3542 — Is there Forgiveness?
If a person has lived a wicked life up to the time he is on his death-bed, before he has ever tried to turn and live for the Lord, can he obtain forgiveness then? Is there any forgiveness for him after living such a life? J. Y. There is always forgiveness where there is true repentance. Every repentable sin is a forgivable sin. It matters not when, nor where, nor by whom. Of course there are many spurious death-bed repentances. People think that they repent, through fear, because they are going to die. In many cases these have recovered from their sickness and have gone right on in sin the same as before. This of itself shows that there was no true sense of sin, or true repentance. And yet there may be those, like the penitent thief on the cross, who at the very last confess Christ and receive assurance of forgiveness. God is just as willing to forgive one on his death-bed as He is to forgive him at any other time, if there is genuine repentance and faith. The great danger is not that God is not willing, but that the soul itself will not be truly willing, and will be in no condition mentally to appreciate rightly what true repentance means. The only safe time for man to repent, so far as he is concerned, is now. "Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation." But the true Christian missionary, be he minister or layman, will do all that he can to bring to the dying soul who has never given himself to Christ, the opportunity to give himself, even at the last hour.