"If God can do everything why doesn't he just forgive?"
Does he have a valid argument? Has Satan sown a false doctrine in the Church so others will mock and turn away from the only one who can save them from their sins?
We have to get to the bottom of this and see if there is some truth in what he is saying.
'"See where it leads to", St. Augustine advised in dealing with falsehood. Follow it out to "the absolute ruddy end," C.S. Lewis remarked with characteristic Englishness. Push them to "the logic of their presuppositions," Francis Schaeffer used to say' (Os Guinness, 2000, Time for Truth).
Before considering the strengths and weaknesses of the Muslim's objection (If God can do everything why doesn't he just forgive?) we will look at the Islamic position. Are we, like the Muslims, to trust in our own righteousness? Muslims believe that our bad deeds will be weighed against our good deeds. Can we be good enough to earn our way into heaven?
An Anglican prayer of communion goes as followers,
"We do not presume
to come to your table, merciful Lord,
trusting in our own righteousness,
but in your manifold and great mercies.
We are not worthy
so much as to gather up the crumbs under your table..."
I dare not trust in my own righteousness. I am completely dependent on God's mercy. But what do I mean by that?
Many Christians think that believing something about God will save them. When I read the Bible I see two things necessary for salvation, a person must believe in their heart that God raised Jesus physical body from the dead and confess that He is Lord (See Rom 10:9). What is often overlooked in Romans 10:9 is that if we believe in our hearts that God raised Jesus from the dead we will treat Jesus as the Lord. If we do not treat Him as Lord we do not believe He is Lord. There are many verses which clearly show that my faith in God is reflected by what I do (See James 2:24).
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, rightly said,
"...faith is only real when there is obedience, never without it, and faith only becomes faith in the act of obedience" (The Cost of Discipleship).
Can I trust in my faith? No. My faith is fickle. Can I trust in God's forgiveness? This seems like a sure way out of the problem yet God has said that if I do not forgive He will not forgive me (Matt 6:15), so God's forgiveness on judgement day (not his love) turns out to be dependent on my forgiveness. How then can I be sure of my salvation? I cannot trust in my faith and I cannot be certain that I have forgiven everyone as God would have me forgive them. What then can I be certain of?
The only thing I can be sure of is God's character. I can be sure of how much He loves me because He became a man and lived and died to prove it. He became a man for me. He lived for me. He died for me. He rose from the dead and continues to live for me. I know He will never give up on me. His love is eternal. If there is someone I have not forgiven He will soften my heart and bring me to the point where I forgive as He wants me to.
So what of the Muslim man's objection? (I haven't dealt with his objection I've merely pointed out that God will literally save me from my sins and make me like Christ, though that work will not be finished in this lifetime).
In the Muslim man's mind any judge who accepts the death of the innocent in place of the guilty cannot be just. In fact God says that human judges should "not put an innocent or honest person to death" (see Exod 23:7).
It seems as
though God is saying that He will not accept the death of the innocent
on
behalf of the guilty, whether that death is voluntary or involuntary.
And that is the Muslim's charge; he is saying that only an immoral
judge would accept the death of the innocent in place of the guilty.
The verse which follows Exodus 23:7 says it is wrong for a judge to accept a bribe.
These
verses tell us what a good judge will do. If God is a good judge, why
does He allow an innocent person to die and acquit the guilty? It seems
as though God is breaking His own rules.
So how do we explain Jesus death?
He was innocent.
We are guilty.
Jesus voluntarily died for us. Therefore the innocent died for the guilty.
This is sound doctrine. But is it just?
Would it be wrong for an innocent person to choose to die for someone else? No that would not be wrong. "But," you might say, "it would be wrong for a judge to acquit the guilty and punish the innocent." True. So why did God allow Jesus to die? What was the purpose of Jesus death?
Did He die to take our punishment or did He die to turn
us from our sin and turn us to God?
"For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God..." (1 Pet 3:18). He died to bring us to God. (Didn't Jesus say that His death would draw men to Him? see John 12:32)
Perhaps
you are thinking, "But I am guilty, what about my past sins?" In
Ezekiel 18:20-32 God says that if you turn from your sins (and you can't turn
from your sins without turning to Him) then He will forgive you. Isn't that what the Muslim man is saying, "Why can't God just forgive us?" Yes He can "just" forgive us if we turn and follow Jesus (and only Jesus). Love keeps no record of wrongs (see 1 Cor 13:5). If
a person goes to hell they don't go because of their past sins; they go
because they remain an unrepentant sinner. There is a chasm which seperates every unrepentant sinner from God; they cannot cross it while they remain unrepentant and no one else can cross it for them. If a person goes to hell they go because they have not turned and followed Jesus. If we do not follow Jesus we are not loving God.
God is forgiving in his very
nature. When anyone turns and follows Jesus He forgives them, it is as
simple as that.
Jesus
died to show us how much He loves His Father and to show us how much He
loves us. If we turn and follow Him we don't have to go to hell. If a
person turns from their sins because of Jesus death, He has in effect
died in their place.
Because He died for me I turned from my sin and began to follow Him.
He won me; I cannot help but love Him.
(By
the way, Muslims say they believe in Jesus, but if they believe in Him why do
they not bother to find out what He says? The Jesus of the Quran says almost
nothing and what he says in the Quran is completely different to what the Jesus
of the New Testament says. The Quran effectively takes Jesus words from Him and
makes Him impotent. Here are some questions worth considering, When Satan
asked Jesus to bow down and worship him was he asking Jesus to worship him as
someone less than God? What did Satan promise Jesus if He bowed downed and
worshipped him as the one true God? See Matt 4:8-11. We are living in the last days, numbers are not evidence of truth. Matt 24:11)
