Christians should not forgive unconditionally?
FBI sketch of Timothy McVeigh (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Many teach that Christians should unconditionally forgive grave offenses regardless of whether or not the offender is repentant. This is not biblical. Christians should unconditionally adopt an attitude of forgiveness. We ought always to “wrap the package” of forgiveness. But if the other party refuses to open the present, then forgiveness has not taken place in its fullest sense. While automatic forgiveness sounds like an antidote to bitterness, this is not the case. Those who try and simply dismiss grave offenses, apart from resting in the justice of God , often encounter emotional and theological problems. Here is an incomplete list of problems that sometimes arise from unconditional forgiveness. 1. Unconditional forgiveness builds bitterness. All image bearers are hard-wired with a standard of justice. To tell someone to completely forgive a grave offense, apart from repentance on the offender’s part, teaches t