The Abundance of Forgiveness
Scarcity is a Myth
This Lent we have been going through a study on Wednesday evenings and I am leading a study on the Gospel of Mark on Sunday mornings. I have noticed something in both studies and it is that God forgives abundantly. I would like us to look at a few passages and consider the implications of those passages. Starting with forgiveness is helpful.
When he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. So many gathered around that there was no longer room for them, not even in front of the door, and he was speaking the word to them. Then some peoples came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. And when they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and after having dug through it, they let down the mat on which the paralytic lay. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Child, your sins are forgiven.” Now some of the scribes were sitting there questioning in their hearts, “Why does this fellow speak in this way? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” At once Jesus perceived in his spirit that they were discussing these questions among themselves, and he said to them, “Why do you raise such questions in your hearts? Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Stand up and take your mat and walk’? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic— “I say to you, stand up, take your mat, and go to your home.” And he stood up and immediately took the mat and went out before all of them, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!” (Mark 2:1–12 NRSVue)
Do you notice anything about this passage? Look at the timing and context of the forgiveness Jesus gives. Jesus forgives without reservation. Jesus forgives with no action by the person being forgiven. The man forgiven and healed does not even have any mention of faith within this story. Jesus sees the man’s friends’ faith and their faith moves him. The idea I keep coming back to here is that the Gospel is about forgiveness and that forgiveness comes without strings.
So why do we use language as if forgiveness only comes after repentance or our actions? Because we conflate forgiveness with salvation. While salvation requires forgiveness, forgiveness is not contingent upon salvation. I can hear the objections because the usual statement is that forgiveness is offered, not given. But that is not what scripture says. It says Jesus forgives. When Jesus is blessing the cup during the Last Supper, he says that the cup, representing his blood, is poured out for the forgiveness of sins. The cup is not poured out for the possibility of forgiveness, but for forgiveness.
You see, forgiveness is never contingent upon the person being forgiven. Instead, as Matt Rawle mentions in our Lenten study, forgiveness frees us from being controlled by our pain. Forgiveness frees the one forgiving. If we project this upon God, we may see how God’s forgiveness is poured out regardless of our actions. This is where we must separate forgiveness and salvation. Forgiveness makes salvation possible. When we respond to the forgiveness we have already received, we truly make a change (repentance) and begin to be reborn in the likeness of Jesus. Forgiveness and the grace it entails enables the response of repentant direction changing into a life with eternal quality.
From a Wesleyan-Holiness perspective, it seems difficult to see forgiveness any other way. If we truly believe that all may be saved and that the cross accomplished forgiveness for all, then salvation comes because of responding to be forgiven. We do not see the work of Christ as a scarce resource. Forgiveness exposes the lie of the scarcity of God’s love. Forgiveness exposes God’s love as abundant and endless. I guess that is why we conflate forgiveness and salvation; because we see forgiveness and love as scarce resources only available for a limited time or in a limited capacity. The myth of scarcity creates a crisis of fear within Christians that drives our language around forgiveness. That language appears to be more informed by pop Christianity than by scripture.
Speaking of repentance, have you ever considered the fact that Judas repents? I believe I have written about this before. You see, works of art and culture have portrayed Judas better than Christians do. In the rock opera Jesus Christ: Superstar Judas is seen redeemed in a vision Jesus experiences while dying on the cross. But the Gospel of Matthew has some interesting thoughts about Judas and on Peter. The Lenten study I mentioned talks about this. In the Gospel of Matthew, Judas and Peter are contrasting characters. After Peter denies Jesus, he runs off and his name is not mentioned again in the Gospel. We know Peter is present at the great commission, but only because the text tells us that the eleven were there.
But Judas’ part in the story continues after he betrays Jesus. Like many references to Judas, Matthew is giving us a window into the complexity of Judas. It may be that Judas got Jesus so wrong that he thought an arrest would force Jesus to be the conquering Messiah so many desired. Judas isn’t the only one who misses the point, but he may be the most tragic. Let’s read the story after Judas realizes what is happening.
When Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he repented and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders. He said, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” But they said, “What is that to us? See to it yourself.” Throwing down the pieces of silver in the temple, he departed, and he went and hanged himself. But the chief priests, taking the pieces of silver, said, “It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since they are blood money.” After conferring together, they used them to buy the potter’s field as a place to bury foreigners. For this reason that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day. Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah, “And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of the one on whom a price had been set, on whom some of the people of Israel had set a price, and they gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord commanded me.” (Matt 27:3–10)
Judas repents. This is a simple statement in Matthew’s Gospel, but it is a profound and deep truth. Judas realizes his mistake. He repents, but he becomes inconsolable. I am willing to go out on a limb and say that Judas repented in part because he realized that Jesus forgave even him. But he still got it all wrong and was not able to imagine what was to come. The tragedy is that a man who was shaken to his core and repented did not see the resurrection. At least not in his life. I choose to believe, like Rice and Weber, that Judas is ultimately saved through the work of Jesus, but I can only speculate and hope.
Does it change how you experience God if forgiveness is a simple fact? Does it drive a response of repentance? I hope so, but know God pours that forgiveness out on all. Our response is only possible through that forgiving grace.