“If a person can be forgiven for adultery, why is there still a penalty?” There are a couple of points relative to this question. First, when one repents of whatever sin is under consideration, he or she stops committing the sin as a prerequisite to pardon. Repentance is “to change one’s way of life as the result of a complete change of thought and attitude with regard to sin and righteousness” (Greek-English Lexicon emphasis added). Forgiveness of sins in unobtainable while continuing in the sins for which a person desires pardon. Continuing to commit the sins for which one wants pardon is not repentance! Therefore, under those circumstances, there is no forgiveness of sins. Mental acknowledgement of wrongdoing does not convert sinful activity into something acceptable to God. For instance, being in a biblically impermissible marriage (though sanctioned by man’s laws) does not somehow become acceptable to God merely by one noting that he or she has violated God’s New Testament commandments about marriage, divorce and remarriage (Matthew 19:9). Jesus cited only one circumstance for which an innocent person in a divorce for the cause of fornication may (but does not have to) marry a biblically eligible person. The apostle Paul quoted our Lord regarding divorce, penning, “Now to the married I command, yet not I but the Lord: A wife is not to depart from her husband. But even if she does depart, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband. And a husband is not to divorce his wife” (1 Corinthians 7:10-11 NKJV). Jesus said not to divorce, but if a divorce occurred (when fornication was not the reason for the divorce, Matthew 19:9), the divorcees could only remain celibate or reconcile.
In the second place, often there are consequences for sin that persist despite repentance and forgiveness for sin. Moses had a relationship and fellowship with God that is evident as Moses viewed the land of Canaan to which he had been leading Israel for 40 years. However, the consequence of Moses’ sin at Kadesh was that he was forbidden to enter Canaan (Numbers 20:1-12; Deuteronomy 34:1-4). Furthermore, despite his sin and being forbidden to enter Canaan, Moses appeared in the Transfiguration of Christ (Matthew 17:1-5), implying Moses died in a right relationship with God. Nevertheless, as a consequence of his sin, God forbade Moses to enter Canaan. Again, often there are consequences for sin that persist despite repentance and forgiveness of sin. Contemporarily and in the Gospel Age, our Lord did not cite and the New Testament does not mention permission for guilty persons to a divorce for the cause of adultery to remarry.
Certainly, Scripture provides for the forgiveness of the sin of adultery. Paul described the array of sins formerly characteristic of Christians at Corinth, but they were forgiven of their sins when they repented of them.
No, you yourselves do wrong and cheat, and you do these things to your brethren! Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:8-11)
None of us, whom God created, are in a position to either question or to dispute with our Creator. “But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why have you made me like this?’ Does not the potter have power over the clay…” (Romans 9:20-21). Instead, all of us ought to be exceedingly grateful that God has extended to mankind grace (Ephesians 2:8) and mercy (Titus 3:5), without which there would be neither hope of salvation from past sins (Romans 3:25 KJV) nor a genuine prospect of spending an eternity in Heaven with God. When anyone reject the doctrine of Christ, he rejects God. “Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit” (1 Thessalonians 4:8). Willfully sinning amounts to throwing away and disrespecting the sacrifice Jesus Christ – our only solution for sins (Hebrews 10:26).
Works Cited
Greek-English Lexicon Based on Semantic Domain. Electronic Database. New York: United Bible Societies, 1988.
