The bible speaks of an unforgiveable sin. It’s also referred to by Jesus as the “unpardonable” sin. In Matthew 12:31-32, Jesus says, “Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And 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.”

This sin is not a single act or a specific deed that one does or fails to do. Rather, it’s the continual hardening of one’s heart to the work of the Holy Spirit in revealing the one and only remedy for all sin, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Spirit’s work in our age is to convict mankind of sin and point to God’s proclaimed remedy. When a person hardens their heart to this truth it results in the loss of spiritual sight and a darkening and dulling of one’s moral conscience. Just as Pharaoh hardened his heart to the point that his heart was irreversibly hardened by God, so too is the case of the unforgiveable sin. One will no longer have the capacity for repentance and faith in Christ as their Lord and Savior. Paul describes them in Ephesians 4:18. He writes, “They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.” Harper’s Bible Dictionary says, this about the unpardonable sin: “in modern terms, might be paraphrased as an attitude or mind-set wherein a person willfully refuses to accept the forgiveness of sin offered by God through his Son.”

I often encounter believers who are afraid that they may have committed the unpardonable sin. But this sin is only committed by unbelievers. Christians can never commit this sin. Further, the very nature of this sin is such that once one has achieved the hardening related to this sin, there is no longer any conscience regarding it. If someone is afraid they have committed this sin, it’s certain that they have not, because those who have are so hardened to God’s Word and to the Gospel message of Christ that they have totally and irreversibly rejected the offer of eternal life through faith in Jesus.

Chuck
“There is sin that leads to death…” 1 John 5:16