Miroslav Volf on Forgiveness

Here’s just one extract from the following highly worthwhile interview with Miroslav Volf:

An interview with Dr. Miroslav Volf – Jared Coleman’s Blog

Related to the question above – If God has indeed forgiven all of humanity, which you state or imply several times throughout the book, but He still punishes those who refuse this forgiveness, then can we really say that God has forgiven them? Do the scriptures bear out the distinction that you draw between forgiving and being forgiven?

Well, Christ died for all, did he not? So God gave. But we often don’t receive. The gift is stuck somewhere between the giver who has given and recipient who has not received. That seems to me a good way to keep together the unconditionality of God’s grace and the actuality of human refusal – both of which Scriptures emphasize.

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