The Conditions of Forgiveness

Greetings,

            William Temple (1881-1944) was the son of Frederick Temple, who was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1896 until his death in 1902.  William was Archbishop of York and then the Archbishop of Canterbury from 1942-1944.    He was a very traditional person, and led a traditional life, but he did some very un-traditional things.  In 1942, with the Chief Rabbi of London, Joseph Hertz, Temple founded the Council of Christians and Jews to combat anti-Jewish bigotry.  During the summer of 1944 Temple made a visit to Normandy, France, making him the first Archbishop of Canterbury to go into battle since the Middle Ages. 

Among his many well known statements are “The Church is the only society that exists for the benefit of those who are not its members.”  He also said, “Worship is the submission of all of our nature to God.  It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness, nourishment of mind by His truth, purifying of imagination by His beauty, opening of the heart to His love, and submission of will to His purpose.  And all this gathered up in adoration is the greatest of human expressions of which we are capable.”  There are many who feel that if Temple had lived longer, the Church of England might not have entered into the tailspin it experienced from the 1950’s until now.

The following is from his Personal Religion and the Life of Fellowship.

The Conditions of Forgiveness

            There seems to me to be a very surprising feature in most of the books that I have read and the sermons that I have heard on this subject.  Over and over again it is said that Our Lord promised forgiveness to those who repent; there is often some discussion of the question how far His Death was a necessary condition of forgiveness on the side of God; but there is almost complete agreement that the one condition required on our side is repentance.  Of course there is in the Gospels an immense insistence on the need for repentance.  Also there is the reference to repentance in Our Lord’s teaching about our duty to forgive others.  But when He is actually speaking about God’s forgiveness of us it is not “repentance” that He mentions; it is our own forgiveness of those who have injured us.  Only one petition in the Lord’s prayer has nay condition attached to it: it is the petition for forgiveness; and the condition attached to it is this.  No doubt if by repentance we mean all that the word means in the New Testament, it will include a forgiving spirit; for to repent is to change one’s outlook and to regard men and the world as God regards them.  But everyone can feel that the emphasis would be quite different if the words were, “Forgive us our trespasses, for we do truly repent of them.”  This would be like saying, “I am so sorry; and I won’t do it again; do forgive me.”  In other words, the plea for forgiveness would rest on an apology and a promise made to God; and that is not the basis on which Our Lord bids us rest our plea.  It is to rest on our attitude, not towards God, but towards His other children.  He is always ready and eager to forgive; but how can He restore us to the freedom and intimacy of the family life if there are other members of the family towards whom we refuse to be friendly?

Yours & His,

DED