The unforgiveable sin

 

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.  Then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb sing.  For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.  --Isaiah 35:5-6

 This morning I was scrolling through social media, and came upon a reel from one of my favorite authors, Chad Bird.  Here is a transcript of Bird's commentary on Mark 3 and the unforgiveable sin:

The sin against the Holy Spirit or the unforgiveable sin.  What is it?  Well, we read about it today in Bible in One Year, in Mark chapter three.  Matthew 12 and Luke 12 also discuss this.  Now, in brief, what's going on?  Well, never neglect the context here, because that is very, very important to understand what this sin is.  Jesus has cast out a demon.  The Pharisees attribute this work of Jesus to the devil.  They have thereby "Satanized" the work of Jesus.  And that gets to the very heart of what this unforgiveable sin is.  It's not just a general sin.  It's not just unbelief.  It's not even just a blasphemous thought or word that's spoken. It's certainly not a big sin, like murder or adultery.  This a very context-specific sin.  It is to "Satanize" the work of Jesus and the Holy Spirit.  And to do this vocally, it's not something which is merely thought.  The Pharisees said these words.  They knew what they were doing.  It's not something which is done in ignorance.  They did it quite purposely.  It's not an accidental kind of thing.  So to vocally, with knowledge and with purpose, to "Satanize" the work of Jesus, that is what the sin against the Holy Spirit or the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is.  This, then, leads to a permanent hardening of the heart against God.  And that's important because it means that a person who's committed this is never going to be worried about committing it.  So if you're worried about committing the sin against the Holy Spirit you haven't.  Because those who have committed this would mock repentance, would mock God.  They have forever hardened their heart against the work of God.  And that ultimately is why the sin cannot be forgiven.  All of the sins, all of the blasphemies can be forgiven because that person can be brought to repentance and faith.  But to "Satanize" the work of Jesus is going to lead to this forever hardening of the heart, which will forever therefore resist the work of the Holy Spirit.

Mark 3:2 says that the Pharisees "watched Jesus, to see whether He would heal on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him."  We've seen this theme quite a lot in our study of John: Jesus preaching and teaching and healing, and the Pharisees finding fault. 

But there was division among them, because the Old Testament had prophesied this about the coming Messiah, that He would come "like streams in the desert," and that He would cause the blind to see, the deaf to hear, and the lame to walk (Isaiah 35:5-6 quoted above).  Wasn't that what Jesus was doing?

Throughout Scripture there have been times of decision, of turning to the right or to the left.  Exodus 32 tells of one of those times: Moses came down the mountain with the Ten Commandments and found that the people had made a golden calf that they had worshipped.  Moses stood before them and asked, "Who is on the Lord's side?"  Joshua 24 gives us another example, when Joshua stood before the people and said, "Choose you this day whom you will serve; as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."

This brings us back to our study in John 9.  We have seen a contrast in the man born blind, who can now see as a result of his faith and trust in Jesus, versus the Pharisees who have seen the light and have turned a blind eye to the truth.

And Jesus said, "For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind."  Then some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these words, and said to Him, "Are we blind also?"  Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, 'We see.'  Therefore your sin remains.  --John 9:39-41

Commentator David Guzik writes, "John recorded these words of Jesus as part of a larger theme in his Gospel — that men were divided over Jesus, with some accepting and some rejecting. This is one way Jesus brought judgment…into this world, by being a dividing line.

i. In this sense, Jesus is like the Continental Divide in the Rocky Mountains; a single place where an entire path is decided. Jesus is “the pivot on which human destiny turns.” (Tenney)

ii. “His statement that He had come to judge the world meant that He would be the separating One, the One through whom God would judge.” (Morgan)

NT Wright, in his commentary John for Everyone, writes:

The position of the man's accusers--the hardline Pharisees who are sticking to their principles at the cost of the evidence--is then all the more devastatingly exposed.  Not only are they wrong, but they have constructed a system within which they will never see that they are wrong.  It is one thing to be genuinely mistaken, and to be open to new evidence, new arguments, new insights.  It is another to create a closed world, like a sealed room, into which no light, no fresh air can come from outside.  Their condition, in fact, is not far removed from that which Paul describes in the first chapter of Romans (1:32).  There are some people who not only do the wrong thing but adjust their vision of the moral universe so that they can label evil as 'good' and good as 'evil'.  Once that has happened, such people have effectively struck a deal not only with evil but with death itself.  They have turned away from the life-giving God and locked themselves into a way of thinking and living which systematically excludes Him--and, with Him, the prospect and possibility of rescue.

 What about you?  Have you sought Jesus with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength?  Or have you been blinded to His message for you and for the world?  If you reject Him and His message, you become like the Pharisees, who have attributed the work and words of Jesus to the work and words of Satan--what Chad Bird called "Satanizing Christ."

Repent and believe, before it is too late.  Do not commit the unforgiveable sin; do not let your heart be hardened toward Christ.  Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.