As mentioned in a previous post, the “unpardonable sin” has caused concern to a number of people. Other related question arise, such as can a Christian commit this sin? If a lost person commits this sin, then repents and accepts Christ, will this particular sin still be unforgiven?
We have other posts dealing with the security of the believer. The short summary of that doctrine is that we are either saved (fully) by grace, through faith, and not of ourselves, and that Christ’s death and shed blood are sufficient for our eternal salvation, or it isn’t … and He need our help for us to stay saved. Therefore, since I understand that a believer’s only hope for salvation is IN Christ, I’m convinced my security is … SECURE. In Him! Period. Thus, the unpardonable sin is not a possibility for Christians to commit.
In addition, it seems that if a person committed that sin, they would not be able to get saved.
Some writers use to talk of people becoming so hardened by their sin and rejection that they couldn’t turn to God.
For example, in 2 Thess. 2:3-12, it talks of a “falling away” (which seems like we are having today) . That passage talks about Satan’s deception, and describes people who “received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.” In verse 11-12, it says those who do so will believe a lie, and God will allow them to be deluded, and ultimately they will be condemned.
Have you ever dug a hole and got blisters?
If you do it repeatedly, your hands will become calloused.
In a similar way, we can harden our hearts and become desensitized to the things of God.
I believe this is why so many warnings appear in Scripture.
Read carefully, Pro. 1:24-33 “Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD: They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.”
Also, Heb. 3:7-19 “Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.) Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.”
The bottom line is we must not be callous, or indifferent to spiritual matters. When God speaks, we should promptly respond. And we should diligently guard against becoming insensitive to the work of the Holy Spirit. But, we must balance that with the fact that our hope – our confidence – is in Christ, not in our flesh!
