What’s the Unforgivable Sin?

Mark 3:22-30. Message by Charles Postell.

Many words in our language are known as a “double entrendre.” They are words with a double meaning.

One example is the word “flat.” You might think of music, where a note is flat. Or maybe you’re thinking of a wall or a surface that’s flat. Go across the pond where our British friends refer to an apartment as a flat. Does this make “flat” a triple-entendre?

Another example is the word “band.” We might use it in the context of banding together, to be united. Or maybe we’re talking about a group of people who make music together.

You see double entendres in slang. When we say “goat,” you might think about the small horned animal that will eat aalmost anything. In slang, goat stands for greatest of all time (g.o.a.t.).

Double entendres can impact how we think about words. Sometimes we get uncomfortable. My temptation at times is to disregard a term, because I don’t want to use the word in a new way. I’d rather not use a word in any way other than how I’m accustomed.

We do this with words. Sometimes we do this with concepts or new ideas. One of the more dangerous places this can happen is with faith. We might have a certain understanding or perception about an aspect of faith, or about God. When we’re challenged with an element that is different from our thinking, we might be tempted to avoid that thought. It’s more comfortable to stick with what we know.

The problem we face when we do this is that we might miss out on a deeper understanding of God. That can rob us of a deeper relationship with him.

Today’s text might be one of those things. The temptation might be to pull back or disregard what we read, because it can make us uncomfortable. I’d like to challenge us to be willing to receive this text in its fullness. Let this help us go deeper in relationship with God, helping us follow Him and walk in a path of discipleship.

The background of Mark 3:20-30

The ministry of Jesus is in full swing as we get into today’s passage. He has appointed his 12 disciples, has ministered to the masses, and has healed many.

He’s also made himself an opponent of the Pharisees. More to the point, the Pharisees have made themselves opponents of Jesus. They don’t approve of what he’s done, or the way he’s done it. They struggle with his authority, and this frustration has brought them to a boiling point.

Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”

Mark 3:20-21 NIV

Jesus has been on the move, and his ministry has been powerful. The disciples don’t even have time to pause and eat because they’re ministering to so many people. While this has been great, Jesus’s family is getting concerned and having doubts. They’re concerned this is all getting out of hand.

Imagine if you grew up hearing stories of how your mama got pregnant without their daddy’s help. And you hear all the talk. Maybe you’ve heard enough times something like “why can’t you be like Jesus?”

The question of who Jesus is

And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebul! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons.” So Jesus called them over to him and began to speak to them in parables: “How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come. In fact, no one can enter a strong man’s house without first tying him up. Then he can plunder the strong man’s house. 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.” He said this because they were saying, “He has an impure spirit.”

Mark 2:22-30

In the middle of all of this, Jesus slips in the idea of the unforgivable sin. It’s slipped into the midst of this parable, and he does this intentionally.

It’s helpful to get a look at the heart posture of the Pharisees. They never liked Jesus, as he challenged many things about their faith and actions. He exposed their pride and the sin that was hidden within them. His teachings disrupted their influence and their status with the people, and they didn’t like that.

We can tell that this opposition to Jesus is a big deal to the Pharisees. It’s evident in their travelling 70 miles to Galilee to see him and disrupt his teaching. That’s a lot of work for just opposing someone. This opposition is so great that they won’t be swayed by his teaching or his miracles.

In their minds, there’s no way that Jesus can be right, so it must be by the prince of demons that Jesus is casting demons out. Something’s not right here, so he must be posessed.

Can you imagine the crowd’s reaction when this happens? Imagine that you’re watching all of this, and these big-time religious leaders call Jesus a demon. Can you imagine the hush that comes over the crowd when this happens?

The response by Jesus

Jesus doesn’t respond by making a scene. He simply calls them over and asks a question. He wants them to think about whether they really understand what they’re saying here. Are they thinking this through?

He asks them, “How is it possible that Satan would drive out Satan?” They probably weren’t expecting a logical response here, but this is how Jesus responds. If a kingdom goes against itself, how can it stand? If Satan is in conflict with himself, how is that beneficial to him?

In other words, do you really believe what you’re saying here? Have you thought this through at all?

Jesus then turns this around, discussing a strong man. He’s not saving people, healing people, or casting out people because he’s associated with the strong man but because he’s opposed to him. The strong man here is Satan, the house is the world, and Jesus says he’s come into the world, he’s overcome the strong man and tied him up. Jesus is doing all this work because he’s stronger than the enemy, not because he’s subject to him.

This is important because the truth is, the enemy is real. We have a real spiritual enemy who tries to keep us from God, to keep us from connection with God, and who tries to keep us from salvation.

The uncomfortable topic: The unforgivable sin

This is where Jesus gets to the heart of the issue, by addressing the heart of the Pharisees themselves. He says, I can forgive all sine. I can forgive when you slander me, but when you blaspheme the Holy Spirit, that’s a different story. That’s a sin that is eternal.

We usually have one of two responses to this. One is anxiety: What does Jesus mean by this? Have I sinned this sin unknowingly? Is it too late for me? The second response is a disruption of the narrative of God. When you have a narrative that says God is only loving, merciful, good and kind, this thought of something God cannot forgive disrupts that narrative.

These thoughts are uncomfortable. We don’t want to think about what happens to people who don’t say yes to Jesus. Even more, we don’t want to think about hell.

How do we address this? Do we just ignore it? The problem is that a false sense of security rarely creates intimacy. We’re better addressing the anxiety and tackling this issue of what this unforgivable sin is all about. We need to be willing to be uncomfortable if we want to resolve this. For this reason, we need to dive into this topic and find clarity.

The context: The heart of the Pharisees

It’s easy with this topic to zero in on the phrase and the parts that make us uncomfortable. But like any Biblical topic, one of the best ways to understand what’s being said is to dive into the context.

Remember that the context here is the refusal of the Pharisees to believe in the work of Jesus. Jesus is doing amazing work, but instead of recognizing what He has done, they get picky over what day he healed someone. Rather than admit that God might be at work here, they say Jesus has a demon.

The Pharisees are flat out refusing to believe that this could possible be of God. They won’t even entertainthe possibility. The only thing they can come up with is that the power has to come from somewhere else.

Their language here is posession. But the heart is rejection. They say he has a demon, and by this they reject Jesus to the fullest extent possible.

The reality is, they’re making excuses. These excuses allow them to avoid the very thing they don’t want to do, which is believe.

Think of an abusive relationship. We overlook the abuse by coming up with excuses. We might know that the relationship is toxic, but there were good moments so everything must be fine. In the end, we justify what we don’t want to believe so that we can do what we want to do.

This is what the Pharisees are doing. They avoid the reality so that they can keep their position of superiority, so they can maintain their pride.

Jesus addresses the heart issue of the Pharisees

It’s this issue of the heart that Jesus addresses when he responds. He first tackles their language, he goes after the logic of their argument. It’s like, does this even make sense?

Then he goes after the heart issue.

Jesus says that all sins can be forgiven. I can forgive the things you do and the things you say, but I can’t forgive what you won’t repent of. I can’t forgive what you refuse to accept.

The word blaspheme comes from a Greek word which means to revile, to intentionally come short of reverence for God. It means to speak evil of.

Jesus is saying that you can say anything about me or do anything, but when it comes to slandering the Holy Spirit, I can’t forgive that.

One commentary said this:

Jesus gave the solemn warning in these verses to people whose hard-heartedness paced them on the brink of disaster. Blasphemy against the Spirit evidently is not just a one-time offense, rather, it is an ongoing attitude of rebellion — a stubborn way of life that continually resists, rejects, and insults the Holy Spirit. This is what makes it, in effect, an eternal sin (Mark 3:29). Blasphemy against theSpirit is not unforgivable because of something done unintentionally in the past, but because of something being done deliberately and unrelentingly in the present.

Quest Study Bible

The Pharisees did everything they could to reject what they saw. They rejected what they heard, everything they saw, and even the testimony of others. They deliberately and intentionally resisted belief in Jesus as God.

In the end, they threw spaghetti at the wall to see what would stick. They must have sighed in relief when they thought of this line about being a demon. They could cling to this.

What does this say to us about the unforgivable sin?

I’ve had many people come to me, afraid they may have committed the unforgivable sin. “I said the Lord’s name in vain.” “I was angry and said the wrong thing.” The thing I tell them is that their attitude is one of seeking God, not rejecting Him.

If your attitude is one of seeking him, or seeking repentance, you’re okay.

The Pharisees did the opposite. They settled on a narrative that would let them do as they pleased. For many people, their distance from God is very similar.

We come up with platitudes like do what you want with your life, do what makes you happy, follow your heart, or do what feels right to you. They are all things we say to let us go on as we want.

However, Jesus cares. What he does here is address the heart of the issue. He dismantles the words and says to the Pharisees, keep telling yourself this. It might feel okay but it’s blaspheming God.

Why rejection can’t be forgiven

This thing about an eternal sin isn’t because Jesus is upset at the Pharisees. It’s eternal because rejection can’t be forgiven. Rejection can’t be forgiven because it has no desire for forgiveness. There’s no room for repentance in rejection.

Jesus is willing to forgive sins, but can’t do it if you won’t allow that forgiveness. If repentance and acceptance are what bring you together with him for eternity, and you reject all of that, that means you’re not allowing him. Forgiveness only works if it’s accepted.

Jesus makes this clear in other places.

I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

John 14:6

Whoever believes int he Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.

John 3:36

Jesus says things like this often. He warns that our rejection of him will keep us from him. If we reject him and never decide to go to him, that rejection ultimately becomes eternal.

How rejection and hell go together

A lot of times we struggle with the eternity of that. We think a loving God would never send people to hell. But Jesus talks about how a time is coming when those who accepted him will be with him, and those who have rejected him will not.

In the end, God has the final authority. He decides once and for all. But it’s not about sending people to hell for the sake of it, but it’s about giving us the desire of our hearts. He wants us to choose him, but if we decide to reject him, that’s our decision.

Imagine that you’re travelling and you come to a fork in road. There are only two ways you can go. You can go left, or you can go right. That’s it. You may say you aren’t going right, but ultimately you’ve decided to go left. No matter how you word it, that’s the decision you’ve made.

It’s like marriage. You can decide to stay married, or get divorced. You might say you don’t want to stay married. Even though you may not flat out say you want to be divorced, you’ve still made that choice.

Jesus says over and over, “I love you. I forgive you. I went to the cross for you, and I want you to follow me and be in relationship with me. However, you don’t have to accept that invitation.

This is what’s happening in this interaction with the Pharisees. They can keep the narrative going, they can tell themselves whatever they want. But he tells them, a time’s coming when the window closes and you have to make a decision. Death comes for all living things. The time to accept will come to an end, and when that time comes the decision is final.

Jesus gives us a choice

I love this about Jesus, that he cares enough to let us know what’s coming. He cared enough to do the work to be born on earth, he cared enough to go to the cross.

But in the end, he lets us choose. He doesn’t force himself on us. He lets us know that his desire is to have eternity with us, but we can make our own choices.

Jesus gave the Pharisees the opportunity to make a choice. He gives us the same chance, where we need to come to a place of wrestling and understanding what to do.

What do I do with Jesus? What will I do with Jesus? Do I accept this relationship or do I not?

Clarity is a gift here. This clarity eases anxiety. It keeps things consistent with the narrative of who God is. When we wonder if we’re okay, when we question if we’ve accidentally made an eternal mistake, the fact that we even wonder about this indicates we haven’t flat out rejected Jesus.

We see the heart of God in all this. It’s like Jesus has put all his cards on the table, saying “this is where I’m at. This is what my desire is.” We see the heart of God, a heart that desires relationship, a heart that wants so much for us to accept the invitation. But in the end, he lets us choose.

My assistant coach when I was in high school was a Christian, and he said something that stuck with me all these years. He said that God is a gentleman. He’s not going to force himself on you. He lets you know where he’s at and he lets you make the choice.