Can God Forgive A Serial Killer?

Is God fair?

“Can God forgive a serial killer?” This question was posed by Steven Bartlett to Professor John Lennox of OCCA The Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics on a recent episode of The Diary of a CEO[1] It’s quite a pointed question and could easily be dismissed as provocation. To commit murder – to end a life is a devastating crime. However, what of extenuating circumstances? What of accident or defence? One may be able to put forward scenarios where forgiveness can be explained and justified. But the serial killer? To consciously, pre-meditatively kill over and over again?  The question touches a nerve because we read serial killer as the ‘worst of humanity’. 

I suspect behind the question is speculation about the fairness of God. If forgiveness is on offer even to a serial killer who turns to Christ, what kind of God would then deny a place in heaven to a kind and upstanding person who doesn’t? To many that looks like a moral inversion and raises a fair challenge: Can that kind of God be considered good? ‘Can‘ God forgive a serial killer however actually points to something bigger:

are there limits to God’s forgiveness? 

Is there anything God can’t or won’t forgive?

According to Christian doctrine, no sin is too great for God to forgive. Consider how Jesus, in the Gospel according to Luke, forgives the penitent crucified criminal beside Him; assuring him that, “… today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke. 23:43). Paul, the Apostle, is another poignant example. Before Paul’s radical transformation, he had endorsed the killing of Stephen and dragged Christians from their homes to prison (Acts 8:1-3). And yet, such grave sins failed to stand a chance against the great mercy of God (see Acts 9 and 1 Timothy 1:15). When the soul trembles under the weight of its own regret and ruin, what sweeter balm could there possibly be than reading about God’s willingness to, “… cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.” (Micah 7:19), or, “For I [God] will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” (Jeremiah 31:34; Hebrews 8:12). As C.S. Lewis reminds us, forgiveness is not only ever present in scripture, but right there in our cherished historical creeds, “I believe in the forgiveness of sins.”[2]  

However, scripture does teach that you, me, a serial killer, or any other sinner for that matter, must satisfy one criterion first before forgiveness can be extended by God.

Repentance. Repentance is a sincere turning away from sin and towards God. The whole corpus of scripture, both the Old and New Testaments, teaches that there cannot be forgiveness without repentance. So, can God forgive a serial killer? The short answer is, yes, if the serial killer is truly repentant. And if they will not repent, they remain unforgiven (but that is because of their refusal and not because their sins were too large).  

What about the victims? Forgiveness vs. justice

I understand that this answer is offensive for many. Naturally, a blizzard of questions follow: What about the victims? What about their families? Isn’t this the perpetuation of injustice? Isn’t it a gross excuse of wrongdoing? Such concerns are critically important. But, dear reader, forgiveness in Christianity is not forgetting. It is not excusing. It is not silencing the cry for justice. Nor is it removing consequences (i.e., a forgiven murderer may rightly spend the rest of their life in prison). Christian forgiveness is quite distinct, in fact. As the late pastor, Tim Keller, explained:  

To forgive is to (a) name the wrong truthfully as indeed wrong and punishable (rather than merely excusing it) but also to (b) identify with the perpetrator as a fellow sinner, to (c) release the wrongdoer from liability from personal payback by absorbing the debt oneself (rather than merely pardoning), and finally to (d) aim for reconciliation and the restoration of the relationship that was broken by the wrong [when/if safe and appropriate].[3] 

Justice and mercy meet at the cross

This is precisely what God has done at the cross. The sin of murder and indeed all demonstrations of human evil were not excused. On the Cross, God absorbed the debt Himself, through Jesus, bearing our sins in His own sinless body (1 Peter 2:24), so that justice and mercy are both completely satisfied. If God simply waived the serial killer’s debt, He would be excusing murder. Any judge who did that would be rightfully removed from their post because of corruption. But at the Cross the debt is not waived; it is paid in full. Anselm of Canterbury (c.1033-1109) explained why it had to be Christ: only humanity ought to pay the debt, but only God can.[4] And because the One who pays is God the Son made man, the payment outweighs any sin, however great. As Robert Lowry (1826-1899) famously wrote, “What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.” Repentance is how the sinner receives what Christ has paid for him. And the Cross of Calvary, where Jesus shed His precious blood, is why even a repentant serial killer can be forgiven. 

References

1. Steven Bartlett, interview with John Lennox, The Diary of a CEO (podcast), June 2026. 
2. Apostles’ Creed, art. 10.
3. Timothy Keller, Forgive: Why Should I and How Can I? London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2022.
4.  Anselm of Canterbury, Why God Became Man (Cur Deus Homo), II.6 and II.14, trans. Janet Fairweather, in Anselm of Canterbury: The Major Works, ed. Brian Davies and G. R. Evans (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998).