In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us. (Ephesians 1:7–8)
John Owen once described God’s forgiveness in a way that can feel almost unrealistic. He wrote that God’s pardon is not narrow or reluctant like ours, but “full, free, boundless, bottomless, absolute” (Works of John Owen, 6:499). We often forgive in ways that reflect our fallenness: hesitantly, partially, begrudgingly. Owen’s point, however, is simple: God forgives generously and completely, in a way that reflects his own nature (Exodus 34:6–7) and displays the glory of his grace (Ephesians 1:6, 12, 14).
But even when we hear this, many of us struggle to believe God forgives us this way. We know the doctrines. Still, when we commit a familiar sin or face the shame of a new one, we may assume God is tired of us. We imagine he forgives because he chooses to, not because he wants to. In those moments, we quietly treat his grace as reluctant. Yet in Christ, God does not grow tired of receiving you, because his forgiveness does not rise and fall with your performance. It rests on the unchanging worth of his Son, whose intercession never falters (Romans 8:34).
This suspicion, that God’s fundamental posture toward us shifts with our spiritual steadiness, creates distance where we most need closeness. But the gospel shows something better: God forgives willingly and gladly. His glad forgiveness is an expression of his desire to be shown glorious in the joy of forgiven sinners (Psalm 32:1–2, 10–11).
The Transactional Trap
To see how radical God’s glad forgiveness is, we need to recognize the lie that often shapes our instincts. A helpful picture comes from ancient Ephesus. In Acts 19, Paul encountered people whose religious system, centered on the god Artemis and magic formulas, was thoroughly transactional. Spells and expensive scrolls were tools for managing the gods. When new Christians burned these books, they were rejecting not just objects but an entire framework for relating to the divine (Acts 19:18–20).
In their worldview, the gods were unpredictable; they could be influenced but never trusted. Spiritual life was built on constant effort and upheld by anxious maintenance. The idea of a God who forgives freely and out of his own character was not only unfamiliar; it was incompatible with their thinking. At its root, the transactional mindset exalts human effort and diminishes the glory of God’s mercy.
This same instinct — earn first, receive later — still shows up in our lives. We reject pagan religion in theory, yet we often act like spiritual Ephesians. We believe salvation is by grace, but we live as though ongoing forgiveness must be earned. We hold back from prayer until we feel worthy again. In our minds, God becomes a reluctant judge who must be persuaded rather than a Father who is glad to forgive. Grace becomes a transaction we think we must manage.
Whenever we wait to come to God until we feel worthy, we reveal the deeper issue: We trust our worthiness more than Christ’s.
Dismantling Transactional Thinking
Paul addresses this mindset in Ephesians 1. Writing to the same believers who burned their magic scrolls, he describes God’s work in a way that leaves no room for earning. He begins, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing” (verse 3). Rooted in God’s prior action, these blessings do not depend on our effort.
In fact, Paul traces these blessings back before creation: “[The Father] chose us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world. . . . In love he predestined us for adoption” (verses 4–5). God’s gracious decision did not wait for our repentance or obedience. It came before we existed, before we sinned, and before the world began. Our adoption rests on his eternal choice, not on our spiritual performance. And God’s eternal choice is the overflow of divine love designed to display the glory of his grace (verse 6).
This is the logic of grace: God chose, loved, and blessed his people before they contributed anything. Grace begins not as God’s reaction to our efforts but as the outflow of his eternal purpose. And Paul shows that this initiative is explicitly Trinitarian. The Father plans, the Son accomplishes, and the Spirit applies and seals. Our forgiveness rests on the united work of the triune God, not on the rise and fall of our spiritual consistency. Because each person of the Godhead works to secure our forgiveness, forgiveness is not reluctant. It is the glad overflow of God’s glory (verse 14).
The Glad Contact Point of Eternal Love
With God’s eternal choice as the foundation, forgiveness is where God’s grace reaches us personally, where divine purpose meets our real guilt and troubled conscience. Forgiveness is not only the clearing of our record but also the assurance that God welcomes us with joy. It expresses his delight in restoring us. God welcomes forgiven sinners with joy because doing so magnifies the worth of Christ.
The cross was not God’s reluctant response to sin. It was the moment he chose to reveal his grace through the blood of his Son (Ephesians 1:7). Our conscience needs a concrete anchor, and the cross provides it: forgiveness secured by Christ’s poured-out life. God planned forgiveness from eternity, knowing that only Christ’s blood would suffice. Nothing displays the glory of his grace more clearly than the Son who bled to give it.
Paul states it wonderfully: “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us” (verses 7–8). Paul chooses the word lavished because he wants us to feel the scale of God’s giving. Lavished highlights generosity, not obligation. And no wonder, for this forgiveness comes to us in Christ. God does not hand us forgiveness as a detached gift. He gives us Christ, and with Christ, everything that is his. He lavishes grace so that forgiven sinners might share the joy of knowing him as their Glad Forgiver.
Paul later explains that believers are “sealed with the promised Holy Spirit” (1:13). The Spirit’s seal guarantees that what Christ purchased will be applied and preserved. When doubts arise about God’s gladness to forgive, the Spirit witnesses that we belong to the Father and remain secure in Christ. And because Christ now reigns and intercedes for his people (1:20–23), the forgiveness he purchased is upheld by his ongoing mediation. Our confidence rests not on the stability of our performance but on the presence of the Spirit within us and the permanence of Christ’s intercession for us.
Such a salvation leaves no room for a reluctant forgiver. God does not forgive in cautious or partial ways. For those in Christ, his grace is abundant, gladly given, and eternally secure. When you turn to him, you do not meet a scorekeeper. You meet a Father who, for the sake of Christ, welcomes you with joy. This is the fullness of his forgiveness. This is the glad heart of God.
Desiring God