For us forgiveness is free, but for God there is no such thing as free forgiveness. For Him, forgiveness comes only after the redemption from sins. For example, if you break the law and the court requires you to pay a thousand dollar fine, you must pay the fine before your case will be dismissed. In the same way, we are saved only after being judged on the cross. Our salvation comes after we suffer the judgment for sin in Christ. It is a salvation that comes only through judgment. Hallelujah! We are judged; then afterwards we are saved. God's love is here, and God's righteousness is also here.

Let me give an illustration. Suppose that there is a brother who is a millionaire, and suppose that I am one of his debtors. Let us say that I owe him a big sum of money, an amount as large as the ten thousand talents mentioned in the book of Matthew (18:24). When I borrowed the money from him, I signed a promissory note. On the note the amount that I owe him and the date and month that the amount must be repaid in full was listed, together with the terms and conditions of penalty. Suppose that now I go to him and say, "I spent all the money that I borrowed from you, and it is impossible for me to earn this money back and repay you at such a time as this, when the economy is slumping. I even have a problem taking care of my food and living. Please have mercy on me and let me go. Let me have the promissory note back." If I implore him this way, can he return the note to me? The promissory note clearly records the amount that I borrowed from him and the period of time in which I must repay him. This is a contract not only for me to keep, but one that he has to abide by as well. As the debtor, I have the responsibility to repay him the money within the set time. As the creditor, he also has a responsibility to fulfill, which is to return the promissory note to me only upon receipt of the money. If he returns the note to me before receiving the money, even though he does this out of his love and concern for me, he is not being righteous. Because we human beings are simply unrighteous and are used to unrighteous acts, it seldom occurs to us that free forgiveness is a form of unrighteousness. But God cannot do something unrighteous. If God forgave us freely, He would be unrighteous. Furthermore, going back to the illustration, let us suppose that this brother returns the note to me without receiving the money. This will affect me in a negative way. The next time I have money I will be indiscreet in using it. I have found that I can use others' money easily and loosely. Hence, this brother's free forgiveness is unrighteousness with him and a bad influence on me.

Now suppose that this brother is righteous, but does not want me to repay. What can he do? Let me tell you what I once did in a similar situation. Someone once came to my home to borrow money. He was a nominal Christian, so I told him that according to the Bible Christians should not borrow money. But he begged me to loan him the money all the same. Originally I considered simply giving him the money. But I knew that he was irresponsible with other's money because some brothers had come to me beforehand and told me that this person borrowed often from the brothers, and warned me not to loan him anything. So on second thought I decided that I would not simply give the money to him, but would loan it instead. When I handed him the amount he asked for, I asked him when he would return it to me. I pressed him for a payment date, even though I knew that I would never be paid back. Borrowing was his habit; it was his life. But I could not tell him that I did not expect to be paid back, for that would have invited more borrowing. Therefore, I made him set a payment date. When the date arrived, I purposely wrote a letter to him, reminding him that the due date had come. After he received my letter, he came to see me. But before he was able to say very much, I interrupted him and told him to go home and see his wife, for she had something to tell him. So off to his home he went. Actually, prior to his coming to see me, I had taken the exact amount of money he owed to his home and had given it to his wife. I told her that when her husband came home she should tell him that I had sent him this sum of money for the payment of his debt. When the husband reached home, the wife told him what I had said. Then he opened the package and found the exact amount of his debt. He understood what to do next. He came back to my home and returned the money to me. In this act, you can see love and you can see righteousness. If this man had been forced to pay, there would have been no love. But if I had allowed him not to pay, I would have been unrighteous, for I had said specifically that the money was given as a loan. Not only would I have been unrighteous in myself, but I also would have exerted a bad influence on him. The next time he would have been more irresponsible. Thus, I did what I did.