By Dr. R. Scott Clark - Posted at The Heidelblog:
It is well known that, at Charlie Kirk’s memorial, his widow, Erika, forgave the man who is charged with his murder. This has reignited a debate that I first became aware of perhaps 15 years ago. There are two sides to this discussion: 1) forgiveness is conditioned upon the penitence of the sinner, and 2) forgiveness is unconditional. Here I am arguing for the latter.In defense of the first approach, one writer argues,
First of all, forgiveness in the Bible is only to be granted to a brother or sister in Christ after there is evidence of repentance. “Be on your guard! If your brother or sister sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times a day, and returns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ forgive him (Luke 17:3-4).” If this is true of a brother or sister in Christ, how much more of an unbeliever. Without repentance, there can be no forgiveness.
When we pray in the Lord’s prayer that God forgive us as we forgive our debtors, Christ, no doubt, is assuming repentance on the part of those who have sinned against us. Even so as we repent before God of the sins we have committed against Him.This approach seems to know a priori (i.e., before we have examined the text of Scripture) how things must come out, and it assumes things it does not prove. “Christ, no doubt is assuming repentance…” begs the question. It is true that we are to forgive those who ask for forgiveness, but it does not follow that, therefore, we only forgive those who ask for forgiveness.