Why the impenitent do not receive grace

                                                                                                                                                                                                                Vol. XXIV, No 10, Nov/Dec 2011

If God should bestow his pardoning grace upon an impenitent sinner, he would thereby dishonor his grace. He would expose it to contempt by giving of it to them who will no way thankfully receive it. That will not give him the glory of it but despise the pardoning grace of God. Therefore, God insists upon this – that men should heartily confess and forsake their sins, and he insists upon no more. He is ready to accept this without any satisfaction at all made by the sinner. “Tis only to acknowledge their sin and forsake it. And thus there are no other reasons to be given but that God is infinitely gracious. That God will forgive all sinners only upon their repentance is not to be attributed to anything but infinite grace. What marvelous grace is it that so great a God should forgive sinners.

[Jonathan Edwards in his 1762 sermon “God Stands Ready to Forgive Every Sinner upon His Heartily Confessing and Forsaking His Sin” The Blessing of God, Michael D. McMullen, ed., Broadman & Homan, Nashville, 2003, p. 133]

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