Is There A Sin God Will Not Forgive?

Sermon.964

“Is There A Sin God Will Not Forgive?”

From the pulpit of Bayview Baptist Church.

Matthew 12:31,32

One of the most difficult truths to come to grips with is that God’s Amazing Grace is big enough to extend to every single person.

The Bible teaches that all who receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior in true repentance will have their sins forgiven.

Jesus came to our earth to bring forgiveness.

We deserve God’s wrath in His justice, but He gives us mercy bathed in grace.

Through His death burial and resurrection, Jesus has made it possible for all who place their trust in Him to experience free and full forgiveness, no matter who they are, no matter what they have done.

That’s the great news of the Gospel we proclaim and teach week after week at Bayview Baptist Church.

That’s why our text in Matthew chapter 12 seems so strange.

Listen to the words of Jesus in Matthew 12:31,32.

Matthew 12:31,32

Wow!

Every sin will be forgiven, except the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, that will not be forgiven.

This is often called the unforgivable or unpardonable sin!

Many people may try to ignore these verses because we know that the Bible teaches us that God will forgive our sins through the saving blood and atonement of Christ.

So, we try not to think about what seems like a glitch in scripture.

It’s very important for us to understand what Jesus means when he says blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is the unforgivable sin; so our goal is to avoid any misunderstandings these verses may cause.

Let’s pause and pray that God would give us understanding as we look at this very difficult, but important text.

You may want to tighten your thinking caps as we look closely at this very complex text.

I couldn’t come up with any jokes that go along with the unforgivable sin, for this is serious business.

So let’s read Jesus’ words again and dive right into the text.

Matthew 12:31,32

The word “blasphemy” is described in the Thorndike dictionary as “abuse of or contempt for God or sacred things.”

The Jews of Jesus’ day believed that blasphemy against God was a sin which deserved death.

I think that an important question is in order here.

Why would blasphemy against Jesus be forgivable, but blasphemy against the Holy Spirit be unforgivable?

If anything, it would seem that it should be the other way around.

And how can there be an unforgivable sin, when both the Old Testament and the New Testament places a great emphasis upon God’s Amazing Grace and His forgiveness?

One explanation is that blasphemy against Jesus is rejection of Jesus by nonbelievers, but blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is always committed by a Christian.

In other words, when a person becomes a Christian, any sin he or she has committed in the past is forgiven.

But if a Christian chooses to turn against the Christian faith, there can be no forgiveness.

I would choose not to hold to this view, since in this text, Jesus is warning the Pharisees, who were the Jewish religious leaders.

The Pharisees were clearly not Christian believers, so to say that the unforgivable sin is something that only a Christian can commit is really twisting and misusing the words of Jesus.

A second view says that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is attributing miracles the Holy Spirit has done to Satan.

This view ignores the fact that Jesus teaches in Matthew 7:21-23 that miracles do not necessarily reveal the Holy Spirit’s presence and power.

There can, and are, miracles where the Spirit of God is not present.

The Bible says, for many will drive out demons and perform many miracles in the name of the Lord, but never know the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal savior.

A third view is that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is rejecting Christ as Savior.

This answer almost hits the nail on the head, but not quiet!

So, what is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit?

I think that deep inside, the Pharisees knew that Jesus was the Messiah, but they refused to admit it.

So, my definition of the unforgivable sin is that it’s a deliberate rejection of Christianity when you know that Christianity is true!

It is exactly what the Bible says.

Blasphemy is "speaking against the Holy Spirit."

Jesus is talking about those people who reject the Gospel when they know in their hearts that the Gospel is true.

The Apostle Paul is a crystal clear example of someone who had heard the Gospel, but refused to believe the truth about the Gospel, then completely changed his way of thinking.

He came very close to committing the unforgivable sin, but he did not commit it because he repented of his crimes against God and embraced Jesus as his Lord and Savior.