Is Anything Unforgiveable?
Read Mark 3:20-30
“Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin.” –Mark 3:28-29
Unforgivable. Sit with that word for a moment today. It’s a harsh, ugly word, one that slams the door shut on any possible redemption. Whatever else someone may do with their lives, their sin will follow them after; it will cancel out any good they do. What they did was unforgivable.
It is not hard to think of offenses that might, indeed, be unforgivable. The taking of a life. The abuse of a child. The rape of an innocent. The enslavement of the vulnerable. There are, sadly, people in our world who traffic in such evil, who indeed profit from the suffering of others. Surely their sins are unforgivable.
There are many smaller offenses that we struggle to forgive as well. Family members who have hurt us. Friends who have betrayed or disappointed us. Bosses or critics who destroyed our self-confidence. Words we cannot forget of move past. They feel unforgivable.
Jesus had only one thing that he considered unforgivable—blaspheming the Holy Spirit. But of course, that prompts the question—what does that mean? It is helpful to consider this statement in its context. From the moment that Jesus appeared on the scene, the religious leaders of Israel aligned themselves against him. They criticized him for associating with “sinners.” They questioned his choice of disciples. They cried foul when he “broke” the Sabbath. But in this story, they took it to a new level.
The teachers of the law traveled all the way from Jerusalem to the towns where Jesus was ministering to the sick. There, they began to spread rumors: He is possessed by an evil spirit. This is how he can drive out demons—he is himself possessed by Beelzebub, the prince of darkness! Consider: the teachers of the law, who should have rejoiced at the appearance of the long-awaited Messiah, instead slandered him and turned the people against him.
This is what Jesus apparently called “blaspheming” the Spirit. He was not angry that they spoke evil against him. (In Matthew’s version of this story, Jesus says, “Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.”) They are blaspheming the Spirit, because it is through the Spirit that Jesus is bringing healing to people’s lives. They are taking a work of God’s Spirit and calling it a work of the devil.
But let’s go one step further. The Bible tells us that the Spirit is the One who leads us to truth, who convicts us of sin, and who reveals Jesus as God’s Son. In a devotion last week, we talked about the “hardness” of the Pharisees’ hearts, that they had become unable to listen and respond to the revelation of God. This is what makes “blaspheming the Spirit” unforgiveable, because it sets against the One who leads us into repentance:
The reason these scribes are dangerously close to being guilty of “eternal sin” is because they are evidencing such a settled hardness of heart. They will “never have forgiveness” because they will never meet the simple, invaluable, softhearted condition for it: repentance. [Source: What Is the Unforgivable Sin]
As Christians, we do not have to fear the “unforgivable” sin. It’s not a single moment that God cannot forgive. It’s the hardening of our hearts that makes us opposed to his grace, so that we can no longer receive what is freely offered through Jesus. Indeed, just consider how amazing Jesus’ statement really is. We tend to put the focus on the latter half of the saying (the “unforgivable” sin), but let the first half of his teaching sink in: Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven ALL their sin and EVERY slander they utter. All those sins we struggle to forgive? God can forgive them all, provided we turn to him in genuine repentance.
Bryan Stevenson, the American lawyer and activist who has worked with many people on death row, says: "Each of us is more than the worst thing we've ever done." So what offenses do you struggle to forgive others? What are the mistakes for which you struggle to receive grace yourself? Ask the Spirit to help you receive and offer forgiveness. God is eager to give us this fresh start! It’s only when we resist God’s grace and harden our hearts that we are in danger of missing out.
Help me, O God, to take this word—unforgivable—out of my vocabulary. Give me a soft heart toward those I have previously considered beyond redemption. Remind me that no one—including myself—is beyond Your ability to redeem and make whole. Amen.