Seemingly random thoughts and ideas from my brain. Probably spiritually related, to do with who I have found Christ to be and what the Bible says about Him. Want to see who He is, independent of church sub-culture and our society. etc. etc.
"Let God be to you all that He is, beyond your current understanding and past experience."
29 October 2012
Forgiveness before repentance?
The Bible says that we are to forgive others as God has forgiven us. (Eph 4:32)
God only forgave us when we repented.
(I do not believe in universalism, people must repent before they can be forgiven and know God!!)
So, in the same way, for someone to receive our forgiveness, they
must first repent to us and then we can give them our forgiveness and
decide to what degree the relationship can be restored.
So, I think we must be careful by what we mean by forgiveness. Do we
mean preparing ourselves to forgive if they repent (as God is ready to
forgive any sinner who repents), or do we mean the final restoration of
relationship when they do finally repent.
Giving someone our forgiveness before they repent can lead to:
1. offending them because you are saying they have sinned against you, when perhaps they don't think they have.
2. carrying on in relationship with them, still trusting them, when
they have every intention of continuing to sin against you (e.g. the
battered Christian wife thinking forgiveness means not prosecuting her
husband and letting him freely carry on abusing her.)
3. the non-Christian, who just sinned against you (stole, bullied,
cheated), thinking that Christianity just means weak people turning a
blind eye to sin (and so him thinking we obviously don't really believe
in God and end judgement).
Perhaps a reason we have such a problem with 'forgiving' people is
because in trying to do so we are actually trying to excuse what they
did (which God will not support us in).
Release people to God and don't seek revenge; but don't pretend there
isn't still an issue that they must repent of - God will not forgive
them for what they did to you if they don't repent of it.
God only forgave us when we repented.
(I do not believe in universalism, people must repent before they can be forgiven and know God!!)
So, in the same way, for someone to receive our forgiveness, they must first repent to us and then we can give them our forgiveness and decide to what degree the relationship can be restored.
So, I think we must be careful by what we mean by forgiveness. Do we mean preparing ourselves to forgive if they repent (as God is ready to forgive any sinner who repents), or do we mean the final restoration of relationship when they do finally repent.
Giving someone our forgiveness before they repent can lead to:
1. offending them because you are saying they have sinned against you, when perhaps they don't think they have.
2. carrying on in relationship with them, still trusting them, when they have every intention of continuing to sin against you (e.g. the battered Christian wife thinking forgiveness means not prosecuting her husband and letting him freely carry on abusing her.)
3. the non-Christian, who just sinned against you (stole, bullied, cheated), thinking that Christianity just means weak people turning a blind eye to sin (and so him thinking we obviously don't really believe in God and end judgement).
Perhaps a reason we have such a problem with 'forgiving' people is because in trying to do so we are actually trying to excuse what they did (which God will not support us in).
Release people to God and don't seek revenge; but don't pretend there isn't still an issue that they must repent of - God will not forgive them for what they did to you if they don't repent of it.