Surprised by Grace (37): He has forgiven before you say anything

A while ago I heard some shocking news about Richard Hays.

It wasn’t about his passing away in January 2025.
Rather it was shocking to find out that he died of pancreatic cancer, but after seven years!

Years ago when my father lost to the same cancer, I learned that only 5% would last 3 years.
Of course, we all remember the talent who changed our lives, Steve Jobs of Apple, succumbed even with a transplant.

There was another shock.

I learned that Hays changed his previous view on LGBTQ+.

His point?
God changed.
In a nutshell, God’s mercy was widened.

This is close to arguing for the openness of God.
To some this borders on heresy.

I’m not writing to support nor argue against Hays.
One, he’s way above my pay scale if you have read his works.
Second, he didn’t have enough time to leave behind his argued thesis.

What I’m writing about is the news, that Hays believed God’s mercy widened to accept same sex behaviours and even to bless same sex marriages, sounds a comforting, though surprising, message of a God who is merciful and ready to forgive.

Nathaniel Currier: Crucifixion of Christ (c. 1849, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

I know the classic Christian doctrine that repentance is the only path to forgiveness.
Even when you repent just before you die, you can still get repentance and the “admission to heaven.”
Even if you can’t do penance.
But you must confess your sins.
No short-circuiting.
Just read the Gospel about the robber crucified at the side of Jesus.
He asked Jesus to remember him.
Permission granted.
But the catch was he must first ask.

The suggestion that God’s mercy having been widened to those who haven’t asked, let alone repent, seems like colouring outside the lines.
It’s a no-no.
It seems.

But I wish to broach the subject differently.

Perhaps if the Bible text intends to teach how man can get forgiveness, such thinking above is indeed correct and unassailable. 

But what if the intent isn’t that?
Perhaps the particular Bible text in question is more concerned about readers knowing what kind of God God is.
Perhaps the Bible text in question is more preoccupied to show that God is so unique in mercy and grace than to teach how to secure that mercy and grace.

It’s not that the latter is unimportant. 
It certainly is.
But just not at this time and through this text.
And now it is first of all about knowing the true character of God.

Just consider.

-  The prodigal son didn’t utter “I’ m sorry.”
-  Neither did the woman who washed Jesus’ feet with her tears.

We simply don’t know if repentance, at least expressed or verbalised, preceded forgiveness.
Or how many milliseconds just after the repentance was merely rehearsed in their hearts came forgiveness.
Never told.

But to ask questions like these is trying to find an answer for which no question was intended in those texts.

David and Bathsheba mg 0024 [17th century, oil on copper] (Musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Consider the gravest individual sin never disputed by Jews throughout the centuries: King David taking Bathsheba the wife of Uriah.

When the prophet Nathan exposed David’s sin, David exclaimed to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord!” Nathan replied to David, “Yes, and the Lord has forgiven your sin. You are not going to die. Nonetheless, because you have treated the Lord with such contempt in this matter, the son who has been born to you will certainly die.” (2 Sam 12:13-14, New English Translation)

For those who insist that the Bible has to show that the only path to forgiveness is repentance, they will surely appreciate an insertion like this between David’s confession and Nathan’s declaration:
“The LORD accepted David’s genuine confession.”

But that doesn’t exist in the text.

If we read carefully again and again, what we need to do to receive forgiveness doesn’t seem to feature large.

All we now read is Nathan pronounced without pause, “The LORD has forgiven your sins.”
Then he moved right on to the punishment of David to show Yahweh’s justice.

The conversation reads as though David’s forgiveness has already been baked in!
It already was there.

Zoom out theologically.

When did we sin?
And when did our sins forgiven?
When did Jesus Christ come to die on the Cross to take away the sin of humanity?

God’s forgiveness predated our repentance.
Even our sins.

To realise that isn’t trivializing the confession of our sins and the asking for forgiveness.
To write about that isn’t morphing into universalism.
To suggest that perhaps is like saying God’s mercy was widened—it was widened beyond our own categories and surprised ones like Hays.

There are many references throughout the Bible that says of David’s loyalty, obedience and his seeking after God’s heart (see Acts 13:22; 1Ki 11:6, 14:8, 15:3; 2 Ki 16:2; 2 Ch 34:2). And the most heart-felt one is Psalm 51. 
The heart is what God can see.

Miraculous catch of fish (c. 1629, Rijksmuseum, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Perhaps Simon Peter is the one in NT closest parallels King David in dramatic failure and special love by God in spite of failure.
All Peter could profess in John 21 is “You know I love you.”

This is not so much a confession.
Certainly not repentance.
Definitely no defense.

Yet John 21 records Jesus approached the disciples first.
And history witnesses to how Peter was used, as was David.

Surprised?