Forgiving Like Yahweh

On an ultimate eschatological, soteriological level, God does not forgive everyone.  Though this mercy is accessible to all and God wishes it for all (2 Peter 3:8-9, 1 Timothy 2:3-6), preferring the repentance of the wicked to their demise (Ezekiel 18:23, 33:11), it is not only not the case that everyone necessarily turns to God, as universalist salvation would entail, but it is also the case that the Bible says most people will not (Matthew 7:13-14).  They will perish by being killed in hell (2 Peter 2:6, Matthew 10:28) because of their own unwillingness to choose truth.  Divine forgiveness is not forced upon people or withheld for only the "elect," contrary to what Calvinism entails.  It is whoever wishes to repent who obtains salvation (Revelation 22:17).

Many seem to forget or selectively ignore this when they demand or strongly push other people to forgive.  As a mercy, forgiveness is supererogatory left to itself, as since mercy can never be deserved (it is not treating sinners as they punitively deserve), it cannot be owed to anyone.  There are still multiple calls to forgive throughout the Bible, with a very crucial condition.  For instance, see Ephesians 4:32, where Paul says to forgive people as in Christ God forgave us.  The kind of forgiveness Paul is encouraging is not universal, the default, or immediate.  He says to forgive each other as God forgives us--and God does not forgive preemptively or do this to everyone because of obstacles on their own end.

Someone who has erred must repent and wish to be restored to him to receive that soteriological restoration.  They will die in hell without this and never be resurrected again to have the opportunity to seek repentance.  As already addressed, forgiveness is not extended from God to human individuals apart from willingness, or else everyone would be saved because it is God's hope that this would come about for every person.  God's nature is what grounds the existence of morality, so if this is how God forgives, then it is the forgiveness that we would be to imitate.  This is also emphasized in Colossians 3:13 and in passages like the parable of the unmerciful servant (Matthew 18:21-35), where the king does not release someone from debt owed to him except when asked.

There is no such thing as a Biblical obligation to forgive people one or all unless they request it.  Otherwise, they are not repentant, and mercy is undeserved anyway, or else justice could not be righteous and mandatory, for mercy is suspending justice in a situation on the level of permitting someone to forgo merited punishment.  Justice is by nature how someone deserves to be treated, so there is no such thing as forgiveness or any other sort of mercy being the real obligation over this.  The latter is not required by God and yet he opts to forgive the repentant anyway.  With broader mercy as well as forgiveness in particular, we are to express it in the way that God does (Luke 6:36).  This necessitates that repentance precede showing forgiveness to others unless one wants to gratuitously go further than this.