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The “unforgivable sin” is a topic that worries some people. Have you committed it?
What Is the Unforgivable Sin?
The unforgivable sin is dying apart from saving faith in Jesus Christ. 1 John puts it this way.
1 John 5:12-13 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life. I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life.
The only condition upon which we are granted access into God’s presence is by believing upon the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 10:9). The only condition upon which we are excluded access is by rejecting Christ.
The Unpardonable Sin
But there is more. Jesus speaks of an “unpardonable sin” in Matthew 12.
Matthew 12:31-32 So I tell you, every sin and blasphemy can be forgiven—except blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, which will never be forgiven. Anyone who speaks against the Son of Man can be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven, either in this world or in the world to come.
“Blasphemy” in general refers to irreverent speech, but in the Greek, it has the special meaning of “slander.” The nuance of the word is “false attribution” – to bear false witness, to smear someone’s reputation and either take away truth from them or attribute lies to them.
In the context of Matthew 12, the people of Israel witness the leaders of Israel reject the claim that Jesus is the Messiah. This was after he had cast out a demon! They attributed the works of God to the devil. Jesus’s response is that their rejection of the testimony of his miracles evidences that they have rejected who he is as Messiah. In Matthew 12, that rejection happens to manifest as a rejection of Jesus’s miracles and by attributing those miracles to the devil instead of to God the Holy Spirit. These Israelite leaders were so hard-hearted that they rejected the clear, obvious implications of Jesus’s miracles and said he was doing those things using demonic power. But Jesus said that his miracles proved he was from God.
John 14:11 Just believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Or at least believe because of the work you have seen me do.
Like many Jewish people, Jewish leaders, and even the Apostle Paul (formerly Saul the persecutor of Christians) would later be forgiven for blaspheming Jesus, these leaders could have been forgiven had they humbled themselves and contended honestly with the truth that stood before them. The blasphemy Jesus speaks of in Matthew 12 refers to a heart condition of people who reject Jesus Christ with clear evidence that they should believe in him. In this instance, that rejection happened to manifest as blaspheming the work of the Holy Spirit. For these leaders, this rejection represented the unpardonable, calloused, irredeemable nature of their disbelief. And Jesus knew that some of them would never believe in him – even when he raised from the dead.
The Heart of the Matter
If you believe in Jesus Christ, you have not committed the unpardonable sin – even if you’ve stubbed your toe and shouted the Lord’s name in vain. Many people still living who have not yet put their faith in Christ have not committed this sin. This sin can only be committed by someone who dies apart from faith in Christ. If this is something you’ve ever worried over as a Christian, worry no longer. The fact that it concerns you proves you haven’t committed it.
- What is your initial reaction to this topic? What jumped out at you?
- Have you ever been worried, or have you ever known someone who has been worried, about committing the unforgivable/unpardonable sin? Explain.
- Before going through this topic, what was your understanding of the unforgivable sin?
- Do you think any of us have the right to decide if another person is guilty of this unpardonable sin? Why or why not?
- Explain the uniqueness of Matthew 12’s context and how it should affect our interpretation of Jesus’s statement against those particular Jewish leaders.
- What are some ways today in which we falsely attribute untrue things to God? What are some ways we take away truth about God that we should treasure? Explain.
- In Acts 26:26, the Apostle Paul says that the events surrounding Jesus – including his teachings and miracles – were public knowledge. What does this mean, then, about the people of Jesus’s day who refused to believe in him?
- Write a personal action step based on this conversation.
