After my ponderings and posting yesterday I thought I would share with you what happened to be a follow up on forgiveness posted on the Desiring God blog.
"Forgiveness of an unrepentant person doesn't look the same as a repentant person. In fact I am not sure that in the Bible the term forgiveness is ever applied to an unrepentant person. Jesus said in Luke 17:3-4 "Be on your guard! If your brother 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." So there's a sense in which full forgiveness is only possible in response to repentance.
But even when a person does not repent (cf Matthew 18:17), we are commanded to love our enemy and pray for those who persecute us and do good to those who hate us. (Luke 6:27) The difference is when a person who wronged us does not repent with contrition and confession and conversion (turning from sin to righteousness), he cuts off the full work of forgiveness. We can still lay down our ill will; we can hand our anger over to God; we can seek to do him good; but we cannot carry through reconciliation or intimacy."
This is definatley giving me more to ponder and I hope it does the same for you.
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