Is Forgiveness Conditional OR Unconditional?

Instead of simply categorizing forgiveness as either conditional or unconditional, understanding its deeper nature will allow us to see and realize it�s amazingly both.

The objective FACT of God’s forgiveness is unconditional but our personal EXPERIENCE of God’s forgiveness is conditional. Through Christ’s finished work, apart from faith, God does not impute our sins against us (2 Corinthians 5:19). The world was forgiven, acquitted, and justified unconditionally when Christ died but it is ONLY through the conditions of faith and repentance that we personally experience the benefits of God’s pardon.

Forgiveness includes two parties: the offended and the offender; the giver of forgiveness and the object of forgiveness. The offended person can, by God’s grace, pardon or forgive her offender even if he does not make amends or repent. In such case, in so far as she is concerned, she has fully forgiven her offender. The offender, on the other hand, not knowing the grace-filled heart of her victim runs away and avoids her altogether. He has no peace within fearing she will exact revenge and harm him at any time. One can therefore be fully forgiven by the person he has wronged but still be a million miles away when it comes to a personal experience of its benefits.

A strictly one-sided or single-faceted view of forgiveness which does not distinguish the divine side from the human side, the objective from the subjective, the offended from the offender, leads to the inevitable conflict of positions namely, unconditional forgiveness versus conditional forgiveness. One by necessity has to take a position either for or against on unconditional or conditional forgiveness.

On the other hand, while the Scripture may be silent in explicitly categorizing a dual-faceted perspective on forgiveness, it helps us to see that these seemingly opposite views are not really so necessarily. From a dual-faceted platform or view on forgiveness, for example, Isaiah 44:22 would clearly refer to the fact of our forgiveness while texts like 1 John 1:9 would refer to our experience of forgiveness.

The following are critical issues a strictly single-faceted view of forgiveness will have to face:

Firstly, any person, by God’s grace, can choose to decide to fully forgive someone who has offended him even if his offender is unrepentant. When your spouse or child does something hurtful to you, do you tell them that they have to be sorry for what they did before you can forgive them? Do you say to your spouse, “I love you unconditionally but I can forgive you only when you’re sorry?” Pope John Paul visited in jail the person who attempted to assassinate him and said to him, “I forgive you” without requiring confession and repentance from him. If we, sinful human beings as we are, are able to forgive our offenders even if they�re not repentant and sorry for the sins they did to us, but teach, on the other hand, that God does not forgive sinners unless they repent, what kind of picture are we giving to people about God? I believe such a perspective of the gospel, if strictly and exclusively emphasized would seriously risk painting an unbiblical picture of God: that He is truly less forgiving than sinful, selfish, erring mortals! Please consider this: If we can forgive those who’ve offended and hurt us even before they repent and are sorry for their sins but God cannot and will not forgive unless they repent, wouldn’t that be tantamount to saying that we’re more capable of forgiveness than He is?

Secondly, if confession and repentance are absolute conditions before one can actually forgive, how could you ever forgive if the hurt and bitterness you have inside of you was caused not only by someone who never repented of his offense against you but who is also now dead? What are the chances for that person to make amends and be sorry for his sins and make things right with you? Absolutely none! Please consider this: How would it be possible for you to forgive this person if you believe his or her repentance is a necessary condition before you can forgive him or her?

Thirdly, it is biblically unjust for God to receive and welcome anyone whom He has not first forgiven and whose sins He still counts against him. The penalty of sin is death, not forgiveness (see Romans 6:23). If you don’t have an acquitted status, God’s only righteous action towards you is award you eternal death, not pardon. You don’t come home then God signs for your pardon or acquittal. Such action will be unjust on God’s part. He has to acquit you first, then, and only then will it be lawful and just for him to welcome you, if you choose to come home.

A fugitive with $10 million dollars reward on his head, who is on an active wanted and death list, who doesn’t have a presidential pardon, whose orders against him are shoot-when-sighted and shoot-to-kill will be committing suicide if he decides to show up to surrender however penitent he is. He will be definitely gunned down! If sin is as serious as it really is, what makes us think we can just show up before God unforgiven and make it just because we are repentant? Through Christ’s finished work, God counts or imputes no sin (forgiveness) against any sinner (atheist, Satan worshiper, Calvinist, Arminian, Hindu, Buddhist, etc.) and it�s because of this righteous act of God alone which makes it allowable for any sinner to return home or else even the most repentant sinner who comes home unforgiven can only expect God’s righteous wrath to attend to him.

Fourthly, our special mission is to invite and lead people home to an unconditionally loving God. From an evangelistic point of view, to whom would you rather run home to? a) someone who promised to forgive you if you decide to come home? Or b) someone who has forgiven you long before you decided to come home?

If you have overstayed as a visitor in the U.S. you will likely be deported if found by the authorities. If you did overstay, you have committed a serious violation against U.S. immigration law and that is recorded against you. In such a situation, do you find yourself eager and excited to meet and chat with a U.S. immigration officer? Most likely not! But if the U.S. immigration declared amnesty and immigrant status to everyone who overstayed and printed every name concerned in a newspaper which included yours and invites each one to meet with a consul, how would that have made a difference? Many a rebel soldier have surrendered and were reunited to society because amnesty was declared long before they had intentions of giving up.

In other words, will you run home with excitement to a God who has not forgiven you, who actively counts your sins against you, who has you on His most wanted list, who sees you as one who is guilty, who has not acquitted you, who does not acknowledge you as His child, who has never signed your adoption papers, who promises to sign for everything but only when you decide and actually come home?

Or would you rather run home towards a God who never failed to see you as His child, who adopted you while you were yet enemies, who signed for your pardon and emancipation while you were weak and faithless, who now invites you to return home and experience Him whom to know is Life Eternal?

Isaiah 44:22 says, “I have swept away your sins (past tense) like the morning mists. I have scattered your offenses (past tense) like the clouds. Oh, return to me, for I have paid the price to set you free.”

You don’t return home THEN God sweeps away your sins like the morning mists. You don’t return home THEN God scatters your offenses like the clouds. He ALREADY has swept your sins away and no longer counts them against you while you were away in your unrepentant and lost state. He now invites you to come home. The sweeping away comes first and is already done (It is finished!).

One thing is sure: it is our sacred calling and supreme mission to invite people home to an infinitely loving Creator God. And I want to see people not only walk home but to RUN home to God. And in my experience, from this perspective of the gospel, from this snapshot of God, I’ve seen people not only get excited to run home to God and know Him more for who He is but also to invite others to come home to God as they did!

by : Richard David Tamayo