Word@Work, Let God's Word energise your working day!

Unforgivable Sin

Mark 3:28-30
'Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin.' He said this because they were saying, 'He has an impure spirit.' (NIVUK)

These verses are a puzzle, even a cause for anxiety, to some Christians.  As we get to know more of Christ we realise how far short we fall from His glorious standard (Romans 3:23).  Our tendency to fall into sin alarms us, and our difficulty in detaching ourselves from particular sins distresses us (Romans 7:21-23).  This increasing sense of unworthiness has led many believers to wonder if they have committed the unforgivable sin.  It is an important question which needs a confident answer.  

The context of the passage is crucially important to understanding what it means.  Jesus had just been accused of being possessed by the devil and using Satan's power to exorcise demons (Mark 3:22).  It was a way for the religious leaders to dismiss the divine power of Jesus' miracles, and maintain their own power-base.  They could not see that Jesus had authority over demons because He is God, and God has authority over everything.  Of course, the accusation of the theologians was untrue.  But if Jesus had not refuted the lie, everybody would have assumed that it was the truth.  Instead, Jesus firmly exposed their false logic: it was a deliberate denial of everything that Jesus was.  His rebuttal was strong, using simple analogies to show that their assertion was totally wrong (Mark 3:23-27).

Blasphemy (in its many shades and shapes) is wicked (Leviticus 24:16).  It takes the sacred things of God and degrades them to have no value, the playthings of people who have no true love for God.  Blasphemy defies God's right to be honoured and glorified in who He is and what He has done.  Satan's objective is always to depose God's authority.  Giving the credit to Satan for what God was doing was precisely what Jesus refused to do in the wilderness temptations (Matthew 4:1-11).  Although the religious leaders had clearly observed the Son of God – they denied His deity and His holy fellowship with the Spirit of God.  So, to say that the power in Jesus was from Satan was an ultimate blasphemy.

Today, the rise of paganism, witchcraft and occultism preaches the same fake gospel that hidden powers are supreme.  Those who claim that Satan has all power, and persist in believing that, cannot be forgiven – indeed they do not want to be.  But their convictions are utterly wrong and extremely perilous (Jude 1:17-19).  The Apostle Paul is quite direct in Galatians 1:8-9, "But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God's curse! As we have already said, so now I say again: if anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God's curse!"  However, anyone who hears and believes the truth, and repents, is forgiven (1 John 1:9).  So never think that Satan has all power, nor credit him with what God is doing.  And never underestimate the power of the gospel to unmask the lies of Satan (Jude 1:22-23).

Prayer 
Dear Father. Thank You that You, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit have all authority over everything. Forgive me when I degrade Your supremacy by thinking, speaking and acting as though You are not Lord of all, or even crediting Satan with superior power. Help me to honour You above all and help me to be bold to proclaim Christ especially where strange spiritualities seduce the minds and hearts of my friends. May I be full of Your grace to win them and full of truth so that they will see their error before it is too late. In Jesus' Name. Amen.
Bible Book: 

© Dr Paul Adams