The sin that cannot be forgiven

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“And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man,” – that is, Jesus Christ – “shall be forgiven him…

“BUT…

“unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Spirit it shall not be forgiven” (Luke 12:10).
 
He did not need to address the issue of what happens to those who know God and yet deliberately commit sin, because the way he understood it a person who knows God will never deliberately sin, so it was not an issue with him. Most of the Bible writers were not quite so sure as he was. Maybe for good reason, they were closer to what had happened to Ananias, and his wife Sapphira. Now John may have been just as sure. (1 John 3: 3 - 9) “Surely everyone who entertains this hope must purify himself, must try to be as pure as Christ. Any one who sins at all breaks the law, because to sin is to break the law. Now you know that **He appeared in order to abolish sin, and that in Him there is no sin; anyone who lives in God does not sin, and anyone who sins has never seen Him or known Him. ** My children do not let anyone lead you astray; to live a holy life is to be holy just as He is holy; to lead a sinful life is to belong to the Devil, since the Devil was a sinner from the beginning. It was to undo all that the Devil has done that the Son of God appeared. No one who has been begotten by God sins: because God’s seed remains inside him, he cannot sin when he has been begotten by God.”
John was writing to the Church, people who are already saved. In 1 John 1:8-10 he was correcting those who think that since they’re already saved they don’t need to seek God’s forgiveness when they sin. It is true that our ongoing sinfulness can’t cause us to lose our salvation, but it can deprive us of blessings by straining our relationship with God. When we sin, confession purifies us from our unrighteousness and restores us to fellowship with Him.

In a general sense 1 John 3:6-9 says that salvation should evidence itself in a change of attitude about sin. Since he admonished believers to seek forgiveness when we sin in chapter 1 he couldn’t have been trying to say that real Christians don’t sin in chapter 3. Christians sin just like everyone else. The difference is that when we do the Holy Spirit convicts us and we seek forgiveness. Although our forgiveness is assured, the process generally causes us to think twice before sinning again, and little by little we change.

But John’s letter was written specifically against the sin of gnosticism which denied both the deity of Jesus and that His death was the remedy for our sins. Reading the letter from that perspective, since John wasn’t saying that Christians don’t sin, it’s logical to conclude that he was saying that those who adhered to the specific sin of gnosticism were not saved. In effect he was saying that no born again believer could accept gnosticism, and no one who accepted gnosticism could be born again. The two positions are incompatible.

When Gnosticism came in touch with Christianity, which must have happened almost immediately on its appearance, Gnosticism threw herself with strange rapidity into Christian forms of thought, borrowed its nomenclature, acknowledged Jesus as Saviour of the world, simulated its sacraments, pretended to be an esoteric revelation of Christ and His Apostles, flooded the world with apocryphal Gospels, and Acts, and Apocalypses, to substantiate its claim. As Christianity grew within and without the Roman Empire, Gnosticism spread as a fungus at its root, and claimed to be the only true form of Christianity, unfit, indeed, for the vulgar crowd, but set apart for the gifted and the elect. So rank was its poisonous growth that there seemed danger of its stifling Christianity altogether, and the earliest Fathers devoted their energies to uprooting it. Though in reality the spirit of Gnosticism is utterly alien to that of Christianity, it then seemed to the unwary merely a modification or refinement thereof. When domiciled on Greek soil, Gnosticism, slightly changing its barbarous and Seminitic terminology and giving its “emanatons” and “syzygies” Greek names, sounded somewhat like neo-Platonism, thought it was strongly repudiated by Plotinus. In Egypt the national worship left its mark more on Gnostic practice than on its theories.
 
“And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man,” – that is, Jesus Christ – “shall be forgiven him…

“BUT…

“unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Spirit it shall not be forgiven” (Luke 12:10).
In Matthew 12:22-32 some Pharisees accused Jesus of casting out a demon by the power of Satan. In effect they were attributing the work of the Holy Spirit to Satan, a sin for which He said they could not be forgiven.

But the church has the Holy Spirit sealed within us guaranteeing our inheritance from the moment we first believed. There’s nothing we can do to reverse that. Since the cross, the only unforgivable sin is the refusal to accept the Lord’s death as payment in full for all our sins. As Peter said, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under Heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 3:12)

Refusing the pardon the Lord purchased for us leaves leaves Him without any way to save us. Therefore our sins cannot be forgiven, making our refusal the unforgivable sin.

I’m not sure it’s possible for any one other than the Pharisees of Matt. 12 to commit the sin of blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. When unbelievers do this, they don’t really know what they’re doing and it’s the intent of our heart that matters to God. Since the Holy Spirit is sealed within believers, it’s impossible for us to commit this sin. But the Pharisees knew what they were doing and “with malice aforethought” attributed the Lord’s miraculous power to Satan.

For us, the only unforgivable sin is to permanently reject the pardon that the Lord purchased for each one of us with His own blood. When we do that, we’ve said no to the only remedy that God has provided for us, and therefore our sins can’t be forgiven.

If everyone who either made a mistake about hearing the prompting of the Holy Spirit or ignored a legitimate one lost their salvation, none of us would be saved. But the fact is that it’s impossible for a believer to commit any unforgivable sin.

The Bible makes it very clear that at the moment you first believed, the Holy Spirit was sealed within you as a deposit guaranteeing your inheritance. There’s nothing you can say or do that will ever change that. Ephes. 1:13-14 and 2 Cor. 1:21-22 are only 2 examples of this promise and there are several others. If you feel that you’ve sinned against God, confess and you will immediately be forgiven and that will be the end of it. (1 John 1:9)

When the Pharisees attributed the Lord’s miraculous work to Satan (Matt 12:22-37) He accused them of blaspheming the Holy Spirit, whose power was evidenced in His miracles, and said that they wouldn’t be forgiven for that. Their actions were not the cause of their eternal condemnation, but were evidence that they hadn’t responded to His ministry of reconciliation, and had therefore condemned themselves. (John 3:18)

He then extended this unforgiveness to include all men. The reason for this is that in the Church Age blaspheming the Holy Spirit is an indication that the Holy Spirit isn’t sealed within the person, and therefore the person isn’t saved. It also shows that their hearts are hardened to a point where they never will answer the Lord’s call on their lives.

Ananias and Sapphira were mentioned in Acts 5:1-10 as a couple who sold some property and donated a portion of the proceeds to the Disciples. However they lied and said they had donated all the proceeds. When confronted, they stuck to their story and the Lord struck them both dead.

Since this happened after the cross, the penalty for their sin had already been paid. Therefore you can’t make comparisons with Nadab and Abihu (Lev. 10:1-2) or Achan (Josh. 7:25) as some commentators do.

If Ananias and Sapphira had been believers a simple prayer of confession would have been all that was necessary to receive forgiveness. The Scripture makes no mention of their spiritual condition, but Peter accused Ananias of having a heart filled by Satan. Both he and his wife lied about their gift even though they were within their rights in holding back whatever amount they chose, since it was their money. When confronted they both failed to confess but stuck to their story. There was no conviction of the Holy Spirit, no confession of their sin, and no fear of the Lord. This leads me to the conclusion that they weren’t really saved and were trying to get some unrevealed status or favor they didn’t deserve in return for their contribution.
 
I have a question…

Sometimes, when I hear something really bad (like a swear word) it tends to stay in my mind and the devil later uses it as a temptation… 😦
well a long time ago I heard something HORRIBLE about the Holy Spirit, and then it started playing over and over in my mind, and I felt like I’M thinking it. It was so scary cause I thought I had committed the unforgiveable sin. I talked to a priest about this and he said I hadn’t. I felt so relieved!

but then I see this quote and it made me feel afraid ?

I’d say those words were a blasphemy, but I never said them out loud and I never meant them 😦 I fought really hard to keep these thoughts out of my mind, but it was really hard.

what do you all think?
I know exactly how you feel. This is a very hard thing to live with. Unwanted thoughts stink badly, especially when they repeat over and over and over ad nauseam.

Now, Jesus died for all sin…there is no sin that Jesus did not die for. If he didn’t die for every sin, then his death was in vain.

All sin can be forgiven. Don’t worry 🙂
 
I know exactly how you feel. This is a very hard thing to live with. Unwanted thoughts stink badly, especially when they repeat over and over and over ad nauseam.

Now, Jesus died for all sin…there is no sin that Jesus did not die for. If he didn’t die for every sin, then his death was in vain.

All sin can be forgiven. Don’t worry 🙂
You are correct. we all sin and we have all been saved by Jesus. Thankfull himself sounds like he is saying that he never had the need of a saviour, because he See’s himself as sinless. this was in-fact exactly what the Pharisees believed.
He is looking down on us showing a lack of compassion on anyone without his level of perfection, and is only pushing people away in fear of god, just as the scribes did.

Its our NEED for a saviour, that moves God to act for us. Accepting Jesus as our savior moves Jesus to claim us as his, that can never be snatched out of his hand, or his fathers hand, and he and the father are one.

Once we are in gods hands, sin cannot lose us our salvation, saying so is to call sin stronger than God. what it dose lose us is our fellowship with God, our peace, our protection. When we sin we cut off from him and hide as Adam did. HOWEVER when we ask for forgiveness, we regain that fellowship.

People who say “Cool I can sin if I want then and wont lose salvation, that’s sweet” do not know God, and have not accepted Jesus as there saviour. people who think “Sweet I can never lose my salvation if I sin, wait, should I have said that, what if I start sinning now that I know this, what If I become a bad person… what will I do” they do know God. because they love him, they know they will fall to sin, they do not want to hurt him, they know they cant stop them-self, they NEED a saviour.

The fact is if we know that we could never get into heaven because we sinned, and we felt so bad and hopeless we cried out to god that we need a saviour, though we were to be left to suffer forever, Jesus appears and tells us we are his sheep, he has forgiven us, he will keep us safe. the joy we would feel would be overwhelming.

But then someone appears and says to us “That man you seen, he was just a delusion of your own mind, he never existed” the fear that would hit us would be unbearable. this is the fear the pharisees tried to cause the poor man whom Jesus has cast the demon out of.

The pharisees were telling the born again believer man that while he was possessed his mind was numb and his pain would only have lasted as long as he was alive, and that God would not have held him responsible for his actions. But because the Man was cured by Jesus, and praised the name of Jesus, with a clear mind, he had worshipped evil and committed an unforgivable sin.

Can you imagine the fear this would have caused this poor man? he probably in his mind blasphemed the holy spirit too, he was angry and terrified and in more need of Jesus than ever.

Jesus would have comforted the man. telling him of the peace he felt when he was cured, and to compare it with the fear he felt when the sadducees accused him of his sin. on remembering the peace, he realised that this man before him, was in-fact the son of God.

Jesus gave the pharisees a grave and hopeless warning, to bring them the same hopelessness we feel when we need a saviour, he told them they would never be forgiven, and because the pharisees believed no mater what they done, as long as they followed the law of moses, they would be forgiven, it was an appropriate warning.

Many people believed what the pharisees said about Jesus, and they were not condemned for his own promise was “I come not to condemn but to save” remember that promise?

But instead of to responding to that warning with fear and repentance, they Hated Jesus more, first his forgiving nature, then his condemning threat to them. which to them only proved he was not God. they were against God from the start, trying to make him sin. they wanted him to sin so he could not be our saviour, can you now see why there sin was unforgivable?

they wanted Jesus to react, they taunted his good works and terrorised his followers, threatened them with death wherever they went, then put on kind faces and false smiles and called themselves holy.

but the real blasphemy was that they did not want to change, not even slightly, if one responded slightly Jesus would have said he is in danger of committing an unforgivable sin, but as there hearts were consumed completely by evil, they wanted nothing to do with what was Holy, other than to destroy it.

Do not worry that Jesus became hard hearted, he never did, the Holy spirit is the complete forgiving nature of Christ. you see that when Jesus said that they should not worry about what they will say in trails to defend themselves, for it will be the holy spirit that will talk through them. And Stephen defended himself and was stoned to death as a blasphemer, and as it was the holy spirit in him that said “Father, do not hold this sin against them”.

when you feel hopeless fear, you acknowledge your need for a saviour, and Jesus acts to save you from your plight, this is true no mater how hopeless you feel. consider the billions of people around the world who have cursed the holy spirit in there mind, feared selling there soul to Satan or asked Satan to become part of them, who have asked to be condemned to hell so a loved one could go to heaven, or thought sexual thoughts about Jesus or priests or nuns. The whole world would be in despair, but incredible as it sounds, each one of us who have been through this fear have been carried through and made stronger because of it.

the formula is.
Evil tempts, Evil condemns
God Tests, God Forgives.

Thankfull is just a little confused, many hear care about him, that too moves Jesus to forgive.
 
Three meanings have been given to the sin against the Holy Ghost. For the earlier doctors, viz. Athanasius (Super Matth. xii, 32), Hilary (Can. xii in Matth.), Ambrose (Super Luc. xii, 10), Jerome (Super Matth. xii), and Chrysostom (Hom. xli in Matth.), say that the sin against the Holy Ghost is literally to utter a blasphemy against the Holy Spirit,
Where did you find this information? Thanks.
 
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