This comes up a lot. So many feel that if true forgiveness happens, there should be no negative or dire consequences we should have to face. Some feel that if there are consequences for a sin, forgiveness has not been granted. Let’s look into this.
In fact, people over the years have often said, “but even God forgave Israel and didn’t wipe them all out when Moses prayed for them. Surely you also can forgive us and forget the consequences you have mentioned.”
Forgiveness lets the person know his sins are not being held against him. He will not have to die eternal death as the penalty of sin. But even when our sins are not held against us, there are often consequences we can’t just erase.
When King David committed adultery, and then even worse – plotted the death of Bathsheba’s husband after she had become pregnant from David’s sin, what happened? We can read it in 2 Samuel 12.
God forgave David (2 Sam 12:13-15) upon his repentance. David gave no excuses and did not blame anyone else. He and Bathsheba did not have to be stoned to death (Lev. 20:10; Deut 22:22-24), so that particular consequence for adultery was removed indeed. But did God cancel all consequences? Hardly. The young boy born from their union died at the hands of God after suffering for one week. David’s son Absalom, sought to overthrow David as king and a big war ensued (2 Sam 15-16). Absalom also openly raped his father David’s concubines on the rooftop (2 Sam 16:21-22), the same place where David had given in to his temptation to lust. Plus there were other seemingly endless family problems as a consequence of David’s sins.
So David was forgiven by God, but did God remove all consequences? Hardly. In fact we still read of his sins and consequences, the whole story, today. And yet King David will once more be king over all Israel in the Millennium.
Jesus clearly forgave Peter for denying him three times. But …Peter’s story is still one we read about today.
Paul as “Saul”, had jailed, tortured and even killed early Christian Jews (Acts 22:4-5). God forgave him, yes. Paul went on to write much of the New Testament. But it was very difficult for him to ever work again with Jews after that. Paul was told to focus on the Gentiles instead. So were there consequences after his forgiveness? Absolutely.
God forgave Israel when the ten faithless spies made them all lose faith (Numbers 13 and 14). God was going to wipe out all Israel (Num. 14:10-12), but Moses interceded for them (Num 14:13-19). God heard Moses and said because of Moses’ prayer, he would pardon Israel (v. 20), and let Israel live (Numbers 14:21-35) for 40 more years. But all those age twenty and over had to die in the wilderness and they all had to wait 40 years before God let them into the Promised Land. The nation was forgiven, yes, but there were terrible consequences still. And the ten evil spies? God killed them all in a plague (Num 14:36-38), sparing only Joshua and Caleb.
This kind of story is repeated over and over in the Bible. Sin has the death penalty. When sin is repented of, God removes the eternal death penalty – but often times there are consequences we must live with, and just be thankful God forgave the eternal death penalty.
Samson, a judge of Israel, had a terrible weakness for Philistine women and sinned several times, and broke his Nazirite vows. In the end, he had consequences. His eyes were gouged out by the Philistines. He made a mockery of himself to them, and even lost his strength for a time. He appealed to God and one last time, God allowed him to die with thousands of Philistines who died in his final act – and yes, Samson was forgiven and is even listed in the Hebrews 11 Hall of Faith, but he had consequences he had to live and die with.
If someone gets drunk and then drives his car while he’s drunk and kills someone accidentally, sure, God can forgive that upon repentance. But that man may well spend time in jail and live with so many regrets and knowing the pain he’s caused others by his sin.
So we must never think we can always repent, when we’re being tempted to sin, “because God is merciful and in the end I’ll be forgiven anyway”. NO, never think that. Yes, you and I can repent. Yes, you and I can be forgiven the eternal death penalty. But consequences, as even I know so well, can be very severe.
And sometimes, God ends the lives of sinners when they sin. Ananias and Sapphira died instantly after their lies (Acts 5). Herod died a terrible death when he did not give credit due to God.
Forgiveness of eternal death – is not the same as the consequences we have to endure and live through as a consequence of our sins. These are two different things.
So many want to think that if we’ve been truly forgiven, all the consequences should go away as well. That can happen – but it’s not something we should expect. You and I can be forgiven but still have consequences of our deeds to have to deal with.
Sin is ugly, painful and will have consequences. Let’s all take sin very, very seriously and learn to resist temptation, resist the Devil, flee from evil -- because the consequences of giving in to sin are terribly painful, even when God forgives us.