The Top 100 Questions: Biblical Answers to Popular Questions by Richard Bewes

Author:Richard Bewes
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Christianity
Publisher: Christian Focus Publications
Published: 2015-09-08T16:00:00+00:00

64. What about forgiving the unrepentant?

Is it biblical to forgive those who show no remorse for their actions?

It is the love of one’s enemies which distinguishes the true disciple of Jesus Christ. In Burundi, at the height of its violent troubles, an African Christian was facing the guns of his enemies. ‘Before you kill me’, he said, ‘may I have permission to say a few things?’

– ‘Say it quickly.’

– ‘First,’ he said, ‘I love you. Second, I love my country. Third, I will sing a song.’ In their mother tongue, he then sang all four verses of the hymn which begins, Out of my bondage, sorrow and night; Jesus I come, Jesus I come’. And then the shots rang out. This African Christian was simply following the example of his Leader, in the saying from the Cross which has stamped itself upon the world’s consciousness, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing’ (Luke 23:34). The words were to be echoed by Stephen (Acts 7:60) – the first of a long and honourable procession of martyrs.

Such attitudes are the outworking of the Lord’s teaching in the Sermon on the Mount: ‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you’ (Matt. 5:44).

The New Testament emphasis, then, is on the attitude that leans out towards one’s persecutors. A minister friend of mine spoke movingly on television from his hospital bed, after being attacked by intruders in his own house. He explained that he felt no resentment towards those men.

But given all this, your question raises the acute issue of how far forgiveness can be practically given to those who exhibit no repentance. All too often someone who has been on the receiving end of an attack is then asked by media people – or perhaps by the unthinking – Have you forgiven them?

Put just like that, it is a shallow question. It also places an additional burden on, say, the rape victim who is then advised, ‘You cannot recover until you have forgiven your attacker’. Ironically it is the rape victim who is unfairly placed in the dock.

Jesus’ words help us: ‘If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him’ (Luke 17:3). Commenting on this passage, John Stott adds – ‘and only if he repents. We must beware of cheapening forgiveness....If a brother who has sinned against us refuses to repent, we should not forgive him. Does this startle you? It is what Jesus taught’ (Confess your Sins, Hodder, 1964, p.35).

The reason is that real forgiveness implies restoration to full fellowship. This cannot be if the sinner is unrepentant. As John Stott observes, ‘A forgiveness, which bypasses the need for repentance, issues not from love but from sentimentality’.

The attitude of being willing to forgive (or even being willing to be made willing) is in itself costly. It comes from the Cross itself, where a Man died for our own forgiveness. Realise that – and a revolution of love can take place.

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