What About the Unpardonable Sin?

I have been asked many times in my 40+ years of being a Christian, “Exactly what is the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit?” I have heard many attempts to answer that question as well, such as attributing the works of God to Satan, saying Jesus was demon possessed, lying about having the Holy Spirit, outright rejecting the Holy Spirit, or a rejection of grace to name a few. I have read articles entitled, 6 Sins Against the Holy Spirit, 7 Sins Against the Holy Spirit, and even 20 Ways to Sin Against the Holy Spirit. Really!? Come on!

But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin.

Mark 3:29 NIV

People are desperate to understand this dark passage of scripture because they are in fear for their salvation and we can’t even decide how many unforgivable sins there are, let alone identify them. 

The many articles that have been written show us what the concern is: Should We as Christians Be Worried about Committing the Unforgivable Sin? Is Turning Away from God the Sin Against the Holy Spirit? How do I Know if I Have Committed the Unpardonable Sin?

Our uninformed answers have, no doubt, eroded the faith of young converts and have eaten away at the trust a weak Christian should have in their Lord and they provide the adversary with ammunition to use against these struggling children of God. I have been guilty of giving the same answers to what I now believe to be the wrong questions. It’s not “what” is the unpardonable sin, but “is there” an unpardonable sin?

Think about it. Do you believe there is a sin that we can commit that our heavenly Father does not forgive, but we do not know what it is or in how many ways it can be committed? That means we could inadvertently commit this sin and lose our salvation. That is absurd! If there was an act so wicked, so abhorrent that to commit it even once would seal our eternal fate, don’t you think God would keep the nature of such an act from being shrouded in uncertainty? We’re missing the mark here.

There is something you should know about this passage – the words “never” and “eternal” do not appear in the original text. The translators, because of their presuppositions toward eternal torment, inserted them. The words that appear in the original text are aion (age) and aionion (age lasting or age during). Please consider the rendering of this passage in Young’s Literal Translation of the Bible:

But whoever may speak evil in regard to the Holy Spirit hath not forgiveness — to the age but is in danger of age-during judgment.

Mark 3:29 YLT

Let’s say, for the sake of discussion, that the sin against the Holy Spirit is what many have said it is – speaking evil of the Holy Spirit, rejecting the Holy Spirit, or the rejection of grace. Then those who commit this offense are not saved. A child of God couldn’t commit such acts. Therefore, they who do commit them , do not have forgiveness now in this age and are in danger of judgement in the next. It is that simple.

The original text does not say they will never be forgiven. It doesn’t say that they are guilty of an eternal sin. What it does say is that those who commit such sin are not forgiven (right now) and that those committing such sin are in danger of being judged in an age to come (unless repentance takes place).

Jesus was referring to the Scribes that were listening to Him. They were rejecting grace in their hearts as they stood there by saying that Jesus was speaking and performing miracles by the power of Beelzeboul (the devil) and, unless they repent, there would be no forgiveness in this age, and therefore they were in danger of the judgment in the age to come.

The destructive nature of the eternal punishment myth causes us to cast a stumbling block before our young and weak brothers and sisters that causes them to faulter. Shame on us!

Look at the verse before this one:

Verily I say unto you, All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme:

Mark 3:28

We shall be forgiven all sin and all blasphemy however we have blasphemed. Our heavenly Father is not out to trick us – He is not trying to trip us up and send us to hell! To follow this passage with a warning about a sin that is so egregious that it is unforgivable and then fail to tell us what that sin is makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. It is completely ludicrous.

God loves you immensely and He has paid an enormous price for your redemption. He didn’t do this just to throw a stumbling block in front of you as you are learning to walk. There is no unpardonable sin. There is no transgression or blasphemy that the blood of Christ cannot and will not cover.