rethinking forgiveness and repentance

not too long ago i wrote that i do not believe the bible teaches a transactional relationship between forgiveness and repentance. instead, the bible teaches that forgiveness should be freely given and repentance is an act of forsaking a previous way of living for a new one. they are two different issues. thus, God doesn't forgive only if one repents, as if we have to buy God's forgiveness with our repentance; God just forgives. i backed this up by referring to places where the bible teaches us to simply forgive, as well as, jesus' words on the cross, "father, forgive them for they know not what they do." after all, how can there be repentance if someone knows not what he or she does?

joe and i have- at a leisurely pace- been going through the book of acts together. weeks ago we went through chapter three. in verse 19 it says: repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out... "crap!" i thought. this seemed to throw a wrench in what i had been thinking. so i went on biblegateway did a search on "forgive." once again, i found a whole slew of verses that seemed to say there are conditions to forgiveness.

this is frustrating and confusing for me, because while i tell people the bible isn't so cut and dry, and black and white there are times where i fall into that same way of thinking. in the story of the prodigal son, for example, isn't the God character's ( the father) posture toward the prodigal son a posture of unconditional forgiveness? i know that the son represents israel in the story, but can't we also place ourselves in the story? and therefore, isn't God's forgiveness given with condition of repentance? maybe not. i don't know. maybe it's not an either/or issue of transaction versus no transaction, but something else. turning from sin means living in right relationship with God, others and creation. it means giving up our own and this world's agenda, and taking up God's. josephus tells the story of how he and some romans came upon some jewish revolutionaries. josephus, working for rome, tells the revolutionaries to "repent and believe." by repent and believe josephus didn't mean for the revolutionaries to drop to their knees and beg for forgiveness, but to give up their agenda of revolt and join rome. in doing so, rome would accept them, and let them live.

i believe that this story from josephus which i've read from n.t. wright is a much better picture of forgiveness and repentance than a transaction. the idea is that God is waiting for us to join his kingdom which is currently being established. all we have to do is give up our agenda. it's not so much of a transaction, but a change of allegiance from the losing side to the winning side. the two do have a relationship; they are not separate issues.

maybe i'm just getting all worked up over metaphors and semantics, but i thought i would just clear that up.