Daily Devo w/ Pastor Eric October 25, 2021
The Unforgivable Sin?
Matthew 12:30-37, NIV - “Whoever is not with me is
against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. And so I tell you, every kind of sin and
slander can be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.
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. “Make a tree good and
its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a
tree is recognized by its fruit. You
brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth
speaks what the heart is full of. A good
man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings
evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that everyone will have to give
account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and
by your words you will be condemned.”
As a pastor, I’ve gotten more
questions about the “unforgivable sin” than anything else. Of course, we would naturally worry about
something we could do to cause God to “write us off” permanently. So it is important to gain some clarity about
what Jesus is suggesting here is unforgivable.
The first thing we need to note is who Jesus is talking to here – the murderous
pharisees. As we talked about last time,
the pharisees are so angry at Jesus that they have begun to look at everything
He says and does as a possible reason to have Him killed. He has just cast out a demon and healed a man
and the pharisees make the ridiculous accusation that Jesus has cast out a
demon by the power of demons. Jesus rightly
points out that the pharisees have witnessed demon exorcisms before and they
never attributed such miracles to demonic power before – He is exposing their
accusations as being motivated by something other than truth. And then he utters a very pointed warning
that has caused untold millions to wonder about the unforgivable sin:
“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.” (v. 32)
It is crucial to note here that Jesus is issuing a warning here,
not an indictment. Jesus doesn’t say
that the religious teachers have committed the unpardonable sin, but he is alerting Holy Spirtiuthem that they are right on the edge.
They can hate on Jesus all they want, but when they let their anger
carry them away so far that they begin attributing the work of the Holy Spirit
to the Prince of Demons, they will have gone too far. It not so much that God has turned away from such
offenders as the offenders have permanently turned their back on God. To receive God’s forgiveness, one has to want
it in the first place. Jesus is teaching
us here that people who attribute God’s power to the Devil don’t want forgiveness
and further, God will not forgive someone against their wishes.
If you
are one who even cares in the slightest that there is something God will not
forgive, you are, by definition, NOT someone who could commit that which is unforgiveable. What I would suggest we take away from this
exchange between Jesus and the pharisees is not the unforgivable sin, but the
larger point that Jesus is making. Jesus
states this point plainly at the end of the exchange:
“Make a tree good and its fruit
will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is
recognized by its fruit. You brood of
vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what
the heart is full of. A good man brings
good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil
things out of the evil stored up in him.” (v. 33-35)
When you focus your life on bad things (like looking for a
pretext to kill someone), the eventual result of such a focus makes you a “bad
tree.” When you focus on producing good
things, the opposite happens; a “good tree” is the result. When you store up anger and rage, you
literally ruin yourself from the inside out; the resulting toxicity can’t help
but come out. When you store away
goodness in your soul, it too will be borne out in your actions.
Question: When you “take
inventory” of your soul, what have you been storing up?
Prayer: Show us the
true motivations of my heart O, God. Shine
light into my darkness that I might turn and focus on your light. Plant in me the things that make for a “good
tree” that produces good fruit. Amen.
Prayer Focus: Pray for God to show you one new source of
goodness today from which you could begin to focus on.
Song: Whatever is True – Vineyard Music
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