Will God Ever Give Up on Me?
- Edward D. Andrews
- 16 minutes ago
- 7 min read
Many believers ask this question in moments of spiritual weakness, guilt, or fear, and the Bible answers with both tender reassurance and sober clarity. God is not fickle, impatient, or easily disgusted with those who come to Him in humility. He is “merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abundant in loyal love” (Psalm 103:8). At the same time, Scripture is equally clear that persistent, willful rejection of truth, hardened rebellion, and deliberate sin that tramples the sacrifice of Christ can lead to a terrifying outcome. The biblical answer is not a simplistic “never” that ignores warnings, and not a hopeless “yes” that denies God’s mercy. The biblical answer is that God does not abandon the repentant, but He will give a person over to the consequences of their chosen hardness if they insist on rejecting Him.
The starting point must be God’s character as He has revealed it. Jehovah’s loyal love is not sentimental indulgence; it is covenant faithfulness expressed toward those who fear Him and keep His commandments (Psalm 103:17-18). That is why Scripture can say that Jehovah does not treat us according to our sins in the sense of immediate annihilation, but is compassionate like a Father toward His children (Psalm 103:10, 13). This fatherly compassion does not mean God overlooks unrepentant wickedness; it means He is eager to forgive those who turn back. When the question is asked by someone who hates their sin, feels grief over wrongdoing, and desires restoration, the Bible repeatedly directs such a person to God’s readiness to forgive.
Jesus illustrates the Father’s posture toward the repentant in the parable of the prodigal son. The son’s rebellion was real; his return was likewise real. The father’s welcome did not come because rebellion is harmless, but because repentance is genuine (Luke 15:20-24). The parable is not permission to sin; it is hope for the one who returns. The father runs to meet the son who comes home, and the household rejoices. The point is that God’s mercy is not exhausted by repeated repentance, because the issue is not the quantity of past failure but the reality of present turning. The repentant person is not told to wonder whether God is willing, but to come.
Yet Scripture also refuses to comfort the one who plans to keep sinning. Hebrews 10:26-31 stands as one of the clearest warnings in the New Testament. It describes a person who “goes on sinning willfully” after receiving accurate knowledge of the truth. The text does not describe a believer who stumbled and repented; it describes a person who persists deliberately. The warning is that such a person has no remaining sacrifice for sins, but only a fearful expectation of judgment. The passage uses strong language: trampling the Son of God, regarding the blood of the covenant as common, and insulting the Spirit of grace. The point is not that God is unwilling to forgive the repentant; the point is that a person can harden themselves into a posture that rejects the only sacrifice that can save them. If someone rejects Christ’s atonement as their refuge while choosing willful sin, they are refusing the only medicine that heals. In that sense, the text is “permanent” because the person has made themselves an enemy of the only means of salvation.
This is why your note is correct: God will give up on someone in the specific sense that He will not continue extending covenant mercy to a person who has decisively rejected Him. Scripture calls this falling away, apostasy, and hardening. Hebrews also warns about those who were once enlightened and then fell away, and it speaks of the impossibility of renewing them again to repentance while they remain in that apostate posture (Hebrews 6:4-6). The impossibility is not a weakness in God; it is the moral reality that a hardened apostate repudiates the very basis of repentance. As long as that hardness persists, restoration is not available, because repentance is not merely regret but a turning to God through Christ.
At the same time, many believers misunderstand these warnings and apply them to themselves when they are actually repentant. A person who fears they have offended God, who longs to be restored, and who is seeking to obey is not the person Hebrews 10 is describing. Hebrews 10 addresses those who choose willful sin as a settled course, treating Christ’s sacrifice with contempt. The repentant believer is addressed by other texts that urge confidence and return. John writes to Christians who sin and says that if anyone does sin, “we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous,” and He is a propitiatory sacrifice for our sins (1 John 2:1-2). John does not offer this to those who justify lawlessness; he offers it as comfort to those who stumble but do not want to remain in sin. He also says that if we confess our sins, God is faithful and righteous to forgive and to cleanse (1 John 1:9). Confession here is not ritual; it is honest agreement with God about sin, coupled with turning away from it.
Repentance, in Scripture, includes a real change of mind and direction. Peter told Simon in Samaria to repent and pray because his heart was not right before God (Acts 8:22). Peter’s words show that even serious spiritual corruption is met with a call to repentance when the person is still reachable. Likewise, Jesus tells congregations in Revelation to repent where they have sinned, warning that refusal will bring severe consequences (Revelation 2:5; 3:19). The repeated call to repent demonstrates that God does not “give up” quickly; He appeals, warns, disciplines, and invites return. Discipline is itself a form of love aimed at restoration, not abandonment (Hebrews 12:5-11). God corrects those He loves so that they may share in holiness, not so that they may despair.
Your additional note mentions failure to live out God’s Word and failure to accept biblical truth when it confronts one’s beliefs, views, or traditions. Scripture consistently demands that God’s Word must correct us, not the other way around. Jesus rebuked those who invalidated God’s Word for the sake of human tradition (Mark 7:8-13). The danger here is not that every misunderstanding instantly severs a believer from God, but that a person can become proud, entrenched, and resistant to correction. When the Word of God exposes an error, humility receives the correction; pride fights it. This is why James commands believers to receive the implanted word with meekness, because it is able to save them (James 1:21). A refusal to submit to Scripture is never spiritually safe. Yet, as you rightly stated, repentance changes the situation. God calls His people to return: “Return to Me, and I will return to you” (Malachi 3:7). The returning is not earning forgiveness; it is turning back to the relationship that sin disrupted.
Scripture also provides a category for grievous sin that does not equal apostasy when repentance follows. David committed serious sins, yet he repented with genuine sorrow, appealing to God’s mercy and asking for cleansing (Psalm 51:1-12). The Psalm does not treat sin lightly; it exposes sin’s ugliness and the need for cleansing. Yet it also shows that Jehovah desires truth in the inner person and responds to a broken and crushed heart (Psalm 51:6, 17). A broken heart is not the same as a hardened heart. The hardened heart makes excuses and clings to sin; the broken heart confesses and turns away.
Paul gives another essential clarity: godly grief produces repentance leading to salvation, while worldly grief produces death (2 Corinthians 7:10). Worldly grief is self-focused despair, shame, or fear of consequences without true turning. Godly grief is sorrow because one has sinned against God and harmed others, paired with a determined change. If your question arises from godly grief, Scripture directs you not to despair but to repent, confess, and return to obedience. God does not despise the repentant. The very fact that someone is drawn to seek God rather than flee from Him is consistent with a conscience still responsive to truth.
The New Testament also warns that we must not use grace as an excuse for lawlessness. Jude condemns those who turn the undeserved kindness of God into a license for immoral conduct (Jude 4). Paul rejects the thought that believers should continue in sin so that grace may increase (Romans 6:1-2). These passages show that the Christian life is a real moral transformation grounded in union with Christ’s death and resurrection. The believer is to consider themselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ (Romans 6:11-14). This does not mean perfection in the present system; it means a new direction, a new allegiance, and a serious fight against sin.
So, will God ever give up on you? If you are asking as someone who wants Jehovah, who wants to honor Christ, who hates your sin, and who is willing to submit to Scripture even when it corrects cherished traditions or personal preferences, then Scripture answers with hope: God welcomes the repentant and provides cleansing through Christ. If, however, a person knowingly rejects Christ, chooses willful sin as a settled pattern, and hardens themselves against the truth, then Scripture gives the sober warning that God will not be mocked and that judgment awaits those who trample the Son of God and insult the Spirit of grace (Hebrews 10:26-31; Galatians 6:7-8). The dividing line is not whether someone has sinned, because all stumble, but whether someone repents and returns, or hardens and rejects. God does not abandon the repentant, but He will ultimately give the hardened person over to what they have chosen.
About the Author
EDWARD D. ANDREWS (AS in Criminal Justice, BS in Religion, MA in Biblical Studies, and MDiv in Theology) is CEO and President of Christian Publishing House. He has authored over 220+ books. In addition, Andrews is the Chief Translator of the Updated American Standard Version (UASV).
Comments