Featured If Divorce is a Sin...Can and Will God Forgive this Sin?

Is any sin too big for God to forgive? Did Jesus die on the cross to forgive the sins of the world, or not?

(Other than the scripturally confirmed unforgivable sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, of course, but that is another discussion.)

 

2 For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.

3 So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.


Looks as if everyday she would be an adultress.....divorce it self might not be the issue...being an everyday adultress might be.



9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,

 

There is a distinction to be made between whether forgiveness in the context of this thread entails salvation, or if the context of the question is meant to speak of this in a saved person's life.
My post was mostly in relation to the former.

Let me say my opinion on the latter:
Unconfessed sin will hinder your walk--so if you divorce for the wrong reasons, then it could be argued that this unconfessed sin will not be in your past until you confess it. IMO, it won't affect your salvation, but it will cause you problems.
I do think it depends on the situation, though. To my understanding divorce is permitted in "extreme" circumstances.


Back to my first post:
Did Jesus die for the sins of the world or didn't He?
You know what blows me away? Thinking what it must have felt like when Jesus was hanging there with the sins of the world on His shoulders. To think He felt the weight of not only my sins, but that of the entire world. Despair and hopelessness, a million times over. He bore all that willingly.
And why should divorce be the unforgivable sin? Are we to put such limits on God, to say that He is not strong enough to bear that sin?
Especially when the only sin that the Bible describes as being unforgivable is blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. (Which logic and speculation may lead one to believe is probably ultimately rejecting Jesus and choosing to keep on living in sin, but again, that's not the topic of this thread.)

 

The way to get around that is to list two separate addresses with the Postal Service and really live together. Then when the Lord looks down and sees two different addresses, it will not be counted as sin. The Postal Service covers a multitude of sins.

Seriously, I have never come to grips with those passages, but cannot deny they are there. I have never been divorced, so have not had to deal with them. By God's grace and my wife's patience, it has been 37 years. However, I have numerous family members, some from past generations, that did remarry when the original spouse was still alive. I have gone over and over in my mind as to how to look at this. If they are say twenty years into a second marriage, have kids etc, and say the first marriage lasted six months and the divorce was because of physical abuse. What I am saying is that I have a really hard time of viewing the successful second family as a perpetual sin. What would be the solution? Go back to the first one?

Icon, you bring up a very good point, and one that has haunted me for decades. I have no answers.

Tougher than the issue I brought up is a pastor confronted with whether to marry someone a second time or not. It seems to only answer in that case is the individual circumstances, a lot of prayer, and the help of the Lord.

 

The only unforgivable sin is blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. If Christ spoke the truth then its a no brainer that he can and will forgive all other sin.

Mark 3:28-29
28 Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter, 29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin.”

 

When Christ came he was speaking to the people that were still living under the LAW. Now that Christ fulfilled scripture we are fortunate enough to have a savior and a way to be forgiven of sin. If a marriage fails thankfully we have Jesus Christ who will forgive us of the sins and make us clean. Sometimes we just fail at things. God knows that...,and that's why he sent his son. If a persona has divorced and truly seeks forgiveness I tend to believe Christ forgives when asked. I myself have been a adulterer, liar, idolatry, and a drunkard. I am no longer any of these because of Jesus Christ and repentance from them.

Remember the woman who washed Christs feet with her hair and tears. She was a lowly person and probably a prostutute. Her faith stirred forgiveness in Jesus and he told her that she was forgiven and clean from that point forward.

 

Of course the sin of divorce will be forgiven. And a remarriage will be blessed by God as well, provided it is of a godly nature. There is only one sin that will not be ignored, and that is the sin of unbelief.

 

NO! Jesus death provided atonement/payment for all sins, and Divorce is NOT the unpardonable sin!

 

My bad. I should have said "forgiven" instead of "ignored."

 

No we don't.

Divorce is not always a sin. It upholds a high view of marriage.

There are times when it is appropriate to divorce one's spouse. It is the option of last resort, when you are essentially telling the governing authorities that the marriage has been broken and that for the foreseeable future, there is little hope of being reunited.

Have you forgotten that God divorced Israel (Jeremiah 3:8, Isaiah 50:1, and Hosea 2:2)?

 

And yet, Jesus said ...

Matthew 19, NASB
8 "Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way."​

Divorce is a sin, no doubt about it. However, as you have said, Jesus did provide -- just as Moses did -- a way out.

Matthew 19
9 "And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery."​

The word translated "immorality" is the Greek porneia and while it literally means "illicit sexual intercourse," it also has a metaphorical meaning of "idolatry." This meaning is directly related to one's relationship with God, as placing anything between oneself and God is "spiritual adultery." It enters into marriage violation of the marriage vows -- established by Adam when he declared Eve to be "bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh" -- through the disobedience to God that violation represents.

An action of last resort, the intent is for the wounded spouse to work diligently for the restoration of the person in the other half of the marriage. It does not change the status of divorce as sin, but the placement of the cause -- "hardness of heart" -- is not on the one who determines he/she has no choice, but on the one who refuses to be reconciled.

 

To my understanding, there are given biblical grounds to divorce to even a Christians!

IF married to unbeliever, assuming both were unsaved, and now one has been saved, if other departs, is supported to have them divorce you

If comming adultery, and I also lump together all sexual sins such as unrepenbtent porn, prostitutes, etc, can divorce

if spouse abandons, just leaves and refuses to support....

also, to my understanding, IF a person divorces their partner for unbiblcal reasons, that when married to another, that is adultery, BUT also that the parties who repent of their sin before the lord will have the blood of jesus covering that sin, and God can still bless that union!

 

The answere is in Mat 12:31. but forgiveness does not open the door to comit another sin.

 

IMO, if a man beats his wife or abuses his kids way beyond reasonable discipline, it is the duty of the wife to not walk but run away from the marriage. In all most all cases, where the man says I will do better, he ends up beating his family again. I suppose there is a case where the problem has been solved through the power of Jesus Christ, but from what I have seen with marriages in this state, it is very rare.

The wife needs to put a stop to the abuse immediately, and can worry about the forgiveness and remarriage later.

 

Which I gave in the post to which you replied with this comment.

If the unbeliever leaves an unequally yoked relationship, is the believer then not required to seek reconciliation? Does he/she not pass "Go", not collect $200, but proceed directly to court? I don't think so. If his/her efforts will not be heard by the unbelieving spouse, then he/she has guidance to go to court, but I believe the establishment of marriage as the first and highest holy institution created by God demands extensive efforts to restore the marriage, which of course, in this case, means preaching the gospel and attempting to win the spouse to Christ.

"Immorality", as I pointed out, isn't limited to sexual sin.

Finally, of course it is a forgivable sin, and requires no more effort than any other sin to receive that forgiveness. But marriage is a serious undertaking, and a decision that it must be dissolved is not to be made lightly, but with great prayer, soul-searching, and an extensive seeking of God's own heart.

 

All divorce is always sin, but both parties are not always part of that sin. Sometimes one is a victim.

 

yes, for while there are "permissive" grounds by the Lord to have a biblical divorce, that is NOT to be always the case. as the Lord still hatesdivorce, and still is in the business to bring about reconcialation and to cause the marriage to come back as he intended, but the trick is that BOTH parties must want to have that happen!

 

No God never gave permission for divorce. He does recognize it happens but never condones it. All divorce is from sin and God never condones sin.
Here is a good article
http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/articles/divorce-remarriage-a-position-paper

 

Jesus disagrees with you on this, do you and that article know more about this than the Son of God then?