God never mistakes the guilty as being innocent; He discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart (Heb. 4:1212For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)). He may forgive sin, and receive the cleansed sinner; that is His joy. But He cannot act as if sin did not exist when it does, nor be indifferent to it while He remains Himself, a holy God.
He may have sins entirely put away and blotted out, and He may chastise for good, and deal governmentally according to His own nature—and this is salvation for us. But He cannot overlook sin anywhere as not existing, nor view it with indifference.
God could not pass the sinner by,
His sin demands that he must die,
But in the Cross of Christ I see
How God can save, yet righteous be.