This is a question that haunts some Christians. If someone thinks they've possibly committed the unforgivable sin they may spend their entire lives doubting their salvation. First, we need to note that there is an unforgivable sin according to Jesus. Some claim that no sin is unforgivable and God will forgive us of any sin we could possibly commit. For the most part this is true, but Jesus seems to speak of one exception.
Let's take a look at the passage from Matthew ch. 12:
22 Then a demon-oppressed man who was blind and mute was brought to him, and he healed him, so that the man spoke and saw. 23 And all the people were amazed, and said, “Can this be the Son of David?” 24 But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons.” 25 Knowing their thoughts, he said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand. 26 And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? 27 And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. 28 But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. 29 Or how can someone enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house. 30 Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. 31 Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. 32 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.In verse 32 Jesus says this unforgivable sin is speaking against the Holy Spirit.
But what exactly is speaking against the Holy Spirit?
Ephesians 4:30 says we can "grieve" the Holy Spirit. But that's not what Jesus is talking about here.
In 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 we learn that for those of us who have become Christians our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit and if we destroy our bodies we will be destroyed by God. Is that what Jesus is speaking of? No, I don't think so.
So what is it?
Well, as is often the case, the answer is found within the context of the verse in question.
If we look back at verses 22-24 of Matthew 12 we see that the Pharisees were attributing the work of Jesus to Satan (that's what "Beelzebul" means). They were saying that Jesus did his work not by the power of the Holy Spirit (as Jesus himself says in v. 28), but by the power of Satan.
That's what it means to speak against the Holy Spirit and that is the unforgivable sin - attributing the work of the Holy Spirit to Satan himself.
We can get so twisted and turned around because of sin in our lives that we end up thinking the works of the Holy Spirit - the works of God - are actually the works of Satan. That's pretty messed up... but it can happen.
The Pharisees apparently reached that point, and that's scary, because I've done and said some things in my life that made me look a lot like a Pharisee.
But do I worry that I've committed this sin? No. I've never gotten to the point where I wanted to say the Holy Spirit was actually Satan. That's unfathomable to me and if you're a Christian it probably is the same to you.
John,
ReplyDeleteI think it's important to elaborate on this topic as I've known it to be something that gives Satan a foothold in believer's hearts as he will try to convince them that they've committed this sin.
My interpretation of this passage is that a Christian who has received the Holy Spirit cannot commit this sin. I believe this sin is a continual, present tense refusal to accept the Spirit for who He is which will ultimately lead to damnation. I don't think this is a past-tense sin that will exempt you from repentance and receiving God's grace and forgiveness.
The post I've linked below has a lot to say on the topic, and I've pulled out an excerpt that I agree with and I think is important for Christians to understand:
http://christiananswers.net/q-eden/unpardonablesin.html
Begin quote:
"If we refuse to accept the testimony given to us by the Holy Spirit, fight off His conviction of our sin, and never accept the truth, we will never come to Christ for salvation. In Christ, all our sins are forgiven. Therefore, no Christian can commit the unpardonable sin. Only an unregenerate person who refuses to come to Christ will die in his or her sins" [Freedom in Christ (Knoxville, Tennessee: FICM.org, 2002).].
"…once you accept Jesus, that part of the Holy Spirit's job is complete, thus you can't blaspheme His work. Naturally, He continues to work with you, and you can be stubborn and resist Him as a Christian, but you can't blaspheme Him. Live unproductively, carnal and unspiritual, possible. But commit the unpardonable sin? It's just not possible for a true Christian. Remember what Paul said: [Darrin Yeager (DYeager.org, 2002).]
“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus…” (Romans 8:1).
End Quote.
What are your thoughts?
I think it would probably be biblical to say a Christian would never commit this sin. However I don't think I could say the sin in question is consistently rejecting the Holy Spirit's conviction for salvation. I think that's a common interpretation of Jesus' words in Matt. 12 but I think it's simply an inference and not based on the actual words in the passage.
ReplyDeleteBoth in Mark 3 and here in Matt. 12 Jesus speaks of the unforgivable sin immediately after the Pharisees claimed he cast out demons by the power of Satan. Matt. 12:31 begins with "Therefore..." which tells me that what Jesus is about to say refers back to what just happened - the Pharisees attributing the Spirit's work to Satan.
While Jesus doesn't explicitly say, "Speaking against the Holy Spirit means __________," there is at least contextual support for saying it means attributing his work to Satan. However there's nothing here at all about the sin being a rejection of salvation.
Having said that, I certainly agree that anyone who rejects the Spirit's conviction on their heart their entire lives will not be forgiven because their sins still remain on them and have not been given to Jesus for him to pay the penalty for them. I just can't see any clear biblical support that links that with what Jesus says here about the unforgivable sin. However the two may certainly be connected as the Pharisees seemed to both attribute the Spirit's work to Satan and consistently reject his conviction on their hearts.
The main issue I have is that the interpretation you mentioned is an inference from what people think makes sense rather than something that actually came from the mouth of Jesus. People do this all the time but I think it's a way of interpreting the Bible that doesn't honor God. I think there are many things that people believe about the Bible that simply come from their own logic instead of coming from them getting into the Bible, seeing what it actually says, and pulling meaning out from that. I've done this in the past myself and may even be doing it with other doctrines currently without knowing it.
I definitely agree with you. I think inference of the scripture can and has lead to many incorrect beliefs about God. I think it's a practice we should continually be wary of so that our own beliefs and world views aren't overriding what God actually says. I think the inference in this case is coming from the rest of scripture, not from personal logic.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you agree that the Bible has to be taken as a whole, and the overall interpretation supersedes individual passages that aren't fully explained. The key to me on this issue is just what you said, that Jesus doesn't explicitly say "Speaking against the Holy Spirit means ______." If there was one particular sin that would override the rest of what scripture says about grace and forgiveness, I would hope Jesus would have elaborated on that in Scripture and not left it up to guesswork and hermeneutics on our parts.
When I read a passage like this that initially leaves me a bit confused or feeling conflicted, I have to rely on other scripture to affirm the truth and heart behind it's meaning, as ultimately the Holy Spirit will "teach me all things" and "remind me of what Christ said" (John 14:26).
This quote from the same website I posted is a much better articulation of what I was trying to say in my previous comment:
Begin Quote:
"The unforgivable sin of speaking against the Holy Spirit has been interpreted in various ways, but the true meaning cannot contradict other Scripture. It is unequivocally clear that the one unforgivable sin is permanently rejecting Christ (John 3:18; 3:36). Thus, speaking against the Holy Spirit is equivalent to rejecting Christ with such finality that no future repentance is possible. 'My spirit shall not always strive with man,' God said long ago (Genesis 6:3).
…In the context of this particular passage (Matthew 12:22-32), Jesus had performed a great miracle of creation, involving both healing and casting out a demon, but the Pharisees rejected this clear witness of the Holy Spirit. Instead they attributed His powers to Satan, thus demonstrating an attitude permanently resistant to the Spirit, and to the deity and saving Gospel of Christ" [Henry M. Morris, The Defender's Study Bible (Iowa Falls, Iowa: World Bible Publishers, 1995), emphasis added.]."
End Quote.
I don't think we really disagree here. The reason I posted in the first place was to encourage Spirit filled believers that this is not a sin they can commit and not something they need to fret over, wondering if they might have done it accidentally. I believe this is a cause-effect observation from Jesus given to non Christians (pharisees) that rejecting obvious works of God will lead you down a path of not being forgiven as it's a clear sign of your hardened heart towards the Spirit and towards Christ.
If you disagree, do you have any other scripture that would support an interpretation that a Christian can commit this sin and lose their forgiveness, salvation, and the Holy Spirit?
I agree with you that we should use Scripture to interpret other Scripture. I also agree that there are many places in Scripture that talk about the fact that if we reject the Holy Spirit's conviction on our hearts to put our faith in Christ we don't have access to forgiveness. I just don't see any biblical connections to those passages mentioned in that article and what Jesus says in Matt. 12 or Mark 3.
ReplyDeleteIn the quote you mentioned the author says it is "unequivocally clear that the one unforgivable sin is permanently rejecting Christ," and then he cites John 3:18 and John 3:36. However those passages only mention the fact that we cannot be saved apart from Christ. They make no explicit connections to what Jesus says in Matt. 12 or Mark 3, and they also do not mention anything about speaking against the Holy Spirit. So I can't agree that it is "unequivocally clear."
I will say there's nothing in the Bible as far as I know about Christians being able to commit this sin or not - so that's up for debate. Could a person who loves God do this? I don't think so. Could a person who has been saved in the past slowly move away from God over a long period of time to where they end up doing this? I think that could be possible. But not someone who loves Jesus and desires to follow him. But again, those are just my opinions. I don't have any biblical support for that.
I do think it's possible for one to lose their salvation from passages like Heb. 6:4-6, 1 Tim. 4:1, Gal. 5:1-4, Rom. 11:20-22, and others.
I agree with you. The passages from John are certainly not direct correlations to what Jesus said in Matt 12, which leaves this open for debate.
ReplyDeleteIn an attempt to clarify the excerpt, I think the author was trying to infer that if "whoever believes in Him is not condemned", then a believer (an active believer I would add) cannot perform an unforgivable action since they are not condemned. I think he is also correlating this to Romans 8:1 that if anyone is in Christ, there is no condemnation. If someone is not in Christ, this verse obviously provides no promise of forgiveness for them.
Thanks for your blog post and the thought provoking discussion. I appreciate your honesty towards the scripture and I'm encouraged to keep seeking the Lord through his word. God bless.