Is Forgiveness Conditioned on Repentance?

Recently my pastor flatly proclaimed, "Forgiveness is conditional. If there is no repentance, then there should be no forgiveness." And I understood his argument from there. He seemed to be wary of offering a blanket clemency for the many who would take advantage of such an offer to continue in their destructive ways.

I promise that I will resist the temptation to analyze and "grade" my pastor's sermons, but on this occasion, the philosopher (albeit amateur) in me came out.

Let me offer a quick reductio of these ideas:

1. If forgiveness is conditioned on repentance...
2. We are not offering an offender forgiveness, but only the possibility of forgiveness. (We have not released him prior to the offer).
3. Repentance is NOT a mere copula (claim to be), but is a movement. It is not abstract and singular, but is a procession away from error.
4. Repentance therefore is qualitative (the quality of one's repentance can be shallow or rich, hasty or tentative).
5. But if repentance is qualitative, then what quality of repentance warrants forgiveness? (If it is a movement away from error, how far away from error must the offender be before forgiveness is granted?)
6. If repentance is a mere copula (a singular and mental declaration to be penitent), then one can repent without a movement away from error, but no man can move away from error without being repentant.
7. Presumably, it is left to the offended to determine when the offender has reached an acceptable distance from his or her error (quality of repentance) to grant the offender forgiveness.
8. Conclusion: This is a works scheme! One is waiting for another to earn forgiveness by subjecting him to an appropriate evaluation process.

This of course hangs on premise 3. If repentance is a mere claim to be, or a singular, abstract and purely mental act, then of course one can repent a million times without really changing in the slightest.

So, as I see it, the pastor is in a real logical fix here. If forgiveness is conditioned on repentance, and repentance is here conceived to be a mere claim to be repentant, then one must forgive another for claimed repentance and not necessarily any real movement away from error. If forgiveness is conditioned on repentance, and repentance is conceived to be a concrete movement away from error, then forgiveness is granted for appropriate works.

I'm not quite sure that pastor helped us much today.