Have I Committed the Unpardonable Sin?

Have I committed the unpardonable sin?

I have been asked many times about the unpardonable sin. My student’s biggest questions have been, What is it? Have I committed it?

There is no question that Jesus Christ Himself teaches that there is a sin that cannot be forgiven. His language is unmistakable: In Matthew 12:31 He says, “every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but ^jthe blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven…” In Mark 3 and Luke 12 you have the exact same language and in John 8 Jesus deals with the same issue. So it is clearly taught in Scripture.

The best treatment of this question I have ever heard is from the great preacher of a couple of generations ago, A.W. Tozer. I have linked his sermon below. 

Tozer’s begins with a list of sins that people or religious groups have argued are the unpardonable sin, but clearly they are not. 

1.   It has been argued, What if you curse God, use His name in vain, commit sacrilegious acts, and blaspheme God? Aren’t these sins unpardonable? They can’t be. There are millions upon millions of people who have committed these sins, and yet at a later time they repent, ask God for forgiveness, and go on to live exemplary lives.  One of the most blasphemous pieces of writing I have ever read came from a college student who was angry at God. He bitterly denounced a deity who could allow so much suffering in the world. That young student was Clive Staples Lewis. But we all know that C.S. Lewis went on to be one of the greatest Christians who has ever lived. So his blasphemy could not have been the unpardonable sin.

2.   What about the person who makes a vow to God and breaks it? He is, in effect, lying to God. Can this be forgiven? I don’t think I have ever met a Christian who did not, in some sense, commit this sin. Have you ever resolved to straighten up, live right, and then fall flat on your face? Don’t we all declare our commitment to Christ and then fail? What did we then do? We repented, God picked us up, dusted us off, and put us back on the road of obedience. So breaking a vow to God can be forgiven. It can’t be the unpardonable sin.

3.   What about Grieving the Spirit, as described in Ephesians 4:30? Or as some translations put it, quenching the Spirit? I grieved Almighty God with my sin; isn’t this unpardonable? Of course not. Every sin resists the Spirit; every sin grieves the Spirit. That would make every sin the unpardonable sin; What if I hear the gospel, but do not accept it. I resist for a year, two years, five years. Have I grieved the Spirit? Yes. Did God forgive me? Yes. How many people receive Christ the first time they hear the Gospel? Virtually no one. So clearly this cannot be the unpardonable sin.

4.   One religious groups says the unpardonable sin is murder. But many murderers have repented and been saved on death row. The criminal on the cross in Luke 23 may well have been in this category. The Apostle Paul may have been.

5.   Some people and even religious groups say that suicide is the unpardonable sin. The problem with this view is it’s not what the text says; it’s not what Jesus is talking about.

So what is it? What’s the unpardonable sin? According to Matthew 12:31 it is ascribing to the devil the work of the Holy Spirit. In this passage Jesus is proving that He is the Son of God, the Savior, the Messiah. The Holy Spirit has been bringing people to the conviction that that is true; but if the Spirit is telling you that Jesus is the Savior, and until you accept this witness you will not be forgiven.

Why can’t this sin be forgiven? The answer to this question goes to the heart of the way God saves you. We almost always emphasize the importance of preaching the gospel and our decision to believe it, and this is extremely important. But we often leave out God’s role in our salvation. I Corinthians 2:14 clearly says that if the Holy Spirit does not teach us the truth of the Gospel we cannot be saved. Matthew 12 and related passages teach that the unpardonable sin is the rejection of God’s role in our salvation; it is short circuiting God’s saving process. In these passages not only was the Spirit’s witness rejected, it was ascribed to Satan.

The people Jesus is speaking to are convinced of their own righteousness. The Spirit is convicting them of sin but they reject it. And they keep rejecting it and never accept it. Jesus says that sin is not forgivable.

On the outside people can be living good religious lives. They are supremely confident in their own righteousness. But inside they are in rebellion against God. They are lost. Isn’t it interesting that the only people Jesus ever accused of committing the unpardonable sin were devout religious people? Mary Magdalene was a demon possessed prostitute, but she didn’t commit the unpardonable sin. Paul of Tarsus went around oppressing Christians but he didn’t commit it.

As Tozer says, “There are people in our churches who would rather go to hell than admit they are sinners… Any sin of which we repent is forgiven; but there is a sin which can never be repented of; because to commit it the heart has to be beyond repentance; that’s what rejecting the witness of the Spirit is.”

No one who has committed the unpardonable sin will ever arrive at the point where they believed they have committed the unpardonable sin; they simply laugh with scorn at the possibility that they could be so wrong with God.

At this point Tozer makes a remarkable statement: The man who knows he belongs in hell can’t go there.

In conclusion, How to know I have not committed this sin? Ask yourself these questions:

·     Do you want to know Christ as your Savior?

·     Are you willing this moment to confess your sin and receive him? If you are you have not committed the unpardonable sin; you cannot commit the unpardonable sin.

·     It is safe to say that anyone who is worried about having committed the unpardonable sin, has not committed it.

I hope this video has been helpful. Please check the resources below. May God bless you this day in a mighty way.

 

More Resources:

Tozer’s sermon: https://www.sermonindex.net/modules/mydownloads/singlefile.php?lid=2455&commentView=itemComments