Forgive Everyone of Everything?
Story★★★★In his excellent work, The Two Sides of Forgiveness, Robertson McQuilkin questions the common conventional wisdom that we should forgive everyone of everything. He writes: God’s love is unlimited, for everyone. Ours ought to be. But God’s forgiveness is strictly limited to those who repent.
Confusion and guilt overwhelm many of God’s people who demand that we do what God does not do-pardon everyone for everything. We can justify this distinction by returning to the two basic meanings of forgive: to remit the guilt and to relinquish resentment. In the sense of remitting guilt, God, in love, forgives a specified few and, in love, does not forgive the majority of humankind. In the sense of relinquishing resentment, however, God forgives everyone.
He never for a moment felt bitterness or ill-will against anyone. . . Love should also shape the way we relate to people, whether friend or enemy. Does love cancel the debt? Sometimes.
Does love let go of the resentment? Always.
The point
Robertson McQuilkin distinguishes between remitting guilt, which God limits to those who repent, and relinquishing resentment, which love extends to everyone.