Pardons have been much in the news of late here in America. While not wishing to comment here regarding the wisdom or justice in any the pardons recently (or potentially) granted, any mention of such gestures evokes thoughts of a key aspect of God’s plan of salvation—its conditions, its scope, and its substance.
Biblical Forgiveness
As pardon in a secular criminal context implies that a law has been broken, Biblical pardon, or forgiveness, is needful because a law—in this case God’s law—has been broken. The Bible declares that “sin is the transgression of the law” (I John 3:4)—and that “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23; see also Rom. 5:12). All humanity, having chosen to disobey the divine law, thus stand in need of divine forgiveness.
The blood of Jesus shed on Calvary makes this forgiveness possible. Speaking of our Lord, the apostle Paul writes, “In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Eph. 1:7; see also Col. 1:14). Another Bible word for God’s forgiveness is justification. Writing of this experience, Paul states elsewhere, “Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:24). Ellen White declares that “pardon and justification are one and the same thing” [1].
Conditions
But the Bible is also clear that there are conditions to be met by those who receive pardon for their sins. Many contemporary Christians, including some Adventists, have forgotten this Biblical reality. More than two decades ago, one bestselling Christian author wrote of “God’s unconditional grace and forgiveness” [2], and shared a popular story allegedly illustrating God’s forgiveness, supposedly with “no strings attached” [3].
But the Bible states very plainly the conditions to be fulfilled by the recipients of a divine pardon. The following passages from both Testaments are some of the clearest in this regard:
If My people, which are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sins, and heal their land (II Chron. 7:14).
He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth, and forsaketh them shall have mercy (Prov. 28:13).
Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon (Isa. 55:7).
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (I John 1:9).
Not only are confession and the forsaking of sin necessary in order to receive God’s forgiveness; Jesus was clear that we must be willing to forgive those who have wronged us if we expect God to forgive us for the wrongs we’ve done against Him:
For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses (Matt. 6:14-15).
Little wonder that the apostle Paul writes, “For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified” (Rom. 2:13).
On the basis of the above verses, Ellen White makes such declarations as the following:
God requires the entire surrender of the heart, before justification can take place [4].
When through repentance and faith we accept Christ as our Saviour, the Lord pardons our sins, and remits the penalty prescribed for the transgression of the law [5].
Christ pardons none but the penitent, but whom He pardons He first makes penitent. The provision made is complete, and the eternal righteousness of Christ is placed to the account of every believing soul [6].
Repentance as well as forgiveness is the gift of God through Christ. It is through the influence of the Holy Spirit that we are convinced of sin, and feel our need of pardon. None but the contrite are forgiven; but it is the grace of the Lord that makes the heart penitent [7].
The unconditional pardon of sin never has been, and never will be [8].
The Scope of Biblical Forgiveness
Quite obviously, if one must confess and forsake one’s sins in order to receive God’s forgiveness, such forgiveness cannot be applied to the believer’s heavenly record in advance, as some unfortunately believe. Certain modern and contemporary Adventist authors have described justification as “a continuing umbrella” [9] and “the umbrella of eternal grace” [10]. But how can God’s forgiveness apply to one’s future record if future sins haven’t yet been committed, much less forsaken?
Ellen White is likewise clear that God’s forgiveness applies solely to past sins and sins of ignorance:
If you give yourself to Him, and accept Him as your Saviour; then, sinful as your life may have been, for His sake you are accounted righteous. Christ’s character stands in place of your character, and you are accepted before God just as if you had not sinned [11].
Christ bears the penalty of man's past transgressions; and by imparting to man his righteousness, makes it possible for man to keep God's holy law [12].
The law requires righteousness—a righteous life, a perfect character, and this man has not to give. He cannot meet the claims of God’s holy law. But Christ, coming to earth as man, lived a holy life, and developed a perfect character. These He offers as a free gift to all who will receive them. His life stands for the life of men. Thus they have remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God. More than this, Christ imbues me with the attributes of God. He builds up the human character after the similitude of the divine character, a goodly fabric of spiritual strength and beauty. Thus the very righteousness of the law is fulfilled in the believer in Christ [13].
The system of sacrifices was to teach man humility, in view of his fallen condition, and lead him to repentance and to trust in God alone, through the promised Redeemer, for pardon for past transgression of His law [14].
There is no way back to innocence and life except through repentance for having transgressed God's law, and faith in the merits of the divine sacrifice, who has suffered for your transgressions of the past; and you are accepted in the Beloved on condition of obedience to the commandments of your Creator [15].
By faith he [the sinner] can bring to God the merits of Christ, and the Lord places the obedience of His Son to the sinner's account. Christ's righteousness is accepted in place of man's failure [16].
The minds of all who embrace this message are directed to the most holy place, where Jesus stands before the ark, making His final intercession for all those for whom mercy still lingers and for those who have ignorantly broken the law of God. This atonement is made for the righteous dead as well as for the righteous living. It includes all who died trusting in Christ, but who, not having received the light upon God’s commandments, had sinned ignorantly in transgressing its precepts [17].
The Bible on Transformative Forgiveness
Both Scripture and Ellen White are clear that God’s forgiveness goes further than a mere legal expiation. In the New Testament, the word forgiveness also refers to release from captivity, freedom from bondage. This word—aphesin—is the same word used for “deliverance” and “liberty” in the following passage, taken from Jesus’ address in the synagogue at Nazareth:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind; to set at liberty them that are bruised (Luke 4:18).
This selfsame word—aphesin—is the one used for the forgiveness of sins in such verses as Ephesians 1:7 and Colossians 1:14. Quite obviously, this word not only refers to the legal pardon of one’s misdeeds, but to the personal expulsion and renunciation of these acts by the human agent, through heaven’s power.
Controversy has raged in Christian circles as to what the Bible means when it says God “justifieth the ungodly” (Rom. 4:5). The Bible’s meaning on this point becomes clear when we consider the context and the Old Testament passage to which Paul refers as he explains the state of the one to whom God imputes righteousness:
But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
Even as David also described the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works,
Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin (Rom. 4:5-8).
This passage, of course, is a citation of Psalm 32:1-2:
Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.
If the one to whom iniquity is not imputed must be guileless, the ungodliness of such a one has obviously been confessed and forsaken (II Chron. 7:14; Prov. 28:13; Isa. 55:7). Which means, in essence, that the justified person here described has ceased to be ungodly, by virtue of God’s justifying act. In other words, God justifies the ungodly in the same way Jesus healed the sick. Once healed, they were no longer sick. And once justified, the ungodly are cleansed from their ungodliness.
We need to remember, of course, that men and women are only accountable for the sins in their lives of which they are aware (see Acts 17:30; James 4:17). God indeed “requires the entire surrender of the heart, before justification can take place” [18], but one can only surrender those sins that are presently known. Further awareness of whatever in our lives remains out of harmony with God, is what the process of sanctification is all about.
The following passages likewise identify the work of justification with the transforming work of the Holy Spirit:
Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. . . .
And hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us (Rom. 5:1-2,5).
Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.
Which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour;
That being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life (Titus 3:5-7).
The words “reckon” and “counted” which we see in Romans 4 are found in the Old Testament also. When comparing these words, it becomes clear they do not imply a mere legal declaration only. Second Samuel 4:2, for example, speaks of how “Beeroth also was reckoned to Benjamin.” We read in Numbers 18:27,30 that the tithe was “reckoned” and “counted” unto the Levites. Obviously these words refer to legal transactions, but they also refer to the actual, experiential possession of these things as well.
The internal cleansing which forms an integral part of divine forgiveness further explains why sin must be forsaken as well as confessed before it can be pardoned. Because God honors the free will of His creatures (Josh. 24:15; Rev. 22:17), He will not take from us what we choose to keep. It is not a matter of human merit or deserved reward for God to forgive only when sin is surrendered by the human agent. Rather, it is due to the eternal divine reverence for free choice. God’s forgiveness includes regeneration as well as remission, which means this forgiveness cannot take place unless the sin in question is relinquished by the sinner.
Ellen White on Transformative Forgiveness
Ellen White echoes the teachings of Scripture regarding the meaning and scope of divine forgiveness. The statements we have seen from David, Paul, and other Bible writers regarding the conditions for receiving justification are affirmed by Ellen White in such statements as the following:
God requires of all His subjects obedience, entire obedience to all His commandments. He demands, now as ever, perfect righteousness as the only title to heaven. Christ is our hope and our refuge. His righteousness is imputed only to the obedient [19].
Elsewhere she is clear that the imputation of Christ’s righteousness involves both the Holy Spirit’s transformation and harmony on the believer’s part with all the precepts of the divine law:
By receiving His imputed righteousness, through the transforming power of the Holy Spirit, we become like Him [20].
Through the imputed righteousness of Christ, the sinner may feel that he is pardoned, and may know that the law no more condemns him, because he is in harmony with all its precepts [21].
To be pardoned in the way that Christ pardons, is not only to be forgiven, but to be renewed in the spirit of our mind. The Lord says, “A new heart will I give unto thee.” The image of Christ is to be stamped upon the very mind, heart, and soul [22].
The resolutions you may make in your own finite strength, will be only as ropes of sand; but if you pray in sincerity, surrendering yourself, soul, body, and spirit, unto God, you put on the whole armor of God, and open the soul to the righteousness of Christ; and this alone—Christ’s imputed righteousness—makes you able to stand against the wiles of the devil [23].
He who obeys the law through the imputed righteousness of Christ, meets every claim that the Bible presents; but he who sets himself above God, and tramples upon His law, and still professes to be a child of God, is working on the enemy’s side of the controversy [24].
Bear in mind that Christ’s overcoming and obedience is that of a true human being. In our conclusions, we make many mistakes because of our erroneous views of the human nature of our Lord. When we give to His human nature a power that it is not possible for man to have in his conflicts with Satan, we destroy the completeness of His humanity. His imputed grace and power He gives to all who receive Him by faith. The obedience of Christ to His Father is the same obedience that is required of man.
Man cannot overcome Satan’s temptations without divine power to combine with his instrumentality. So with Jesus Christ. He could lay hold of divine power. He came not to our world to give the obedience of a lesser God to a greater, but as a man to obey God’s Holy Law, and in this way He is our example [25].
Both in context and on the surface, the above statements make clear that in the theology of Ellen White, imputed righteousness includes transformative power just as surely as it includes forgiveness for our sinful past. Nothing in the above passages, either in context or as they read, give credence to the notion that the imputed righteousness here described simply covers the Christian in heaven’s account books while occasional sin continues. By contrast, imputed righteousness depicted in the above statements is a righteousness of radical, internal change, making practical godliness and victory possible.
No one denies that justification is a declaration of righteousness. But many seem to forget that when God declares something to be so, it in fact becomes so. When God at the creation declared, “Let there be light” (Gen. 1:3), it didn’t stay dark. The Bible goes on to say, “And there was light” (Gen. 1:3). When Jesus declared to the leper who came for healing, “Be thou clean,” the Bible declares that “immediately his leprosy was cleansed” (Matt. 8:3). No wonder Ellen White declares:
At the creation “He spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.” He “calleth those things which be not as though they were” (Psalm 33:9; Rom. 4:17); for when He calls them, they are [26].
Thus, in perhaps her most powerful statement on the meaning of God’s forgiveness, Ellen White declares:
God’s forgiveness is not merely a judicial act by which He sets us free from condemnation. It is not only forgiveness for sin, but reclaiming from sin. It is the outflow of redeeming love that transforms the heart. David had the true conception of forgiveness when he prayed, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me” Psalm 51:10 [27].
Conclusion
In short, God’s forgiveness is not like human forgiveness. When you and I forgive someone, it means we let go of a grudge. God doesn’t hold grudges, but both the record and the presence of sin relative to transgressors must be dealt with if the latter are to be saved. Thus Biblical forgiveness not only cancels the record of sin in the heavenly courts; it also transforms the sinner for the purpose of empowering practical holiness.
The recent use of the pardon power delegated by the U.S. Constitution to the American president has raised questions as to whether potential abuses of this power should be rectified, or at least forestalled, through adjustments in Constitutional wording or perhaps other means. But in God’s scheme of things, such abuses are impossible. God’s forgiveness is granted on very specific, Biblically-identified conditions, and if those conditions are not met, forgiveness does not occur.
May each of us, through divine grace, experience that “godly sorrow” which “worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of” (II Cor. 7:10), which the modern prophet describes as “sorrow for sin, and a turning away from it” [28].
REFERENCES
1. Ellen G. White, SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 6, p. 1070.
2. Philip Yancey, What’s So Amazing About Grace? (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing, 1997), p. 15.
3. Ibid, p. 26.
4. White, Selected Messages, vol. 1, p. 366.
5. Ibid, vol. 3, p. 191.
6. Ibid, vol. 1, pp. 393-394.
7. ----Ye Shall Receive Power, p. 56.
8. ----Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 522.
9. Keavin Hayden, Lifestyles of the Remnant (Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald Publishing Assn, 2001), p. 24.
10. J. Robert Spangler, “Ask the Editor,” Ministry, October 1978, p. 11; see also J. David Newsman, “Can I Know I’m Saved?” Adventist Review, Aug. 24, 2006, p. 26.
11. White, Steps to Christ, p. 62.
12. ----SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 6, p. 1092.
13. ----The Desire of Ages, p. 762.
14. ----The Story of Redemption, pp. 145-146.
15. ----Signs of the Times, Dec. 15, 1887.
16. ----Selected Messages, vol. 1, p. 367.
17. ----Early Writings, p. 254.
18. ----Selected Messages, vol. 1, p. 366.
19. ----SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 6, p. 1072.
20. Ibid, p. 1098 (italics supplied).
21. ----Sons and Daughters of God, p. 240.
22. ----Review and Herald, Aug. 19, 1890.
23. ----Sons and Daughters of God, p. 346.
24. ----Signs of the Times, Oct. 1, 1894.
25. ----Selected Messages, vol. 3, pp. 139-140.
26. ----Education, p. 254.
27. ----Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, p. 114 (italics original).
28. ----Steps to Christ, p. 23.
Pastor Kevin Paulson holds a Bachelor’s degree in theology from Pacific Union College, a Master of Arts in systematic theology from Loma Linda University, and a Master of Divinity from the SDA Theological Seminary at Andrews University. He served the Greater New York Conference of Seventh-day Adventists for ten years as a Bible instructor, evangelist, and local pastor. He writes regularly for Liberty magazine and does script writing for various evangelistic ministries within the denomination. He continues to hold evangelistic and revival meetings throughout the North American Division and beyond, and is a sought-after seminar speaker relative to current issues in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He presently resides in Berrien Springs, Michigan