Does God Forgive Everyone If They Repent?

Does God forgive everyone who repents? Are there exceptions? If so, what are they?

Repentance is…

Repentance in both the Old Testament and New Testament always means a turning away from and a forsaking of sins. This doesn’t meant that we won’t ever sin again (1st John 1:8, 10) but it does mean we’ll be turning away from it more often because we’re new creatures in Christ (2nd Cor 5:17). If you don’t confess your sin you are concealing it for “Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy” (Prov 28:13) but “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1st John 1:9).

Repentance in the Old Testament

Repentance, as I wrote earlier, is nothing new as it’s found throughout Scripture as in the time when Solomon told the nation that if they turned away from God they would be given into the hands of their enemies (1st Kings 8:46) but “if they turn their heart in the land to which they have been carried captive, and repent and plead with you in the land of their captors, saying, ‘We have sinned and have acted perversely and wickedly” (1st Kings 8:47) and “if they repent with all their mind and with all their heart in the land of their enemies, who carried them captive, and pray to you toward their land, which you gave to their fathers, the city that you have chosen, and the house that I have built for your name, then hear in heaven your dwelling place their prayer and their plea, and maintain their cause” (1st Kings 8:48-49). God’s purpose was always for Israel to repent and turn back to Him. When you read the word “turn” in application to this context, it often means the same thing as repentance. God commanded Israel to “Repent and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin” (Ezk 18:3) indicating that repenting means to turn from or away from.

Repentance and Belief

Isaiah tried to warn the nation to “Turn to him from whom people have deeply revolted, O children of Israel” (Isaiah 31:6) but they would not listen. When Jesus came and began His earthly ministry, people heard the first words out of His mouth and would not believe Him, even though He said “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). John the Baptist preached a message about repentance and Jesus never once corrected him. To believe in Jesus Christ is to have eternal life (John 3:36a) but to choose to not believe it, one has the wrath of God that abides on them (John 3:36b) so it must be the two wings of repentance and faith (or belief) that fly us into the “kingdom of God.”

Does God Forgive All Unrepentant?

In the first place, I have no idea who God will and will not save. That is purely God’s prerogative. He has sovereignly determined to not tell me or anyone else for that matter. Who God chooses to forgive and not to forgive is for Him alone to know. We might have an idea but we can certainly be wrong. Just as God said to Moses, He says to us through Paul, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion” (Rom 9:15). A Saul can become a Paul if God desires it (Prov 21:1). Can someone commit a sin so great that it cannot be forgiven, even though they repented of it? Are there some sins where repentance won’t help? The so-called “Unpardonable” or “Unforgiveable Sin” is one that many believe we can still commit today. Many of the people that I’ve spoken with over the years have been intensely worried that they’ve committed a sin that they can’t repent of or be forgiven of. My response is that if they are so worried over this sin and have asked for God’s forgiveness, then it is forgiven (1st John 1:9). Someone that is grieved over their sin is someone that can still be forgiven. The person I have concern for is the person who thinks they’re not a sinner or that sin is irrelevant because there is no God.

Conclusion

God forgives us of all of our sins upon repentance and faith in Christ. Naturally we’ll still sin but we should be sinning less because we were recreated in Christ (2nd Cor 5:17) and now have the mind of Christ (1st Cor 2:16). Even with our failures we can know that it was “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2nd Cor 5:21) so if you feel you need to repent of something you’ve done, do it and move on and remember that there is no sin great enough that the cross can’t cover.

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Teaching Children the Gospel available on Amazon.