But I am discouraged from going to God for pardon, for I am unworthy of forgiveness. What am I, that God should show such a favour to me?
God forgives, not because we are worthy, but because he is gracious. ‘The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious.’ Exodus 34:6. He forgives out of his clemency; acts of pardon are acts of grace. What worthiness was there in Paul before conversion? He was a blasphemer, and so he sinned against the first table; he was a persecutor, and so he sinned against the second table; but free grace sealed the his pardon. ‘I obtained mercy,’ I was all bestrewed with mercy. 1 Timothy 1:13. What worthiness was in the woman of Samaria? She was ignorant, John 4:22. She was unclean, v18. She was morose and churlish, she would not give Christ so much as a cup of cold water, v9. … What worthiness was here? Yet Christ overlooked all, and pardoned her ingratitude, and though she denied him water out of the well, yet he gave her the water of life. Gratia non invenit dignos, sed facit. Free grace does not find us worthy, but makes us worthy. Therefore, notwithstanding unworthiness, seek to God that your sins may be pardoned.
Thomas Watson, The Lord’s Prayer, BOT p233
ninetysix and ten 