A forgiveness question that comes up often is whether or not there is an unforgiveable sin. Ed Welch answers the question thoroughly and responsibly in this article.
The Unpardonable Sin
by Ed Welch
With all the attention being given to addictions and lusts, the scrupulous among us can feel neglected. But, just as there is an addict within us all, so is there a legalist who feels guilty and never able to measure up. Here is something for the legalist within.
Pound-for-pound, the passage on the unpardonable sin can deliver the most guilt in all Scripture.
Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come. (Matthew12:32)
That’s enough to catch the attention of both the libertine and the scrupulous. I wonder how many of us prefer to skip over this one. Like Kennedy’s assassination or 9/11, we can remember the day we first encountered this troubling passage. Most of us were able to move on and focus on other more conscience-soothing Scripture. But there remains a question every time we encounter Matthew 12-"Is it I?"
For others, this passage has become sticky, perhaps haunting. "Is it I?" is no longer a question but a confession, "It is I." If there is any doubt, merely reading the passage can invite a fleeting thought that says something nasty about the Holy Spirit. There it is: if you didn’t do the unpardonable sin before, you just did it now. Sure, you didn’t mean it – or did you? It seems a bit more like a common response to, "Don’t think about pink elephants." The elephant magically appears. Either way, the blasphemous thought emerged and you feel doomed.
The list of those haunted by this fear is a long one.
The popular consolation offered by well-meaning friends is well-known: if you think you committed the unpardonable sin and feel miserable about it, you didn’t. Since you feel bad about it, you are not guilty of it, so don’t worry. Only those who couldn’t care less about it are the potentially guilty. That response actually makes good sense in the larger context of the passage. The problem is that it is effective for those who are only temporarily tripped up by it and probably would have moved on anyway. For those who are deeply troubled, the advice at least needs more substance.
So what do we do with this rogue passage? Here is some background.
Read the rest here.
HT: JT
