Radical Grace

I believe that the Bible teaches that there is never a day when repentance is beyond our grasp. Even the thief on the cross was able to find humble repentance in his words “remember me when you come into your kingdom.” This is the wonder of our God and the Gospel message. God’s love makes repentance always acceptable no matter where you find yourself in life. If you seek repentance, you will find it. God’s grace is that radical.

Sin Unpardonable? Am I damned?

Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit

© Copyright 2003 by John Baskette

For a good year and a half after I first became a Christian, I was very worried about the issue of the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. I thought I might have committed this sin and was therefore eternally lost. I thought that I was like Esau who sold his birthright for one morsel of meat and who, “when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. He could bring about no change of mind, though he sought the blessing with tears” (Heb. 12:17). [1]

I also once knew a teenager who, in an attempt to free himself from the moral strictures to which he felt bound, deliberately tried to blaspheme the Holy Spirit. Later, after he repented and turned again to the Lord, he deeply regretted his attempt and feared that he, too, was one of those sons of perdition who desired repentance, but whom the Lord could never forgive.

No Christians that I knew at the time (or since for that matter) believed that anyone still living could be in this situation. The belief was that “him that cometh to me (Jesus) I will in no wise cast out.” This conclusion I think was correct, but many accompanying arguments were not convincing to me at the time. These other arguments were along the lines of re-defining blasphemy of the Holy Spirit as being “final rejection of Christ” and assertions that once you are saved, you are always saved so it is impossible for a Christian to commit this sin. Since these other arguments were not convincing to me, I had a difficult time dealing with this fear.

I think that blasphemy of the Holy Spirit was just what it says in the text of Mark 3:28-29: “I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin.” Jesus said this in response to the Pharisees, who had called the Holy Spirit by whom Jesus cast out demons an unclean spirit.

My deliverance from this terrible doubt came about through a better understanding of repentance and faith. It seems clear to me now that no one can repent and believe in Christ apart from the working of God. “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (John 6:44), and “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away” (John 6:37). If my friend or I had actually committed an unpardonable sin, then the Father would not have drawn us to repentance and faith in Christ. We can conclude this because we know that Jesus will not cast out anyone who comes to Him. He would have to cast us out if we were guilty of an unpardonable sin.

Jesus tells us that it is the ministry of the Holy Spirit to draw us to Christ and bring us to repentance: “When he [the Holy Spirit] comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned” (John 16:8-11). When we are truly sorry for our sin and desire to be forgiven by God, we are repenting. However we get to a place where we are repenting[2], our repentance is, in itself, an evidence of the presence and ministry of the Holy Spirit - it is not an evidence of the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. The test is not: are you sinning and feeling rejected by God? The test is whether you want to be forgiven. If you commit an unpardonable sin, you have utterly and completely rejected the ministry of the Holy Spirit, and you can’t care about it - you will have a complete disdain and revulsion to the things of the gospel. If you are worried that you are beyond God’s grace, if you fear God’s judgment, if you desire to be saved, the Holy Spirit is still working in you and you cannot have utterly and completely rejected God or have blasphemed the Holy Spirit

This is what is taught in Hebrews: “It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance” (6:4-6a). Those spoken of here have not necessarily blasphemed the Holy Spirit, but they have knowingly rejected the gifts and power of God. Note that the passage does not say that these individuals can try to repent, but cannot be saved. It says that it is not possible for us to renew them to repentance at all. The same can be said of any individual who blasphemes the Holy Spirit. Their sin is unforgivable; therefore they cannot repent and believe, period. They cannot experience sorrow, regret, fear, worry, or panic that they are beyond God’s forgiveness.

What about my friend who says he really did it? He repented; therefore he could not really have done it.

Mark 3:29 says, “whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin” because they said, “He has an evil spirit” (30). It would seem that one who “will never be forgiven” is eternally damned, not in danger of eternal damnation. I interpret the passage to mean that while the Pharisees did call the spirit in Christ unclean, it is possible that they did not actually blaspheme the Holy Spirit. They were in danger of doing so, but they may not have recognized that it was the Holy Spirit who was in Christ.

I conclude from these passages that only someone who intentionally and willfully blasphemes the Holy Spirit actually commits an unpardonable sin. Furthermore, a person who commits this sin will not ever repent and come to Christ. A person who has repented and come to Christ necessarily has not committed this sin. I conclude that my friend who actually said the words did not really commit this sin - God knowing his heart also knows he did not mean it.

Also, the Heb. 12:17 passage does not describe someone who is seeking to repent but cannot because he is rejected. Esau was not seeking repentance at all. He was seeking his lost birthright. The earlier verses read, “Make every effort to live in peace with all men… . and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights … .” The bitter root is an allusion to Deut. 29:18 which speaks of those who turn from God and worship idols. It is not the case that he was trying to repentant and restore his relationship with God, but God would have nothing to do with him.

That he did not find any place of repentance means that he was not able to get his father or God to “repent” and restore his birthright. He was not able to do so because he had rejected God’s promise given by way of the birthright to Jacob - i.e. he missed the “grace” of God. No amount of striving, seeking, even with tears, will bring about salvation apart from God’s promise. [3]

Is it impossible for a Christian to blaspheme the Holy Spirit? My belief is one’s outward profession and appearance offer us no guarantees. If Judas was able to perform miracles and if the once enlightened of Hebrews chapter six can fall away and never repent again, then it would seem that just about any one could one-day fall away and (perhaps) blaspheme the Holy Spirit.

The apostle Paul exhorts, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you - unless, of course, you fail the test?” Paul says that we can examine ourselves and recognize with some level of assurance that Christ is in us, but he does seem to allow that one can become “reprobate.”

Was such a person never really “saved,” or was the person really saved but lost it through apostasy? Was such a person really one of the “elect?” This is a different issue than what I have addressed. I have asked, “Can someone desire to be a Christian and repent of sin, but still be damned because of a sin God cannot forgive?” The answer to that question is “No.”