Forgiveness yet Consequences
We’ve all heard people saying things like “God will forgive”, “God will forgive me for this”, or the ever-popular “God will forgive you”. While such a statement is Biblically sound; God will forgive you if you ask Him to, it leaves out a critical piece of information. Yes, God will forgive you, but, God very rarely frees you from the consequences of your sin.
For example, look at Jesus on the cross with the thief. The thief believed in God, and had his sins forgiven, BUT, he still had to face the consequences of his sin.
Another example would be David and Bathsheba. David sinned, and sinned again, and then sinned some more. When confronted with his sin, David begged for forgiveness, and he was forgiven. However, his son died, Uriah was still dead, and all the other innocent people that died due to his choice were still dead. He had to live the consequences of that action for the rest of his life.
If you want more examples, just look around you today. If you break into a house, and get caught, yes, God will forgive you, but you will still end up doing jail time. If you cheat on a test, and get caught, God will forgive you, but you will still fail the test.
God forgives, yes, but there are still consequencse for our sinning. We should all keep that in mind when we are tempted to do something wrong. God’s forgiveness is NOT a carte blanche to do whatever we want to do.
