Whenever the character of God is misunderstood, thoughts concerning how and when he forgives become confused. When he is viewed as "severe and unforgiving,…whose chief attribute is stern justice,—one who is a severe judge, a harsh, exacting creditor," men and women from earliest times have figured out many ways to appease him or to impress him.1

When God is understood as revealed in Jesus, we have an infinitely clearer picture of his love, compassion, and plans for stumbling humanity. We now see him as the Searching Shepherd, the Persevering Housewife, and the Waiting Father. He doesn't wait for men and women to figure out who he is. He has taken the initiative ever since he "found" Adam and Eve in the Garden, reminding them that they could do nothing to shake his love and concern for them.

As any genuine father or mother knows, forgiveness is never the issue when children disappoint. Mischievous children learn sooner or later that there is nothing they can do to make their parents love them more—they already love them! They only have to get back into harmony with them to understand how loving and caring their parents have been, even when they were disappointed. Forgiveness is not something God or genuine parents can turn off and on. When we think that it applies only when a repenting person pleads for forgiveness, then we know we are projecting the way humans relate to each other. Sinners only need to know that there is nothing they can do to make God love them more—forgiveness is a built-in side of love.

Forgiveness? Yes! Without a doubt! But there is more. The wasteful son "came to himself" when he remembered the kind of Father he had mistreated. He felt "homesick." And he knew that getting back to his Father was the only way to straighten out his life. No more on his terms, but on his Father's terms, which always were the right way to go. Further, he knew he needed help, big time: he wanted to be "restored" to a life on his Father's terms, not his.

Who has ever said it better than Ellen G. White?

The religion of Christ means more than the forgiveness of sin; it means taking away our sins, and filling the vacuum with the graces of the Holy Spirit. It means divine illumination, rejoicing in God. It means a heart emptied of self, and blessed with the abiding presence of Christ. When Christ reigns in the soul, there is purity, freedom from sin. The glory, the fullness, the completeness of the gospel plan is fulfilled in the life.2

On many occasions, White brushed out the purpose of the gospel to be the restoration of the image of God in men and women of faith.3 Note just one reference: "The forgiveness of sins is not the sole result of the death of Jesus. He made the infinite sacrifice, not only that sin might be removed, but that human nature might be restored, rebeautified, reconstructed from its ruins, and made fit for the presence of God."4

Worrying about whether God has forgiven us, no matter how foolish we have been, indicates that we have not listened carefully to the Scriptures. God does not come to you to condemn you, but to save you. The condemnation is self-inflicted: "This is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light" (John 3:17–19 NKJV).

God's forgiveness is the amazing fact, the primary core of his mercy. His plan of restoration is the driving force in his justice. What Satan has said is impossible; God is shutting the liar's mouth through those who "overcome…as I also overcame" (Rev. 2:21). Mercy and justice kiss each other in the completion of the gospel plan.

Notes and References

1. Ellen G. White, Steps to Christ (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press, 1908), 10, 11.
2. Ellen G. White, Christ's Object Lessons (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald, 1900), 419, 420.
3. Ellen G. White, Education (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press, 1942), 15, 16, 125.
4. Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5 (Oakland, Calif.: Pacific Press, 1885), 537.

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