R.C. Sproul

Where did God ever say, well, you're allowed to sin once.

I'm not going to be happy if you sin twice.

And if you sin three times, you're really in trouble.

But everybody gets one.

Did God ever say that?

No.

You're not entitled to one mistake.

But even if you were, how long ago did you use it up?

We are so accustomed to our fallenness, to our corruption, that yes, our moral sensibilities are offended when we see somebody involved in gross and heinous criminal activity, somebody who's a serial murderer who goes out and butchers people.

Then all of a sudden we have a moral protest that we're feeling vehemently.

But the normal, everyday, casual disobedience to God doesn't bother us because to err is human and to forgive is divine.

Now, again, the second part of that comment, to err is human, to forgive is divine, suggests it must be God's nature to do what?

To forgive.

We sin.

God forgives.

To err is human.

forgive divine.

And again, the unspoken implication is if He doesn't forgive, if He withholds that forgiveness, then there's something wrong with His very deity because it is to be the nature of God to forgive.

Dear friends, it is not necessary to the essence of deity to forgive.

Forgiveness is grace.