The Unpardonable Sin - What is It and Why?

This post was added in April 2024 during our Bible study on Luke's Gospel.

Luke 11:14-23 and its synoptic (parallel) account in Mark 4:20-30, also parallels Jesus' words recorded by Luke in chapter 12, verses 8 to 12. The repeated statements speak of sin against the Holy Spirit. These parallel accounts also illumine the mystery of the nature of the Triune God. Luke 12 and Mark 4 specifically note that sin and blasphemy against the Father and Son will be forgiven, but one who sins and blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. Frankly, this is one of the hardest statements in scripture. What is also illumined here is the holiness of God  - the depth of which we cannot grasp, and His choice to show mercy to whom He wishes to show mercy. Mercy is not a required response from God; do not be misled: God owes no one mercy! (another hard statement) He says so Himself:  "I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy to whom I will show mercy." (Exodus 33:19; Romans 9:13-18)  I have attempted within my understanding of the Scriptures to offer what is meant by the deadly penalty of blaspheming the Holy Spirit; see the attached below. 

Unpardonable Sin – Jesus’ Message on Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit

The matter raised in Luke’s Gospel and Mark’s Gospel concerning sin and blasphemy against the Holy Spirit illumines for us even more the great mystery of the Triune Godhead – a mystery that cannot in human terms be fully explained nor comprehended.

Before we look at that dynamic, let us get a definition of blasphemy: Merriam-Webster says that “blasphemy, in a religious sense, refers to great disrespect shown to God or to something holy, or to something said or done that shows this kind of disrespect; heresy refers a belief or opinion that does not agree with the official belief or opinion of a particular religion.” Vocabulary.com puts it this way: “If you're saying something bad about a god, or taking the Lord's name in vain [the opposite of the Lord’s prayer where we say “Hallowed be your name”] or, questioning a religious institution in any way, you could be accused of blasphemy — insulting something sacred.” Blasphemy also includes a total and continued disregard or rejection of something holy or sacred. Since the Godhead is 3 in 1, i.e., all are co-equal, co-eternal, co-existent, omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient, how can only one of the Godhead be insulted to the extent of unforgiveness?

I’ll be honest – I do not know. I cannot on my own provide any verifiable light through any speculation - I can only go by what I am finding in scripture, and in researching Biblical references and works that exposit on this matter to get as close as possible (still lightyears away I’m sure) to a way to understand this. The following is a very limited explanation; one day, as the Bible says, we will be able to see and understand more fully some of the spiritual mysteries that challenge us now. Yet, I suspect that even then there will not be full disclosure as God is beyond the comprehension of any creature!

We agree on humans’ inability to fully explain and comprehend the Trinity; we can only offer very weak examples to try to illustrate the complex revelation of the Godhead. Personally, I only have very weak and very limited examples, which most assuredly pale in comparison to our Triune God. I share what I’ve found thus far.

(1)Let’s say that a trade association has 3 senior vice presidents who are all co-equal in executive authority, who co-exist within the association structure with responsibilities equal in importance to ensure a well-run organization. But they each possess a specific role unique to them within the context of the organization’s mission. One of the SVPs has the oversight, authority and leadership role of being an intermediary between the company’s paying member companies so as to develop a coalescense with their companies’ goals, and to develop in thought and action the face and voice of the industry. Another SVP has the oversight, authority, and leadership of the company’s Human Resources division to ensure that the company is well- and dynamically staffed, that all employees carry out their duties, follow company guidelines and that the company is in compliance with DOL regulations, and work as a team to promote the industry’s goals. The other SVP has oversight, authority, and leadership of the company’s financial assets and standing, ensuring that budgets are properly met, that financial assets and liabilities are correctly accounted for under existing national accounting standards, that the company is financially solvent and profitable, with an excellent credit standing that ensures the association’s goals will be undergirded by the financial wealth required for continuation of the industry’s goals. Each executes their unique but equal-in-authority roles as a leadership team to ensure that the mission of the organization is fully realized.

(2)Another example I came across: a Christian man whose three main roles and identities are the “priest” or faith leader of his family, a husband, and a father. The man physically does not change with each identity or role; those roles are unified within him.

Again, the foregoing are very weak examples! Like negative 1 minus 1! And are more symbolic or metaphorical than solid, literal explanation!

As noted, the Triune Godhead – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, are co-equal, co-existent, and co-eternal. They operate as One in three personhoods. God the Father begot God the Son and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are consubstantial, each person of the Godhead being the One Eternal God and in no way separated. All alike are uncreated and omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are understood by and revealed to us primarily within the context of salvation and worship, as explained in Scripture. As the Godhead they are in agreement in all things; again, our best understanding of our Triune God of Love is within the context of God’s salvation plan. God the Father “orchestrates and creates the plan”, God the Son implements the plan, and God the Holy Spirit administers the plan. Who was it that “administered” the first advent of the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ? Who was in Him everyday during His humanity? Jesus further and succinctly describes the Holy Spirit’s role in the salvation plan in John 14-17 (see, for example, 14:16,26; 15:7-15,26-27; and 17:11-12,17-19). The Holy Spirit likewise God-breathed the words of the Father and Son to the epistle writers, who explain the salvation plan in depth. The Holy Spirit’s work includes convicting the world, that is, declaring the world to be wicked and sinful, deserving of God’s wrath, unable through any human effort to reconcile a relationship with a Holy God. He declares the need of a Savior-Redeemer. He indwells those believers who have been redeemed and saved through the implementation of the Son who shed His blood to cleanse them of the sin guilt and penalty. Ephesians, as in other letters, speaks to the salvation orchestration and implementation, and Romans, as well as the other epistles, speaks to the work of the Holy Spirit in believers. The Holy Spirit speaks and administers the Word of God in the lives of believers, God-breathing The Truth into each one continually as they feed on His Word, thus sanctifying each through transforming and regenerating the sin-laden hearts and souls of believers into the new life as children of God and heirs. (I have only pointed to two passages; you will find the salvation message and planall throughout the epistles.)

So here is what I think to be the crux of the matter as to the sin and blasphemy against the Holy Spirit: Rejecting the sacred work of the Holy Spirit, continuing in unbelief and defiant irreverence, resisting His work and refuting His conviction, denying His sentience and speaking of Him as being a created force of God – thus denying His personhood, discredits and blasphemes Him. Such persons who reject the directions, signs, warnings, the opportunities that He repeatedly makes available to enable persons to do that “U-turn” back to God the Father and God the Son, who are rejecting His calling for whatever reason, continue condemned and on the “broad road” that leads to the just punishment of eternal separation from God (Ephesians 2; Romans 5:1-9). “Continue condemned” because as Ephesians and Romans tells us plainly, all of the offspring of Adam were born dead spiritually, with the prognosis of permanent death – eternal darkness and separation from God, unless by God’s grace they believe and trust in Christ and thus escape the wrath of God, who imputes Christ’s righteousness into them, placing His Spirit within them.

There are some clerics who teach against the Holy Spirit, who claim that the whole world is going to be saved according to their narrow interpretation and twisting of scripture (see varying examples here and here). They also teach against the Holy Spirit through false doctrine, refuting or substituting the truth (see 2 Peter 3:15-17). There are those who say that since Jesus ascended into heaven and no longer is physically present to perform miracles, that it is not possible to blaspheme the Holy Spirit. Yet this Holy Person of the Godhead has already declared that such continued sin against Him equates to blasphemy, an unpardonable sin. 

 

…this is how I am understanding this matter at this time (April 2024) based on what I am gleaning from Scripture and hearing. I still have ????? and will continue to have them. But what I will not question is what the Holy Spirit has already stated clearly, speaking and testifying by and with the words of the Father and Son as He is charged to do.

Blessed Are The Merciful, For They Will Receive Mercy

 

 

Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. What is this mercy? It is critical for us to know what it is since Jesus desires us to have mercy (Matthew 9:13 (Jesus was quoting from Hosea 6:6)). It is forgiving one another (and yourself), i.e., not seeking retaliation for the harm done to you by another. It also refers to compassion we feel for others who are weak, poor, ill, anxious, and in other ways disadvantaged. Also would include the “outcasts” of society who, either through fault or no fault of their own are “disconnected” to the greater community. In some versions of the Bible, mercy is also translated as lovingkindness, an apt description. While the Bible is replete with examples of God’s mercy to the nation of Israel and surrounding nations, among others, our greatest example of mercy extended to others is that of God’s mercy in Christ, even though we cannot fully comprehend this mercy of God. The reason is because we cannot comprehend how God views sin: to Him, sin is abominable, He hates sin because of what it does to those He created in His image; He knows that in addition to separating us from Him, sin has the effects of destroying our bodies with each succeeding generation, making us weak and helpless against its ravages; He knows that sin always results in death. We are born with death already in us because of sin. We are sinners – no matter how “nice” we may seem. Even in the face of such inborn rejection, even though we are sinners, God still loves us so much as to send His own Son to live as a human and to become the only option for removing the penalty of sin. Jesus’ single sacrifice for all sin, the basis for restoration with God, is an undeserved mercy and forgiveness. God’s example lets us know that we, too, are responsible and accountable to God for the mercy we show or do not show to others. Do we forgive others who violate us or otherwise hurt us? Forgiveness is not easy, as our own inborn sin rebels against forgiving and forgiveness because we want to get even and make the offenders suffer. We sometimes even feel that foregiveness of one's sins against us leaves us damaged and scarred, vulnerable and humiliated. Actually, not forgiving does more harm to us; the bitterness against that person can produce murderous thoughts - ask me how I know - and can bring a stress that wears on your body and emotions. Our bitterness makes us vulnerable to more bitterness because we a duped into thinking that our bitterness is control over our circumstances. Bitterness exacerbates the wound inflicted upon us so that it scars us emotionally; the more we feed into it, the deeper and wider the scar becomes; the scar cannot heal over because the bitterness continues to ooze into it. We are duped to think that being a person who forgives is humiliating - that it weakens our stance before others. If and when we understand that forgiveness means to surrender our desire to get even and make payback happen, we begin to understand the power of God that enables us to forgive. That God will gladly make His Spirit abound in us so that we will have the forward-facing will and desire to forgive. Our forgiveness takes us out of bitterness' imprisonment, frees us to thrive knowing that our Heavenly Father will even more freely forgive us for our messing up. 

Mercy is a high bar; the opposite of mercy is unforgiveness and wrath. We cannot receive mercy if we choose not to forgive. Jesus actually commands us to be merciful as recorded in Luke 6:35-36, that we may look like children of our Heavenly Father. God is so willing to pour out mercies on us; in fact, His mercies to us are fresh each morning! (Lamentations 3:22-23) Because Jesus is Light, He tells us that we must be light also. We show this light when we are merciful to others. (John 8:12; Matthew 5:14; Ephesians 5:8

Explore

1.  Can you name a mercy that God has recently extended to you? How did it make you feel?

2.  Can you remember a time when it was very difficult to extend mercy to a particular person or persons? What made it difficult for you?

3.  Given all you have read about mercy and the One who extends it, what do you think it means to “walk in the light”?


Bonus: "Mercy" - Elevation Worship and Maverick City