Forgiveness does not lead to repentance as some have believed. It is conviction of sin that leads to repentance. When we prematurely forgive when there is no repentance there is a hardening of the heart. If someone is forgiven without repentance and they rage it is because there already was hardness of heart.
Isaiah 26:10 "10 Though grace is shown to the wicked man, he does not learn righteousness. In the land of righteousness he acts unjustly and fails to see the majesty of the LORD. '
Grace and mercy is shown to the repentant. Those who do not love Christ will not have His grace and mercy.
Mercy and grace is offered to all mankind but it is conditional to trusting in Christ. There will be no mercy or grace for those who reject Christ, they will be thrown into the lake of fire without ever receiving these gifts from God.
The reason we see so many Christians walking on egg shells around unbelievers is because they have believed the false premise that showing grace and mercy leads people to repent.
Romans 2:4 " 4 Or do you despise c the riches of His goodness, d forbearance, and e longsuffering, f not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?"
It is the goodness of God that offers forgiveness upon repentance. It is because of His goodness and justice that will not forgive those who are unrepentant. His goodness requires holiness, justice and compliance to His principles.
Those who resist His principles, His justice and holiness are also resisting His mercy. God is many things and most of all He is love and justice.
Without justice there can be no love. Without justice the unrepentant gets mercy and the righteous are persecuted. Most Christians today do not understand this principle. The devil has done a very effective job in fooling people into believing the opposite of what God teaches in His Word.
How we think determines how we act. When a culture elevates psychology above God's Word them the culture will be brain washed to follow that which they have heard most of their lives.
A good example of this is an old saying that we used to hear as children. That saying goes like this; "if you can't say anything good then don't say anything at all." This was not a biblical saying, it was based on "going along to get along."
A society that lives under this premise of never saying anything hard will never rebuke for sin, they will never speak truth that makes someone feel badly. When this happens the whole culture has been intimidated to refrain from truth in favor of good feelings. This produces a culture that ultimately ends up defending the evil and chastising the righteous.
It is vitally important that we are continually evaluating what we have been taught according to the Bible. Those who love the easy life of "going along to get along" will ultimately end up facilitating sin while negating truth and righteousness.
If you have found yourself defending the sinner in the middle of their sin while chastising the one who points out sin, then you are part of the problem. Sin is growing in the churches because most people have bought into the premise that we should make sure everyone "feels" good about themselves. It isn't until we feel bad about ourselves that we can repent and seek Christ.
Romans 6:1-11 "1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?
2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have become [a]united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be [b]in the likeness of His resurrection,
6 knowing this, that our old [c]self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be [d]done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;
7 for he who has died is [e]freed from sin.
8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, [f]is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.
10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus."
Those who refuse to obey God are those who cause division. It is not the one who is pointing out the disobedience who is divisive, it is the one who is in rebellion against God who causes division. We must avoid those that bring false teaching that only enables those who will not turn from their sin.
Titus 3:10-11
"As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned."
1 Timothy 5:20
"As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear."
We are to expose sin for the sake of those looking on as well as for those in the sin that they might be ashamed and correct their attitude and behavior.
James 5:19-20
"My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins."
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