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                       | IS FORGIVENESS CONDITIONAL OR UNCONDITIONAL?By Stanton See In a column in the Nashville Banner in 1987, a rabbi wrote the following: "For those of us who remain Jews, though, Jesus’ idea of a God whose love and forgiveness are unconditional is less attractive than a God whose primary interest is in a moral world of respect and justice tempered by mercy and compassion. In short, we find ourselves more drawn to the God of the Hebrew Bible and Rabbinic literature than the God Jesus portrays." (Emphasis mine, S. S.) No doubt the writer based this statement on what he has heard being taught by the prominent preachers who claim to be Christians. While God’s love (active good will) is unconditional as demonstrated by Christ dying for the whole world (1 John 2:2), His forgiveness, based on Christ’s death, is conditional. Let us turn to the New Testament and read what it says on this subject. "Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. (Emphasis mine, S. S.) Matthew 7:21. Since one cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven without the forgiveness of sins and Jesus places the condition of obeying the will of God on entering the kingdom of heaven, it becomes obvious that forgiveness is conditional. In Hebrews 5:9 we read "And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him". This verse teaches that Jesus saves (forgives) only those who meet the condition of obeying Him. Paul writes in Romans 2:5-10, "But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to each one according to his deeds’: eternal life to those who by patient continuance in good seek for glory, honor, and immortality; but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek; but glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek." This passage emphasizes that God forgives only those who, with a humble and sincere heart, meet the condition of obeying the truth and brings wrath upon all whom do not meet this condition. It does not take a scholar to see from these verses, as well as others in the New Testament, that God’s forgiveness, as revealed by Jesus and His apostles, is conditional. This raises the question of how does one receive forgiveness? Jesus, in Mark 16:16, stated: "He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned." Peter told the Jews who believed his sermon on the day of Pentecost, as recorded in Acts 2:38 "…Repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sin; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." Paul writes in Romans 10:9-10 "that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes to righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made to salvation." These verses show that when one believes in Jesus, repents of his sins, confesses his faith in Christ and is baptized, he will receive the forgiveness of his sins. This is only the beginning, because the New Testament teaches that a Christian can lose his salvation and thus needs to keep on submitting and obeying Jesus. The fact that forgiveness is conditional under the law of Jesus Christ shows that God’s justice has never changed. As we read in Romans 2:5-10, God is a God of justice tempered with mercy as the writer claimed in his column about the God of the Old Testament. Therefore, the picture of God in the Old Testament is the same as the picture of God in the New Testament. Thus the idea of rejecting Christ because one believes He pictures a different God than the God of the Old Testament is a false idea.
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