Mark 3:28-29 “Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin” This episode explains what is meant by blaspheming against the Holy Spirit and how important it is to accept God's forgiveness. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
The Unforgivable Sin
Mark 3:28-29 “Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”
I remember the first time I really heard this verse, or at least heard and paused to ponder what it meant. My dad and I were talking and I am don’t remember how we got on the topic of this verse, but we did. I remember hearing the last part of this verse and really worrying. It says, “But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin.” That seems pretty severe. I instantly starting thinking back over my life trying to figure out if I had ever blasphemed against the Holy Spirit. My understanding of blasphemy was that you speak ill or sacrilegiously about God, or in this case the Holy Spirit. I was sure I never consciously blasphemed agains the Holy Spirit, but what if I did it on accident? When we start using words like “guilty of eternal sin,” I worry because I really want to spend eternity with my Jesus in heaven.
I also started to worry about my boys as when they were younger they would say unkind things about God just to try to push my buttons. I remember when one of my boys was younger, he was looking through a flyer for a video rental place. He was 5 and wanted me to read all the names of the movies to him. One of them was the movie Jackass. I didn’t want to tell him that one because it was not a great word for a 5 year old to know. However, he promised he would never use it and I gave in and told him the name. Actually there was another movie on the same page called Drag Me To Hell. My son did a good job not using those words for a little while. After that, anytime he got upset he would start to use that word. He would say things like, you a jackass, dad’s a jackass and so on. He used it so often that I was glad I lived in Germany and most people didn’t know what he was saying. One time we had gone to see a castle and he started to act up. I was taking him back to the car to sit and calm down and he didn’t want to go so he started calling everyone a jackass. Mom’s a jackass, dad’s a jackass, grandma Joanie’s a jackass, and I was ignoring the behavior as he just wanted to get me upset. The next thing I know he yells out “God’s a jackass, drag me to hell.” I would never know what was going to come out of my kids mouth.
I am sure you can imagine how nervous I would be that they would commit this eternal sin. That my son would call the Holy Sprit a jackass or something and then never be forgiven. I did spend a lot of time thinking about this verse upon first hearing it. I am not sure what got me to stop spending so much time worrying about it but eventually I did. However, whenever I heard it again I would wonder what exactly it meant to blaspheme the Holy Spirit and if I, or anyone in my family had done it, since I really want to spend eternity with them in heaven.
I didn’t really understand this verse until I heard Father Mike talk about on the Bible in a Year Podcast. I really liked how he explained it and also it really set my heart at ease and so when I heard it again this year I decided I wanted to share it will all of you in case you are not listening to the Bible in a Year podcast and you have always wondered what this verse meant. Also, even if you were not worried about what this verse meant it is good to have this information moving forward in your faith journey.
Father Mike explained that the “unforgivable sin” any sin that we refuse to surrender to the Lord for His mercy. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says, “There are no limits to the mercy of God but anyone that deliberately refuses to accept his mercy by repenting, rejects the forgiveness of his sins, and the salvation offered by the Holy Spirit, and such hardness of hearts can lead to final impenitence and eternal loss. So any sin can be a sin against the Holy Spirit but there is not just one sin. It reminds us that we need to bring everything to the foot of the cross and to ask for forgiveness and then to accept forgiveness. Hearing this really set my mind at ease. Having Father Mike give me the reassurance that there is nothing I can do that God is not willing to forgive was great.
As much as I found this explanation reassuring I understand that some of you listening may not find it reassuring. I know there are a lot of people that struggle to believe that God will forgive their sins. Life is hard and we have all done things we are not proud of. We don’t always make the right choices. In fact, sometimes we make truly terrible choices. We hurt people intentionally and unintentionally. We may have even killed someone, maybe accidentally when we were driving or when we were on a substance like alcohol. Whatever it is we have done in the past, God is ready and willing to forgive. All we need to do is say sorry and ask for forgiveness. God knows what we have done and He still loves us and wants to forgive us. Accept that forgiveness.
If you are struggling with accepting that God can forgive you then just start there. Tell God how you are feeling and ask Him to help you open your heart and mind to HIs forgiveness. You don’t have to do this on your own. God wants this for you more than you want it for you. All you need is a willingness to accept God’s forgiveness and He will do the rest. God knows where you are at. He knows what you have been through, what you have done and why you think you can’t be forgiven. He doesn’t expect you to do it all on your own. All God wants is for you to ask Him for help right where you are at. He will do the rest. He is so amazing like that. He does all the heavy lifting when we can’t. God loves us more than we could ever know. He wants us to be with Him in heaven for all eternity. Accept His forgiveness! He gives it freely.
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, help open our hearts and minds to the fact you are willing to forgive our sins. Help us accept this. Help this fact bring us comfort instead of worry. If we are struggling to accept your forgiveness, help us Lord. We are so grateful that you forgive our sins, as we certainly don’t deserve your forgiveness or you love. We love you Lord. You are the king of kings and we are grateful we can call you our dad. We ask all of this in accordance with your word and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.
Thank you for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to spending time with you tomorrow. Have a blessed day!