In the books of Matthew, Mark and Luke we find the following verses:
“Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men." - Matthew 12:31
"...but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is subject to eternal condemnation”— Mark 3:29
“And anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but to him who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven." - Luke 12:10
God is a God of mercy, He is love, He forgives... yet, when we read the Bible we notice that there happens to be one Sin that is 'unforgivable'. How do we find harmony between the verses above to verses like this one:
"My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." - 1 John 2:1
Thoughts? Let's talk about this today...
Either God is a forgiving God or God is a partially forgiving God, which one is it? Can God truly forgive all sins except the one? Biblical evidence does not support the latter as we'll come to see. As I have expressed many times before, when we read the Bible we NEED to take into consideration the context under which the verses are found in. Sometimes the context extends beyond the chapter, or even book, and sometimes (as it is the case this time) the context can be found in the immediate verses before or after. When we read the preceding verses to the verses in question, in all 3 instances we see different versions of the same story:
"...and the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, 'He has Beelzebub,' and, 'By the ruler of the demons He casts out demons.' So He called them to Himself and said to them in parables: 'How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself, and is divided, he cannot stand, but has an end. No one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. And then he will plunder his house." - Mark 3:22-27
The scribes, the pharisees, the religious leaders of Jerusalem at the time had the Scriptures, had access to the what back then were scrolls but we now know them as "the Bible", witnessed Jesus' baptism, witnessed the healing, the forgiving, the mercy, the love... even with all evidences on hand, the completely refused to believe and accept Jesus as the Son of God. They blocked themselves from the inner voice of the Holy Spirit, they were determined to at all costs, reject the truth.
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, one of the definitions of blasphemy is: "the act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence for God". These religious leaders were doing just this to Jesus. They were insulting Him, in this example we read they were even calling Jesus to be a worker of Satan. Now I ask you, is rejecting Jesus, God or the Holy Spirit truly unpardonable? Let's read a verse for when Jesus was already crucified living His last moments:
"Then Jesus said, 'Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.'" - Luke 23:34
In the Bible we find all sorts of sins and atrocities being forgiven, evidence does not suggest that there is any unpardonable sin. Even Peter the disciple denied Jesus with curses and He was forgiven. Here's the thing, the "unpardonable sin" is not unpardonable because God will hold a grudge against the person and decide not to forgive, it is unpardonable because a person consciously decides to cut him or herself from God and His Spirit's voice and block any attempt at God reaching out. Given this, God cannot forgive a person who doesn't acknowledge that needs forgiveness or, worse, doesn't want anything to do with Him. Do you see it?
In world of darkness, choose to be the light God created you to be my friend. Choose to do good. Choose to recognize your faults, confess them to God and know that He forgives you.
Questions, comments, follow-ups? Please feel free to reach out! Until next one,
Comments