Forgiveness

Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him,

“See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse
may happen to you.”

-John 5:14

Christians today place entirely too great an emphasis on forgiveness. In a great number of Jesus' healings, he followed up by saying, "stop sinning." Of course back then physical handicaps were regarded as the consequence of sin, whereas if that were actually the case hardly any of us would be standing. Regardless, In Jesus' case the forgiveness of the sin (the actual healing) was very often followed up by an admonition to stop sinning. Someone's request for forgiveness carries very little weight if they keep doing the thing they need forgiveness for. If someone were to slap you and then ask your forgiveness, you would kind of expect them to stop slapping you, wouldn't you?

Does forgiveness matter? Sure it does. But God always responds to a sincere request for forgiveness. What determines whether it is sincere? Whether your behavior changes, or at least whether you put forward an earnest effort to change it. So what really matters here is changing yourself, isn't it? It's not like God is hoarding up forgiveness and only spends it like a miser spends coins. He is more than ready: the question is, are you?

Back in the day, if an Israelite sinned he would have to sacrifice an animal to atone for it. Not sure what the animal thought of this substitution, but I doubt he was keen on it. This was a simple and crude mechanism for a simple and crude and materialistic people (which means most people, now as then.) To most ancient Hebrews, the flocks were everything: they were wealth and status and food and clothing and shelter. So if you have to pay out a bull every time you oogle your neighbor's wife or con the old widow out of her retirement money, that is a significant disincentive to ever doing it again. But even there, the target of the action is not primarily forgiveness, it is getting you to change your ways.

Christians today though get to cash in on the forgiveness without actually having to repent of the sin! I am reminded of a late friend of mine who was genuinely a devout Baptist but also pretty much committed every sin in the book. He would argue that Jesus covered his debt completely, so while his behavior was not pleasing to God he wouldn't go to hell for it, whereas a good person who did not believe in Jesus' atoning sacrifice absolutely would. This same individual met his end being bludgeoned to death in a crack house, supposedly after making unwelcome sexual advances on a drug dealer.

Truly this is a deep perversion of Jesus' teaching, and clearly contrary to the New Testament, even though the New Testament was primarily composed by gentile Pauline Christians. The apostle Paul was the man who invented the idea of "grace not works," the doctrine from which Christianity suffers today. The Gospel of John spells out the need for repentance to be met with actions in the beautiful Vineyard passage:

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you,

you will bear much fruit (deeds, behavior;) apart from me you can do nothing.

If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers;

such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.

-John 15:5

Or this passage in Matthew 7:

By their fruit (deeds, actions) you will recognize them.

Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?

Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.

-Matthew 7:16-17

Fruit in the New Testament always means deeds, actions, behavior. The idea that you are somehow no longer responsible for your misdeeds because of the blood of Jesus is an absolute abomination and contrary to Jesus' own teaching. Supposedly we need Jesus' death to purge us of original sin and the sins we inevitably accumulate in life. Well, God was forgiving people their sins from the get-go! Was Jesus already crucified when David said this?

Blessed is the one

whose transgressions are forgiven,

whose sins are covered.

Blessed is the one

whose sin the Lord does not count against them

and in whose spirit is no deceit.

-Psalm 32:1-2

David had been dead a thousand years before Jesus was even born! How did he get his sins forgiven with no crucifixion? Same way as always, God forgave him directly. Clearly, obviously, God had been forgiving sins from the beginning. Nor has there ever been any reluctance on God's part to forgive sins: 

the reluctance is on Man's part to repent of committing them! 

God isn't the roadblock to forgiveness, people themselves are. What the Christians have done to the teachings of Jesus are an abomination to God and would have been an abomination to Jesus as well.

If you sincerely want forgiveness, you will repent of doing wrong. If your repentance is sincere, you'll act to stop doing it in future. If you do all of that, you don't have to worry about your forgiveness, it is granted before you asked. There is no reluctance on God's part. The reluctance is on our part to do what is right.

By their fruits you will know them.