Exploring the Idea of the Unforgivable Sin

Mitchell

So Hey everyone, welcome to That's a Good Question, a podcast of Peace Church and a part of Resound Media. You can find more great content for the Christian life and church leaders at resoundmedia.cc. That's a Good Question is a place where we answer questions about the Christian faith in plain language.

I'm Mitch, and you can always submit questions to peacechurch.cc/questions. Today I'm here with Pastor Logan.

Logan

Hello!

Mitchell

I'm filling in for Pastor Jon because he is sick and we are wishing him well and he'll be back next week. We are just two weeks away from Holy Week and we would love to answer questions about Holy Week, Good Friday, Easter, and etc. So send them. We would love to have those questions back on here in the coming weeks. But let's jump into this week's questions. We're ready. And these are all centered around kind of the unforgivable sin. So let's jump into this first question.

In 1 John 5, John talks about the sin that leads to death and the sin that does not lead to death.

What is sin that leads to death?

1 John 5, 16-17 says this, 16 If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life—to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that. 17 All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death.

Question #1: What is sin that leads to death?

Logan

And this clearly has to do or is related to the unforgivable sin. That's what 1 John is talking about is there is a sin that leads to death. There is a sin that you can commit that you cannot be forgiven for. And I think that it's scary to think about that. There are people throughout history that you can look up and read about, or people that we even know in our own experience who are terrified that we've committed this unforgivable sin. In other places in Scripture, it's referred to as blaspheming the Holy Spirit, which I know the next question asks more specifically about. But this idea of sin that leads to death, sin that doesn't lead to death, my first thought right off the gate is, praise God that there is a sin.

There are sins that don't lead to death because there's forgiveness of sin. It's not saying, John is not saying there is sin that you can commit that doesn't damn you to hell. Not all sins are equal. I know it's a cliche that people say. Like murder is worse than being angry at someone, but both sins are damnable. Because every sin, regardless of what it is, can send you to hell. Taking fruit off a tree when God told not to was enough to damn Adam and Eve, barring one thing, the forgiveness of their God. And so praise God that we have forgiveness from sin in Jesus Christ.

MitchellYeah, absolutely. I think this is such an important question. What is this sin that leads to death? It's not the first time that this is asked. In fact, in the Heidelberg, the Heidelberg kind of summarizes this question.

Mitchell

87 says this, Can those be saved who do not turn to God from their ungrateful and unrepentant ways? See, I love that because sin is something that leads to death. The wages of sin is death. The only escape from that is the forgiveness of God. And so that points out that the unforgiveness, sin that leads to death is sin that is not forgiven. Yeah.

Logan

Which then leads right into unforgivable sin. That would be a sin that leads to death. I think that it's awesome whenever we quote the Heidelberg or the Belgic Confession or the Canons of Dort, because if you go on our website right now and you go to our Statements of Faith, it'll point you to those three documents. We call them the three forms of unity. So I love whenever we can bring them out.

Mitchell

And they're not the Bible, but they've stood the test of time. They help us to understand the Bible better. They're always rooted in Scripture. They're awesome. So can you read that one more time? I think it's more helpful than words we give.

Logan

Yeah, no, absolutely.

Mitchell

Yeah. Can those be saved who do not turn to God from their ungrateful and unrepentant ways? That's the question and the answer is this. By no means, Scripture tells us that no unchaste person, no idolater, no adulterer, thief, or no covetous person, no drunkard, slanderer, or robber, or alike these shall enter the kingdom of heaven. The hope and the good news of this, it sounds scary, it sounds like bad news, but the good news of this is that this is not a one-time thing. This is not a sin that you could not knowingly commit. This is a sin that is a deliberate refusal to believe in Jesus, to follow his commands, and to love the brothers.

Specifically in this passage, that's what it's talking about. I love how William Tyndale, he's the guy who first translated the Bible into English, so he's got some pretty good stuff to say, but he said, this is a sin which is resisting grace and fighting against mercy. I love just how simple that is. It's resisting grace and fighting against mercy.

Logan

I think that is almost spot on. Praise God there is grace. Reading the Bible, being around church enough, you think an unforgivable sin?

Mitchell

Yeah.

Logan

That sounds crazy, but we just get, like, the crazy thing is that there's any forgiveness at all. The crazy thing is that there is any sin that could not lead to death. Like, praise God, there is forgiveness. And so, I love that quote, because it's pointing out, hey, there's an unforgivable sin because there's a such thing as grace and there's a such thing as mercy from our God. And if you are rejecting those things, then you'll miss out on the glorious, all just incredible, awe-inspiring forgiveness that does exist. So if you're rejecting the forgiveness… If you hate His forgiveness, if you hate His mercy, He says, all right, you don't get it.

Mitchell

The second question is this, what does it mean to blasphemy for a second. It sounds like a big church word. But if someone was to ask you, what is blasphemy, you teach to students. Say a student were to ask you, what is blasphemy?It sounds like a big church word. What would you say?

Question #2: What is blasphemy?

Logan

Yeah, someone in our church came up and asked, what does blasphemy mean? There's a few different words that you could use. of being against, like speaking words of, I'm against the Holy Spirit. Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit would be, I'm against the Holy Spirit. I'm offending the Holy Spirit. Yeah.

Mitchell

Yeah. I've always thought of blasphemy as a way, specifically against God, it's when someone says something untrue, hurtful about God, and they're doing it on purpose to show that they don't respect Him.

Logan

I like that, yeah, respect is a good, yeah, I think, word as well. I think that for people that might be afraid of having committed the unforgivable sin, having blasphemed against the Holy Spirit, if you're afraid of it, you probably haven't done it.

And I like actually what Augustine says. Augustine makes the point that the unforgivable sin, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit isn't a single act as much as it is a state of your heart, a hardness of heart that continues and lasts and is unchanging despite, like you just referenced, Tyndale said, the grace and mercy of God. So a hardness of heart that is unchanging, doesn't soften.

The idea of you afraid, have I offended, have I blasphemed, have I committed the unforgivable sin? That's a sign that you haven't, because that's a sign of a soft heart, that you're actually, you don't want to offend God. That means the state of your heart is one that is soft and is open to repentance.

Mitchell

Yeah. And so this idea all comes from Mark chapter 3. It's also in Matthew, but here's the passage where this is coming from, the idea of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Verse 28 says this, Truly I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemes 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. And this is all couched in a story where this is huge. The context of this is huge. People are assaulting Jesus' character by saying that he does miracles on behalf of Beelzebub or on behalf of the devil, and then this is Jesus' response. So it kind of seems kind of crazy even hearing those two things together, but I'd love for you to unpack that. Oh, man. I think you just did a good job of explaining the context.

Logan

He is speaking to religious leaders when he says this, he has them in mind, he's looking at them and saying, if there is an unpardonable sin, right after they are accusing him of casting out demons by demons. So that would be like the blasphemy, right? Speaking against the Holy Spirit's work, speaking against the Holy Spirit's ministry. I think that right before this encounter, at least in Matthew's account, Matthew 12, 28, before Jesus says anything about the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, he says this, if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you they are saying it's by demons that he casts out demons Yeah, that is attributing the work of the Holy Spirit to demons. Yeah, that is a clear picture of a Speaking against the ministry of God.

And it's not a single act as much as it is a sign of their unrepentant heart that they are standing before God God the Son, who is doing the ministry of God the Holy Spirit and God the Father, right? God is doing things and they're attributing what God is doing to Satan.

Mitchell

Yeah, something that's clearly divine, that's clearly of God saying, nope, this is demonic, this is evil, it's a wholehearted rejection of good. Yeah. The state of their heart is one of rejection, not repentance. And that's the difference because he says, if the spirit of God, or if it is by the spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God is here. The kingdom of God has come upon you. There's two things that can happen when the kingdom of God shows up, forgiveness or damnation. And the state of your heart is showing signs of eternal ruin. You are headed towards damnation because you are refusing the repentance I'm offering.

Yeah, they've seen an act of the Holy Spirit. They've seen something amazing. And they're saying no. And they're like, no, don't like it. Yeah, and that's, I think, a really clear way to say, bringing that into our context, what happens in our hearts when we see something clearly of the Holy Spirit, do we run towards it or reject it and run away from it? The ministry of the Holy Spirit. Yeah, unfortunately, this passage has a lot of baggage that comes along with it. There have been some unfaithful people, pastors, that have interpreted this.

So let me just ask this question. What would be some sins that are forgivable that some people have called the unforgivable sin? One of the big classic ones is suicide. The idea that, I think this is maybe more of a Catholic thing, but the idea that you need your final confession before you die. And the idea is if someone's committing suicide, they can't have that, and therefore they're...

Logan

Yeah, I think that that's probably the best example, unless you have more, but that does sound like a good example of what could be falsely called the unforgivable sin. I mean, you look at Judas, who he goes and kills himself after betraying Jesus, while Peter, after betraying Jesus, runs back to Jesus. Man, that scene, that idea that Jesus is on the beach, he's on the boat, he sees Jesus, he's jumping in the water, everyone else is sailing back, he's swimming back. Peter ran back to Jesus after sinning against him.

Judas ran from Jesus after sinning against him. And his suicide wasn't the unforgivable sin, but it's demonstrating we know the state or we see signs of what the state of Judas's heart was Mm-hmm, and it wasn't repentance. It was rejection.

Mitchell

Yeah, some other ones would be like murder or adultery denying Jesus under the threat of persecution or taking the Lord's name in vain. These were all examples that I saw throughout Yeah, those are those we have biblical evidence that those are forgiven Yeah, and that was what everyone said as I was putting this together. They're like, yeah, these are forgivable. I mean, you think about murder and adultery. I mean, prime example would be David. He committed both of those and God forgave him. God, David is a man after God's own heart, not because he was sinless, but because he knew how to repent. Yeah, I think this part of the conversation highlights, like, it's not about thinking of what single acts are the most heinous, because that dismisses the fact that we opened with of any sin.

It's not that all sins are equally sinful or bad, right? Like, again, murder's worse than anger, but both, any sin, no matter what it is, is a rejection of God's holiness, it's a rejection of God's goodness, it's a negligence to honor Him. Any sin is enough to damn you, because every sin leads to death. That is what sin earns you, is death. And so, when we try to rank sins and see which one crosses that line, I think it misses the point that every sin crosses that line.

Logan

Yeah, absolutely.

Mitchell

I think one of the confusing ones for people, I've heard this, I remember growing up in youth group and hearing this, like, if you deny Jesus, he'll deny you. There's a passage in Matthew that says something like that. There's one in 1 Timothy 2, I think. Yeah. Yeah, and the idea of like, well, if I deny Jesus, well, under persecution, like so, you know, the classic line, someone to put a gun to your head

and say, you know, you have to deny Jesus or you'll die. You know, what if someone made the wrong choice there? Is that the unforgivable sin? And I would say, no, you look at Peter. Yes, he denied him, not just once, but three times. And here's a good point to make. It's sin. Bad things to do.

Logan

And that just brings us back to, man, sin is sin, and it is worthy of eternal separation, eternal ruin. And praise God there's forgiveness. That's the point that I hope we end on in our minds and our hearts is that the crazy thing isn't that there's an unpardonable sin. The crazy thing, man, is that there's forgiveness at all. Yeah, yeah, I love that.

Mitchell

How about this, let's clearly and succinctly just clear this for anyone who's listening right now. If we were gonna say what is the unforgivable sin in a sentence, what would you say?

Logan

In my own, I mean, I think we've said it in great ways. Tim Dale's quote we can end on as well, but one way I've said it before is the unforgivable sin is the rejection of forgiveness. Yeah, I would say the refusal of repentance.

Mitchell

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, a sin that makes it impossible for you to repent is what I wrote down because I thought that's, you know, that is in a sense a sin and that is the one that makes, you know, it's not a thing that you can fall into. It's something that, man, if I were committing this sin, I wouldn't even care.

Logan

It's a state of your heart of like this lack of caring. This lack of recognition that the Spirit offers forgiveness.

Mitchell

If I was going to come to you and say, hey, I think you're committing the unforgivable sin, and you weren't, you'd be like, oh, you know, like, let's talk about it. But if you were like, I could be, I don't want that like You worry you'd be like I don't care like I don't have to say like that's that's you know

Logan

That heart posture that you can yeah and a sign that you don't have that You know that heart posture is when you hear about the possibility of a non-forgivable sin you're concerned, but you've done it

Mitchell

Yeah, I think every Christian is concerned about this has some anxiety every true Christian feels this way which is a sign

Logan

Yeah, you can't yeah, which is a really good sign it's saying and

Mitchell

I think that's something that we've all felt I remember being in middle school and being afraid that I've committed this hmm I'll say some bad ideas of what it was yeah but how about this let's end with this what are some comfort for those who believe that they've committed this that are anxious about this yeah you haven't

Logan

If you're anxious about it that you haven'tIf you have a soft enough heart to think man, I don't want to offend God I don't want to refuse him and his desire to save me. Then you haven't I mean that's a state of your heart that is actually softened. Mm-hmm Maybe there's still it's still more room for repentance And that's I mean praise God that he's always working on us to be sanctified and further repent, but that's a sign that you have a soft heart, that you're not rejecting the work of the Holy Spirit in your life.

Mitchell

Yeah. I just think of the start of that passage, right? All sins will be forgiven in the children of man, and whatever blasphemes they utter. Like, what a beautiful promise from God. Every sin can be forgiven. Right. And then he goes into it, except for the one. Rejection of it.

Logan

Rejection of forgiveness. Could you read Tyndale's quote one more time? I think that's really good.

Mitchell

Yeah, he says this, the unforgivable sin is one which is resisting grace and fighting against mercy. I love the resisting and fighting. It's not a one-time act. It is a continual posture of your heart. It's a lifelong approach to God and who he is. There's no reason it would change once you die. We know that when we all die, we stand before Jesus, and your heart, most likely, won't change in the meantime.

Logan

People in hell don't want God, that's why they're in hell.

Mitchell

The beautiful truth is that we can hang our hat on, all sins will be forgiven. And that's the gospel in a sense, is that Jesus went to the cross to take your place. So that one day when you're judged, you'll be judged as Christ should be, right? Because he was judged as you should have been.

Logan

Yeah, that's good.

Mitchell

Yeah. That's really good. We can have forgiveness because he got our justice.

Logan

If every sin is the dishonoring of God, the rejection of His goodness, the refusal to see His holiness, you know, the long list of that, of what sin is, praise God that He sanctifies us to see His goodness and see His holiness. And yeah, whoever's blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, committing an unforgiven sin, as you said, as Tyndale said, fighting against seeing the truth, resisting against seeing the truth of God's goodness and the beauty of the forgiveness he offers.

Mitchell

Yeah, that's beautiful. Thank you for listening. Thank you for submitting your questions. We love hearing them. We love hearing them. Again, you can submit your questions to peacechurch.cc or wherever you listen to podcasts.