A Theology of Forgiveness, Part 2 of 3 by Corey J. McLaughlin

Part 1 covered what forgiveness is not, now we dive into what the two types are.

Secrets Concealed #1 – Two Types of Forgiveness Toward Others

There is an ongoing debate in the Christian world about whether forgiveness is conditional or unconditional – that is, whether certain conditions need to be met before a Christian may grant forgiveness (e.g. a person must repent) or whether they may do so with unbridled warrant. Even worse is that many modern books on forgiveness do not mention the debate at all and thereby end up conflating the two into an unbiblical system.

A simple solution is to study each set of verses (one’s supporting conditional forgiveness and one’s supporting unconditional) within their own rightful context and suddenly a helpful pattern emerges – there are two types of forgiveness; forgiveness in prayer and forgiveness in person.

Forgiveness in Prayer is Unconditional

Forgiveness in prayer is an unconditional surrender of anger, animosity, and revenge, to God and is therefore focused on maintaining the vertical relationship of grace for strength and fellowship for faith. The one who benefits most immediately in this process is the one who needs to forgive an offense. Emptying oneself so completely places one in a state of dependence with abandon upon God trusting Him to be the judge, jury and executioner (Rom. 12:17-19). “Empty” is not perhaps the most fitting metaphor since the main Greek word for forgiveness (aphiemi) most notably means “leave/let go/leave behind/forsake,” as when the disciples heard the voice of Jesus and left behind their nets – a significant act which represents leaving behind their entire livelihoods (Matt. 4:20). Likewise, the voice of Jesus beckons Christians to leave behind the rotten fish of resentment that gets tangled in our emotional nets (so Heb. 12:15; for a full word study see preceptaustin.org)!

Mark’s testimony records Jesus saying,
“Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses” (11:24-25)[ESV].

Jesus’ famous words, “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses,” are spoken in the context of the Lord’s Prayer where Jesus lays down a model for how to approach the God of heaven and earth (Matt. 6:5-15)[ESV].

Notice that forgiveness in prayer does not require anyone to repent or be sorrowful to us for sin done against us, nor for an offender to make restitution or promise never to offend again. This is not about our relationship with other people, it is about an unconditional surrender in our heart attitude before God.

The greatest living example of forgiveness in prayer is Jesus’ shocking prayer after being rejected by His own people and beaten by the Romans saying, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Lk 23:34)[ESV]. An often missed fact is that Jesus is not talking TO his aggressors offering them forgiveness, rather, He is talking TO God FOR them; graciously and sacrificially interceding on their behalf pleading for God to show mercy. Stephen does the same thing in the book of Acts crying out in a bloody bludgeoned mess, “Lord, do not hold this against them” (7:59-60). They both let go of what Paul would later describe as all “bitterness, wrath and anger and clamor and slander...along with all malice” and were “kind and tenderhearted” exemplifying the virtue of forgiveness in prayer (Eph. 4:31-32)[ESV]. So, Paul essentially admonishes the Ephesians to be like Jesus and to be like Stephen in their character and conduct (Eph. 4:31-32) even “forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you” (v 32)[ESV].

Some have argued that such a distinction does not matter because clearly, God listened to His Son and forgave the Jewish people, leaving us an example to practice unconditional forgiveness to anyone for anything committed against us. But there is no indication that the Jews ever repented for crucifying the Messiah and plenty of evidence that God did not honor Jesus’ prayer but brought massive judgment upon the nation of Israel when in AD 70 Jerusalem fell and the precious stones of the Temple were deconstructed brick-by-brick by the Romans (as Jesus predicted in Mt. 24:2). It is God’s prerogative to act in vengeance and wrath (Rom. 12:17-19), but it is our privilege in Christ to intercede with mercy and grace even against those who have done us unspeakable harm and do not repent.

Forgiveness In Person is Conditional

The vertical relationship overflows into the horizontal, and forgiveness in prayer gives way, or rather, makes way, for forgiveness in person. How exactly was it again that God in Christ forgive you? Was it not because you repented and believed in Christ (Matt. 3:6; Mk 1:15; Lk 24:47; Acts 2:38; 3:19; Rom. 10:19; 1 Jn. 1:9)? So, salvation is free, but has conditions? Quite true. Otherwise, if it were entirely free with NO conditions then Universalism, the belief that Christ saves everyone regardless of who they are or what they believe, would be true. So, God extends forgiveness, pleads for it from His fallen human creatures, provides for it in Christ’s work on the cross and resurrection from the grave, but still demands repentance and faith to receive it. [1] Ergo, to forgive each other “as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive” Col. 3:13) is to uphold His standard and follow His pattern to go and do likewise.

Otherwise, if we forgive everyone for everything every time why ever confront anyone for their sin or rebuke them at all? Why not just extend grace upon grace and show how superior we are as conduits of God’s love that we can roll up in the firetruck of forgiveness and put out any blaze of offense or violent aggression? Unless, perhaps, forgiveness in person is not so much about US as it is our brother and sister in the faith and helping them to grow into Christ likeness. After all, Jesus is shockingly persistent in his teaching in Matthew 18:15-20 about confronting serious sin and not letting it go until the Christian brother or sister repents, even if that means informing others or planning a large intervention before the church!

Truth be told, most Christians tend to err on the side of avoiding conflict and would likely never press such an issue, but rather “graciously forgive,” which is in reality just an excuse to use forgiveness to avoid addressing serious sin rather than as Jude instructs, “save others by snatching them out of the fire” (1:23). Or as James instructs his readers in 5:19-20[ESV]:

My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner form his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

An infamous incident in Corinth demonstrates the need for this very teaching to help the Corinthians grow out of their infant faith and into maturity. The Apostle Paul had to admonish the Corinthians to confront a brother living in flagrant sexual sin (1 Cor. 5:1-2) and even boasting about it (v 6) to be expelled from the church (vv 11-13). In addition to protecting the church (vv 6-13), the purpose of dealing with this sin so decisively was out of hope “that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord” (v 5)[ESV]. The church body could have unconditionally forgiven the evil man, embraced him with a hug, and sung Barney’s theme song to him, but none of that would actually have benefited his character formation in Christ, nor the church’s spiritual growth. Hypothetically, if this man did not repent and instead remained obstinate in continuing his immoral relationship, the church would have no obligation to forgive him. It is in fact the consequence of shutting him out and not forgiving him in person during this time that will break down his pride and expose genuine sorrow in any true believer (2 Cor. 7:10). By Paul’s second letter it seems the man has repented and so Paul instructs “...you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. So, I beg you to reaffirm your love for him” (2 Cor. 2:7-11)[ESV].

In the Lord’s Prayer we pray “forgive us our debts, [in the same way that] we forgive our debtors” (Matt. 6:12)[ESV]. How does Jesus teach us to forgive our debtors? Right in the existing teaching on forgiveness in Matthew 18 Peter continues to question Jesus and receives the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant in response (18:23-35). Herein lies the obvious answer. Jesus tells of a man who cannot pay his debts to the king and so confesses and is forgiven (vv 26-27). Yet when this debt-free man runs into another who cannot pay their debt to him, and that person likewise confesses as he did (v 29), he nonetheless ignores the plea and demands his payment even punishing the poor servant with prison (v 30). When the king finds out he indicts him charging, “You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?” (vv 32-33)[ESV].

The failure to role model after the king and pass on forgiveness when asked gets the man a jail sentence with Jesus warning at the end, “So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart” (v 35)[ESV]. [2]

Forgiving others of their offenses “from the heart” is no easy task even when they come to us sorrowful and repenting. Even more so if that repentance may seem insincere, like someone sinning against you multiple times a day and yet nonetheless seeking your forgiveness:

Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if seins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.” The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” - Luke 17:3-5 [ESV]

If our bitterness and anger are already let go and given to God in prayer, then the reasonable conclusion is that forgiveness in person is more about helping others in the horizontal relationships of our life to let go of and leave behind their guilt and regret for sins done against us. This is how God treated Israel when her heart was hardened like stone. This is how Christ treated us when we were rebelling in our spirit before coming to Him. It is in this act, a sacred act, when the offender is seeking and we are ready, willing, even eager to forgive, that we best represent Christ to that person. In an offer to forgive and with a willingness to set them free we practice the Proverbial “heaping burning coals on their head” (Prov. 25:21-22)[ESV] warming them up for the Gospel. In that moment we give them a temporal taste of what God can do eternally for their soul.

But Christians by-in-large reject the notion and role of forgiveness in person as harsh, judgmental, and mean. Ardel Caneday writing for The Evangelical Review of Theology and Politics makes a lucid connection as to why so many might do so:

To teach that forgiveness is conditioned upon repentance is to contest a widely embraced, unchallenged, sacred assumption that many Evangelicals hold in common with non- Christians, received from psychotherapy. It is because pluralism’s dogma of “tolerance” which infects even Christians, that to teach Scripture requires repentance in order to receive forgiveness of sins often ignites accusations of intolerance, strife, and resentment, which is the antithesis of true forgiveness which brings reconciliation and unity. Thus, forgiveness has become a privatized transaction of the heart for the therapeutic wellbeing of wronged individuals; now, whether wrongdoers repent is irrelevant. [3]

If it is true that Forgiveness in person is based on how God in Christ forgives believers, and then expressed in how believers are to hold one another accountable for their sins for their own spiritual wellbeing, then it should be manifest beyond a reasonable doubt that to short circuit this process is to cheapen grace and present a false Gospel, yea, a false God to the world around us. In contrast, if offenders do not repent when confronted, Christians are called to stand towards them as God stands towards us like the patient, loving, father in the Parable of the Prodigal Son ready to forgive the moment his son turns away from evil and seeks good (Lk 15:11-32). Timothy Keller rightfully observes, “God’s reckless grace is our greatest hope, a life changing experience.” [4] So we represent that hope to the rebellious, the hard hearted, the lost, by standing with arms wide open, the doors to our heart unlocked, the lights of grace left on, and the sign “willing and eager to forgive” hanging above inviting the wayward back into our lives the moment they repent.

Secrets Concealed #2 – Two Types of Forgiveness from God

In the same way that our human forgiveness consists of two different types of forgiveness in the horizontal relationship, so God extends two different types of forgiveness in the vertical relationship towards His people too, what John MacArthur has termed forensic and fatherly forgiveness.

Forensic forgiveness is what God gives upon initial repentance and belief in Christ Jesus as Lord, Savior, God-Man incarnate, risen King, reigning deity, i.e. our justification (Rom. 10:9- 10; Heb. 10:17-18).

Fatherly forgiveness is what He gives as we continue to repent of our sins and seek open lines of communication, presence, power, and fellowship with Him, i.e. our sanctification (1 Jn. 1:9; Matt. 6:5-15; 18:21-35).

If this formulation is correct then the oft promoted Christian idea that if you do not forgive others you will not be forgiven interpreted to mean that therefore you will lose your salvation, i.e. your justification, is patently false (or that you never had it in the first place). It is true that God will not forgive you, but what that means is that He will not extend His Fatherly forgiveness to you which will rob you of fellowship with Him. The threat in the parable of the Unforgiving Servant (Matt. 18:21-35) concerns a believer (v 21) refusing to extend the forgiveness God has freely given and so is throw into jail (v 35 ESV), or as other translations take the word, given over to tormentors (v 35 NIV). MacArthur explains further in his sermon, Learning to Forgive Part 2:

If you do not forgive others you will not be forgiven. And if you do not forgive others and you are not forgiven, then you put yourself in the position to experience two things: You will not know the joy of communion with the Lord and you will know the chastening of the Lord. And I see no problem with seeing what happens at the end of this parable as the chastening that comes to a sinning Christian...We should not be shocked that the Lord is harsh, and stringent, and firm, and strong in dealing with His own, because that’s part of how He conforms them to the holy standard of His revealed will. That should not shock us.

Therefore, in the same way that God extends two types of forgiveness to His followers, we are to model His example and practice two types of forgiveness to those who sin against us. While these are not the same kind of forgiveness, the basic pattern is evident.

This pattern can also be seen from a Calvinistic perspective on the doctrine of Election whereby God practices a version of forgiveness in prayer and forgiveness in person. Since His elect were chosen from before dawn of time (Eph. 1:4; Jn 6:37), God had already predetermined to grant them forgiveness based unconditionally on His grace and before they had done anything good or bad, which includes repenting (Rom. 9:11; this point is nullified in the Arminian understanding of election mind you). He then waited for His elect to come into existence and then for them to repent in order to extend that forgiveness to them in person. He was ready, willing, and eager to do so because He always knew He was going to in the first place. The Apostle Paul does connect election and forgiveness in a practical way when he charges the saints at Colossae to, “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness . . . forgiving each other” (3:12–13).

So, a twofold pattern of forgiveness is found in the eternal decree of God, in His actions towards us, and in our response toward those who sin against us.

Upcoming: Part 3 – Conclusion and Personal Observation

[1] One might ask “Repentance from what and to what and faith in whom and in what” but those questions go beyond the scope of this article. Suffice it to say “in Christ, His sinless life, substitutionary atonement and resurrection from the dead” answer the second question. As to the first, we are aware there is a movement to define “repentance” as turning away from a wrong belief in who Jesus is and turning to a right belief in him through confession of Him as Lord (Rom. 10:19) rather than the typical Evangelical formulation of turning away from sin and turning to the Savior. Some of this teaching is coming from Pentecostal and Free Grace movements that desire to minimize the severity of sin and maximize the grace of God in Christ though their formulation is hard pressed to fit all the biblical datum (e.g. 2 Chron. 7:14; Acts 2:38; 3:19; 11:18; 17:30; 20:21; 26:20; 1 Jn. 1:9). But see The Christian and Repentance at TGC blog.

[2] The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant is often appealed to as an example of unconditional forgiveness even by those who otherwise champion conditional forgiveness (e.g. John Macarthur holds that Matt. 18:15-17 represent conditional aspect of forgiveness while the parable in question just a few verses later represents the unconditional aspect of forgiveness, in The Freedom and Power of Forgiveness (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway, 1998), 97- 112.

[3] Lavishly Forgive Sins in order to Be Forgiven: Jesus’ Parable of the Unmerciful Servant by Ardel B. Caneday in The Evangelical Review of Theology and Politics Volume 5, 2017, pp. ES 17-32.

[4] The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith, 2008: XV.

[5] For more on this John Macarthur’s sermon on 1 Jn. 1:8-10 entitled, Total Forgiveness and the Confession of Sin, Aug. 18, 2002.