Oswald Chambers is one of my favorite devotional writers. There is a line in My Utmost for His Highest where he says, "Beware of the pleasant view of the Fatherhood of God — 'God is so kind and loving that of course He will forgive us.' That sentiment has no place whatever in the New Testament." In other words, that view is a gross misunderstanding of the God of the Bible!
Today, as never before in my lifetime, I believe that people have a terribly distorted understanding of sin. We have changed our view of sin to be something that is out of step with popular opinion or "political correctness". So, in this new world-view, the culture sets the "boundaries" or definitions of what is good and right and true and acceptable. This new cultural view is that popular opinion, or the most visible and vocal opinion, defines good and evil or at least right and wrong. This cultural view is not passive or tolerant of other views, it has aggressively swept thru the western world and is spreading globally thru all forms of media. This is very widespread, even within the ranks of the people who claim Jesus as the person they seek to serve and follow.
I was born a Texan. In Texas we grew up with a deep affection for the men who fought and died at the Alamo, fighting for Texas' independence. One of those men was the legendary former Congressman from Tennessee, Davey Crockett. There is an old movie where Davey Crockett explains his world view, "Let me tell you something . . . there's right and there's wrong. You do one and your living; you do the other and you may be walking around, but you're as dead as a beaver hat." That is actually the Biblical view of sin. God has said certain things are right and others are wrong and that we have to deal with our sin problem. The Bible says that, "All have sinned and fall short of the beauty of God's plan" — Romans 3:23.
God is not a kindly old Santa Claus who will just laugh and forgive us for whatever bad or selfish or evil things we do. The God of the Bible does not just laugh off sin. He does not accept sin. God is pure and just. He says that sin must be paid for. The good news is not that God doesn't see or care about our bad choices or actions or evil intentions. The good news of the Bible is that God, thru the life and death and resurrection of Jesus, has paid for our failings and sins. Forgiveness was made possible by the suffering of Jesus and the broken heart of God. But we must enter into relationship with Jesus in order for that payment to be credited to our account — in order to be set right with God the Father. That does not mean saying some short phrases about being sorry or wanting to be forgiven and set right with God. It means being broken-hearted about our rebellion against God. It means hating the sin and ugliness within ourselves and asking God to heal and restore and give us the strength and goodness to surrender to Him and truly seek, day by day, to be like Him and like Jesus.
The counter cultural thing is that we have to be humble enough and wise enough to see our own failings and our need for forgiveness and redemption. We have to believe that there is right and wrong and true and false. We must believe that God exists and recognize that to be connected to Him, we must believe Him and follow Him and seek to become like Him!
That is where a true understanding of Forgiveness should lead us.
Stan