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Lv 6

What's so great about God's forgiveness?

As an adult, I don't ever ask for forgiveness. If I have done wrong, I apologize, I try to make amends, and I use the guilt and embarrassment as an motivation to avoid making that kind of mistake in the future. If the person I have harmed forgives me, that's great, but it is not appropriate to burden them with the job of making me feel relieved. It is on me, as a grownup, to accept what I did.

That makes sense, right?

So why would you ever ask a third party, let's say God, to forgive you? What for? That's baby stuff. Babies want to be forgiven. Adults deal.

And moreover, how can you respect people who need forgiveness for sins? How can you trust people who think that they have been magically purified by praying to their deity?

This truly baffles me. Can this be explained?

11 Answers

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  • ?
    Lv 6
    6 years ago
    Favorite Answer

    This qualifies as a rant on your part.

    I do not identify as a theist. Yet I understand the psychological significance of 'forgiveness' as a means of letting go what you have holding on to and integrating in everyday behaviour. People take certain situations in stride therefore carrying around the luggage of guilt, anger, blame, victimhood. Forgiveness is detachment from that continuation, rather than being narrowed down due to a particualr temproary circumstance.

    IN those states , it is often difficult for most people to simply feel worthy of forgiveness or to forgive someone else. So a 'third party' which is associated with the attributes of 'all good and worthy' things may serve as a conduit to forgiving themself or another. It is very individual and depends on the belief systems of people.

    You stand in your perspective hoping to discredit all other perceptions, and all other potential ways of processing one's reality. And then trying to validate it in your own way by terming it 'adult way' to deal with things. But technically, any and all methods employed by people above the age of 18 years, whether you approve of them personally or not , qualify as 'adult' way of dealing with things. Maturity comes from learning from your own experiences, and recognising others have their own methods and approaches valid for their personal context. You sound pretty immature in that regard.

  • ?
    Lv 5
    6 years ago

    It's about two things:

    (1) Mind control. Guilt is a very effective way to control people - just think of how often people use 'emotional blackmail'. The church took ordinary, inevitable things like anger, jealousy and especially sexual desire, and called them 'sins'. They then persuaded people they'd go to Hell if they felt any of these emotions, unless they earned forgiveness from the church.

    (2) Profit. One way to earn forgiveness from the church is to give them money. There is also a practice called 'simony' where people could pay priests to forgive them for a sin, or even to have a mass said for them. (The term actually covers any exchange of money for 'spiritual' purposes). Although simony was an offence under canon law (mainly to prevent bribery in the appointment of holy offices) it remained a common practice even after the reformation.

  • 6 years ago

    that god does not give us what we deserve.

    That makes sense, right? no your reasoning doesn't make sense

    So why would you ever ask a third party, let's say God, to forgive you? because you violated and broke god's laws.

    no its not baby stuff

    how can you respect people who need forgiveness for sins? because they admit they did wrong and need to ask the person they wronged to forgive them

    Can this be explained? yes your stupidity is your problem not god and forgiveness

  • ?
    Lv 7
    6 years ago

    At the core of what you are saying is that... you do not NEED God and that YOU are your OWN GOD. Sadly, this is exactly a satan's ORIGINAL LIE to Adam and Eve. THEY believed it, and darn if it is STILL working today! Sad, again, is that you are SO CONVINCED of your OWN RIGHTNESS, that you are blinded to seeing the TRUTH. We can only hope and pray that someday, before it's too late for you, that the Lord will OPEN your eyes and heart, and you will realize where you are wrong so you CAN ask for HIS forgiveness. Until then, GOD BLESS!

    Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.” (John 20:28-29)

    MARANATHA! Come, Lord Jesus, COME!

  • A'sha
    Lv 4
    6 years ago

    Well God forgiveness is like not other because when he forgives he never uses that against you. But that only if someone truly is sorry for what he or she have done they will not do the same thing again. And that's when he forgives someone for whatever they did. And when he forgives you its completely different because he never uses your sins against you, and he never brings them back up again. Because unlike humans he is perfect and he always keeps his word and never go back on it. Also he is the perfect example of how Christians should be towards forgiveness.

    (Matthew 6:14, 15) For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; 15 whereas if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

    (Micah 7:18) Who is a God like you, Pardoning error and passing over the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance?He will not hold onto his anger forever,For he delights in loyal love.

    (Colossians 3:13) Continue putting up with one another and forgiving one another freely even if anyone has a cause for complaint against another. Just as Jehovah freely forgave you, you must also do the same.

    Here are some helpful links to some of our watchtowers (magazines), and bible questions answered and much more. And this will help you go into more depth with this matter and have a better understanding:

    “Jehovah Freely Forgave You”: http://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/wp2013...

    I Learned That Jehovah Is Merciful and Forgiving: http://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/wp2015...

    Source(s): I’ am one of Jehovah Witnesses & Kingdom Hall of Jehovah Witnesses http://www.jw.org/en
  • ?
    Lv 7
    6 years ago

    Everyone is a sinner. Everyone is condemned. That includes any possible "really, really good" person that you think you might find. It is not about our standards, it is about the standards of a Holy God. It is impossible for you to go through this life and not have committed one sin - a sin that condemns you to an eternity of separation from our Holy God. This is about His then fixing that sin problem through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ. For everyone. And your "saying you are sorry" does not wipe away your sin. He is willing to forgive you but "payment" has to be made for that sin. And you cannot do anything that satisfies His requirements for payment of that sin. Thus, you have to look for His mercy and grace to provide that mechanism of that forgiveness. He has said, "without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin" (Hebrews 9:22). Thus, blood needs to be shed for your sin. Someone has to die for you. And that Someone Who qualified as an acceptable sacrifice was Jesus. And, all you have to do is accept what God has done for you - that is, accept Jesus sacrifice for your sins and repent of your sins.

    The alternative is for you to finish this life with your own concept of "how things should be" without any foundation of truth other than your own wisdom and experience and with maybe a sprinkling of other's opinions.

    "For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight. As it is written: 'He catches the wise in their craftiness'" (1 Corinthians 3:19)

    Or you can go down a better path ...

    "Trust in the Lord with all your heart

    and lean not on your own understanding;

    in all your ways submit to him,

    and he will make your paths straight"

    Proverbs 3:5,6

  • Hal
    Lv 7
    6 years ago

    You could attempt to apologize and make amends for ever characterizing anyone anywhere anytime with disparaging comments, for instance, but in practice we cannot, because a lifetime of it before we even realize the harm we have done puts all our victims beyond our reach. We can't get to them to apologize..... You could "deal with it" by just deciding to reform, until the next time, until you get angry and do it again. What would truly change your heart, remove the anger source even....?

    Generally, we don't think this stuff is actually forgiven by Him unless we sincerely repent, and that act, the repentance, the true change of heart, is the thing.

  • Anonymous
    6 years ago

    in doing what you do you have Gods' forgiveness more than those who decide they are better than God

  • 6 years ago

    It is unmerited, that's why.

    And we can go direct - to the top - without any sinful human intermediary to speak on our behalf.

    Also, God's forgiveness is total. Here's the experience of one who knew it:

    "You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea." (Micah 7:19)

    The cleansing that comes from God's forgiveness has to be experienced to grasp its immensity. And it's free.

    But we have to first grasp this uncomfortable truth; we have all sinned against God and He alone has the power to cleanse us from our sins. Through Christ, the legal precedent was made to enable that pardon to be given, without God violating His own law, that all sin must be punished. Jesus bore the punishment for our sins, so putting faith in that provision is the way to be forgiven by God. That requires humility. We have to agree with this truth of Scripture

    "There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." (Romans 3:21-24)

    Only when the Holy Spirit brings a sinner to that point of understanding can they truly repent, praying to God in Jesus' name to be forgiven. Then they will know the joy of all their sins rolling off their back when they kneel at the cross, that great, heavy, smelly sack-load of guilt tumbling down the hill and into the empty tomb, never to be seen again.

    There is no 'magic' in God's provision for forgiveness. It happened in time, at a particular place, in a particularly painful, costly, manner when a sinless man allowed Himself to be crucified so as to bear the punishment for the sin of the world in His tortured body. That man had added human nature to His divine nature, in order to fully represent humanity, and to have the magnitude of deity to atone for all sin. That was a miracle of grace, not magic. It wasn't a trick - it was divine justice poured out on the Son of God so that we sinners could be set free from our slavery to sin. How great is that?

    If you say you cannot respect people who need forgiveness for their sins, then you cannot respect yourself.

  • Anonymous
    6 years ago

    the fact you apologise means you are sorry .

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