Forgiveness

Question / Comment - Confusion over forgiveness

I have an important question for you. This question is along the line of forgiveness. I am twenty-three years old, and all my life I have been around the Bible. I have been instructed in a Christian home, a Christian church, and a Christian school. I am also a recent graduate of a Bible college where I studied in preparation foreign missions. Here is my question: I know that when temptation comes, I have the power to choose whether I will act on that temptation so that it becomes sin in my life (James 1:15) or whether I will conquer that temptation through Jesus Christ (I Cor 10:13; Heb 2:18). According to the doctrine eternal security, my choice at the time of temptation does not affect my salvation since I have already been saved. However, we also know that any person with unforgiven sin in his or her heart cannot go to Heaven. Jesus said in Matthew 6:15, "But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." (Matt 18:35, Mar 11:25-26, and Luke 6:37 have similar statements.) So what happens if someone wrongs me and I choose not to forgive them after I have been saved? The doctrine of eternal security indicates that I have already been forgiven for my sin of unforgiveness, but Jesus Himself said that I will not be forgiven until I forgive the one who has wronged me. Could you please explain this situation to me? I would like some insight from your perspective.

Reply:

Hi,

thanks for the email and question. It is obviously an important issue and one that confuses quite a few people. I would ask that you have a read of the following question already on the website as it is very important that you understand and differentiate between the once and for all forgiveness and our daily forgiveness. Or, in other words, judicial forgiveness and parental forgiveness. Or, to say it one more way, the difference between Peter being 'clean' but still needing his feet washed when they are dirty. (John 13:6-12)

http://www.jesusplusnothing.com/questions/forgiveness.htm (Note for the reader: see the section below...)

I hope this question and answer (by the late Bible teacher and author William MacDonald) does help you because from what you have written below you don't grasp the difference yet. That is not meant to be a criticism so please don't take it that way. It is just a very important concept so I would ask you to look the passages up and think about the differences. Personally, I think I would be a wreck if I believed that I would go to Hell if I died with some unconfessed sin in my life. The reason being is that I'm sure it is going to happen!

Thankfully, in terms of my eternal salvation the Lord does not look upon His believers, His children, in those terms. Jesus is our righteousness. He is our standing before the Father and so we are spotless in His sight. And that is the truth of the amazing gospel... God's amazing grace. Yes we continue to sin, miss the mark, and their is a continual spiritual battle going on. When our Father puts his finger upon something we should acknowledge and confess it before Him and turn from it. But this is all 'in the family' stuff. This is a righteous and loving Father dealing wisely with an erring child. But they are always His child!

As a final note, grace is a radical, radical concept in the New Testament and one that takes a lot of thought (and often a lot of failure) to truly comprehend. All the best as you look into these things.

I get confused by the once and all forgiveness that some passages seem to offer, and the continual need for forgiveness that other passages seem to indicate. Any thoughts?

Reply:

Hi,

thanks for the email. I must say that a lot of people's understanding on this issue is cloudy. The following is from a book by William MacDonald. I think it should help clear up any misunderstanding. Hope this helps! All the best.

JUDICIAL AND PARENTAL FORGIVENESS

    Two different kinds of forgiveness are found in the Scriptures, and if we are going to be careful students of the Word, we must learn to distinguish them. We will call them judicial and parental forgiveness (though these names themselves are not used in the Bible). To put it very simply, judicial forgiveness is the forgiveness of a judge and parental forgiveness is the forgiveness of a father. The first term is taken from the courtroom and the second from the home. First let us go to the courtroom. God is the Judge and sinful man is the person on trial. Man is guilty of sinning, and the penalty is eternal death. But the Lord Jesus appears and announces, "I will pay the penalty which man's sins deserved; I will die as a Substitute for him!" This is what the Savior did on the Cross of Calvary. Now the Judge announces to sinful man, -if you will surrender to my Son as your Lord and Savior, I will forgive you." As soon as the man puts his faith in the Savior, he receives judicial forgiveness of all his sins. He will never have to pay the punishment for them in hell, because Christ has. paid it all. The forgiven sinner now enters into a new relationship: God is no longer his Judge; now He is his Father.
    So now we move into the home for an illustration of parental forgiveness. God is the Father and the believer is the child. In an unguarded moment, the child commits an act of sin. Then what happens? Does God sentence the child to die for the sin? Of course not, because God is no longer the Judge, but the Father! What does happen? Well, fellowship in the family is broken. The happy family spirit is gone. The child has not lost his salvation, but he has lost the joy of his salvation. Soon he may experience the discipline of his Father, designed to bring him back into fellowship. As soon as the child confesses his sin, he receives parental forgiveness.
    Judicial forgiveness takes place once-for-all at the time of conversion; parental forgiveness takes place every time a believer confesses and forsakes his sin. This is what Jesus taught in John 13:8-10: we need the bath of regeneration only once to deliver us from the penalty of sins, but we need many cleansings throughout our Christian lives to give us parental forgiveness.

The difference between the two types of forgiveness may be summarized graphically as follows:

	Judicial	Parental
The Person's Status	Sinner (Romans 3:23)	Child (1 John 3:2)
Relationship of God	Judge (Psa. 96:13)	Father (Gal. 4:6)
Result of sin	Eternal death (Rom. 6:23)	Broken fellowship (1 John 1:6)
Role of Christ	Savior (1 Tim. 1:15)	High Priest and Advocate (Heb. 4:14-16; 1 John 2:1)
The Person's Need	Salvation (Acts 16.30)	Joy of salvation (Psa. 51:12)
Means of Forgiveness	Faith (Acts 16:31)	Confession (1 John 1:9)
Kind of Forgiveness	Judicial (Rom. 8:1)	Parental (Luke 15:21,22)
Consequence Averted	Hell (John 5:24)	Chastening (1 Cor. 11:31, 32) Loss of reward at the Judgment Seat Of Christ (1 Cor. 3:15)
Positive Result	New relation-ship (John 1 :12)	Renewed fellow-ship (Psa. 32:5)
Frequency	Once (One bath of regeneration) (John 13;10)	Many times (many cleansings) (John 13:8)

From now on, when we come to verses that speak about the once-for-all forgiveness that is granted to us as sinners through the work of Christ, we will know that the subject is judicial forgiveness. The following illustrate this:

In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace (Eph. 1:7).

And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you (Eph. 4:32 RSV).

And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses (Col. 2:13).

However, there are other passages of Scripture that deal with parental forgiveness:

For if ye forgive men their trespasses , your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses (Matt. 6:14, 15).

Judge not, and ye shall not be judged; condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned; forgive, and ye shall be forgiven (Luke 6:37).

And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any, that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses (Mark 11:25).

    Notice that in two of these verses God is specifically mentioned as Father: it is the Father's forgiveness that is involved. Notice also that our being forgiven depends on our willingness to forgive others. That is not true of judicial forgiveness; willingness to forgive others is not a condition of salvation. But it is true of parental forgiveness; our Father will not forgive us if we don't forgive one another.
    In Matthew 18:23-35 The Lord Jesus told the story of a slave who had been forgiven 10,000 talents by the king. But that same slave wouldn't forgive one of his fellow-slaves 100 pence. The king was therefore angry with him and delivered him to the jailers till he paid all his debt. The Lord Jesus concluded the parable by saying, "So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses." Here again it is a matter of the Father's forgiveness. It is sin to have an unforgiving spirit, and God cannot forgive us parentally until we confess that sin and forsake it.
    One of the thrills of Bible study is to see these basic distinctions and to be able to apply them in our daily reading. From now on when you come to the subject of forgiveness in the Word you should be able to say, "Oh, yes, that refers to judicial forgiveness" or else "that must refer to the Father's forgiveness of His child."