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.]

9014. 'You shall take him from My altar to die' means damnation even though he flees to worship the Lord, pleads for forgiveness, and promises to repent. This is clear from the meaning of Jehovah's altar' as the chief representative of worship of the Lord, dealt with in 921, 2777, 2811, 4541, 8935, 8940, and since the altar was representative of worship 'fleeing to the altar' means going to the Lord, pleading for forgiveness, and also promising to repent, for one action follows the other; and from the meaning of 'dying' as damnation, dealt with in 5407, 6119, 9008.

[2] The implications of all this may be recognized from what has been shown in paragraph 9013 above, to the effect that guile in spiritual things, that is, hypocrisy, is not able to be forgiven. The reason why is that guile is like poison that penetrates right through to the inward parts; it kills all of the faith and charity there, and destroys remnants, which are the truths and forms of the good of faith and charity stored away by the Lord in a person inwardly. And when these have been destroyed no spiritual life at all survives any longer. Regarding remnants, see 468, 530, 560-563, 660, 661, 798, 1050, 1738, 1906, 2284, 5135, 5342, 5344, 5897, 5898, 6156, 7560, 7564. Consequently when people full of guile plead with the Lord to be forgiven and promise to repent, meant by 'fleeing to the altar', their pleas and promises do not come at all from the heart but are made only with the lips. Therefore they are not heard, for the Lord looks on the heart, not on words separated and isolated from the heart. So it is that there is no forgiveness for them, because they are not capable of any repentance.

[3] 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. The Church knows this to be so, for it says to those who attend the Holy Supper that their sins are forgiven if they begin a new life by refraining from evils and abhorring them.

[4] All this now shows what the situation is with hypocrites who through guile are inwardly eaten up by evils — they are incapable of repenting. For the actual remnants of goodness and truth present with them have been destroyed and lost, and everything of spiritual life with them. And being incapable of repenting they cannot be forgiven. This is meant by the law that those who kill their neighbour with guile must be taken from the altar to die.

[5] Their damnation was described by the following prophetic utterance made by David regarding Joab, who had killed Abner with guile,

There will always be in the house of Joab ¹ one who suffers from a discharge, or is a leper, or supports himself with a rod, or falls by the sword, or lacks bread. 2 Samuel 3:27, 29.

'One suffering from a discharge' means profanation of the good of love; 'a leper' means profanation of the truth of faith, 6963; 'one supporting himself with a rod', or a person who is lame, means those with whom all good has been lost, 4302, 4314; 'one falling by the sword' means those constantly dying through falsities, 4499, 6353, 7102, 8294; and 'one lacking bread' means those deprived of all spiritual life, for 'bread' is the sustainment of spiritual life by means of good, 6118, 8410. Because such people were meant by 'Joab' he was killed by the command of Solomon at the altar to which he had fled, 1 Kings 2:28-32.

Imibhalo yaphansi:

5023. 'Until his lord came to his house' means so that it might communicate with natural good. This is clear from the meaning of 'lord' as unspiritual natural good, dealt with in 4973, 4988. 'House' in the internal sense is the natural mind, for the natural mind, like the rational mind also, resembles a house. 'The husband' in it is good, 'the wife' truth; 'the daughters and sons' are affections for good and truth, as well as being forms of good and truth which are begotten from that aforesaid good and truth as their parents, while 'the women servants and the men servants' are the desires and the known facts that minister to and support them. Here therefore 'until his lord came to his house' means when natural good comes to its own dwelling-place, where also there is the truth that is joined to it, though in this case it is falsity which convinces the good that it is truth. For unspiritual natural good is easily convinced that falsity is truth and that truth is falsity. The expression 'his lord' is used because the unspiritual natural looks on the spiritual as something servile, 5013.

[2] The fact that a person's natural mind, like his rational mind, is called 'a house' is evident from the following places:

In Luke,

When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person he passes through dry places seeking rest; and if he does not find any he says, I will return to my house out of which I came. And if when he comes he finds it swept and decorated, he goes away and brings seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter in and dwell there. Luke 11:24-26.

'House' here stands for the natural mind, which is called a house that is 'empty and swept' ¹ when there are no forms of good and truth in it meant by 'husband and wife', no affections for good and truth meant by 'daughters and sons', nor anything such as supports these meant by 'women servants and men servants'. The person himself is 'the house' because the rational mind together with the natural mind constitutes a human being. Without the inhabitants just mentioned — that is, without the forms of good and truth, and without the affections for these, and the service rendered by those affections — a person is not a human being but a beast.

[3] The human mind is again meant by 'a house' in the same gospel,

Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and house falls upon house. Luke 11:17.

And in Mark,

If a kingdom is divided against itself, this kingdom cannot stand. Also, if a house is divided against itself, this house cannot stand. No one can go into the house and plunder the vessels of a strong man unless he first binds the strong man, and then he may plunder his house. Mark 3:14, 25, 27.

'Kingdom' means truth, 1672, 2547, 4691, and 'house' good, 2233, 2234, 3720, 4982, 'house' meaning good on account of its greater importance.

[4] In Luke,

If the householder had known at what hour the thief was coming he would certainly have been awake and would not have permitted his house to be broken into. Luke 12:39.

In the same gospel,

From now on there will be in one house five divided, three against two, and two against three. Father will be divided against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother. Luke 12:52-53.

This refers to the spiritual conflicts which members of the Church enter into once the internal or spiritual contents of the Word have been opened up to them. 'House' stands for the actual person or his mind, while the 'father', 'mother', 'son', and 'daughter' in it are forms of good and truth together with affections for these, or in the contrary sense evils and falsities together with affections for these, which are the source of conflict and the things to be grappled with in such conflict.

[5] The Lord commanded His disciples, in Luke,

Whatever house you enter, first say, Peace be to this house! And if indeed a son of peace is there, your peace shall rest on it; but if not, it shall return to you. But remain in the same house; eat and drink what they have there. Do not pass on from house to house. Luke 10:5-7.

This represented the requirement for them to remain with genuine good, that is, with the good of love to the Lord and of charity towards the neighbour, and not to pass on to any other kind. For more about the actual person or his mind being meant by 'a house', see also 3538, 4973.

Imibhalo yaphansi: