Posted by Doug Showalter on January 01, 1999 at 08:31:52:
In Reply to: Question for Rev. Showalter posted by Laurie on December 28, 1998 at 16:29:47:
Dear Laurie,
Good question. I believe, in principle, that God, out of God's loving nature, will forgive us for anything we do. But in order for that forgiveness to be real to us and for us to be reconciled to God, we need to be truly repentant. Such true repentance is not a casual matter to be treated lightly. Rather, it requires our sincere desire and our determined effort not to commit the same wrong again. It may also [but not always] involve our seeking to make some kind of appropriate restitution to the person we wronged. However, if we eventually do commit the same wrong again, I believe that God's forgiveness is still a possibility for us. In a nutshell: if we ever fail to receive God's forgiveness, the fault is ours, not God's, for that forgiveness is always available.
You may recall that Jesus taught his disciples to forgive not just three times, but seventy times seven, which is a metaphorical way of saying that there should be no limits on our forgiving [in terms of the number of times]. In a similar way, I do not feel there are any limits on the number of times God will forgive us.
The examples you raise are troubling for me too. But I would say this, knowing that one is committing a wrong and continuing to do it with the idea that one will easily be forgiven later, is hardly a good starting point for one to become truly repentant. In fact, such a casual attitude may even be a barrier to becoming truly repentant. True repentance requires our utter sincerity and our taking full responsibility for the things we do. But those qualities seem to be lacking in the examples you give.
Of course, there is another dimension to this too. Even if we are repeatedly forgiven by God and/or by those whom we have wronged, there may well still be other consequences which we have to face because of our actions. For example, the Roman Catholic Pope forgave the man who tried to assassinate him. However, even so, that man still remains in jail "paying his debt to society" for his terrible wrong.
Keep in mind that being forgiven and having all the consequences of our ill behavior pardoned are not necessarily the same thing. Therefore, for example, the person who enters into several affairs, assuming he will be easily forgiven later, may actually be doing serious harm to himself in other ways, even apart from the issue of whether God forgives him or not. In the overall view, being forgiven is not necessarily the same thing as "getting off scot free." Forgiven or not, all of us are still responsible for our behavior.
I hope this is helpful.
Best wishes,
Doug Showalter