Forgiveness? No, I've done some pretty awful things in my life. God
would never forgive that. No, never. When I bring up the subject of
forgiveness, the response has been sometimes as forthright as that.
More often the belief that God is unable to forgive the worst of one's
sins is unverbalized, a deep-seated despair underlying anxiety or
depression.
The Christian faith emphasizes forgiveness of sins. If we believe, we
are saved. At the same time, Christians are told that they should
present their daily misdemeanours to God in repentance. Yet, as is
usually the case, when our difficulties stem from normal human
conditions and appetites, we find ourselves time and again making the
same request: Father forgive me once more for.... I too have asked,
Can God forgive even this?
I believe God has first-hand knowledge of what it means to be human. God
knows how impossible it is for us to live up to our aspirations of
purity, and offers forgiveness as a solution. I compare forgiveness to a
blanket - God's big warm cuddly forgiveness blanket. God could have
draped one huge blanket over the Earth, pronouncing us all forgiven,
without our having any choice in the matter. Instead, forgiveness is a
personalized blanket, available to each individual. Our part is to slip
underneath. Saving faith is the action of receiving that comforting and
comfortable cover. Under it, we can rest, without struggle or attempts
at perfection, just complete and utter relaxation in God's provision for
us. No matter how big our sins may seem, the blanket is big enough to
cover it all, past, present, and future.
But.... doesn't that mean we can just go ahead and do whatever? Doesn't
the Bible say that faith without works is dead? When we put conditions
on God's forgiveness, believing we must act in certain ways to meet
God's approval, we are essentially saying that God's blanket of
forgiveness is not big enough, that it may have been big enough for
yesterday, but not for today.
My response to James 2:17 is this: James was writing about the naked
hungry people in our midst, the street-people, the single moms, the
elderly, the disabled. All the faith in the world will not clothe or
feed anyone unless someone's faith prompts them into action. Faith
without action is dead, non-productive, without value in the world.
Nevertheless, once we have slipped under the forgiveness blanket, we are
acceptable in God's sight. I believe that only when we experience
no-strings-attached forgiveness, will we be truly free to live in God's
abundance.
Thus in coming to God with our mistakes, our human appetites out of
control, or even our conscious decisions to do wrong, we do not need to
plead for forgiveness. That has been accomplished already, once and for
all. Instead we can ask for strength and courage to do better
tomorrow, thankful for the warmth of God's forgiveness blanket.
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