Have you ever heard of the “unforgivable sin?” What is it? Do you know what it is? If you don’t – that’s okay. A lot of other people, including mega-church pastors and theologians that wrote books don’t know what it is. You may hear in church:
“The unforgivable sin is sinning too much! You can lose your salvation if you sin too much!”
...or, how about…
“The unforgivable sin is unbelief! If you die an unbeliever, you have spurned and rejected God’s generous gift, and you will burn in hell forever and ever!”
I want to release anyone who has ever felt that they had committed this sin, and feels condemned in their hearts. I can tell you confidently that you cannot commit it now, especially if you already are in Christ. I mean, you physically cannot now commit this sin. John Piper, a respected Christian teacher, wrote this in his book, “What Jesus Demands From the World”:
“Forgiveness is received through trusting Jesus to forgive our sins, This implies that we see sin as sin and hate it as a dishonor to Jesus. The only unforgivable sin is the sin that we refuse to confess and forsake. We commit unforgivable sin when we cleave to a sin so long and so tenaciously that we can no longer confess it as sin and turn from it. What Jesus calls “the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit” (in Matthew 12:31-32) and “eternal sin” (in Mark 3:29) is the resistance against the Holy Spirit’s convicting work to the point where he withdraws, leaving the sinner in helpless hardness of heart, unable to repent. Neither divorce nor remarriage is in itself the unpardonable sin any more than murder, stealing, lying, coveting, adultery, or homosexual behavior.”1
As you can tell from the title of the book, Mr Piper believes in a works-faith based religion. You can also hear it in his tone. You have to confess. You have to forsake. If you don’t, Jesus is done with you! In fact, I heard of this story where a woman went up to him and told him that she was afraid that she had committed this very sin. After speaking with her for a few moments, he concluded that she had committed the unpardonable sin and there was no hope of salvation for her! Can you imagine the hopelessness this woman must have felt at the time??? I pray she got over that awful encounter and sought out and found a better answer than that!! Shame on Piper for his callousness! Jesus would never say that to a woman who is suffering and already wracked with guilt!! Piper needs to learn how to love. He also doesn’t seem to know what this sin even is!
I didn’t either, until it was pointed out to me. As a younger person, I thought that I had committed “blasphemy against the Holy Spirit” accidentally in my head, and I thought that I was headed for hell. I remember tormenting myself by begging God for forgiveness of this sin, not knowing that you cannot “accidentally” do it. It took a deliberate attitude and hardness of heart, and, like I said before, it is not possible to do today. Do you want to know the “mystery” of this passage and what this sin actually is? Let’s go take a look…
Let’s start in Luke 12:10, which reads, “And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven (NIV, underline mine). Jesus knew that there would be people that would say evil things about Him. But what exactly is this “blaspheme against the Holy Spirit” and why is it so grievous to God? Why is this the one sin that He will not forgive?
Mark 3:22
The scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons.” 23 And He called them to Himself and began speaking to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? 24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. 26 If Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but he is finished! 27 But no one can enter the strong man’s house and plunder his property unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his house.
28 “Truly I say to you, all sins shall be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter; 29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never (mistranslated, should be “does not”) has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal (mistranslated from αἰωνίου or aiōniou2) sin”— 30 because they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit” (underline mine).
Paraphrasing for clarity, it reads, “Whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit does not have forgiveness, but is guilty of an “age-long” sin – BECAUSE they said, “He has an unclean spirit.” That is blasphemy of the Holy Spirit! You cannot do it accidentally. It is in-ten-tion-al. It is impossible to do it accidentally. Additionally, if you’re one of those people that insist it “really means eternal” and it “really means never,” consider the following passage…
Matthew 12:22
Then a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute was brought to Jesus, and He healed him, so that the mute man spoke and saw. 23 All the crowds were amazed, and were saying, “This man cannot be the Son of David, can he?” 24 But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, “This man casts out demons only by Beelzebul the ruler of the demons.” 25 And knowing their thoughts Jesus said to them, “Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and any city or house divided against itself will not stand. 26 If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself; how then will his kingdom stand? 27 If I by Beelzebul cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? For this reason they will be your judges. 28 But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. 29 Or how can anyone enter the strong man’s house and carry off his property, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house. 30 He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters. 31 “Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. 32 Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come” (NASB, italics and underline mine).
“...whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.” So, it’s not even eternal!! How does it make sense to say, “They will never be forgiven, either in this eternity or the eternity to come?” That doesn’t even make any sense! The person will be condemned, but notice that He says, “[not] in this age or in the age to come.” Remember that earth has and will experience ages. There were ages passed, such as in the Garden of Eden, and there are ages yet to come, as well. Jesus is saying that these people who commit this heinous sin will not be forgiven until the next age, the Kingdom Age, completes. These were Jews that He was speaking to. They will miss the 1,000-year reign of the Messiah that they had been promised by the Prophets, like Isaiah, and had been so looking forward to, instead they will be cast into outer darkness, where they will weep and “gnash their teeth.” They will not reign with Christ, nor rule with Him over any nation.
Now do you see why I told you not to worry about this sin and why you cannot possibly commit it today? I hope so. And I hope that I’ve released someone and took this giant burden off of their shoulders – because they thought that they did it and thought they were going to hell forever! Don’t worry, you are not! This was meant for Israelites during the time of Jesus when He was performing miracles! He said it Himself that those miracles testified that He was the Messiah that they were looking for (Jn 5:36), and they told people that he was working with the devil! That was the sin!
Wouldn’t it make you furious if someone attributed your good works to your enemy? Say that you donated $1 million to one of your city’s local hospitals, and, you expect that the donation would be in your name and you could use that for your taxes as a deduction. Well, it turns out that your enemy was able to convince the hospital administrators to instead make out the donation that you gave so that it would actually be in his/her name, so that your enemy gets the credit for your hard work! How would that make you feel? I bet you would pull your hair out in frustration! Now, you can’t claim it on your taxes. Now, you will have to change your plans. You might even revoke the donation or sue the hospital. Feel the pain of the Holy Spirit as these Pharisees did the equivalent of this story and grieved Him.
It could also be that the unpardonable sin was also Israel’s denial of the Messiah. Israel, or rather, the religious leaders, had also denied Jesus three times, which is a permanent denial. The first time was when they beheaded John the Baptist, the second when they crucified Christ, and the final time was when they stoned Stephen to death. They will pay the price for their betrayal to God! But, it won’t be eternal. They, too will be saved in the end, at the consummation of the ages! Besides that, you really shouldn’t be sin conscious to begin with! How terrible it must be to live life always afraid that you would commit some sin that would deliver you into the bowels of hell! That is not why our Savior came to earth! He came to save all men, and He will do it!
1 Taken from this website: https://cryingoutforjustice.blog/2014/01/22/john-pipers-erroneous-teaching-on-the-unpardonable-sin/. It’s full of refutations of Piper’s teaching on the unforgivable sin.
2 See my article on mistranslations of “olam” and “aion” under the “Hell” topic.
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