Forgiveness in the Bible—Putting It All Together Theologically
The Old Testament idea of what we call forgiveness does appear to contain within it some idea akin to the notion of no longer holding offenders guilty. But that isn’t the most natural meaning; it is but one of several underlying connotations. A more profound and complete picture is that forgiving a person means bearing or carrying the pain or burden or destruction or debt that the other person has created, or taking responsibility for the evil the other person perpetrated.
The basic New Testament idea is one of releasing or sending away or leaving behind a person’s offenses. It includes the Old Testament concepts of bearing or carrying, since in several instances the major New Testament words are the same Greek terms used in the Greek Old Testament to describe such bearing or carrying.
Contrary to popular current concepts, the overall biblical picture is NOT of a judicial proceeding involving judging and condemnation or acquittal.
Rather than being a mere question of judicial acquittal, forgiveness in the biblical sense implies that the forgiver accepts the costs, the consequences of sin. God, in other words, sees sin less as something to adjudicate in terms of guilt or innocence, and more as a cosmic calamity that he has decided to bear, to carry, himself. In the process of doing so, he will engage in something like judicial acquittal, which tends to be our favorite image, but that’s by no means the primary description of what is going on. The entire cosmos is broken, wrapped in darkness, infused with pain, and is crying out in anguish. The Creator does not merely decide that he will declare individuals not guilty so they can be clean and live forever with him. Rather, he chooses to bear the darkness, sin, the pain, the anguish in his own being, to incur and pay the debt himself, to carry the sin/burden, and then to release it into the fiery depths of his own devouring love.
The depth of that love is the game-changer—the reality to which, because it is so alien within human experience, God’s people through the centuries have often been anesthetized. Such radical love is simply unbelievable.
It has been easier to use fallen human categories in describing God’s actions. It has frequently been claimed, for example, that God is so angry at sin (as well as at sinners) that his wrath overflows in cosmic indignation, and only the ability to hurt someone in an infinite way will calm his wrath sufficiently to allow him to give grace to human beings, and so Jesus volunteered to experience the brunt of that wrath. There are innumerable variations on this horrific, pagan philosophy. Inevitably, these human categories demand an in-group that God accepts and an out-group on whom God gets to vent his eternal revenge. And inevitably, these human categories manage to devise “spiritual principles” that describe how one person’s response to God will be accepted while another’s will not because that person is simply too evil—that is, if I make it “in” it’s because of something I did that was right, whether through good works or living a moral life or believing correct doctrines or perhaps simply having a “saving faith.”
But let me present some statements that, in my opinion, are game-changers—statements that might appear plain as day to an objective reader who has no preconceived notions about God and biblical teachings, but that believers for centuries have either passed over or watered down or explained away.
NRS John 1:29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”
NRS John 3:16-17 For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
NRS John 12:31-32 Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.
NRS Acts 2:20-21 The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day. Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Romans 3:23-24 . . .since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, all are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
NRS Romans 5:18 . . .just as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all.
NRS Romans 11:32 For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all.
NRS I Corinthians 15:22 . . .for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ.
NRS II Corinthians 5:15-19 [Christ] died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them. From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.
NRS Ephesians 1:9-10 . . .he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
NRS Colossians 1:19-20 For in Christ all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.
NRS I Timothy 2:5-6 For there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself a ransom for all.
NRS Titus 2:11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all.
NRS I John 2:2 . . .he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
If this collection of game-changing statements is not sufficiently staggering, the following two passages should provide a death blow to any human categories that cloud our understanding of the heart of our Lord:
I Peter 1:18-20 You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your fathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was destined before the foundation of the world but was made manifest at the end of the times for your sake.
[Trans. BCM] Revelation 13:8 All who live on the earth will worship it—everyone whose name is not written in the book of life of the lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world.
As I understand the grand picture of spiritual reality as described in scripture, God decided to give radical free will to the creatures he was about to make; but he knew that, with such a free, creative nature, they would have an innate capacity for incomparable mischief and evil. So he said to himself, as it were, “I am not willing to have creatures who are any less free and creative than myself. That would be very dull. These free creatures will have the capacity not only for very great good but also for very great evil. Therefore I am committing, before I speak a single creative word, to take the fall for whatever evil they do. I will bear it. I will carry it. The cost may be immeasurably great and painful, but I will pay the debt myself. I will do this for the entire creation. For I will have what I desire—a universe filled with creative, free creatures much like myself, with whom I can have intimate fellowship.
God’s commitment from the very beginning was to personally bear/carry the sin of the cosmos. That is the ultimate reality behind biblical ideas of forgiveness.
Forgiveness is part of the underlying matrix of all creation. God made that commitment to forgive—the Lamb was slain—before creation even began. And the commitment was for all. For the entire universe.
I believe that is why forgiveness is the number one item on God’s list for human beings to emulate. Although we Christians traditionally have focused on more obvious sins, often specializing in sexual activity, that’s not where Jesus’ focus was when he said failure to forgive was the most grievous of sins (see Matthew 6:15). Yet how many times have you heard of a preacher being fired for having unresolved resentments against someone in the congregation?
There’s a wonderful passage where Jesus meshed together concepts of forgiveness and free will. I’ll first give you my understanding of what he was really saying, and then I will end with that quotation.
“You have the privilege of deciding the rules. That’s how radically free the Father created you to be. I urge you in all circumstances to be like the Father, choosing to forgive, to give grace, to bear the evil that another has caused. But in no way will your freedom be abrogated. You may set the bar as high or as low as you like. The Father set the bar right on the ground, demanding nothing in return for his grace. If you want to set the bar very high, you are free to do so; but remember, the freedom and spiritual authority you have been given are irrevocable. Wherever you set the bar for others, that’s where it will be set for you. It’s your choice.”
NRS Matthew 7:1-2 Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get.
Or, in Luke’s version,
[trans. BCM] Luke 6:37 Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not pass sentence, and you will not be sentenced; set others free, and you will be set free.