Is There REALLY an Unpardonable Sin?

 

Technically speaking – NO! (there is no scripture that actually says “unpardonable”).  And untechnically speaking – Yes! (there is a sin the bible says won’t be forgiven).

That probably doesn’t immediately help those who are fearful that they have committed this sin, but I begin this way so that we can learn to appreciate that the bible educates us as much through paradox as through other methods. In interpreting the scriptures we need to be able to hold two apparently contradictory thoughts together as one whole in order to get at a more accurate and proper understanding of God’s grace in the light of Jesus Christ!

I will try to simplify what can be discussed in a longer way, and if you want a longer answer simply Google “unpardonable sin”. There is lots of good stuff out there.

Here are the scriptures used to discuss this topic (and notice the special emphasis on dishonoring God the Holy Spirit – Who has been sent to educate us about the Truth – John 16!):

Mark 3:22-30 and Matt 12:31-32 . 

I promised to follow up with this post based on Boyd’s comments from my last post, so here are godly and biblical thoughts in the Revelation of Jesus Christ:

1.) Is Jesus Fully God and Fully Man in One Person without mixture or confusion? We in Christianity say “Yes!!” Our creeds emphasize this, especially the Chalcedon Creed. The significance of this is that it was agreed upon by the church at large (including the Eastern Orthodox, Catholic, and many Protestant Christian churches).

PLEASE NOTICE THAT TO GET AT ANY TRUTH WE MUST BEGIN WITH ANSWERING THE QUESTION: WHO IS JESUS?

2.) This means that, technically speaking, when the Son of God became Man He took on the fullness of our actual fallen human nature, forgiving, saving and healing everything that was wrong with that broken human nature. As the old church father’s would say, whatever Jesus did not assume, he did not forgive, or save or heal. In reverse, whatever he did assume, was completely and utterly forgiven, saved and healed.

So, if you don’t believe that Jesus was fully human, you cannot hold as true that you or anyone can ever be fully forgiven, healed or saved! That would be the end of any hope for anyone or anything – period! It would also be a massive failure on God’s part to have sent his Son to save us, only to realize that he only almost saved us! Yikes! We need a very different and REAL God thank you very much!!

On the other hand, to believe God the Son became forever fully human, while remaining fully God, means that all of humanity is fully forgiven, saved and healed in the Person of Jesus Christ. This means hope for the good future of everyone and everything! It also means massive success on God’s part – having sent his Son to save the lost and realizing that he actually did! Hallelujah! Now THAT is the Good News!

3.) Did you see that word “forgiveness” in those statements above? Forgiveness is NOT just an “I forgive you” from the mouth of God, or pouring out Jesus’ blood externally on Jerusalem sand to fix your real 21st century relational problems! Forgiveness is the act of God making things RIGHT, LITERALLY, in the very Person of His Son Jesus! Of making things right in our real and fallen human nature, so that there is ACTUAL reconciliation and ACTUAL redemption in our humanity, not pretend reconciliation and fake redemption!

To take all of this seriously is to KNOW that every sin imaginable, including your sins against God the Father, Son AND Spirit (Who is ONE!) are forgiven, LITERALLY, in Jesus!!! 

4.) So where does the unforgiven part come in? Good question!

If everyone and everything is completely forgiven and made right in Jesus Christ, this means that anything we have said or spoken, or thought in a wrong manner against God the Father, Son and Spirit, and other people and creatures is forgiven! That is what Jesus is trying to emphasize in his comments when he says that whatever we say against the Son of Man will be forgiven.

We do this in our lostness and our ignorance, and that is why Jesus forgave even that! Father please forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing! Luke 23:34!

HOWEVER, if God the Holy Spirit shares with you this truth of your complete and total forgiveness, salvation and healing in Jesus (and He does and forever will!), BUT you, in essence, keep calling Him a liar and refuse to embrace the truth – HE IS NEVER GOING TO FORGIVE THAT! In other, more clear words, for God the Holy Spirit not to forgive that sin means for Him not to AGREE WITH YOUR LIES ABOUT HIS TRUTH!!! How could He?! You, in your distinction can deny the truth, but He will NOT EVER DENY HIMSELF!! He IS the Truth!

It’s not that your sin and blashemy against the Holy Spirit has not been forgiven, it’s just that YOU keep thinking and acting like it has not been forgiven, even when He helps you clearly see in the Person of Jesus that it has been forgiven! You are not treating the Holy Spirit like God but are acting like God yourself and that can’t be forgiven = or BE RECEIVED AS FORGIVEN BY YOU as long as you keep calling that Truth a lie!!)

I am currently in a red jump suit as I write this. As long as I receive this jump suit for what it is, I am in a red jump suit. However, in an intentional moment of stupidity and rebellion I can refuse to see it as a red jump suit and call it a blue jump suit (even though I can plainly see it is a red one!) As long as I think it is blue, it is “not” red to me, as bright red as it may really be! No sane person embracing their sanity (instead of embracing my self-chosen insanity) could ever forgive me or agree with me that the suit is blue when it is plainly red unless they wanted to purposefully participate in ignorance!!

Do you get a sense of the intentional insanity that we can choose in our distinction – potentially forever?! Good Grief! That would be eternal Hell fire and brimstone for sure, ESPECIALLY in trying to relate with others!! What “burns” more than bad relationships in a life of relationships???! Nothing!!

So, in the Relational power of the Spirit Who is with you and all people – change your mind and believe the Good News! You are wholly adopted, included, forgiven, healed and saved in the Very Person and Humanity of Jesus Christ – even from your blasphemy against God!  I John 2:1-2!

Don’t trample this truth underfoot and steal your own joy by participating in your completely forgiven, healed and saved humanity as a willfully, sinful, and distinct foolish person! Heb 10:26!

How to Deal With EXTREMELY Difficult People!

You have probably heard MANY answers and responses to this question and concern. I know I have! But it has only been since I have learned more about Who Jesus Christ is, and who humanity is in him, that I am finally starting to KNOW what the answer to this question REALLY is. And here it is:

JUDGE extremely difficult people!!!

(Or as Jesus said “Do not judge by appearances but judge with right Judgment!”)

I can almost hear the religious brakes squealing as I write! 🙂  It seems the ONLY parts of scripture about judgment that stick in our minds are the ones that say things like “judge not that you be not judged” (Matt 7:1). We almost totally neglect the other part that says, “for with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged!” OR, if we do include that section, and other sections of scripture on judgment, it is almost always totally negative and not reconciled with a proper view of Who Jesus is!

The point of this post is NOT to go into all the finer points of that passage of verses, other than to say that what Jesus is saying is absolutely true and has probably been experienced by most of us – in the negative! I’ll never forget the day my wife pointed out how she was sure that Jesus was REALLY saying something like, “If you judge people in a certain way, with certain rules, and then you inevitably break those rules yourself, people will judge you the same way you judged them! If you judge people in and with grace, then people will judge you in and with grace!” I wholeheartedly agreed with her!

In other words, if you proclaim the Gospel as “not breaking any of God’s holy laws”, and then you inevitably break one of them (make that almost all of them – repeatedly!!), then people you have proclaimed this Gospel to will judge you as a lawbreaker and condemn you. If, on the other hand, you proclaim the Gospel as “the Adoption of Humanity and Creation into the Life of the Triune God, in Jesus, regardless of our rule-breaking or rule-keeping”, people will judge you according to that. They may call you out, properly, as doing something you shouldn’t have done, but they will also still judge you as adopted, or according to the standard (gospel) you promoted! It’s sinful human nature!

BUT, knowing Who Jesus is in his Person helps us sort out the subject of judgment properly AND how to deal with difficult people.

Because Jesus is God, and God is our ultimate Judge, AND, Jesus, in our humanity with us, has judged our sin as conquered and overcome in His human life, death, burial, resurrection and ascension, humanity (you and I) have been judged in Jesus as cleansed of sin and adopted! The Judge has ascended with all of humanity to the right hand of God as the Second Adam, where we are seated with him and blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places!!

Whoa!! I NEVER get tired of hearing that! In fact, “judge me, judge me, judge me” according to that Truth in Jesus ALL THE TIME!! Please!! And, of course, because Jesus is permanently human for and with us, He DOES judge every one of us this way, ALL THE TIME!! And within that truth lies the ability to deal with extremely difficult people, and the ONLY hope for becoming extremely lovable and loving people!

Karl Barth, one of the great, if not greatest, theologians of the 20th Century put his answer to “How to Deal with Extremely Difficult People” in this kind of heavy, Christ-centered way:

“On the basis of the eternal will of God we have to think of every human being, even the oddest, most villainous or miserable, as one to whom Jesus Christ is Brother and God is Father; and we have to deal with him on this assumption. If the other person knows that already, then we have to strengthen him in that knowledge. If he does not know it yet, or no longer knows it, our business is to transmit this knowledge to him. On the basis of the knowledge of the humanity of God no other attitude to any kind of fellow man is possible. It is identical with the practical acknowledgement of his human rights and his human dignity. To deny it to him would be for us to renounce having Jesus Christ as Brother and God as Father.” – The Humanity of God, p. 53. Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1982. (The Adopted Life)

In my more simple way of putting it, Karl Barth is saying that when we see Who Jesus is, and Embrace Him seriously for Who He really is, we take seriously that Jesus lives in everyone! This is to our advantage in EVERY CONCEIVABLE WAY with a difficult person. We can KNOW, up front, that they are only so difficult, not all difficult! We can appeal to the Jesus that indwells them. If they know about this Jesus in them or have forgotten it, we can “ring their bell” and be a helpful reminder to them of who they REALLY are. This is one way you could call them out in the Gospel: “Why are you being so extremely difficult _____________ ? That’s not who you really are and we both know it! Jesus Christ lives in you!! BE that!!”

If they do not know who they are, then you are compelled to tell them who they are! We can KNOW IT WILL HAVE SOME GODLY EFFECT, because Jesus Christ DOES live in them! Call them out more like this: “_____________ , I know the real you, and you are NOT this EXTREMELY difficult person in Jesus Christ, Who lives in you!! Good Gravy! The sooner you begin embracing that fact, the sooner you will stop creating misery for yourself and others! Now change your mind and believe the Good News before I have to restrain you in love so you don’t hurt anyone else, including yourself, until you can see Jesus more clearly!!”

To not think about and deal with EXTREMELY difficult people in this way is to deny Jesus Christ as our Brother, and to deny God as our Father in the Holy Spirit, because there is no one Who is not in Jesus! Colossians 1:27! Yikes!

Help us Jesus!!! (He has and He will!)