We have defined this sin, but I invite you to think further with me about what the sin is and what it means.
1. First, the Unpardonable sin Is a Sin of Christ-Rejection
I do not mean that everyone who rejects Christ then and there commits the unpardonable sin. I do not mean that one decision against Christ, or two, or three, make up the unpardonable sin. But I do mean that the rebellion of heart which causes the unpardonable sin is a rebellion against Jesus Christ. The issue between God and the sinner, when and if a sinner ever commits the unpardonable sin, is the issue of surrender to Jesus Christ and accepting Him as Saviour. Men have other sins, but they do not commit the unpardonable sin while they consider whether they shall drink or no not drink, whether they shall curse or not curse, whether they go to church or not go to church. Some other incident may be involved. With Pharaoh there was the incidental issue of whether he should let the children of Israel go out from Egypt. With Judas there was the incidental issue as to whether he could get cash for betraying Jesus. But the fundamental question between the sinner and God is whether or not he will repent of his sin and take Christ as Saviour.
A man may reject Jesus Christ because of his love for liquor, but he does not go to Hell because he drank. He goes to Hell because he rejected Christ. Judas did not go to Hell because he accepted thirty pieces of silver for leading the soldiers to Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane. He went to Hell because he rejected Christ. He would not repent, would not turn to Christ in his heart, would not surrender to the Saviour. Pharaoh went to Hell, not over the single incident of refusing to let Israel go. In fact, the Scripture indicates that he already has so decided against God that God brought occasion for the hardening of Pharaoh's heart and led him on to his death. But Pharaoh had already wickedly turned against God, rejected the light he had, determined to go on in his own way and in his own sins.
So it is with the unpardonable sin. Love of sin may lead a man finally, desperately, to drive away the Holy Spirit and set himself forever against God. But the unpardonable sin is that once-for-all blasphemous rejection of the Spirit's wooing.
The unpardonable sin is a sin against the Holt Spirit, but it is against the Holy Spirit who is speaking for Jesus Christ and urging the sinner to turn to Christ and depend upon Christ. The Pharisees who said that Jesus cast out devils by Beelzebub, and we infer, committed the unpardonable sin, blasphemed the Holy Spirit, it is true. But it was in relation to the claims of Jesus Christ. Their hearts hated the Lord Jesus, rejected the light about Him, would not give up their own way and their own sins. Their inward blasphemy and struggle were against the Holy Spirit, but only because the Holy Spirit pressed upon them the deity of Jesus Christ and His claim to their love and faith and surrender. mark it down that the unpardonable sin is a sin of Christ-rejection, a sin of unbelief in Christ.
Is not that what the Scripture teaches in John 3:18-20?
"He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved."
One who trusts in Christ is not condemned. Therefore one who trusts in Christ has not committed the unpardonable sin. But one who has not trusted in Christ is condemned. Surely it is clear that the condemnation of a sinner depends on his rejection of Christ, not on other sins. And to trust in Christ as Saviour makes certain that one does not commit the unpardonable sin.
Note that the passage above makes quite clear the moral wickedness of rejection of Christ. One who will not trust Christ is condemned already, because he hates the light, he does not want want the truth. He does not want his own sin to be exposed because he does not want to leave it! That wickedness in rejecting Christ may mount up until it dyes and congeals and fixes forever the heart against God. The sinner who so wickedly turns from Christ to hide his own sin and to hug his own sin in his heart, has started a course which may soon overwhelm him and forever cast his lot with the damned, the unforgivable.
Do not forget it; the unpardonable sin is a sin of Christ-rejection, a sin of unbelief in Christ.
2. The Unpardonable Sin Is a Sin Against Great Light and Long-Extended Mercy
I think we may safely say that on one ever committed the unpardonable sin the first time they heard about Jesus. Thank God for the loving mercy which God offers salvation to men again and again and again!
I was won to Christ when I was nine years old. My father even then thought me too young to be saved. But I well remember that the blessed Holy Spirit had been running me down for five years. I remember that within two weeks after my forth birthday, I was deeply convicted by the Scripture about the birth of Christ, that "there was no room for them in the inn." I began to see how wicked were the hearts of men. As far as I now can remember, that was the first Scripture that ever impressed itself upon my heart. I remember later that when my mother sang sweet songs of Zion I wept and could not explain my tears. I remember how I lied to mother when I was five years old, and how she rebuked me with tears. I wondered whether God would kill me then and send me to Hell, or give me another chance! I remember how my mother called us on her deathbed and made us promise to meet her in Heaven. I remember the counsel and prayers of a godly Sunday School teacher when I was eight. Yes, God calls in one way or another every man and woman, every person who comes into the world. How boundless, how measureless is the unceasing mercy of God!
But, we learn from many Scriptures that light often offered and continually rejected may bring the judgment of God.
Who commits the unpardonable sin? It is "those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost [or gone along with the Holy Ghost, convicting them], And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come," who may commit the unpardonable sin, as we are told in Hebrews 6:4-6. But what of these, so greatly enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift but did not eat, who were convicted by the Holy Ghost as Paul was, but rejected the call and would not repent? People so greatly enlightened and convicted cannot be brought back again to the place of repentance. Once they could repent; now they cannot.
The Gospel is a savour of life to them that believe; a savour of death to them who will not believe. So the light brought by the Holy Spirit, the conviction for sin, should lead the sinner to salvation. But if he resists the light, God may give him up to darkness. If he has long resisted mercy, God may simply leave him to his sins. When one crosses the deadline, it is a sin against great light and long-extended mercy.
3. The Unpardonable Sin Is Particularly Against the Holy Spirit Who Calls the Sinner to Repentance
In Genesis 6:3 God says, "My spirit shall not always strive with man..." So the strife over the question of salvation is between the sinner and the Holy Spirit. The sin is against the Spirit. It is true that the issue is whether or not one will repent of his sin and trust Christ for salvation. But God's active agent dealing with the soul of a sinner is the Holy Sprit. And the sin is against the Holy Spirit.
The Pharisees said, "This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils.' But Jesus knowing their thoughts, warned them that their worst sin was not in speaking against Him, Jesus, but a blasphemous attitude toward the Holy Spirit who was speaking to their hearts. Jesus said: "Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh a word against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come."
Jesus meant to say to them, 'Your words, saying that I cast out devils by Beelzebub, are harsh words against Me, but that is not your great sin. Your great sin is against the Holy Spirit who convicts you in your heart. Your real struggle is against God's Spirit who warns you you to repent and trust Me as your Saviour."
It is a terrible thing to take the name of Jesus Christ in vain. But that is not the unpardonable sin. It is a terrible thing to deny the miracles of Christ, or deny His virgin birth and to deny His bodily resurrection. But some have committed that sin of modernism and infidelity, and later have been turned to trust in Christ and be saved, and to forsake their folly. Words said against Jesus Christ are not the unpardonable sin. The unpardonable sin is a heart attitude, an act against the Spirit of God who pleads with the sinner to repent and be saved.
4. This Unforgivable Sin Is a Climax of Other Sins
I believe that one may, in one short second, cross the deadline and be past forgiveness forever. I believe that one may, in a moment, insult the Holy Spirit and drive Him away so that He will call no more. I believe that the sin against the Holy Spirit, the unpardonable sin, is involved in one definite act of the heart and will and choice. But this sin is the climax of a course of sin.
Pharaoh probably committed the unpardonable sin. But he did not step from innocency into profound and eternal wickedness in one moment. There were long steps leading to the sin. pharaoh was greatly enlightened. Again and again he was warned by Moses, the prophet of God. But he has his which he hugged to his heart, and these sins hardened him against God.
perhaps Pharaoh thought that his throne was endangered by a threatened Hittite invasion. He thought that Jews might well side with enemies. The Jews must be killed out for the safety of Pharaoh's throne. Perhaps Pharaoh thought that though it took the slaughter of little babies, though it took the beating and torture of a million slaves, he still would retain his power. He would brook no interference from God or men! So the cries of little babies as their heads were dashed against the paving, the screams of heartbroken mothers, along with the preaching of Moses, along with the judgments of God coming one by one on his land--all moved Pharaoh's heart, but he resisted them all. He turned down every plea. And one day when he said no to God, it was a final no. One day when he resisted the Spirit, the Spirit of God called no more. One day Pharaoh said to Moses, "Get thee from me, take heed to thyself, see my face no more; for in that day thou seest my face thou shalt die" (Exodus 10:28).
Pharaoh, will you drive away the prophet of God? Yes, and you drove away the Spirit of God as well. For Moses said, "Thou hast spoken well, I will see thy face again no more." And the blessed Holy Spirit said, 'Yes, you will see the face of Moses no more, but worse that, you will hear My call no more.' Moses left Pharaoh, and I suppose the blessed Spirit of God left Pharaoh also. His final decision that he would argue no more, he would not listen to the call of God, was the climax of many wrong decisions. Pharaoh's heart was hardened again and again, but one time it was too hard for the Spirit of God to deal with any more.
When did Judas commit the unpardonable sin? I think he did commit it, and I think that though his outraged conscience made him confess, "I have betrayed the innocent blood," yet he could not be saved. Though he changed his mind about that unholy bargain and in that sense "repented"; though he went and hanged himself in remorse, Judas did not turn to Christ, did not trust Him for salvation, did not repent of his sins. Judas could suffer remorse of conscience; he could not experience scriptural conviction for sin. He could know that he wronged the only innocent blood in the world, the Saviour; but he could not turn to Him for salvation. So he hanged himself and went to Hell!
But when was the sin committed? Perhaps it was as he sat at the Last Supper and dipped the sop with Jesus. Perhaps it was when Satan entered into him, and he went out into the night to commit the dastardly deed. Or perhaps it was before that, when he bargained with the chief priests and rulers. But I know that before that deadly step was taken, before the Spirit of God departed from Judas, he had followed a course that led to the natural climax. The covetousness of Judas led him to reject Christ again and again. The more light he had and the more often he rejected it, the nearer he come to that one desperate plunge when he said no to Jesus in his heart, said no to the blessed Holy Spirit who convicted him.
Covetousness is not the unpardonable sin, but if you hold onto it, it may lead you to reject Christ, may lead you to spurn the Spirit's warnings, and so lead you to the unpardonable sin. Murder is the unpardonable sin. Yet murder was a step on the road that lead to it. I think, in the case of Pharaoh.
I have known men so enamored of their lust that they would not heed the call of the Spirit of God. I have known men who, for drink, or for riches, or for pride and self-will, repeatedly turned down the Saviour. All these steps may one day end in the great climatic step of driving away the Holy Spirit by a final and complete rejection of Jesus Christ.
Do not misunderstand me. I do not think that people necessarily know when they have committed the unpardonable sin. I think people may go on in good health and in fine spirits, simply glad that they are free from the conviction they once had. Men do not necessarily say, "I will step over the deadline, I will commit the unpardonable sin. I will settle this for Hell once and forever." No! I do not believe men ever make a decision, or that women ever make the decision on that basis. Yet sometimes, after great enlightenment, and as a climax to long, continued rejection of Christ and persistent rebellion and unbelief, men do, women do, step over the deadline in the sin that has no forgiveness.
The only safe way is to hate sin, to turn from it, to repent of it now. Anyone who today rejects Christ may tomorrow reject Him finally and forever.
