The Wayside Pulpit No.45
Forgiveness & Punishment
Be not deceived. God is not mocked. Whatever a man sows, that shall he
also reap. (Gal.6:7)
He who does wrong shall receive for the wrong which he has done, and there
is no respect of persons. (Col.3:25)
Whatever good thing that any man does, the same shall he receive of the
Lord. (Eph.6:8)
Some
Christians espouse a mamby-pamby gospel which sees only forgiveness with no
payment for wrong, no punishment, no need for restitution. Others, with an
inbuilt hardness of nature, demand punishment and restitution to the extent
that many will pay for ever, and never be able to find forgiveness. Both are
unscriptural. The following quotation may be helpful to others. I have found it
refreshing. It comes from a book entitled "The Inescapable Love of
God" by Thomas Talbott, 1999. (Pages 161 - 162)
Those
who set forgiveness over against punishment and confuse the forgiveness of sin
with the tolerance of sin will inevitably reject the idea that divine justice
requires forgiveness. But that surely is a misunderstanding.
The
woman who forgives her adulterous husband does not merely tolerate his
unfaithfulness; she may also demand a change in his behaviour and may even
demand it as a condition, not of forgiveness, but of continuing the marriage.
Just because she does forgive her husband and continues to love him, she may
refuse to continue in a dishonest relationship.
And
similarly for the parents who discipline their children; those who regard
parental discipline as evidence of an unforgiving attitude simply do not
understand what the purpose of such discipline is.
So
if, as our alternative picture suggests, forgiveness and just punishment have the
same object and the same goal (namely, reconciliation), then the idea that
sinners deserve forgiveness is no more absurd than the idea that they deserve
punishment.