where David asked that God would “create a clean heart” within him.
So did God forgive David? Nathan said God did (2 Samuel 12:13)—and this is what God had to say about David years after his death: “[he] kept my commandments and followed me with all his heart, doing only that which was right in my eyes” (1 Kings 14:8). Now that is forgiveness!
God’s forgiveness is complete, but it is not universal. Some believe, and teach, that God is ultimately going to forgive everyone regardless of their feelings towards Him, and everyone will go to heaven. Unfortunately, this is not found in Scripture. The Bible says that God will, one day, put an end to sin forever (see Revelation 20:11–15). On that day, He will destroy sin and any who continue to hold onto it.
While that day will come, today God is still saying, “Come let us reason together…” He’s waiting for you and I to admit we are sinners in need of forgiveness because He wants to completely cleanse us and blot out our sins. It’s not too late. Why wouldn’t we accept this wonderful, complete, and free forgiveness of God right now?
Photo by Ali Gooya on Unsplash