An unforgivable sin?

Introduction

Good morning. I brought a glass of water. It’s not great for me to just grab the communion to refresh during the sermon. The unforgivable sin, that’s the, there in the passage, you see that there, there is a sin that if you commit it, it can never be forgiven. I don’t know if you’ve thought much about that. I don’t know if that was in your last evangelism presentation. You go meet someone on the street, you say, “Jesus can forgive any sin, but just one. Make sure you don’t make that one. Don’t make that mistake, or you are in big trouble.” That’s the way the passage reads, right?

Listen to it again. It’s the end of the passage we read, verse 28. “I tell you the truth, all sin and blasphemy can be forgiven.” That’s the good news about Jesus. He can, there is no sin too great that Jesus can’t forgive it. But he doesn’t stop there, does he? He says, “But anyone who blasphemes the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven. This is a sin with eternal consequences.” This is where we are this morning. We’re going to spend some time asking that question. It sounds like this is the danger of this passage. It sounds like we kind of have this moment of fear, like we’re going to accidentally do the wrong thing without even realizing it. We’re going to stumble, make some mistake, and suddenly we are in handcuffs and we didn’t have the key. No one has the key. The key has been thrown away. That’s the fear.

The idea of the handcuffs that are like the zip ties. Paul tells me you only get the zip tie handcuffs if your hands and wrists are too big, so I think it’s a compliment if you get the zip tie version. But that idea of something that straps on and has no key, you can’t get rid of it. You understand the idea of a zip tie? I brought one here. The idea is they’re one use thing. You zip them on and they can’t be undone. I have a friend who one day got one of these and he put it through his eyebrow ring and down to his earring. Do you guys remember that? And then he started tightening it, and then he turned around and said, “How do you take this off?” Of course, I saw his distress and I ran immediately to laugh my head off at him. They are designed not to come off. You cut them off. That’s the fear we have when we meet this passage, that we’re going to accidentally tighten the zip tie and have no idea how to get it undone and we’re stuck, we’re doomed forever.

So we’re going to spend a bit of time on this passage understanding what is this unforgivable sin that Jesus is talking about. I’ll do that as usual. The best way to find the answer to this is to drill in deeper to the passage, see what’s going on, understand what he’s talking about, and then we’ll get a better understanding of this passage.

Two Responses to Jesus

The Momentum is Building

We’re going to look at two responses to Jesus, two illustrations that Jesus gives us, and two additional clues that we get in this passage. Two responses to Jesus. We’ve been talking about this question, who is this man, the Christos, the Christ, as we go through the Book of Mark. There’s a ground swell of a momentum of movement. People are coming and following him, and the same is true in this story. Listen to the way the momentum’s building. “One time Jesus entered a house and the crowds began to gather again. Soon he and his disciples couldn’t even find time to eat.” That’s the momentum is grabbing, building. It’s busy. There’s people crowding in so much so that they can’t find time to eat. “When his family heard what was happening, they tried to take him away.”

Then we get this response from his family. We’re told, “He’s out of his mind.” They said, “He…” We don’t really know the full extent of what they’re talking about there. Is he out of his mind because he’s not eating and he’s so busy, or is he out of his mind because he’s telling everyone that he’s the Christ, he’s the Savior? It’s hard to know what his family exactly is reacting to. What’s clear is they’re questioning Jesus.

The Unforgivable Sin is Not Questioning Jesus

Now, the first thing we say about the unforgivable sin is it’s not questioning Jesus. The unforgivable sin is not questioning Jesus because there’s two groups of people that respond in this passage. One is the family who questions Jesus, and one is the religious leaders who say he’s possessed by Satan. Only one of those two does he rebuke with this unforgivable sin, so it can’t be. The unforgivable sin is not questioning Jesus. It’s not doubting who Jesus is because the disciple Andrew did that when he first heard about Jesus, and he said, “Jesus of Nazareth, can anything good come from Nazareth?” He questions Jesus, and yet he clearly receives forgiveness because he’s invited to be one of Jesus’ disciples.

It can’t be lacking trust in Jesus because Peter, the disciple, jumps out overboard when he sees Jesus walking on water, immediately lacks trust in him and sinks into the water. He receives redemption and Jesus pulls him back up, so it can’t be lacking trust in Jesus. It can’t be not standing up for Jesus because Peter does that when Jesus is arrested. He says three times, “I don’t know him.” So it can’t be standing up for Jesus because Jesus instigates Peter as the leader of the church after that, so he clearly receives forgiveness for that. It can’t be doubting the resurrection because Thomas did that. He said, “Unless I see the hand holes in his hands or touch his side, I’ll never believe.” He becomes a leader in the early church, so it can’t be doubting the resurrection. It can’t be opposing Jesus even aggressively. The Apostle Paul did that where he was even having Christians killed under his authority. That’s how strongly he was opposing Jesus, and yet God reveals himself to him and redeems him and brings him back, so that can’t be the unforgivable sin.

The unforgivable sin is not questioning Jesus. That’s not what’s going on here. Just to be clear, all those things are sins. All those things are rebellion against God, but all of them, if we come and put our trust in Jesus, can be forgiven. None of them are unforgivable. So it’s not that it’s not questioning Jesus, it is to some extent rejecting the work of God to some extent. Stay with me for a moment, but that’s what we see the religious leaders doing. We get, so we get two responses, the family and the religious leaders.

Two Illustrations About Rejecting the Work of God

Jumping to False Conclusions

Now we get two illustrations about rejecting the work of God. One of them, one of the first one is jumping to false conclusions. They say Satan is at work here, and Jesus says, “Well, that makes no sense. That’s just a nonsensical conclusion to make.” In this moment, Jesus casts out a demon, and they say it’s by the power of Satan that he’s casting out demons. Jesus says, “Just think about what you’re saying. That doesn’t make sense.” He gives us the illustration, “A kingdom divided will fall. A family who feuds with each other will collapse.” He says, “Why would that happen? Why would Satan be driving out his own demons or driving out himself even?” So his first illustration is it makes no sense that this is Satan at work.

This Must Be God at Work

The second illustration says this must be God at work, and he gives us the illustration of a thief robbing a house. Years ago, when I was a kid, we had a thief rob our house. The whole family was out in the backyard and a man just walked into our front door. It was open and he just walked on in. The problem was not all of us was outside. My sister was inside as a teenager playing with some toys, and the man, when he immediately saw her, suddenly came up with this story. He said, “Oh, I’ve been employed to clean the house,” and he picked up a broom and he started sweeping the floor. My sister, of course, came out to my parents and said, “Did you employ someone to clean the house? There’s a man in our house cleaning it right now.” As my dad confronted him on the balcony on his way out of the house, he jumped the balcony and he ran off. That is the opposite to what is happening here.

First of all, what’s happening in this story is not a thief thieving the house, it’s a rescuer plundering the house. You imagine a house that is full of wealth and slaves and it’s owned by a bad man. We’re given the words “a strong man.” That’s a negative term to talk about the owner of this house. Someone is coming into this house where this strong man is and they are rescuing, they are saving the slaves that are caught there. They’re taking away the wealth as spoils of victory. That’s the picture we get there. That’s what we’re seeing. The picture is you imagine you see that, you have this fortress, this house. There’s a bad guy that lives there. He’s powerful, he’s mighty. You see a soldier run into that house and there for a little while and then runs out with a whole bunch of freed slaves and spoils. What’s your conclusion there? Your conclusion is if the strong man was in the house, your conclusion is that he defeated that strong man or at least tied him up or subdued him in some way, right? If he walks out of the house sweeping the floor, it means he was a little threatened by the strong man. My sister is the strong man in that scenario, and as her little brother, there’s times where that felt true, but I don’t know if that’s flattering to her calling her the strong man.

If he comes out with the spoils and the slaves, he’s been victorious. That’s your conclusion. That’s the illustration Jesus is drawing here. He’s saying something amazing is happening here and there’s an obvious conclusion. The obvious conclusion is God is at work. This is not Satan at work because there’s freedom happening. What’s happening for these religious leaders is not only can they not see God at work, they see people being freed, and instead of turning that to joy and celebration, they can’t see the victory that is happening there. They reject God’s victory. What’s even worse is they attribute that incredible victory and salvation to Satan. They give Satan the credit for God’s good work. That’s how hard their hearts are in this moment. They are rejecting the obvious conclusion.

Two Clues About the Unforgivable Sin

An Eternal Sin

The unforgivable sin is in one sense a rejection. It’s not questioning, but it is in one sense the rejecting of the obvious work of God. But there’s more to it than that because it’s not a one-off rejection that is happening. This is not a moment where they had an evil thought pop into their head and go, “Oh, I wonder if this guy actually is Jesus who he says he is.” That’s not what’s happening here. There’s a perpetual ongoing rejection that they have. There’s two clues we get in the passage. The first one is we’re giving the words “an eternal sin.” If you’re following along in the passage, you’ll see Mark 3 verse 29. This is a sin with eternal consequences. It says, as usual, the New Living Translation is doing some of the theological work in translating that passage for us and it gives us a completely true statement that these are, this is a sin with eternal consequences. It’s possible there’s more understanding happening in that verse that is a bit clearer in the NIV and the ESV that is it is translated as this is an eternal sin. The original ancient Greek is just two words, “eternal sin.” Those are the words there. So it’s definitely true to say this is a sin of eternal consequences, but it seems like there’s also a process of ongoing here. So the first clue we get that this is an ongoing perpetual problem is that it is an eternal sin, a sin connected to eternity.

A Perpetual Rejection

The second one is that it’s a perpetual rejection that these religious leaders are going through. Look at verse 30 with me. This is the summary verse of what has happened. So he has said there is a sin that’s unforgivable, and the very next verse he explained to us, “He told them this because they were saying he’s possessed by an evil spirit.” Just notice there, it doesn’t say because they said, it says because they were saying. This is an ongoing thing. It’s not something the family and friends receive a rebuke for this. It’s a rebuke of the religious leaders because of this perpetual nature of what’s happening. Let me illustrate it further, argue it further. You can see that clearly in the English. Let me just have a nerdy Greek moment with you for a second. One of the things about Greek is that the tenses of verbs are hidden inside the verb itself, so in English we have that. We have I wrote and I write, past tense, present tense. We often have to add words to kind of do I will write, future tense. So we have past, present, and future. In Greek there’s another layer and that is the continuation of a word. We do it with “ing” often in English. So we say I was writing, I am writing, I will be writing. We add an “ing.” That’s how it worked. In Greek it’s really clear the tense that is happening here, not just past, present, future, but actually the continuation that is going on. What we see very clearly in this passage is that they were saying. We see it in the English. It’s even stronger in the Greek. There is a really clear ongoing nature to what is being said here. This is a perpetual ongoing willful rejection that’s happening.

The unforgivable, it’s not questioning, it is rejecting to some extent, but it’s more than that. It’s a perpetual ongoing rejection. Let me give you one more clue to it, and we’re going to jump into another book of the Bible to do this. I want you to turn with me to Luke 12. If you’ve got your Bible, your Bible apps, we’re going to go to Luke 12. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all tell a similar story about Jesus. Luke is the next book after Mark. Luke chapter 12, all three gospels except for John list something very similar that happens here. Luke gives us a slightly different version. Luke 12, you’ll see it down there, starting around verse 8, but we’re going to jump straight to the end of it. Actually, right in the middle, verse 10 is what he says, similar phrase. “Anyone who speaks against the son of man,” talking about himself, “can be forgiven.” In Mark he said all sin and blasphemes can be forgiven. Here he says every, sorry, I lost the verse, “Anyone who speaks against the son of man can be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.” It drills into quite a confusing thing. What is this saying? It says you can question God, Jesus, but you can’t question the Holy Spirit. It uses even that word blaspheme.

We often use the word blaspheme about using the Lord’s name in vain, saying saying OMG or something like that is often how we think about blaspheming. Is this saying you can, you’re allowed to say, “Oh my Jesus,” but not, “Oh my Holy Spirit?” Is that what it’s saying? I think not. That’s not a fair translation of it. In some ways it’s scarier if you take the idea that if you take the idea that blaspheming is more than just saying using God’s name in vain, it’s disrespecting God in any way, which is quite a huge thing. What’s happening here is it seems like Jesus saying it’s one thing to question who Jesus is. If that was the unforgivable sin, we are in big trouble because our series is called “Who is this man, the Christos?” We would all be in big trouble if that’s the unforgivable sin. It sounds like Jesus saying, “Well, that’s okay to do that exploration.” In fact, there’s a vast invitation to do that exploring, but when it comes to the Holy Spirit, there’s a challenge here that this is not something we’re just processing externally, but this is something that is happening internally, that this is a willful direct willful rejection of God’s spirit in our spirit. You see what’s happening there? This is the deepest core of our identity is rejecting the work of God. In fact, it’s not just rejecting any work of God, it’s rejecting the work of God in us. That is what is being spoken about here.

Have You Committed the Unforgivable Sin?

What is the unforgivable sin? It’s a willful rejection that is when someone has observed the good news about Jesus and rejected him. It’s a perpetual rejection. That’s tricky. What does a perpetual rejection mean? I think the only way we can truly understand a perpetual rejection is that it is consistently for the expanse of our life. That actually means as humans we can never draw that conclusion about anyone. It’s only Jesus that’s able to say it about these religious leaders because we know how hard their hearts are. Their hearts are so hard that they will move this, escalate this right to the point of having him killed. That’s how hard their hearts are. Only Jesus can really say this is a perpetual problem for them that will never end. It’s willful and it’s a perpetual rejection of God’s spirit within your spirit. That is what’s happening here. That is the unforgivable.

Let’s ask this question, have you committed the unforgivable sin? Because I think that’s still where we land, just this fear. What if I did that? What if I pulled tight that zip tie and I can’t get it undone? I recently bought a new belt and it works like a zip tie. I’ll keep my pants on, but it has this tightening up the zip tie belt. I got it and I hadn’t seen it before. I ordered it online. I put it on, I did it up, and I was like, “It’s quite good. You can set it to anything.” So I pulled my pants up and I pulled it quite tight, and then it suddenly crossed my mind before I put it on, I didn’t consider how you take it off. I just hadn’t examined what the release switch was. If I said to you 20 minutes it took me to figure out how to take my belt off. There were some moments of claustrophobia. I was wise enough to know not to pull any harder. I was not like my friend with a zip tie. I knew what was going on, but I just could not find that release switch. It’s a bit awkward and difficult to examine your waist to find a hidden switch while wearing a tight belt.

I think the fear is when we come to this passage, we’re fearful that we’ve done that, that at some point in questioning God, at some point we’ve kind of hardened our hearts to him and maybe we didn’t even realize it, and now we want to be united to Jesus, but it’s too late. We’ve pulled tight the zip tie and we can’t get out. We’ve got the handcuffs on and we don’t have the key. Here’s the answer, have you done that? The answer is if you’re concerned about it, then you haven’t. It’s as simple as that because if you’re concerned about it, your heart cannot be so hard that it can’t find Jesus. If you’re concerned about it, then you are still doing some level of exploring. Certainly if you are wanting to come to Jesus and you’re concerned about it, then you haven’t committed it. So that’s the first thing, if you’re worried about it, then you haven’t. If you’re not worried about it, maybe you have. Of course, if me saying that makes you worry about it, you just fell in the first category and you’re good again. Here’s the reality, sin is serious and there is eternal consequences for it, but there is also an invitation in Jesus.

The other question is, has someone you know committed it? Someone that you feel like you see that hard heart, a friend or a family member, have they committed this? I think the answer to that is humanly speaking we can’t draw that conclusion, that we can never know the true nature and hardness of someone’s heart. We cannot know whether it’s a perpetual thing that’s ongoing for them or whether God will reveal himself to them at some point later on. So that question of whether someone else has committed it, our answer for that simply is to pray for them. We have no other answer but that, pray for them and in most loving generous ways we can share Jesus with them. It is one of the things that I think when we think about the Alpha course, there are some that come to the Alpha course and still don’t want to follow Jesus. One of the wonderful things about it is the openness to just have a conversation, just that invitation to explore, to think about. It’s not a format where we are trying to make sure we win the argument at the end of the night. The format is a presentation about what we believe and then an opportunity for conversation where someone can say whatever they want and it might be questioned, it might be discussed, but it’s for people to draw their own conclusions from that. So we seek to share Jesus as generously, as graciously, as lovingly as we can to anyone in our lives. This is what it is for us, that there is an invitation for people to come and follow Jesus.

The Goodness of Jesus

I want to transition a little as we think about that because we’re going to have communion together. I want to transition a little as we think about what it is Jesus has done for us. I want to bring you back to where this started, the first verse we read. “I tell you the truth,” Jesus said, “all sin and blasphemy can be forgiven.” It’s easy for us to kind of forget that was where it started because we get bogged down in the rest of the stuff. We get distracted by the fact that, “Oh, what is this unforgivable sin?” But the message here is all sin and blasphemy can be forgiven. That’s the promise of Jesus and it is only those that have hardened their heart so much to that that they won’t be able to receive that, but anyone who turns to him. Once again, it’s a reminder of the goodness of Jesus and we can find rest in him.