The Unforgivable Sin (Mark 3:28-30)
The Unforgivable Sin
Mark 3:28-30
Introduction
Today, we are going to experience a first in our church’s life. We are going to break from our ongoing exposition of the word of God in order to address an important topic raised by the text we examined last week. Our normal practice is to preach verse-by-verse through entire books of the Bible. We rarely break from that because it is important to maintain momentum and context as we travel through a book. It is, of course, not wrong to preach on topics, so long as what we say about those topics are truly the Bible’s teaching. However, the inbred danger with the topical approach is that it often overlooks important aspects of the meaning of a passage because it ignores the context. It becomes very easy, then, to make a text mean something that it never meant, and to apply it to maladies it was never intended to cure.
Nevertheless, the issue of the unforgivable sin is one of such importance that we cannot ignore it. It is not one that I am eager to address, for it is an uncomfortable subject, but it is one which we must address. Part of Christian maturity is being able to look difficult topics directly in the face and reckon with them honestly and with balance. As I was studying last week, it became obvious to me that we had to circle back and go somewhat deeper into this topic and examine what the whole Bible teaches about this topic. It is important because:
1. The severity of the consequences of this sin. If it really is true that we could commit a sin which cannot be forgiven, and the consequence of that sin is guaranteed eternal hell, then we should naturally be very interested to know what that sin is and how to avoid it.
2. The apparent theological difficulty that it poses. If we have properly understood forgiveness, we should understand that there is no sin which God is unable to forgive. Christ’s sufficient sacrifice covers over all our sin, not most our sin. So, the idea that there is a sin which cannot be forgiven seems to cut contrary both to God’s heart of forgiveness (his goodness) as well as the sufficiency of Christ’s sacrifice and the power of the Spirit’s application of that sacrifice to us.
3. The ubiquity of error or strong imbalances in teaching regarding this issue. On such an important issue, there will inevitably be a wide spectrum of views. On the one hand, there are those who dilute the importance of Jesus’ teaching because they cannot believe that there might be a sin which cannot be forgiven. On the other hand, there are those who so magnify the issue and so expand the definition of the sin that virtually everything that disagrees with the preacher’s opinion is an unforgivable sin. We need clarity. In the interest of safeguarding the doctrine of God and promoting your good and health, we need to be very clear on what the bible teaches about this.
4. The sensitivity of the consciences of some makes them bound to unnecessary fear. There are some who torture themselves that they have committed this sin, when they need not be afraid. They hold their own souls hostage from the joy they should experience by walking with Christ in freedom. They need to be comforted. Perhaps some of you feel this way or have that worry. In order to still those fears, to make our souls “Be still and know that he is God,” we need to seek clarity on this issue.
5. The insensitivity of the consciences of others which is hardening them in the deceitfulness of sin. The Bible repeatedly warns us that sin is deceitful, and that habitual lack of repentance will harden our hearts and sear our consciences. It is a dangerous thing to walk the path of insensitivity to sin—to become comfortable with its presence in your life, to let it make a home in your heart. The Bible calls us to mortify sin. As John Owen once wrote, “Be killing sin, or sin will be killing you.” This is the path to apostasy, and we must be very careful to guard against it. While I do not know your hearts fully, I know the dangers of the human heart because I have one too—and this is a great danger we all must avoid. While some are needlessly fearful that they have become unforgiveable, there are others who are needlessly comfortable who have made a home for sin in their hearts.
6. The Bible has several places where it addresses this issue. It appears in all three of the synoptic gospels. It appears in the book of 1 John. It appears regularly in the book of Hebrews.
So, how should we address this topic? We will do it in several steps. First, we will try to bring clarity by saying what the unforgivable sin is not. Second, we will then try to offer a definition of what the unforgivable sin is. Third, we will offer some pastoral counsel on whether or not we have committed it. Last, I will give a series of exhortations from Hebrews about how we can avoid walking that path.
I. What the Unforgivable Sin is Not
Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is not:
1. Something confined merely to Jesus’ earthly ministry. In other words, I do think people can still commit this sin today. Hebrews 6 indicates this when it says that there is a kind of falling away from which it is “impossible…to restore them again to repentance” (Heb 6:4). 1 John 5:16 says that there is a sin which leads to death, and that we should not pray for that kind of sin. Mark, Hebrews, and 1 John were all written after the earthly ministry of Christ and are documents addressed to the church, implying that this really is a danger under the new covenant.
2. Teaching cessationism. Many in the Charismatic and Pentecostal world will say that to deny that the Holy Spirit gives the gifts of tongues and prophecy and healing to the church today is to blaspheme the Holy Spirit. In other words, they hold that the cessationist view is the unforgivable sin. But this is not the case, not only because it does not fit the context of what Jesus says, but also because there are very good arguments from Scripture to believe that the miraculous gifts were given to the first generation of the church, during its founding.
3. Sinning or blasphemy in general. All sin is against God, and therefore all sin is against the Holy Spirit. Jesus himself says, “All sin will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter” (Mark 3:28). In one sense, all sin treats God with contempt and blasphemes his name. Particularly those with sensitive consciences, or those who have sat under overly strong preaching on this issue, are fearful that they have committed this sin simply because they are sinners. This is not true.
4. Serious sinning or backsliding. Many saints fall into grievous sin, wound their conscience, and grieve the Holy Spirit. But this does not mean that if you have backslidden and fallen into great sin that has severe consequences, that does not mean that you have blasphemed the Holy Spirit in the way that Jesus speaks of here.
5. A sin which one can commit accidentally. The kind of sin that Jesus speaks of here is high-handed. For the Pharisees, it is in evidence by continuously asserting that the works of Jesus were best explained by Satan working through him. As it says in Hebrews 10:26, “If we go on sinning deliberately.” It is a sin which is intentional and deliberate, considered and measured. Thus, one cannot unintentionally or ignorantly commit this sin.
6. Sinning against conscience. The conscience is our inner judge. It is the piece of us that accuses us of having done wrong or right. And the Bible exhorts us to listen to our conscience, even if it tells us to do things that we know are fine to do. The Spirit may convict our conscience and we might repeatedly ignore it, and therefore desensitize our conscience to his convicting work. This is grave and dangerous sin, but it is nonetheless not blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. We might know that something is wrong, choose to do it anyway, and we still have yet to commit the unforgivable sin.
7. Intentionally resisting, opposing, or hardening oneself against the Holy Spirit’s work. Many a sinner has done this repeatedly and found mercy. In fact, many of us used to do this—sometimes for years—before the Holy Spirit sovereignly chose to overcome the darkness of our hearts. Paul opposed the work of the Spirit when he persecuted the church, but he received mercy because he acted in ignorance. Others sin against the Holy Spirit, knowing that they grieve him, and repent and find forgiveness with him.
II. What the Unforgivable Sin Is
So then, what is the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit?
1. It happens only under an abundantly clear revelation of the power of the Spirit working through Christ.
There is absolute clarity, full revelation, complete comprehension and reception of what is true. It is a positive conviction that this is in fact true. Therefore, the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit can only be committed against a fully convinced conscience that Jesus is God, that his kingdom has come, and that his Spirit has been given. This is the case of the Pharisees in the gospels. They had all the proof. They saw with their own eyes. They even confessed in places (like Nicodemus) that he was a teacher sent from God. They had all the proof, saw his power with their own eyes. And they still rejected it.
This is the meaning of Hebrews 6:4-5. There are some who have “been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away.” It was a real spiritual experience, but it came short of a saving spiritual experience. Someone who has committed this sin has experienced the enlightening ministry of the Spirit—they have epiphanies about the Bible and know something of its teaching. They have gotten a taste of the heavenly gift of grace and seen it up close in the lives of those around them and even have an initial sense of what it is in themselves. They share in the Holy Spirit, obviously not in the sense that they are united to Christ by the Spirit and indwelt by him, but experienced enough of the inward working of the Spirit that they have a true knowledge and understanding of his working. They know the goodness of the word of God, have sat under preaching and seen God’s goodness in sermons. They know the powers of the age to come—in that day, it would have been miracles. In our day it might be closer to seeing radical conversions. And yet despite all this abundantly clear revelation from God, they fall away. They disown Christ. They reject him decisively and completely.
2. It happens with the full and intentional involvement of the will.
In other words, it cannot be committed accidentally. When the Pharisees set themselves against Jesus, they did so advisedly and considerately. It was a settled, chosen, considered disposition of the will to set themselves against Jesus. They counseled how to destroy Jesus. They did not unintentionally stumble over a rejection of Jesus but they chose to reject him and put him to death while they lived in light of all the evidence.
I’ve seen individuals commit blasphemy before. It’s an ugly thing. God does not look on it lightly. But in such cases, they stumbled, sinned, and did so without setting their wills against Jesus on purpose. They acted foolishly and carelessly, to gain approval from people or because they were discontent or needed a distraction. Careless words are sin, but they are not unforgiveable. Jesus said “On the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matt 12:36-37). We will give an account for what we say and how we said it—and Jesus covers over even these sins by his sufficient sacrifice.
But the unforgivable sin is fully involved with the will. It is a conscious, willing, intentional rejection of Christ and his Spirit in the full knowledge of the truthfulness of who he is and what he has done. This is implied by the words in Hebrews 10:26: “If we go on sinning deliberately [willingly, without compulsion] after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.” Deliberate sinning in the knowledge of the truth is what leads down this path.
3. It is a repetitive and habitual action.
When the Scribes were committing this sin, they went about the people and regularly said these things. Mark 3:22 says, “the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying.” That’s an imperfect verb, communicating an ongoing action. This was not something they did just once. It is something they said repeatedly and habitually.
In other words, people train their hearts to think this way. The precise moment where one has definitively hardened their heart beyond our comprehension. What we do know is that moment happens somewhere during a prolonged process of intentional heart-hardening. Consider the one who is enlightened, tasted the gift, shared in the holy spirit, tasted the goodness of the word and the powers of the coming age and yet falls away. At what point do they actually fall away? We don’t know. But we do know that it happens when we become “dull of hearing” (Heb 6:11).
There is great comfort here for those who have unnecessary fear. Perhaps you have spoken blasphemous words against the Holy Spirit. Is your heart settled with finality against him? Have you done so habitually and repetitively? Is it the considered disposition of your will and therefore expressed in your habitual pattern of life? Then you have not committed this sin. All the while, there is an urgent warning for those who are too comfortable with sin. “Do not harden your heart as they did in their rebellion.” If you do, you shall not enter his rest. Be sensitive to sin!
4. Therefore, it puts a person beyond the possibility of restoration to repentance.
Notice how carefully Hebrews 6:6 puts it: “It is impossible…to restore them again to repentance.” This is what makes it unforgivable. It is not that Christ’s sacrifice is insufficient to forgive them. It is not that God is no longer gracious. It is not that there is no willingness on God’s part to forgive. Instead, it is that there is such a degree of hardening that there cannot and will never again be a restoration to repentance. In other words, it is the searing of the conscience with a hot iron. It is making the heart insensitive to the call of the gospel by intentionally setting one’s self against the work of the Spirit of grace. It is, in other words, a final hardening of the heart, an end of the possibility of repentance because repentance is not and cannot ever again be desirable.
What a fearful state! We rightly tremble to think of falling into such a state of soul! Therefore, turn away from your sins! Be warned this morning: do not harden your hearts. Regularly renew your repentance! Be restored! Maintain a soft heart through confession and forsaking of sin. And be comforted. Ask yourself this one question: do you still repent? Then rejoice! You have not committed this blasphemy! For you are restored to repentance.
III. Pastoral Counsel
“Have I committed the sin against the Holy Spirit?” The answer is probably not. Someone who has committed the sin is not interested in asking the question. You don’t see the Pharisees having existential crises of faith about whether they have offended Jesus in this way. If repentance is in the heart, that means that you have not yet committed the unforgivable sin. If repentance is absent from the heart, even for a long time, and returns, that is a reason to rejoice because the Holy Spirit is having mercy on you. The most tell-tale sign that someone has committed the sin is a final lack of a desire to repent. In a certain sense, then, we cannot really know if someone has committed the sin until they die.
The reason, then, why the Bible tells us about this sin is not so that we can grow morbidly introspective—stuck in the paralyzed state of self-questioning. It is to put of a large, red, flashing, neon warning sign at the edge of the cliff saying, “Don’t come over here!” We are not told of the existence of this sin to abuse our selves with a low view of God’s grace. We are told of it to warn us, for it is through the means of warnings that we are kept safe.
So, if you’re worried that you have committed this sin, ask yourself these questions:
- Do you see sin in yourself that makes you disturbed in whatever measure that it is there, and do you desire to turn away from it and put it to death?
- Do you desire to walk with Jesus, to obey him, to keep his commandments, and to walk in an upright and righteous way in this world?
- Do you sense in yourself a living and growing affection for Christ and for spiritual things?
- Do you want to be with the church, and do you find yourself desiring to serve others in the church?
- Do you desire the word of God? Do you want to read it—even if you fail to read it every day? Do you want to sit under the preaching of the word?
- Do you face opposition from the world?
- Are you responsive when your brothers and sisters in Christ approach you about sin in your life? Do you humble yourselves under their admonitions?
But, someone will say, “But I’m afraid that I may commit this sin some day! I despair of my own strength and of the strength of my remaining sin, and my faith is weak and blinded by trials and sins. How can I be assured that I will make it through this life without abandoning him?”
Be encouraged that the asking of the question evidences a heart that things wisely. Self-confidence in spiritual things is the first flagstone on the stairway descending into apostasy. But Jesus also addressed this Matthew 18:10-14. He’s a good shepherd. He will not allow anyone or anything—not the devil, and not your sin—to snatch you away from his hand. What he has begun, he will finish, or God is a liar, and God is not a deceiver.
“Should I ever tell someone else that they have committed the unforgivable sin?” No. You can’t see the heart. We do not have enough wisdom to know whether or not someone has rejected Christ with finality or not. Even if they were to come within an inch of committing the sin, we don’t know. As we just said, we will not really know that until they pass away.
It is right, however, to warn someone who persists in unrepentance that if they choose to walk that path that they put themselves in great danger. I remember one particular young man who was coming under church discipline. I remember pleading with him and saying, “You’re going to have to make a choice. Either it’s going to be your relationship with this girl, or it’s going to be Jesus. But you cannot have both. You must repent, and if you keep in this path, the consequences get worse.” He has yet to repent to this day, to my knowledge. Has he committed the unpardonable sin? I don’t know. I can’t see his heart. But I do know that he was walking the path toward it.
IV. Protecting Ourselves from Apostasy
How do we protect ourselves from walking the path that leads to this kind of sin? In other words, how do we inoculate ourselves from hardening our hearts? Some lessons from Hebrews:
1. Pay close attention. Hebrews 2:1-2
2. Exhort one another. Hebrews 3:12-14
3. Fear the holiness of God and the love of sin. “Do not fear the guilt of sin, but the love of it and the power of it.” (Owen). Hebrews 4:1
4. Strive. Hebrews 4:11
5. Leave elementary doctrine and go on to maturity. Hebrews 6:1
6. Practice immediate repentance. Heb 6:7
7. Draw near…hold fast…consider how… Hebrews 10:19-25.
8. Do not sin deliberately. Heb 10:26
9. Remember past sacrifices and trials. Heb 10:32
Conclusion
I pray the Lord has helped you through this too-brief analysis. And I hope that these exhortations ring in your heart the supremacy of God, the value of Christ, the power of the Holy Spirit, and the centrality of the church. What we’re doing here right now is the most important thing in the world. Press on. Keep going. Persevere.