Does God really forgive everything?

Yes. Every sin a person brings to God through Jesus Christ can be forgiven: the thing you did once twenty years ago and still cannot think about, the thing you did again last night, the thing you have never told anyone. There is no sin too large for the cross and no number of repetitions that exhausts God’s mercy. The Bible does not promise that God forgives most things, or small things, or things done before you knew better. It promises that he forgives sin, and that what Jesus did is enough for all of it.

That is the plain answer. The rest of this guide is about what the promise means, what it does not mean, and the one exception Jesus named, which turns out to be nothing like what frightened people imagine.

“Come now, let us reason together,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are as red as crimson, they will become like wool. — Isaiah 1:18

The size of the sin is not what decides it

Most people who ask this question are not asking in general. They have one thing in mind, and they suspect it is the exception. It feels too serious, too deliberate, too damaging to other people. Surely, they think, there must be a limit, and this is past it.

But the Bible never measures forgiveness against the size of the sin. It measures it against the worth of the sacrifice. Jesus did not die for a fixed quantity of wrongdoing, with a cap beyond which the payment runs out. He died as the Son of God, and a sacrifice of that worth covers a debt of any size.

He has not dealt with us according to our sins or repaid us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His loving devotion for those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. — Psalm 103:10-12

The psalmist chose a distance with no end point. You can travel north until you reach the pole and find yourself heading south; you can travel east for ever and never arrive at west. That is the distance God puts between a forgiven person and their sin.

Look at who was actually forgiven

If you want to know what God will forgive, look at whom he has forgiven. The Bible is unusually frank about this.

David committed adultery and then arranged the death of the woman’s husband to hide it. He was forgiven, and he wrote Psalm 51 about it. Peter swore three times that he did not know Jesus, on the night Jesus most needed a friend. He was restored and given charge of feeding Christ’s people. Paul spent years hunting down Christians, dragging them to prison and approving their deaths. He describes himself like this:

This is a trustworthy saying, worthy of full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst. But for this very reason I was shown mercy, so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display His perfect patience as an example to those who would believe in Him for eternal life. — 1 Timothy 1:15-16

Paul is saying that his own case was put on display on purpose, so that no one would ever look at their record and conclude they were beyond reach. When he wrote to the church in Corinth, he listed the kinds of people who will not inherit the kingdom of God: the sexually immoral, thieves, drunkards, swindlers, the abusive. Then he added a sentence that changes everything.

And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. — 1 Corinthians 6:11

That church was full of people with exactly the kind of past you are worried about.

What forgiveness does not mean

It is worth being honest about three things the promise does not say.

It does not mean the consequences disappear. David was forgiven, and his child still died, and his family never fully recovered. A forgiven thief may still owe money back; a forgiven adulterer may still lose a marriage; someone forgiven for a crime may still serve a sentence. God removes the guilt and the condemnation. He does not always remove the damage, and sometimes making things right with the people you hurt is part of what repentance looks like.

It does not mean sin no longer matters. Grace is not permission. Paul had to answer this objection in his own day, and his answer was a flat no. A person who has really understood what forgiveness cost does not go looking for more to be forgiven for.

It does not happen automatically. Forgiveness is offered to everyone, but it is received through repentance and faith in Christ: turning from the sin, and trusting Jesus rather than yourself to deal with it. God does not forgive a sin that is still being defended. The promise is attached to confession.

Therefore let it be known to you, brothers, that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through Him everyone who believes is justified from everything from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. — Acts 13:38-39

Everything. Not most things, and not everything except yours.

What about the sin you keep repeating

Many people can believe God forgave them once. What they doubt is that he will keep doing it for the same sin, the fifth time, the fiftieth. Surely there is a point at which he decides you are not serious.

Jesus told Peter to forgive a brother who sinned against him again and again, far beyond any sensible limit. It would be strange if God demanded more patience from us than he himself shows. The danger with repeated sin is not that God runs out of mercy. It is that you stop coming to him, or stop fighting the sin at all. Keep confessing, and keep asking for help to change. There is more on this in the guide to confessing the same sin again.

The one exception Jesus named

Jesus did say that one sin would not be forgiven.

Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. — Matthew 12:31

Read the first half of the sentence before the second: every sin and blasphemy. The exception was spoken to religious leaders who watched Jesus heal by the Spirit of God and deliberately called it the work of the devil. It describes a settled, hardened refusal of the only one who can forgive, not a single terrible act that a person later regrets. If you are worried that you have committed it, the worry itself is good evidence that you have not; the people Jesus warned were not worried at all. The guide on the unforgivable sin goes through this carefully.

Where Christians differ

Christians agree that God forgives every sin that is repented of through Christ. They differ on how that forgiveness is ordinarily received. Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christians distinguish between lesser and grave sins and hold that grave sins are ordinarily forgiven through sacramental confession to a priest. Most Protestants hold that any sin confessed directly to God is forgiven on the promise of Scripture, while still encouraging confession to a trusted Christian for prayer and accountability. Christians also differ on whether a true believer can finally fall away from faith. This site writes from a Protestant position and respects those who hold the others. None of these traditions teaches that any repented sin is too great for God.

If you are asking because of one thing

If there is a particular thing behind your question, the answer is still yes. Do not wait until you feel worthy, and do not try to make up for it first. Bring it to God as it is.

Everyone the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will never drive away. — John 6:37

Tell him what you did, in plain words. Ask him to forgive you because of Jesus. Then read the promise again and believe it; the forgiveness passages are gathered in one place if you want them in front of you. And when you are ready, tell a pastor or a Christian you trust. Forgiveness is between you and God, but carrying the memory of it alone is not what he intended for you.