What does it mean to ask the Lord for forgiveness?

Does He always forgive us? Does He automatically forgive us? If He does, then why ask? And, really, what does it mean to be forgiven by Him?

Let's have a look at what the Bible says about it.

One thing is that we’re told to seek the Lord’s forgiveness. Here are two example passages:

- "Then the priest shall burn it on the altar, according to the offerings made by fire to the Lord. So the priest shall make atonement for his sin that he has committed, and it shall be forgiven him." (Leviticus 4:35)

- "In this manner, therefore, pray…. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." (Matthew 6:9-12)

Second, it's pretty clear that we must forgive in order to be forgiven:

- "For if you forgive people their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive people their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." (Matthew 6:14, 15)

- "And his master was angry, and delivered him to the tormentors until he should pay all that was due to him. So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses." (Matthew 18:34, 35)

- "Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven." (Luke 6:37)

Third, we can see that the Lord is ready to forgive:

- "For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, and abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You." (Psalm 86:5)

- "Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little." (Luke 7:47)

- "And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents…. Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt." (Matthew 18:24, 27)

- "And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left. Then Jesus said, 'Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.'" (Luke 23:33, 34)

Here are some New Church teachings that are based on these Bible passages.

1. The Lord isn't keeping a ledger (which is good news for all of us!). See this excerpt from "True Christian Religion":

"The Lord, being mercy itself, forgives everyone his sins, and does not hold even one of them against a person. For the Lord says, 'They do not know what they are doing' (but still this does not mean that the sins are abolished); for when Peter asked how many times he should forgive his brother his offences, whether as many as seven times, the Lord said: 'Not up to seven times, I tell you, but up to seventy times seven times,' (Matthew 18:21-22). What then will the Lord not do?" (True Christian Religion 539)

2. Forgiveness is a process. You can think of it as a loop. There are two stages: "being willing to forgive" and a "coming to be forgiven". This is well-described in the following passages from two of Swedenborg's theological works:

"The majority within the church think that the forgiveness of sins involves wiping and washing them away, like the removal of dirt by water, and that after forgiveness people go about clean and pure. This idea reigns especially with those who attribute all of salvation to faith alone. But let it be known that the situation with the forgiveness of sins is altogether different from that. Being Mercy itself, the Lord forgives everyone their sins. Nevertheless they do not come to be forgiven unless the person sincerely repents, refrains from evils, and after that leads a life of faith and charity, doing so to the end of his life. When this happens the person receives spiritual life from the Lord, called new life. Then when with this new life he looks at the evils of his former life, turns away from them, and abhors them, his evils have for the first time been forgiven. For the person is now maintained in truths and forms of good by the Lord and held back from evils. This shows what the forgiveness of sins is, and that it cannot take place within an hour, nor within a year." (Arcana Coelestia 9014:3)

"Another error of the age is to suppose that when sins have been forgiven they are also put away…. However, when this proposition is turned around, it becomes the truth, namely that when sins have been put away, they are also forgiven. For repentance precedes forgiveness, and apart from repentance there is no forgiveness…. The Lord forgives all people their sins. He does not accuse or impute. But He still cannot take those sins away except in accordance with the laws of His Divine providence." (Divine Providence 280)

3. We don’t need to pray for forgiveness. (Wait, what?) This is interesting. In the Lord's Prayer, which Jesus taught, we DO pray for forgiveness. But read this excerpt from "True Christian Religion":

"There are two obligations incumbent on one after self-examination: prayer and confession. Prayer should be that the Lord may have mercy, grant the power to resist the evils of which one has repented, and supply the inclination and affection for doing good, since without Him a person cannot do anything (John 15:5)…. There are two reasons why prayer ought not to be offered before the Lord for the forgiveness of sins. First, because sins are not wiped out, but taken away; and this happens as one subsequently desists from them and embarks on a new life. For there are countless longings attached like a cluster around every evil; these cannot be taken away in an instant, but only one after another, as a person allows himself to be reformed and regenerated. The second reason is that the Lord, being mercy itself, forgives everyone his sins, and does not hold even one of them against a person." (True Christian Religion 539)

So, what should we pray for? The point is fairly subtle. What I see in the passage above is that we don’t need to pray for forgiveness, per se, as part of the process of repentance, since during that process we’ve already prayed for mercy and the power to do better. These are the things we’re really asking for when we pray for forgiveness. Asking the Lord to forgive us is acting according to an appearance. It’s a useful exercise, which is why the Lord commands it in the letter of the Word, but the deeper truth is that we have never been anything but forgiven in His eyes, and whether or not we actually come to be forgiven is up to us, not Him.

Summing up...

Being forgiven by God has always involved an action on our part. In the Old Testament, people were required to make sacrifices. In the New Testament, Jesus surprised people, teaching that they needed to forgive others — many times. And now here, we can see that our own (hard) work of repentance is what we also need to bring to close the loop.

So the bottom line is that there are two levels of being forgiven by the Lord: ours and His. The Lord always forgives us. (As far as He Himself is concerned, we are never unforgiven.) But we don’t actually become forgiven until we do our part of the process; that's what allows the forgiveness to flow around the loop.

[This article has been adapted for use here from a November 2023 presentation by Rev. Jared Buss.]

9011. 'I will appoint for you a place to which he may flee' means a state of blamelessness and so of freedom from punishment. This is clear from the meaning of 'a place' as a state, dealt with in 2625, 2837, 3356, 3387, 3404, 4321, 4882, 5605, 7381; and from the meaning of refuge, or a place to which one who killed another without premeditation or by chance might flee, as a state of blamelessness and so of freedom from punishment. For those who struck another by chance, that is, not from set purpose, thus not because of any previous contemplation of the deed or of an evil desire in the will, were not at all culpable. Therefore when they came to the place of refuge they were freed from punishment. By them were represented those who injure, but not from set purpose, someone's truths and forms of the good of faith and as a result wipe out his spiritual life; for their state is one of blamelessness and freedom from punishment. This is true of those who have thorough trust in their religion, which however is full of falsity, and who use what it teaches to reason against the truth and good of faith, and to do this convincingly, as conscientious and consequently zealous heretics are sometimes accustomed to do.

[2] The fact that they were represented [by those] who fled to places of refuge is clear in Moses,

You shall select suitable cities, which are to be cities of refuge for yourselves, so that one who strikes and kills a soul accidentally may flee there. If without premeditation, without enmity, he pushes him; or throws at him some implement without forethought; or [strikes him] with any stone from which he may die, while not seeing him, so that he causes it to fall onto him and he dies, though he was not his enemy and did not seek to harm him ... Numbers 35:11-12, 22-23.

And in the same author,

This is the case ¹ with one who kills, who shall flee there so that he may live, when he has struck his companion unwittingly, when he did not hate him previously ² - as when he goes with his companion into a forest to cut down timber, but when his hand with the axe in it is swung to cut down wood, the iron flies off the handle and hits his companion so that he dies, ³ he shall flee to one of these cities so that he may live. Deuteronomy 19:4-5.

[3] This describes the state of one blameless and freed from punishment, who through the falsities of faith which he had believed to be truths, or through factual knowledge based on the illusions of the senses, has injured someone, and so has done harm to his internal or spiritual life. To convey this meaning such an accident or chance is described by an implement of some kind, and by a stone which he causes to fall onto his companion so that he dies, and also by the axe or iron coming off its handle, while both were cutting down timber in the forest. The reason why such details are used to describe the matter is that 'an implement' means some known fact, and 'a stone' a truth of faith or in the contrary sense a falsity; and in like manner 'the iron of an axe' and 'cutting down timber' means to argue about what is good, using what one's religion teaches.

[4] Anyone may see that but for some hidden reason a killing that occurred accidentally would not have been described by the iron of an axe coming off its handle in a forest, for such an accident happens rarely, scarcely once in many years. But that accident has been described in such a way for the sake of the internal sense, which describes the harm done to a soul by another through the falsities of faith which, because his religion teaches them, he has believed to be truths. For anyone who causes harm through falsities which he believes to be truths does not do harm from set purpose or in spite of knowing better, because he acts in accord with his religious faith and therefore out of zeal. So that these things might be meant in the internal sense they are described, as has been stated, by those who kill companions accidentally, and by 'a stone', by 'cutting down wood in a forest', and by 'the iron of the axe coming off its handle onto a companion during the process'. For 'a stone' is a truth of faith in the natural man, and in the contrary sense a falsity, see 643, 1298, 3720, 6426, 8609, 8941, and so is 'iron', 425, 426. 'The iron of the axe coming away from its handle' is truth separated from good, good being meant by 'handle' or 'wood', 643, 2812, 3720, 8354; 'cutting down wood' means placing merit in works, 1110, 4943, 8740; but 'cutting down timber in a forest' means discussing these and like matters, and also calling them into question; for 'a forest' means a religious system.

[5] Like matters are meant by 'cutting down timber in a forest with axes' in Jeremiah,

The mercenaries will go with strength, and they will come to her with axes, like those who cut down timber. They will cut down her forest, said Jehovah. Jeremiah 46:22-23.

Here 'cutting down timber in a forest' stands for acting in accord with false religious practices and destroying such things as constitute the Church. For the Church is called 'a forest', 'a garden', and 'a paradise'; it is called 'a forest' by virtue of its knowledge, 'a garden' by virtue of its intelligence, and 'a paradise' by virtue of its wisdom, 3220, 'trees' being perceptions of goodness and truth, and also cognitions or knowledge of them, 103, 2163, 2722, 2972, 4552, 7690, 7692. And since 'a forest' means the Church in respect of its knowledge, thus of its external aspects, it also means religious practices.

[6] The Church in respect of its knowledge or external aspects is also meant by 'a forest', or 'a wood', in David,

The field will be exultant and everything in it; then all the trees of the wood will sing. Psalms 96:12.

In the same author,

Behold, we heard of Him in Ephrathah; we found Him in the fields of the wood. Psalms 132:6.

These words refer to the Lord. In Isaiah,

The light of Israel will be a fire, and his Holy (One a flame. It will burn the glory of his forest, and his Carmel; it will consume from the soul even to the flesh. As a consequence the remaining trees of the wood will be [so small] a number that a child may write them down. He will cut down the entangled boughs of the forest with an axe, ⁴ and Lebanon will fall by a majestic one. Isaiah 10:17-20, 34.

'The forest' stands for the Church in respect of its cognitions of truth, and 'Carmel' for the Church in respect of its cognitions of good, in the same way as 'Lebanon' and 'Hermon' do. 'The trees of the wood' stands, as above, for cognitions, and 'being a number that a child may write down' stands for the fewness of them, 'entangled boughs of the forest' standing for factual knowledge, 2831.

[7] In the same prophet,

You said, By the multitude of my chariots I will go up [to] the height of the mountains, the sides of Lebanon, where I will cut down the tallness of its cedars, the choice of its fir trees, After that I will come to its remotest height, ⁵ the forest of its Carmel. Isaiah 37:24.

In Jeremiah,

I will visit on you according to the fruit of your works, and I will kindle a fire in its forest. Jeremiah 21:14.

In Ezekiel,

Prophesy against the forest of the field towards the south, and say to the forest of the south, Behold, I will kindle in you a fire, and it will devour every tree. Ezekiel 20:46-47.

In Micah,

Guide ⁶ Your people with Your staff, the flock of Your inheritance inhabiting alone a forest in the midst of Carmel. Micah 7:14.

Does anyone fail to see that in these places a forest is not meant by 'a forest', nor Lebanon and Carmel, which were forests, by 'Lebanon' and 'Carmel', but that some aspect of the Church is meant? What aspect of the Church it is however has lain hidden up to now because the internal sense has lain hidden. But how astonishing that in a world so learned as Europe — more learned than all the other continents — where the Word exists, in every detail of which the internal sense is present, there is no awareness of that sense! Yet it was known to the ancients in Chaldea, Assyria, Egypt, and Arabia, and from them in Greece, in whose books, symbols, and hieroglyphics such matters are still met with. The reason why awareness of that matter has perished is lack of belief that what is spiritual has any real existence.

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