Why God Can't Just Forgive Your Sin

If God is all-powerful, why can't He simply forgive sin and be done with it? It's one of the most common objections to Christianity — and the answer reveals something most of us have never considered about what our sin actually costs.

In this episode of Clearview Today, we wrap up our study on the holiness of God by looking at why forgiveness was never free. Dr. Abidan Shah uses a simple illustration — a borrowed pen, broken and handed off — to show what happens every time we take something that belongs to God and twist it. Mercy is easy to give when it costs you nothing. But real forgiveness always has a price, and someone has to pay it.

We walk through Leviticus 17:11 and why blood represents both death and life, why the Old Testament sacrificial system was only ever a placeholder for the real thing, and how nearly every ancient culture on earth — Aztec, Egyptian, Hittite, Scandinavian, Irish — understood instinctively that someone had to die. What sets Scripture apart is that God didn't demand a substitute from us. He provided one Himself.

The episode closes in Isaiah 53, written centuries before the cross and describing it in detail, and then lands somewhere practical: the response to all of this is humility. There is nothing in you that you can take credit for. Begin every day grateful, and give yourself back to the God who paid for you.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:39

If God truly understands my heart, he knows that I'm doing everything I can to live a holy life for him. Surely he can just sweep my sin under the rug, right?

SPEAKER_03 0:47

Quite that easy, and we'll talk about why. I'm gonna write up on the Clearview Today show.

SPEAKER_01 0:59

I'm John Galantis. Welcome to the Clearview Today studio. We're coming at you live right here in Henderson, North Carolina, with our host, Dr. Abadon Shah. Dr. Shott, it's good to see you.

SPEAKER_00 1:09

You as well. I'm looking forward to today's show as we as we wrap up the whole idea of God's holiness. This has been a has been a very, I would say, heavy subject, but I think it's one that we need. It's one that helps us in our daily sin life, and uh one that doesn't get talked about much, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:30

I love this deep dive because we often just stop at God is holy. Okay, yeah. Of course he is. Why wouldn't he be? But when we really understand the implications of God's holiness, what that means in our understanding of who God is and our understanding of salvation, our relationship with God, that has wide-reaching implications that we've we've been privileged to talk about. We're gonna continue to talk about today.

SPEAKER_01 1:49

We understand synonyms, right? Like, what does it mean that God is holy? Oh, like he's perfect, he's pure, he's all those things. Yeah, sure. But what does that really mean? Uh, well, I've never really thought about it. Yeah. And maybe you've never thought about it, especially if today's your very first time ever tuning into the show. Maybe this is a deeper topic than you were expecting on Christian Talk Radio. Don't worry, these past couple episodes have been a great entry point for you. But if today is your first time ever listening to the show, we want you to text us. You can text the word today, t-o-d-a-y, two five two-429-6069. That's 252-429-6069. Or if you're listening on the podcast, you can click join the family right in the description, and that's going to give let you sign up for our email list. Either way, you're going to get a free gift from us immediately, and it's going to let you stay connected with everything that's going on right here in our ministries.

SPEAKER_03 2:35

That's right. Dr. Shaw, we've been talking about holiness and it's at it's the central attribute of God. It's the core of who he is, and everything kind of draws itself from God's holiness. But what does that mean for our relationship with God, how we approach God and how we understand our relationship to him as our Heavenly Father?

SPEAKER_00 2:51

Yeah, one of the things to understand that we've been trying to communicate in the past couple of episodes is that we cannot approach God on our standards. God holds the standard of righteousness, he gets to decide the rules. This is not a game where the players come together and they come up with the rules and then they appoint the referee. No, he is the one, and he is much more than just the referee. He he owns the teams, he owns the stadium, he owns the life of the players, everything belongs to him. So when it comes to God, uh really there's no good metaphor to help us understand. But God holds a standard of righteousness, God cannot tolerate sin, God will punish sin, and we can approach God only on his terms. And what is the term? The term is a simple word, blood. What does that mean? It means someone has to die. You know, when we talk about God will punish sin, uh it says right here in Psalm 5, verses 4 through 6, for you are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness, nor shall evil dwell with you. The boastful shall not stand in your sight. You hate all workers of iniquity, you shall destroy those who speak falsehood. The Lord abhors, abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man. Abhors. You will destroy. No one can stand in your sight. I mean, that those words communicate to us that you cannot just saunter your way up to God and just stick stick your hand out and say, Here it is, shake my hand or give me a fist bump. It's not going to be like that.

SPEAKER_01 4:46

That's right. That's right. You know, we we maybe you can help us to understand why this is the case. Because when I hear something, and I think when a lot of Christians hear something like God will destroy sin, we think he's God. He snaps his fingers, it ceases to exist. Everything can go back to the way it was pre-fall in the Garden of Eden. But for some reason, he's not doing that. There has to be a blood sacrifice.

SPEAKER_03 5:06

That's a good point. I've heard a lot of people raise that argument. Why is that necessary? Why does someone have to die? Isn't God powerful enough that he can just forgive our sins?

SPEAKER_00 5:14

Well, that's Islam. Muslim apologists, or even people who have some you know, basic understanding of Islam will tell you that no, no, no. This whole idea that that God has to send his son, right there, there's a problem. But if he's sending his son, who is his wife? Who is God's wife, that he can have a child with that with that consort or that that mistress and then have a child? Oh, that's not true. God, God is spirit. Don't you say God is spirit, and where is he gonna get a son from? And and then they will mock that and say, well, and then he's gonna make his son die? What kind of a father is that? He's gonna kill his son. So they will make all kinds of these arguments and they will bypass the idea that sin deserves judgment. Now they will talk about judgment, but they will say, Well, if you ask God to forgive you, he does. But you see, that is a costless sacrifice. There is no price to be paid. It's just wow. Just ask God and he'll just do it for you. But who pays for it? It's like for me to say, you know what, Ryan? I really think a lot of you here's this pen. Oh, thank you so much. Yeah, yeah. I have the pen. Oh, well, guess what? John, you want this water bottle? Yeah, you can have that too. Thank you. Yeah. Uh David, do you what do you what would you like? You want a microphone? That's your microphone. Well, you will not ask anything, but someone standing who is an objective person will say, Well, wait a minute. Does that pen belong to you? No. Then what right do you have to give it away? The water bottle? No, it doesn't belong to me. Uh, the microphone, I didn't pay a dime for it. So you're just giving this away and it's not costing anybody anything? Oh, it's costing the church something. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:11

Yeah. It's easy to be freely generous when it's no cost to you.

SPEAKER_01 7:15

And maybe we can talk about that because I know God's mercy is one of the attributes we're going to cover. But that's something that you've said all the time, Dr. Shah is that mercy is really cheap when it doesn't cost you anything. Yeah, it's easy to show mercy when I on someone else's dime. Yeah, on someone else's dime. I don't have to pay for it. I don't have to forgive. I look, you did a really wrong by someone else, but I forgive you, God forgives you. It's all good.

SPEAKER_00 7:36

Yeah, and that's what people do. But when you understand that all of our life, everything, material, immaterial, is proceeding from God. It's a gift of God. It is something that God, through his power and his being, his essence, has created. Then when you sin, it is costing God. It is it is taking something that belongs to God and twisting it.

unknown 8:10

Right.

SPEAKER_03 8:10

I don't think I've ever thought about it that way. When you sin, it's costing God. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:14

Wow. Yeah, if if if let's say this pen is mine, okay, Ryan, you take this pen and you give it to John, okay? But before you give it to him, you break it, you break it apart, and then you give it to him. And then John's like, oh, that's that's kind of funny the way you broke that. Oh, that is so funny. And I cannot write with it, but it's it's it's gonna be something I can laugh about and joke about. And I'm looking at you the whole time like, hey. That cost me something. That that pen was mine. Yeah. And you broke it and you gave it to him, and he's enjoying it, and you both of you think this is great. It's it's mine. Yeah, I own it. Pay up. Yeah. Pay up. You know, that in a sense is uh is sin. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:02

Wow. It belongs to God. That's a great then that payment must be made. Yeah. Yeah, it's a great point.

SPEAKER_03 9:07

You break it, you bought it.

SPEAKER_01 9:09

Exactly. You know, Dr. Show, we talk about this, right? We talk about our sin, like this is my personal struggle, this is what I'm going through, God's helping me through it. But we don't think about the fact that God, there's a reckoning coming. You know, there's a reckoning coming for those of us who aren't in Jesus. Do you want to kind of introduce the cross, introduce the blood? And maybe there's, I mean, we're on Christian radio, of course, but maybe there's someone who's like, I'm bought into this and I haven't accepted Jesus.

SPEAKER_00 9:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:32

Maybe kind of introduce the cross and how this plan.

SPEAKER_00 9:34

Yeah, you cannot decide who God is. You cannot say, well, you know, God can just forgive me, or if God is infinite, you know, any cost is nothing to him. No, no, no. It doesn't work like that. You have to come to God on his terms. You say, Well, how about this religion and that religion that just if freely forgives? They are no different than Ryan taking a pen that belongs to me, breaking it in half, and giving it to John. Just because he did that doesn't mean now that he is the owner of that pen. You never were, you never will be. I am. So also with the living true God, who has revealed himself since the creation, and he has revealed himself in the word, in the scriptures from Genesis to Revelation, who he is. That's what we're studying about God, is from the Bible. And what does he say about himself? He says that he is holy, and that sin is something that goes directly contrary to his holiness, right? His principal attribute. And it says in Leviticus 17, verse 11, For the life of the flesh is in the blood. And I, this is God saying, I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls. For it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul. Blood represents death, it also represents life. So when when that soul when that blood is shed, it's like life for life is happening. You sin, and now this is the payment.

SPEAKER_03 11:13

And so throughout the Bible, we had the the sacrificial system that's been established where there's blood being shed for the people's sins, but it's of course an imperfect system. Right. It's incomplete, it points towards something greater.

SPEAKER_00 11:25

It is just a a temporary uh kind of a holding uh place, I guess you can say. You know, there's something just there until the real thing happens. Until the real thing happens. Uh so like like you you go to a a shoe store, right? And and there is one shoe sitting there. And and it's it's just there. That that's just a temporary thing. Uh, you cannot or or let me give you an even better example. You go to an Apple store, and sometimes they will have these these watches or uh uh or phones that are sitting there, but some of them are not really working. They're they're just temporarily there. You have to ask for them, and then they'll give you the real deal and be there as you're opening it. Those sacrifices and offerings that were in the old testament, especially the blood sacrifice, they were only there until the real one would be done. So God says that sacrifice, the blood sacrifice, is until the real one comes. And who is the real one? It says in in Hebrews chapter 9, verse 22, and according to the law, almost all things are purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. There is no remission. And so Peter says in 1 Peter 3 18, for Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but being made be but made alive in the sp by the spirit.

SPEAKER_03 13:09

The idea of sacrifice, Dr. Shaw, that's that's present in other religions. I mean, you find that in in different religions from around the world, from different traditions and different places. What makes Christianity different?

SPEAKER_00 13:20

Oh yeah. The thing is, again, I'm so glad you brought that up. I would say almost all ancient peoples, all had some form of human sacrifice. You talk about the Aztecs, they did. Egyptians did, Mesopotamians did, Hittites did. Come into more of the modern day European nations, the the Scandinavians did. The Irish did. Did you know the Irish had human sacrifice? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. The Irish. You know, when I was in Dublin, uh, one of the places I wanted to go was the museum there. Because in the museum, you had the you have the bog bodies. Have you heard of the bog bodies? Right? I mean, the the so these bodies that were kind of almost fished out of the bog, and the bog is like is this body of water that is collected with all these trees sort of falling in there. So all the chemicals, the acids, and whatever, this sort of it's not like just like a little stagnated water. It's it's it's almost like a preservative. It becomes a preservative. Wow. So when you drop a or throw a body in there, it preserves the body, kind of like a mummy.

SPEAKER_01 14:42

Now these are bodies that were thrown in there like purposely to for preservation.

SPEAKER_00 14:46

Well, not for preservation. Oh they were thrown in there after human sacrifices.

SPEAKER_01 14:50

Oh, I got you, gotcha.

SPEAKER_00 14:52

Yeah. So when you see these bodies, and I wanted to see them, I was like, I wanted to see. And there are several other museums in in your in Europe that have these bog bodies, but the museum in Dublin, I think is Museum of Dublin, I think it is, or or Museum of Ireland. I don't know. But I it's there. Right. I wanted to go there because they have they've had this exhibition for a long time. Oh, this this this exhibit for a long time. And I think they were like all together five, maybe four or five, maybe six, I don't know. And that was the highlight of my trip. So you did get to see the bodies? Oh, absolutely. Wow. What is amazing about it is that you see that they were not struggling. They were not struggling, which means some of them were willing to die, or maybe they were drugged, we don't know. But they were killed. Wow. Yeah. And then their bodies were put in the in the bog. That's human sacrifice. Right? So National Museum of Ireland, our our engineer just told us that. So, yeah. And means all these cultures understood this. It's us, it's us in the past, I would say thousand, fifteen hundred years who say, Oh, human sacrifice is all evil, evil, uh at least in the Western world. But in other parts of the world, this was understood. Somebody has to die for us. Somebody has to die for our people. Who's going to? Well, we're going to pick this person. Sometimes reluctantly, sometimes willingly. They're like, Yeah, I'll do it. Yeah. So the idea that's that life for life was there.

SPEAKER_01 16:26

Now, how does Christianity? Because Christianity is a human sacrifice in the sense that Jesus is human, but it's also God sacrificing Himself.

SPEAKER_00 16:33

Yeah, and this is not just Christianity. You know, I I usually say believers. Sure. Yeah. Because you have people who are coming from a Judeo-Christian background where they are uh more messianic, and so I I never want anybody to feel like, hey, you're not part of this discussion because you are the first peoples in that discussion. Right. We understood, our people understood that Jesus became that substitute for us. Why? Because the Bible has the idea of substitution, substitutionary death. We call it the penal substitutionary atonement right from the beginning. You see, Abraham told by God to take his son, his only son, and sacrifice him. Why was that being done? Uh well it was being done to teach him and to teach us that someone will have to die for us and it'll be someone's son. So Abraham takes his son, thinking Isaac is the one. It was not just that you're taking my son away and this is a test of my faith. No, he thought this is the one.

SPEAKER_01 17:42

This is the plan of salvation come to fruition.

SPEAKER_00 17:45

Yeah, and God allowed him to go up until the point where the knife was raised, and then God stopped him and said, No. But did you understand what just happened, Abraham? That's what's coming. Not that Jesus was knifed to death on a on a you know on the stone altar, but in time God gave more information that it would be a cross. Like David talks about in in Psalm 22, that he talks about you know him hanging up there and and his bones are gaping, and people are making faces and and and saying all kinds of things against him, like like dogs and barking against him. You know, little by little God began to give more information. You come to Isaiah. Isaiah 53 is so powerful. I mean, it is incredibly powerful. No wonder when the Ethiopian eunuch is going back to his home country and he's reading, he's reading from Isaiah 53. He's not reading just any old Old Testament passage, although God could have used any part to bring him to the gospel, but he uses Isaiah 53. If you ever sit down and read Isaiah 53, it is mind-blowing. In fact, that's one of the points where a lot of Jewish background people come to know Christ. Yeah. When they read Isaiah, it's like, oh, oh, whoa. This sort of fits. Yeah. This is this is it. This was written in there all along. Yeah, this is always there. In fact, if you have a moment, let's let's go there just just to get an idea on this because this is so powerful, and I want our listeners, our viewers to really understand this. So I'm going to jump right in. Isaiah 53. And starting right here, it says in verse 2, He shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or calmliness. And when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. We hid it. We hid, as it were, our faces with him, from him. He was despised and we did not esteem him. Surely he has borne our griefs. How else can you translate that? Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted, but he was wounded for our transgressions. See, in time God began to give more information. No different than when a child goes to school, we don't teach them calculus and trigonometry and and and chemistry. We start them with ABCs and shapes and colors. But in those ABCs and shapes and colors, you have the ingredients of everything that they will need when they uh take uh honors English or or or just normal high school subjects. That's right. Yeah. So right here, this is more like high school. He was wounded for our transgression, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes, his stripes, we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. I mean, how in the world can you read that and not go, okay? So tell me again about this Jesus person.

SPEAKER_03 21:36

Right. I love reading through this because there's some places in the Bible where you read and you point out that this person or this thing or this event is a type of Christ, and you're like, oh wow, I didn't see that. I could see it. I see it now. Yeah. Okay, I understand that. This is not Isaiah. This is obviously about Jesus. This is this is blatantly pointing to the Messiah.

SPEAKER_01 21:54

I think it also shows the the tremendous depth that the Jewish people had that this was coming. Yeah. We like to say we like to paint this picture that they just didn't understand, they couldn't see it. You know, they had this veil over their eyes, and it almost makes the story worse that they knew that Jesus was the Messiah. They knew. Yeah, absolutely. And and and and and sacrificed him anyway or killed him anyway.

SPEAKER_03 22:15

You know what I'm saying? That's the that's the much more uncomfortable and and powerful truth is that they they understood what they were doing and they still sacrificed Jesus.

SPEAKER_00 22:22

Well, let's be careful about how we say that, because the person who did do the sacrificing was ultimately Pilate, the Roman Empire. He's the one who was given plenty of opportunity, and all he said was glibly, What is truth? And then walked away before the answer was given. So in Pilate, it was not just the Jewish people who did the sacrificing. It was all of us. The entire Gentile world was there. Because Rome represents the rest of the Gentile. Absolute world. So right here, if you want to go back here for a quick second, verse 7, he was oppressed and was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He was led as a lamb to his to the slaughter, and as a sheep before a sharer silent, so he opened not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment. And who will declare his generation? For he was cut off from the land of the living. For the transgressions of my people, he was stricken. You see, all this is connected to the holiness of God. And they made his grave with the wicked. But with the rich at his death. I mean, if you want to uh momentarily deviate from our discussion about the holiness and how Jesus took our sins upon himself, let's just focus on the he made his grave with the wicked. Of course, when he went to the cross, he was killed between two thieves. But when he was put in the grave, he was put in the grave of Joseph of Arimethea, who was a very rich man. They made his grave with the wicked, but with the rich at his death. Both of those things are coming through. Because he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He has put him to grief when you make his soul an offering for sin. His soul an offering for sin. He shall see his seed, he shall prolong his day, and the per pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see the labor of his soul and be satisfied. You see that? He God will see the labor of his son's soul and be satisfied by his knowledge. My righteous servant has shall justify many. For he shall bear their iniquities, therefore I will divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, which is us. Means Jesus in the book of Ephesians, we're heading there in our s in our uh weekend preaching, where we're gonna focus on the book of Ephesians, it starts right there about the riches of Christ. He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul unto death, and he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors. You know, sometimes our English translations are not as good and they need to be updated every generation. And he bore the sin of many. I mean, I would like to say, and he bore the sin of all. Right. Well, many should be all. When they translated this, you know, King James and then revised into New King James, uh saying many was like all like the collective. The collective. But now we need it more specific. Like, no, he bore the sin of all and made intercession for the tr the transgressors. All all this I read just to help us understand that this was not a foreign concept.

SPEAKER_01 25:59

Yeah. Well, so bring that home for us, Dr. Shah, that we know that this isn't a foreign concept, and we get the idea that you know Jesus had to die for us. God couldn't sweep our sin under the rug. Jesus had to pay the price for us. But for me, right now, the Christian on my way to work, washing my dishes, heading to some class or heading somewhere listening to this episode, what do I do with this today?

SPEAKER_00 26:20

Place to begin is humility. There's nothing in you, nothing in your being without God or with God that you can take credit for. It's all by his grace. So let let every day begin with a sense of gratefulness, a sense of humility, and a sense of giving yourself to God. It's through him, and so it needs to go back to him. My life should be lived for him. You know, Romans 6 19 says, present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness. Jesus died to take my sin and sinfulness and to exchange that for his holiness. So I need to present my members as slaves of righteousness for holiness. Daily living my life in a way that pleases him. And Hebrews tell tells us in Hebrews 12 14, pursue peace with all people and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. So daily desiring to be holy by giving yourself to God. Amen.

SPEAKER_03 27:26

That's right. That's the pursuit of the Christian life, is daily desiring that holiness and pursuing it with your actions, with the time that you spend in God's word, with the time that you spend doing things like listening to the Cleavery Today Show to help you in your journey in obeying God and sharing that message with the world around you.

SPEAKER_01 27:40

You spending a simple 30 minutes a day with us here on this couch is going to do so much more for your desire for God than if you were just finding some random thing on YouTube. Because these are men on this couch, and I can say this from the bottom of my heart, who truly desire to see you grow and to see you understand God better. That's what all of us are trying to do. It's not just that we're teaching you, we are daily growing in our understanding of God, especially me. And so I just want to say I appreciate these two men. I appreciate you guys listening. Man, this is a show that is going to change your life if you allow it every single day.

SPEAKER_03 28:12

That's right. And you can help the show change other people's lives as well by becoming a partner with the Clearview Today Show. You can do that by visiting Abadanshaw.com forward slash give. For any monthly amount, we're going to give you a free gift for you for your ministry. And I we just kind of we kind of privilege to walk alongside you and to journey with you as Clearview Today Show family as we seek to make Christ visible to the world around us.

SPEAKER_01 28:31

That's right. We want you to text us. Text today, T-O-D-A-Y to 252-429-6069. That's going to opt you into our texting platform. And then you'll be able to text us anything you want after that. If it's other topics for shows, if it's questions for Dr. Shaw, maybe something that God is doing in your life. We want to hear from you. 252-429-6069.

SPEAKER_03 28:50

That's right. We love you guys. We'll see you next time.