On the Unforgiveable Sin, Part 1 

Every so often we hear reference to “the unforgiveable sin.” This idea typically comes from Jesus’ mention of “the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit”: 

Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. 32 And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come (Mt 12.31-32). 

Some also note the mention of “a sin unto death” in 1 John 5.16: 

If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it. 

And some note Matthew 25.31-46, where Jesus describes the Judgment of the Sheep and Goats. He notes that in that judgment both the sheep and the goats will be surprised by their outcomes; in particular, the goats will be surprised at their condemnation. “Lord, Lord!” 

I’m going to put my premise right up front: 

I think the idea of an “unforgiveable sin” is nonsense, first because it’s bad exegesis, and second because it’s bad theology. 

First, the theology. 

This idea necessitates that God is the kind of person who won’t forgive a certain sin—by implication, even if the sinner wants to repent—and who further doesn’t tell us clearly what that sin is specifically; the range of interpretations of the “blasphemy of the Spirit” passage is as wide as a Texas horizon. The result is that we never know if we’ve committed it; we arrive at the judgment thinking that we’re forgiven, but we’ve done something that we didn’t realize was unforgiveable, and down we go. Nothing personal, you understand; just following policy. Rules are rules. 

This is blasphemous. 

God is not that kind of person. He forgives all who come; he will turn no one away (Jn 6.37). He hasn’t identified a certain sin as one that he won’t forgive. If you come, bringing your sin with you in repentance, he will take it all, and he will cast it behind his back (Is 38.17), to the bottom of the sea (Mic 7.19), as far as the east is from the west (Ps 103.12), and he will receive you. 

Come. Bring it all. This is the God who invites us, who takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezk 33.11)), who leaves the 99 to go seek the 1 lost sheep (Lk 15.4), who rejoices with all heaven at the repentance of a single sinner (Lk 15.7). 

Our understanding of God must be informed—bounded—by the character that he has revealed. We may be in his image, but he is not like us in our limitation and in our brokenness, and he does not behave toward us like our enemies—or even like our friends, in many respects. 

He is perfectly great, and he is perfectly good. 

Now, that raises a question. What do we do with the passages noted above? Is my thesis ignoring them? Denying them? 

Not at all. I’d suggest that a great many readers of Scripture are misreading them. We’ll look into that in the next post. 

Photo by Levi Meir Clancy on Unsplash