Essay 15 (1-3-04)

IS GOD’S FORGIVENESS UNCONDITIONAL?

Is there an if to God’s forgiveness, or is it sovereign and without conditions? Are we forgiven if we show humility and contriteness, or do we show humility and contriteness because we are forgiven? Is it that God will forgive us when we love and obey him, or that we will love and obey him because he forgives us?

There might be an answer to this in the parable of the prodigal son, which might better be called the parable of the loving father. This short story is about forgiveness — a father forgiving a very wayward son. Jesus tells the story so as to picture God as a forgiving father. Jesus is saying in telling the story, This is how God loves and forgives.

When did the father forgive the prodigal son? Was it when he returned home and confessed to being an unworthy son? The confession, along with a request to be made a mere hired servant, the father appears to ignore. In fact, the son never gets around to asking to be made a servant. The father is too busy with hugs and kisses and honors to listen to confessions.

His father had been watching for him, and when he appeared in the distance, he ran to meet him. Amidst embraces and kisses he called for the very best robe to be put on him, then a ring for his hand and sandals for his feet. The robe and the ring stood for authority, and the shoes for sonship — "all God’s chillun’ got shoes!" The party and fatted calf meant celebration. The father likened it to resurrection: "My son was dead, and is alive again."

This is not just forgiveness, but overwhelming forgiveness — reckless grace, it might be called. But when did the father forgive the son?

Does not the story imply that the son was never unforgiven? The father held no grudge. He never condemned. He had no lecture prepared. He rather forgave him from the time he left home and squandered the first dollar, and he forgave him throughout his escapade of profligacy. When all his fair weather friends forsook him and he was destitute on a pig farm, he was forgiven by his father. The father’s extravagant treatment of him was an expression of the forgiveness, not the forgiveness itself.

The forgiveness was strictly unconditional. The son did nothing — absolutely nothing — to gain or merit or deserve forgiveness. It was sheer grace — unreasonable and irrational grace. The elder son’s complaint is understandable. It didn’t make sense. It would be like President Bush forgiving Saddam Hussein and showering him with amenities!

But there is another side to the story. As Jesus told this greatest of all short stories, he includes a remarkable line, "And when he came to himself, he said ‘I will arise and go to my father’" Our Lord apparently did not believe in total hereditary depravity. In spite of all the debauchery the son resolved to do something good and right. He would return home and make a new start, even if as a slave.

Suppose he had not so resolved? Suppose he had not returned home? Then he would not have benefited from or enjoyed his father’s forgiveness. While his return home was not a condition to the forgiveness, it was a condition to his enjoyment of the forgiveness. It is not unlike other of God’s blessings. The prevalence of water is an unconditional blessing. God does not give me water because I’m good or smart or worthy. But the benefit of the water is conditional. I take up the water and drink — or I die of thirst!

So, my answer to our question is this: The reality or prevalence of God’s forgiveness is unconditional — wholly by grace and apart from any work or merit on our part. But the benefit or enjoyment of that forgiveness is conditional — I have to get out of the swine pit of sin and return home.

The Nixon pardon illustrates this. The former president was forgiven of all crimes against the United States when President Ford signed the pardon certificate. Nixon did not work for it, or purchase it, or deserve it. He was unworthy of it. It was all grace. Nixon was well aware of this, and, if you recall, he said accepting and signing the pardon document was the hardest thing he ever did. But he had to sign — to benefit from and to enjoy the nation’s forgiveness he had to sign. Only a nitwit would say that was salvation by works!

This is the place of faith in and obedience to the gospel. God has forgiven us through Christ, all of us. John did not introduce him as the potential Savior of the world — if we’ll do this or that — but as the one who takes away the sins of the world. He has forgiven us. Unconditionally! That is the glorious good news of the gospel. But we are to make a response in faith and baptism, once we hear and understand the gospel.

Suppose once more — this time that the prodigal rejects his father’s forgiveness. Grace is too much for his pride. He turns away in defiance and never again returns home. This describes those who are finally lost, according to scripture — those who persistently and to the end reject whatever measure of light God has given them.

Our Lord made it quite clear: "I did not come to judge the world, but to save it" (John 12:47). And so he did save it and forgive it, unconditionally. What glorious news! This means everyone is saved — except those who reject such grace. We don’t know how few or how many that might be. But there is no surer sign of rejecting God’s grace than living a life of sin or of indifference to what God has done. Those who knowingly and persistently continue in such sin — and, unlike the prodigal, refuse to turn their lives around — will be lost.

That is what the story of the prodigal son is about. God, in his abundant mercy, has forgiven us unconditionally. That puts the ball in our court.

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