Is there an unforgivable sin? I was asked to weigh in on this question. Many people rank their sins, whether or not they realize they are doing it. This is the reason we have terms like ‘white lie’ or ‘mild indiscretion.’ There are many things that people would consider unforgivable. A victim of rape may never be able to forgive their rapist. A murderer may never find forgiveness from those close to their victim. But these are man’s views, not God’s. So is there an unforgivable sin? Many people would say no. God is so gracious and loving that he will forgive anything. She short answer to the question is yes. To get to that answer though, we need to take a look at sin itself.
Sin:
During most of the last century, most people would understand the meaning of the word sin in the context of this question. Today that is not the case. Biblical knowledge is very low these days, even among those people claiming to be Christian. Where once you could assume that most people had read the bible, today that is not the case.
To know if a sin is unforgivable, we must first establish what sin is. A quick Google search for a definition of sin brings us the following. Sin: an immoral act considered to be a transgression against divine law. That is a decent general definition. However, we are going to take this a bit deeper.
The book of common prayer, put out by the Episcopal Church, gives us a more nuanced definition for sin as it relates to the bible.
Sin is the seeking of our own will instead of the will of God, thus distorting our relationship with God, with other people, and with all creation.
Let’s keep digging. No discussion of sin would be complete without going to the denomination which arguably has done the most scholarly work on the subject. The Catechism of the Catholic church defines sin in the following way.
Sin is an offense against reason, truth, and right conscience; it is failure in genuine love for God and neighbor caused by a perverse attachment to certain goods. It wounds the nature of man and injures human solidarity. It has been defined as “an utterance, a deed, or desire contrary to the eternal law.”
I would throw in another definition. Sin is any action which separates us from God. Separation from God causes death, both physical and spiritual. This separation is irreconcilable until the sin is dealt with.
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23
Here we see the cost of sin, Death. We also see how to reconcile that sin, Jesus. The bible teaches that sin is forgiven when we accept that Jesus paid the price for us.
Types of sin:
Depending on who you ask, there may or may not be different levels of sin. Some people believe that all sin is equal, others believe that there are sins of differing severity. I’ll refer back to the Catholic side here for a moment, and their teaching on venial or mortal sin.
The catechism differentiates these two as follows.
Venial sin: Allows charity to subsist, even though it offends and wounds it.
Mortal sin: Destroys charity in the heart of man by a grave violation of God’s law; it turns man away from God, who is his ultimate end and his beatitude, by preferring an inferior good to him.
Are you lost yet? A few pages later we get this.
Venial sin: One commits a venial sin when, in a less serious matter, he does not observe the standard prescribed by the moral law, or when he disobeys the moral law in a grave matter, without full knowledge or without complete consent.
Mortal sin: For a sin to be mortal, three conditions must together be met: “Mortal sin is sin whose object is grave matter and which is also committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent.”
Grave matter is specified by the Ten Commandments, corresponding to the answer of Jesus to the rich young man: “Do not kill, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and your mother.” The gravity of sins is more or less great: murder is graver than theft. One must also take into account who is wronged; violence against parents is in itself graver than violence against a stranger.
For those who want a non-Catholic opinion on whether or not there are different categories of sin, the bible still differentiates a few. I will not go into them all, but I will use a common one as an example.
Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. 1 Corinthians 6:18
Even without a deeper look, it is apparent that the bible views sexual sin on a different level than others.
Forgiveness:
Since the point of this post is to examine if there is a sin that is unforgivable, we will take some time to look at forgiveness. As the bible says, the wages of sin is death. Everyone who sins will die. We will all die physically, but we will not all die spiritually. Spiritual death is eternal separation from God.
Some people think they do not need forgiveness, because they are good people. A recent video claiming to be an interview with a former CIA agent makes a good point. Everyone is the good guy in their own eyes. We may not believe we are perfect, but we all believe we are good.
No One Is Righteous- Romans 3:9-20
9 What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. 10 As it is written:
“There is no one righteous, not even one;
11 there is no one who understands;
there is no one who seeks God.
12 All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one.”
13 “Their throats are open graves;
their tongues practice deceit.”
“The poison of vipers is on their lips.”
14 “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 ruin and misery mark their ways,
17 and the way of peace they do not know.”
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. 20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.
The bible makes it pretty clear that everyone has sinned. None of us can be perfect. This is where forgiveness comes in.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9
Seems pretty clear there that Jesus will forgive any sin. So why did I say that there is an unforgivable sin?
Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin.” Mark 3:28 & 29
Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come. Matthew 12:32
Blasphemy isn’t exactly a word we use much in daily life, so most people could be forgiven for not understanding what is going on here. To get a fuller idea of what is going on here, it is helpful to look at those who have committed this unforgivable sin, Satan and his demons.
Again I will use the Catholic Catechism as it puts things nicely in perspective.
Scripture speaks of a sin of these angels. This “fall” consists of the free choice of these created spirits, who radically and irrevocably rejected God and his reign.
It is the irrevocable character of their choice, and not a defect in the infinite divine mercy, that makes the angels’ sin unforgivable. “There is no repentance for the angels after their fall, just as there is no repentance for men after death.
We see here that the sin is unforgivable not because God will not forgive it, but because the one committing the sin is incapable of repenting. God will forgive all sins that we repent of, but we will carry those which we refuse to repent of. This also points out that there is a finish line. We cannot repent after death, in this case a physical death. If we refuse to repent before physical death, then we will suffer spiritual death.
For more information on this topic check out the work by John Piper:
About the Author:
Stephen Mayo lives in Montana with his wife, daughter, corgi, and three cats.
You can keep in touch with him on Facebook and Twitter. Find more on his podcast A Side of Mayo. If you enjoyed reading this consider buying him a coffee or supporting him on Patreon.
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