THE ONLY UNFORGIVABLE/UNPARDONABLE SIN

Thursday 17 October

For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Matthew 6:14-15 (NKJV)

Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come. Matthew 12:32 (NKJV)

Have you ever seen these scriptures before? There has been a lot preached on this over the years and I feel like it’s time to set the record straight. Hosea 4:6a says ‘My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge’. In Hosea’s day God’s people was Israel, in our day God’s people is the church.

Let’s start with Matthew 6:14-15 with what is known as the ‘unforgivable sin.’ As always, we need to know which testament we are dealing with and in this case it is the gospels which are mostly set in Old Testament. Jesus was operating within the boundaries of the Old Testament, before the cross.

After Jesus paid for all sin including unforgiveness, this ceased the be true. To believe so would be to think that our unforgiveness of others could be higher than God’s forgiveness of us which is undeniably false. I’m not advocating unforgiveness, but you will never go to hell for having it.

What about ‘speaking against the Holy Spirit? The ‘unpardonable sin.’ In Matthew 12:32 there is an indication that there are certain things we can say to forfeit our salvation. Blaspheming the Holy Spirit is another example. Does this make sense to you as a Christian who is saved by speaking words?

If we commit these misdemeanours knowing or unknowingly, somehow we won’t be forgiven now or in the next life. Sounds harsh. Before we go any further it pays to note the dispensation it was written in; The Old Testament. Question: are we in the Old Testament? What do you think?

So what is the only sin that cannot be forgiven or pardoned? to understand this we need to look at two classifications of sin. The sin of commission and the sin of omission. Commission refers to what you have committed or done. Omission refers to what you have omitted or haven’t done.

Please hear me. There is no sin you can ever wilfully commit that is bad enough for you to miss heaven. There is however one sin that will. And that is the sin of not accepting Jesus Christ and His free gift of salvation.

This is why the Holy Spirit came to convict i.e. convince us to receive salvation.

‘And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.’ John 16:8-11 (NKJV)

Let me assure you. If you are in Christ, there is no such thing as an unforgivable or unpardonable sin. Period. If you are separated from God by sin, accept His salvation today while the grace for forgiveness and pardon exists.

APPLICATION

Live in the complete knowledge of His unchanging love for you and learn to rightly divide the word of truth for yourself, so you won’t be ‘tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine’.