WE ARE ALL FORGIVEN

   It may be difficult for some to believe and there may be others who do not want to believe it, but we are all forgiven. God forgives each and every one of us and does so unconditionally. Does that mean God forgives Hitler for what he did? Yes. Ivan the Terrible as well. And Caiaphas and Pilate, too. Add in Lizzie Bordon, Ted Bundy, Timothy McVeigh, the 9/11 terrorists and you and me. We are all forgiven.

   We are all sinners. There are no exceptions. Sin is a matter of degree more than it is a matter of kind. Yes, we can distinguish between murder, theft, gossip, slander, and so forth. There are all kinds of sins. There are also degrees of sin. But a sin is a sin. Stealing a dime and stealing a million bucks is still stealing. Cheating on an exam and cheating on our spouse may be different in kind, but they are still sins. Difference in degree or even in kind makes no difference even if we think it does or want it to: it does not. A sin is a sin is a sin.

   God has two choices when it comes to sinners. Either God forgives everyone or God forgives no one. Since we are all sinners and since we cannot erase our sins, God either has to keep them in mind when it comes to judgment day or God has to erase all of them. If God keeps them in mind, we are all doomed, from the worst sinner to the least. Sin is what keeps us out of heaven. So what God does is simply erase the slate and forgive each and every one of us. Why? Because God loves us unconditionally.

   That is what we forget when we quote that old “vengeance is mine” passage from Scripture. Vengeance is truly God’s, but God takes revenge in the only way God knows how. God loves – and thus forgives – those who do not love God. The best way to seek revenge is to do just the opposite. Love the hater, love the sinner. Forgive him/her unconditionally. That is what God does.

   That is what we do – sometimes. It is what we do with those we love. My children, especially when they were teenagers, in their desire to make life miserable for their mother and me, deliberately did things they knew we would disapprove of, deeds that would make us furious with them. And they did and we were. They thought they won. But they always lost because we always forgave them because we loved them. That drove them crazy, I am sure.

It drives us crazy to think God could or would forgive an Adolph Hitler or a terrorist bomber. But both are God’s children who did what they did, perhaps, because they wanted to make God angry or to assert they did not need God or for who knows what reason as children and children masquerading as adults all do. Yes, they did heinous deeds that made God angry and sad. But God’s only response was to love them even more, love them to death, love them even into and in their death. So for them, so for us, so for all.