Text: Mark 3:22-30
Perhaps most of us have had the feeling at some point…that some particular sin that we have committed, has separated us from God and that there is no going back. Kind of like…now I have really done it. God is out of patience and tired of dealing with me? And if we have come to that place, it certainly does not help to hear Jesus say what he does in Mark 3 and Luke 12. We will get to that in a few minutes.
But doubts like these raise the question: is there such a thing as an unforgivable sin? A single sin so terrible that God signs off on us forever? Is there a one-and-done transgression, from which there is no going back? A sin that burns all of the bridges and leaves us with no hope in the world? If there is such a thing, then of course we must by all means avoid it.
Now I am not suggesting some kind ranking – like the Roman Catholic ideas of 7 deadly sins. Nor do I mean to imply that other sins are safe or okay. There is no sin that is not deadly…but is there one for which forgiveness cannot be had?
Let us begin by observing that the New Testament identifies a wide range of sins that were forgiven. By one count, there are 124 different sins – named in the New Testament. The apostle Paul called himself the chief of sinners and confessed to having people thrown into prison, beaten, confiscating their property, and even put to death. He said that he was a blasphemer – a man who spoke evil of the name of Jesus. Yet he was forgiven, as were others, including murderers, adulterers, fornicators, homosexuals – the list goes on and on.
In his first letter to Timothy, Paul celebrated his salvation and made this confession.
“I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service, even though I was previously a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief; and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. I Tim 1:12-14
In his first letter to the church at Corinth, chapter 6:9-11, the apostle Paul reminding them of what they used to be and warning them against going back where they had been. This is what he said:
“Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor those habitually drunk, nor verbal abusers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.”
It is pretty clear then that God forgives all kinds of sins, even those that seem most heinous. Surely it can’t get any more serious than putting God’s son to death. Yet Jesus prayed “Father forgive them…”
Which raises the question…what could lead us to believe that there is a one-of-a-kind sin for which forgiveness is withheld? There are scriptures that might lead to that conclusion.
In the Old Testament where we find this case in Leviticus 24:10-16
“Now the son of an Israelite woman—his father was an Egyptian—went out among the sons of Israel; and the Israelite woman’s son and an Israelite man had a fight within the camp. And the son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the Name and cursed. So they brought him to Moses. (Now his mother’s name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan.) Then they put him in custody, waiting for Moses to give them a clear decision in accordance with the command of the Lord. Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Bring the one who has cursed outside the camp, and have all who heard him lay their hands on his head; then have all the congregation stone him. 15 You shall also speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘If anyone curses his God, then he will bear the responsibility for his sin.
Moreover, (going forward) the one who blasphemes the name of the Lord must be put to death; all the congregation shall certainly stone him. The stranger as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death.
In Hebrew, the word for blaspheme has 2 possible meanings: It can mean – to pronounce or to verbalize God’s name. This led some to refuse to even speak the Lord’s name…so the scribes put in a substitute for the word YAHWEH, to keep from saying God’s name to themselves.
This is clearly not what God meant and not what had taken place in Leviticus 24. After all, oaths were supposed to be taken in God’s name which was spoken out loud. But this man who had cursed…had spoken in a way that did damage to God’s Name. He reviled God’s name, using it with disrespect and disdain. He presumed to curse God, as if he had the power to put God under a cursed. And for that reason, God judged him – using the man’s words against him.
He had broken the second of the 10 commandments…which was: “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain”.
Now the question of forgiveness is not raised in this passage. Whether or not God would forgive this kind of sin is separate from the civil punishment of the crime. So for example, God might forgive a murderer of his sin but still require that he forfeit his life as a result of his crime.
But this passage makes blaspheme against the Lord’s name a most serious sin worthy of capital punishment. Even when done in anger, on the spur of the moment, it was punishable by death. As the Hebrew writer later observed:
“Anyone who has ignored the Law of Moses is put to death without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severe punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? (Heb 10:28-29)
Leviticus 24 gives us a specific case to which an overarching command applied and it applied to all who lived in the nation of Israel. As we come to the New Testament, we are not surprised to find something of a parallel.
Mark’s gospel – gives us a specific case, and then states the rule…while Luke records the overarching command or principle – without citing a specific situation. Let’s take a look at Mark 3:22-30 first and then Luke 12:10
Here is the case in point:
The scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, (about Jesus) “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons.”
And so He called them to Himself and began speaking to them in parables: “How can Satan cast out Satan? And if a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. 26 And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but he is finished!
But no one can enter the strong man’s house and plunder his property unless he first ties up the strong man, and then he will plunder his house. (Mark 3:22-27)
You will notice that Jesus appealed to reason, which encourages us to do the same. Our faith in Jesus is based upon evidence and that in turn is to be treated in a valid way. Biblical faith does not outrun evidence or reject logical thinking. And of course…in this case it ought to be obvious…that logical reasoning is not at all what demon-possessed people do. That alone should have been proof enough.
Nevertheless, the Pharisees claimed that Jesus cast out demons by the power of Satan (Beelzebul) – the ruler of demons. Some manuscripts us the name Beelzebub when referring to Satan. The Hebrews mocked this Canaanite god whose name, meant “lord of the high place”. They changed it to Beelzebub, which meant “lord of flies” or of “the dunghill. The Jews then transferred this term to Satan – as a further sign of disrespect.
Jesus reasoned that if Satan casts out Satan, then his kingdom is in self-destruct mode. (Implied) But look around you – Satan is alive and well and still rules in the hearts of sinners. So…Satan is not divided…and therefore I am not using Satan’s power. And if I am not doing this by Satan’s power, then this is being done by the ‘finger of God’. It is by his power that I cast out demons (Luke 11:20)
By the way, the Finger of God is mentioned in Ex 8:19 and 31:18. In Ex 31, it was the finger of God that wrote his law upon the tablets of stone. But in Exodus 8, when the Egyptian magicians could not duplicate the plague of gnats and told Pharaoh that ‘this was the finger of God…he was dealing with God. The irony was, that the magicians recognized what the Pharisees did not.
It is then in Mark’s gospel, verses 28-29, that Jesus states the Rule or the principle that God will use in judgment.
“Truly I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons and daughters of men, and whatever blasphemies they commit; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin” because they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”
Luke 12:10: puts it this way:
And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him.
The obvious question is – what is it that sets blasphemy against the Holy Spirit apart from other blasphemies?
Some limit it to this partiular case or situation, where the enemies of Jesus attributed the power of the Holy Spirit by which Jesus cast out demons, to Satan or Beelzebul. And since that time has come and gone, there is no further possibility of doing what Jesus condemned.
Let me suggest something further. During the ministry of Jesus, his teachings were not understood, even by the men who would become his apostles. Among his own followers, each believed in some version of him. They each had their own ideas of who he was and what he had come to do. The apostles did not really expect him to die on a cross, despite what Jesus said. Peter contradicted the Lord and Jesus responded – “get behind me Satan’. So…the rejection of Jesus in its many forms was common and pervasive.
Opinion was divided about Jesus and most people chose not to believe. Now to be clear, they did believe that he was a prophet. They did believe that he could heal and drive out demons and they came from all over to get these benefits.
But they turned away when he said that he was God. That he was the Son of Man, the one that Daniel described in chapter 7. Or when he stated clearly that he was the Son of God – with authority on earth to forgive sins.
His own disciples did not believe him when he said that his enemies would kill him. They thought that the messiah was “bullet-proof” – that God would never allow him to suffer and die.
Even after the resurrection, they still did not get it. On the day that Jesus ascended to heaven, his apostles asked if he was about to restore the kingdom to Israel (Acts 1:6) They still thought that he had come to set up a kingdom on earth and was going to rule in Jerusalem.
But Jesus came to bring the kingdom of heaven to earth…and then to go back to heaven to rule from there. It turns out that everybody had set their sights way too low. All of that to say, that the process of revealing God’s will, was a work in progress all throughout the ministry of Jesus
It was not until the Holy Spirit was given, that God’s revelation in scripture was completed. The apostles were blessed with total recall of all that Jesus did and said. And with that foundation, they were then…led into ‘all the truth’. The apostles – along with other inspired writers, preserved God’s word in its inerrant form – completing that…for all time. It became ‘the faith, once for all delivered to the saints”…both final and complete. When this process was finished, God’s plan of salvation had been explained – once for all. It was complete and fully sufficient.
The apostle Peter reflects this when he wrote – in 2 Pet 1:2-4
“Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, for His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence”
The Holy Spirit had left nothing un-revealed that we need to know. And the result was and is, that all who reject it – cannot be saved. God has no other plan of salvation. There is no other sacrifice for sin. There are no further truths pertaining to salvation, or to godly living and acceptable worship – that remain outstanding.
This is the work of The Holy Spirit as directed by Jesus. Rejection of it then…is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. And the absence of forgiveness going forward is a function of the singularity of our salvation and not unwillingness on the part of God to forgive. There is only one saviour and one body of truth from God about him. And it is that if we persist in that rejection, we remain unforgiven.
The writer of the book of Hebrews expands on this in two passages: the first in Hebrews 6 and then again in chapter 10
He describes what happens to Christians who fall away – as a warning – saying:
For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame. For ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it and produces vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God; but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned. 6:4-8
There is only one lord, one faith and one baptism. There is only one gospel and one saviour. There is only one sacrifice for sin and one path into the presence of God for those who are saved. It has taken all that heaven can do – to provide that one, and beyond it, He has no other plan or means to save us.
Therefore, the person who has been:
- Convicted in his heart, become submissive and repentant.
- United with Christ in a death like his and been raised to walk in newness of life.
- Put his sins away and been raised spiritually on the eternal-life side of death.
- And is now indwelt by the Holy Spirit and protected by His power.
This person has tasted the good things that God has to offer. If they then walk away – turn a deaf ear – harden their heart and repent of their faith, they place themselves beyond the reach of God.
They have been inoculated against the gospel. The love of God no longer moves them. The sacrifice of Jesus is no longer that which cleanses and the gospel is no longer God’s power to save.
For that person, the one who persists in his rejection of God’s work in and through the Holy Spirit, there is no hope. God will not forgive an unrepentant sinner. God will not forgive an unbeliever.
Hebrews 10:26-31 goes on to expand on the consequences of falling away.
“For if we go on sinning wilfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries.
Anyone who has ignored the Law of Moses is put to death without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severe punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge His people.”
It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God”
Conclusions:
We have said all of that to say…that this is the sin that is not forgiven. The person who rejects the work of the Holy Spirit – who denies what He has revealed about Jesus and turns away from salvation in Him. This person will not be forgiven – for God has no other means of saving us.
At the same time…God also keeps the door open that leads back to himself. The apostle John assures us that: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous, so that He will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us”. 1 John 1:9-10
And then in chapter 2 he adds: “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world”.
God remains both faithful and righteous. He is faithful to his word. And he saves us in a way that preserves his righteousness. Jesus remains our advocate with the Father and he appeals on our behalf on the basis of his own sacrifice.
We are the only ones who can put ourselves beyond God’s reach. But to all who keep coming back to God – God – The Holy Spirit, remains within. God does not want anyone to perish, but for all to come to eternal life.