“It is very odd that people should think that when we do good God will reward us and when we do evil he will punish us. I mean it is very odd that Christians should think this, that God deals out to us what we deserve. It is not, I suppose, really odd that other people should; I suppose it is the commonest way of thinking of God, for God tends to be just a great projection into the sky of our moral feelings, especially our guilt feelings. But I don’t believe in God if that’s what he is, and it is very odd that any Christian should, since there is so much in the gospels to tell us differently. You could say that the main theme of the preaching of Jesus is that God isn’t like that at all….
“His love for us doesn’t depend on what we do or what we are like…. Sin doesn’t alter God’s attitude to us; it alters our attitude to him, so that we change him from the God who is simply love and nothing else, into this punitive ogre, this Satan….
“Never be deluded into thinking that if you have contrition, if you are sorry for your sins, God will come and forgive you - that he will be touched by your appeal, change his mind about you and forgive you. Not a bit of it. God never changes his mind about you. He is simply in love with you. What he does again and again is change your mind about him… That is what forgiveness is. You are not forgiven because you confess your sin. You confess your sin, recognise yourself for what you are, because you are forgiven.”
From Herbert McCabe, “Forgiveness”, in Faith within Reason (2007)
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Paul Martin 05.29.08 at 10:35 am
Thanks for that extract, Kim.
dh 05.29.08 at 5:38 pm
Kind of goes against the passage “If you confess your sins He is able and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” God’s love never changes toward ALL humanity but that doesn’t mean He condones the sin we commit or that He approves of our actions. God has already made a way for forgiveness of all of our sins it is a matter of whether or not we enter into that by first becoming a Christians by being Born Again with ones heart, soul and mind and second to continue to be closer to God by asking God for forgiveness of our sins. If one looks at ALL of Scripture forgiveness and confession go hand in hand. Seems like a bit of “picking and choosing” going on by McCabe.
dh 05.29.08 at 5:39 pm
To me it is more than reasonable that God made the way for forgiveness and we enter into that by Holy spirit revelation “conviction of sin” and confession as part of that. Scripture seems pretty clear on that one.