Anonymous Asks (363)

“I have committed _____. Will God ever forgive me?”

I think I can safely say yes. As individual acts go, there is absolutely nothing you have ever done that our Lord will not forgive, assuming your repentance and desire for his forgiveness is genuine. We could fill in that blank space above with any sin, crime or misdemeanor, however heinous or grossly offensive to the Almighty. That is my personal belief on the authority of the word of God.

Let me argue that point for any among our readers who may disagree.

Sin Unto Death

There is indeed such a thing as a “sin unto death”, let’s concede that. The apostle John refers to this type of sin in his first letter. While John does not provide the level of detail about it we might like, most commentators think he meant physical death; divine judgment like the deaths of Ananias and Sapphira, who lied to the Holy Spirit, or like the Christians in Corinth who disdained their fellow believers. That makes sense, and is likely the same way John’s original audience interpreted it.

Still, even such direct and abrupt judgment by God does not change the eternal fate of a true believer. As Paul says in the same context, “When we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.” A person who commits such a sin may still inherit eternal life, so he remains forgiven in the sense that matters most. However, the Lord brings his service to Christ in this life to an abrupt end. Possibly his testimony is damaged beyond repair, or perhaps his fate may discourage others from the same sin, and he has made himself more useful to the Lord dead than alive. No believer should want to take such a risk.

The Unforgivable Sin

At one time in history, there was also a sin that would never be forgiven either in that age or the next. Let’s have a quick look at the three passages in scripture that speak of it:

Matthew: “Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.”

Mark: “ ‘Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin’ — for they were saying, ‘He has an unclean spirit.’ ”

Luke: “Everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.”

Note first the comment the Lord makes in Matthew: “Every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people.” There is only this singular exception to the rule. That’s one important measure of God’s exceeding generosity in forgiveness and of his pleasure in the finished work of his Son. No matter what terrible sins you may have in your history, if you have been “washed in the blood of the Lamb”, as the hymn writer put it, don’t expect to be tossed aside by the God who raised Jesus from the dead and seated him at his right hand. Those for whom his Son died are too precious for that.

A Special Type of Blasphemy

The most obvious thing we notice about the unforgivable sin (or the “eternal sin”, as Mark has it) is that it was a speaking sin. It was a sin men committed with their mouths. It was not an action or a thought, but something they verbalized. It was a special type of blasphemy — that’s the other word that’s used here — distinct from lesser, forgivable blasphemies.

Mark tells us what prompted Jesus to speak of the unforgivable sin: “They were saying, ‘He has an unclean spirit.’ ” Moreover, the Matthew quote begins with the word “Therefore”, which again tells us that there was something in the immediate context that prompted Jesus to make this statement. Here is the reason: “But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, ‘It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons.’ ” In both cases, what the Jewish religious leaders implied about the work of the Holy Spirit was the source of their problem.

The catalyst for this Pharisaic blasphemy was a demon-oppressed man who was blind and mute. He couldn’t see, he couldn’t speak, and everyone knew it. It was a doubly powerful testimony to God’s power when Jesus healed him, because he healed his physical disabilities as well. I’m not sure what Jesus could possibly have done to provide more convincing evidence that the Holy Spirit of God was working through him to restore health and life and sanity to people in need of these things. God was making a statement about his Son, and he expected men to hear and heed it.

What Made It Unforgivable?

What did the Pharisees say? “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons.” “He has an unclean spirit.” That doesn’t even make sense, and Jesus pointed it out. But the Pharisees and scribes hated Jesus so passionately that they abandoned all pretense of intellectual or spiritual coherence and uttered complete nonsense — and blasphemy. They attributed the Holy Spirit’s work to Satan himself. In essence, they called the Holy Spirit “Beelzebul, the prince of demons”. So even though they were not thinking about the Holy Spirit or using his name, Jesus rightly singled out where the real offense was. It was not so much against himself personally (“whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven”) but against the Spirit of God (“but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come”).

This is the “unforgivable sin”. It is witnessing a miracle performed by the Son of God in the power of the Holy Spirit of God and blaspheming by verbally and publicly attributing the act to God’s archenemy.

Why was their sin so unforgivable? Well, think about this: they had seen every bit of supernatural evidence that anyone could possibly show them to prove Jesus was speaking and acting in the authority of his Father, and still they had not believed. Worse, they were not just unconvinced — not merely agnostic about Jesus, his work, and his relationship to God — but actively and publicly hostile, trying to turn others away from following him with every possible argument they could muster, no matter how incredible or foolish. There was nothing possible left to be done, no way to save them from themselves. They deliberately and willingly remained outside the grace of God.

The $64,000 Question

Here’s the $64,000 question: Can you do what they did today? Can you publicly attribute to Satan a miracle performed by God incarnate that you have witnessed with your own eyes? Of course you can’t. That was a sin nobody could commit outside roughly a three-year period in the first century when Jesus was miraculously witnessing to the Father in person. You can do all kinds of wicked, awful things, but you can’t do that.

So fill in the blank in the question at the top of this post with the very worst thing you’ve ever done, then thank the Lord his forgiveness is still freely available to you for that sin if you confess it and repent of it. You will not be the first man or woman washed, sanctified and justified with respect to an offense you and everyone else considers outrageous and unforgivable. Chances are you probably won’t be the last either.