Must God Forgive?

I have had the opportunity to address this question before and I am more adamant now than I have ever been in my stance on this issue. Today in my devotions I was going through Jeremiah 5. I have been there for a couple of days now and I ran into verse 7 which says, "Why should I pardon you? Your sons have forsaken Me and sworn by those who are not gods. When I had fed them in full, they committed adultery and trooped to the harlot's house." The question that is asked at the beginning of that verse is a rhetorical question which really does not need an answer. The answer is undoubtedly "No", God does not need to pardon anyone for anything at any time.

Most of the time I hear that God chooses to forgive because He is a gracious and merciful God whose love covers a multitude of sin (maybe one time I will blog on the misuse of Proverbs 10:12 on all kinds of levels, but for now, I will just say that many people misuse it). While it is totally one hundred percent true that God is merciful and gracious, it is also true that He is just, holy, and pure. He cannot tolerate sins of any kind and is required by His own character to punish sin. So what does it mean that God is gracious, merciful, and forgiving? Does it mean that God sweeps our sin under the rug? Does it mean that God simply chooses to look the other way when we sin? Does it mean that God's love dissolves the sin that we commit? Does it mean that we can sin whenever we want because it no longer offends the holy God of the universe? As in Jeremiah 5:7, these questions are all rhetorical. The answer is a big fat "NO!". God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. He does not change (Jeremiah 4:28, Isaiah 46:10). So if God is gracious, merciful, forgiving, just, holy, wrathful, and pure, how do they all work in harmony with consistency that we as Christians can try to emulate?

I would argue that God's grace and mercy which lead to forgiveness are NOT unconditional in nature, contrary to much of the world's thoughts. If you are struggling with me saying that, I would encourage you to read through Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Isaiah for starters to see how God deals with those who continually sin and throw their sin in God's face, believing all the while that they are God's chosen race. Time and again they say that they are chosen so there is nothing to fear. God's comments on thinking patterns like that are not pleasant. So if those attributes of God are not unconditional, the only other option is that they are CONDITIONAL, meaning that there are conditions placed upon God's mercy, grace, and forgiveness.

AHHHH! What are you saying Ben? Is God bound by something that keeps Him from pouring out his love, mercy, grace, and forgiveness out on every single person who is conceived? My answer is ABSOLUTELY! God's own justice is the condition that keeps God from doing that. God cannot overlook sin simply because He loves someone. God's holiness cannot pretend that one of His creations didn't lie when in reality he did. Think about it for a moment before you shove you fist through your computer screen wishing it were my face. If you were the father or mother of a child who was brutally raped and you were sitting in the court room and the judge said something like this, how would you feel, "I know that what this gross perverted pile of garbage did was one of the most detestable things known to man, but I know him personally and I choose to show love to him as opposed to justice. I know that he really deserves to be put in the general population of a prison so that he can find out how it feels to be raped, but I am choosing to show grace and forgiveness to him because of my love for all people. I am sorry to the little girl who was violated by this man, but you should allow your love to cover the multitude of sins that he has committed against you." Any logical, feeling, alive person would go through the roof with anger and wrath at both the rapist and the judge. Why? Because justice would not have been shown in any manner. As a matter of fact, I would argue that the judge would be sinning by not doing his job and showing gross partiality to the rapist.

If that's true with sinful people, think about a holy God who has never sinned. When we sin we sin first and foremost against Him (Psalm 51:5), the One whom is perfect in every way. God would be sinning and inconsistent with His own nature if he were to overlook sin. So there is no way that God shows unconditional love, mercy, grace, and forgiveness to people who continually live in sin. Is God required to forgive, NO! God is required to be true to His own nature. This means that He must exact justice where sin is involved. His wrath must be poured out in instances where His laws have been broken. His anger burns towards those who worship other gods and forsake Him.

The difference for Christians is that God's justice, wrath, and anger have all been shown towards and poured out upon His own Son. It's still not unconditional...rather the conditions have been met by Christ in full. When a Christian sins, Christ is there on his behalf pleading his case before the perfect judge (1 John 2:1). So to those who claim that God is a forgiving judge and will forgive them for the sins that they are committing, I will just quote Jeremiah 5:7 one more time. Take it to heart and be extremely scared.

"Why should I pardon you? Your sons have forsaken Me and sworn by those who are not gods. When I have fed them to the full, they committed adultery and trooped to the harlot's house."

By the way, the reason why there is a picture of a glass that has fallen and is shattering into a million little pieces is because of it's visual illustration of what happens to a person when God lets go of them. If the perpetual sinner's life has not been shattered yet, rest assured it will. God is graciously restraining them until the perfect time when they will utterly destroy themselves. Check out Pharaoh's life in Exodus and Romans 9 if you are struggling with this concept. Or Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5. It's not a pretty picture of what happens. Thus is the end to everyone who shoves their fist in God's face and says, "I will do what I want for I am God."

Soli Deo Gloria!