Judgement & Forgiveness (1 of 2)

This past Sunday, we studied the nature of forgiveness in sermon called "As the Lord Forgave."  You can listen to it here.

I received this e-mail today that brought up some excellent questions about forgiveness, judgement and righteousness.  If God only forgives those who repent, why should we do contrary?  The email is printed below.  I'll print my response in a second post.

E-mail:

Hi Brian,  Thought you might want some of our feed-back about forgiveness in the Bible.  If God only forgives those who repent, why should we do contrary. [Luke 17:3-4]  Jesus told his disciples, if someone sins against us and comes to us and says, "I repent, then forgive him.  Forgiveness is based on someone repenting.  In revelation 6:10, those who were martyred because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained were crying out to God for judgment and vengeance on those who murdered them.  They weren't forgiving.  Also, note Nehemiah 4:4-5 and Psalm 137:7-9.