Sorry is not a magic formula which wipes the slate clean in every sense, and neither is God’s grace. There is a difference between, on the one hand, forgiveness and restoration to fellowship, and, on the other, going back to the way things were.   Some actions so fundamentally change relationships, reputations, and even personalities that there is no going back.  We lie to our people if we tell them otherwise.

Carl Trueman, “Why I Believe in the One Great Heresy”

The idea that past sin, no matter how bad, how destructive, how long it lasted, should be forgiven immediately and have no lasting consequences is what Westminster Seminary Church Historian Carl Trueman, a Brit, writes about in this excellent article. Read it if you dare.