Every so often you see a news item in which a person, usually famous, is caught doing something wrong. The person may be cheating on their spouse, using words that are deemed offensive, physically abusing someone else, or something else distasteful or wrong. This gets the media’s full attention for quite a while until the guilty party eventually does a “mea culpa,” i.e., claims responsibility for the act and says “I’m sorry.” The carefully worded and orchestrated confession may be accompanied with tears and appropriate promises of penance. It is great theater!

I cannot read the hearts of men, but I suspect that on many of these occasions played out so often in the media the profession of sorrow is feigned. The person may be sorry they were discovered, they may be sorry that they are being maligned in the media, they may be sorry that all the attention is hurting their career, but they are not genuinely sorry that they did something wrong. The show is only for the purpose of getting back in the good graces of the politically correct and powerful minority. Paul the apostle described this kind of attitude when he wrote: “For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death” (II Corinthians 7:10).

Some people may be able to fool some other people into thinking they have truly changed, but rest assured no one will ever fool God (Gal. 6:7)! If the repentance isn’t genuine, no media production will ever move God to forgive that person for the sin. But if the repentance is genuine, and God knows whether it is or not because God knows the heart, then it doesn’t really matter what men may say or do.

The great assurance we have from God is that if we truly repent of our sins, God will forgive (Heb. 8:10-12). Peter denied the Lord, and he was forgiven (Matt. 26:75; John 21:15-19). Great king David committed adultery, lied, and murdered and was able to receive forgiveness (II Sam. 12:13; Psalm 51). Saul of Tarsus blasphemed Christ, hurt people and killed Christians, and received forgiveness (I Tim. 1:13). The woman caught in the act of adultery was forgiven by the Lord (John 8:1-11). The thief on the cross was forgiven (Luke 23:43). Jesus was willing to forgive those who were complicit in His crucifixion (Luke 23:34). Simon the sorcerer was forgiven if he truly repented (Acts 8:22). You and I can also be forgiven if we truly repent (Acts 3:19).

When the repentance of an individual is genuine, it is a very wonderful thing. Jesus said there is joy in heaven when a sinner repents of his or her sin or wrong (Luke 15:7,10). When someone says “forgive me,” and means it, really means it, it is the indication of a heart that is softened and pliable and reconcilable to the will of God (or someone else, as the case may be). It is also the acknowledgment that there is an objective right and wrong; it is an acknowledgment of a personal violation of that standard. It indicates a meekness of heart that is very rare in our society. It manifests a beauty of character that the Lord desires in His children (Deut. 10:12-16).

“Forgive me.” These words can either be both the most powerful and humble words a man can utter or they can be the most distasteful and hypocritical. How will use them?

Eric L. Padgett