Will God forgive me?
Notice, this is often not a question of “can He?”, but “will He?”. Can I fall into the same patterns so often that even the God of all mercies has a hard time looking at me, much less forgiving me? Does my past or present disqualify me from His grace?
Our heads can answer these questions with a firm “of course, He forgives all!” But in our hearts, there’s a subtle fear of being found out as still not enough for His grace. The internal war is paralyzing. We genuinely don’t know if we’re too far gone. It’s an unsettling feeling that the answer might be what we’ve always feared.
But the answer is a little more complicated: Yes, God will forgive all, so nobody is ever too far gone. And His grace demands a response from you.
There are thousands of examples in the Bible of our God being forgiving and steadfast. King Manasseh’s story is equally surprising and disturbing.
Manasseh was widely known as the worst king in Judah’s history. He wasn’t just “bad.” He was wicked. His reign was 55 long years of rebellion, darkness, and malevolence. He didn’t foolishly fall into poor decisions, nor was he misguided into ruin. He actively chose to make what God deemed “evil” into something that was normal and good.
He polluted God’s temple—the very place where God’s presence was meant to dwell with His people and His glory was to be made manifest on earth—by installing carved idols that honored pagan gods (2 Kings 21:3–7). He killed “much innocent blood” all across Jerusalem (2 Kings 21:16), likely those who opposed him and his rebellion against God. Instead of relying on God’s direction and voice, he consulted fortune-tellers and practiced sorcery and necromancy (2 Chronicles 33:6), all of which are strictly forbidden in God’s Law (Deuteronomy 18:9–14). His commitment to these dark spiritual practices was so all-encompassing that he burned his own sons upon altars as a sacrifice to false gods (2 Chronicles 33:6).
These abominable practices caused God to drive out the inhabitants of the Promised Land in the first place (Deuteronomy 18:9–14). Now the land was polluted once again—not by pagan nations but by God’s very own people, who were meant to be set apart from the rest of the world and a blessing to all nations (Deuteronomy 7:6; Genesis 12:2–3). The books of Chronicles and Kings say that Manasseh led God’s people to do more evil than the pagan nations before them (2 Kings 21:9, 2 Chronicles 33:9).
If sin is just “bad” things, Manasseh is already likely disqualified from God’s grace. But the Bible describes sin as misdirected worship, because humanity “exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator” (Romans 1:25).
If we lay out all of Manasseh’s blatant sin, it’s likely that deep down, we believe God is just in punishing his sin, and there is no room for grace. Manasseh’s outright rebellion proves that there is no way that there should be a way back for him. Yet God is much more forgiving than we give Him credit for.
God tries to warn Manasseh and the people. But with no response, He disciplines Manasseh through the Assyrian empire and sends them to lock him up in a Babylonian prison (2 Chronicles 33:10–11). And in this moment, Manasseh breaks. He lays down all the rebellious striving, acknowledges his distress, and turns to God in complete humility. And God forgives him.
“He [Manasseh] prayed to him, and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God.” (2 Chronicles 33:13)
How powerful is that? The very things that should have disqualified Manasseh from God’s grace were exactly what qualified him. Because of Manasseh’s story, you can be confident that God is ready to welcome you home, no matter what you have done.
You likely feel some tension here. Maybe you’re relieved that God is all-forgiving toward you. Maybe you’re uncomfortable with the idea that God’s grace could apply to others as well, especially those who have done much wrong.
Paul addresses some of this tension in Romans 6: Does the good news of God’s grace mean we can keep doing what we want and continue to receive God’s forgiveness? Can anybody just “get away with” sinning their whole lives only to be quickly forgiven at the end?
These are natural questions, especially if you’ve ever read the news or doom-scrolled late at night. They’re especially relevant for those of us who have been on the receiving end of evil and injustice. Where does the deserving wrath go? Shouldn’t sin be punished? The answer is yes—for those not in Christ, it will come in due time; for those in Christ, it has already happened. In either case, you can be sure that all sin receives its judgment in full.
Romans 3 reminds us that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” and those people are “justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith” (Romans 3:23–25).
All wrath and punishment were poured out on Jesus, and nobody is exempt from that requirement to be justified. When we are disgusted with the idea of someone else receiving grace because of who they are or what they’ve done, consider if you have received grace for yourself. You may realize that you functionally live out a law-based morality more than a grace-saturated gospel.
Grace is something you have to receive to the core of who you are, and the natural response to this good news is not behavior modification or religious striving—it’s repentance. After God showered Manasseh with grace, mercy, and forgiveness, he tore down the false gods and idols, restored God’s true altar, and commanded the nation to follow God (2 Chronicles 33:14–16). But before he did any of these things, remember what he did first: he humbled himself greatly, and he prayed to God desperately. His actions are an outflow of the grace he has received.
Repentance is not just replacing our “bad” things with “good” things. In fact, God doesn’t need any of our good things (Acts 17:24–25). Repentance is recognizing that you don’t measure up, you never will, and you need God’s help. You need His saving, you need His deliverance, and most of all, you need His grace.
The good news is that God can save to the uttermost: any sinner from any sin. But how you respond is your choice: you can either receive that grace with humility or reject it in pride. You can delay this choice all you want, but one day at the end of your life, you may be forced to let your sin choose for you.
So, can God forgive you for what you’ve done? Absolutely.
Are you too late to turn to Him? Never.
Let His grace transform you to the very core of who you are, and let His kindness lead you to repentance. His arms are open wide. Run to Him.
“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts…” (Psalm 95:7–8).
Want to dive deeper? Check out our sermon series guide on Kings of Judah, or watch the most recent sermon from our Kings of Judah sermon series.
