What exactly is the unforgiveable sin or “eternal sin”?

Some have thought it is suicide or homosexuality or killing a child or a whole host of things.[1]
When the context is understood one doesn’t have to guess.

Mark is seeking to show that Jesus is the “Christ, the Son of God.” The first 3 chapters are filled with examples of who He is. However, many are confused. His family thinks He is insane and His opponents think He is Satanic. Neither of these responses allows for someone to join the new family Jesus is forming.

In v. 28 Jesus assures that there are many serious sins that can be forgiven (“blasphemies”). To blaspheme is to curse God, a serious crime. In v. 29 blasphemy against the Spirit is what is unforgiveable. What role does God the Holy Spirit have? Jn 16 tells us He generally ‘convicts of sin’ (v. 8) and “glorifies” or point toward Jesus like a flood light. The eternal unforgiveable sin then is in v. 30—to persist in not recognizing who Jesus is and believe in Him. This is the sin the Pharisees were guilty of.

The unforgiveable sin is ‘dying outside of Christ.’

Jesus can make the vilest sinner who repents clean. Those who think otherwise have too low a view of God’s character, an insufficient view of the work of Christ or too high a view of themselves. No one is beyond God’s grace if they would but turn and trust in Jesus.


[1] If we persist in these sins rather than persevering in the faith this indicates we haven’t truly trusted in Christ and thus are guilty of the unforgiveable sin.

There is a big difference between falling into a puddle of sin and swimming in a pool of sewage.

This is the difference John draws as he speaks of perseverance: the possibility of believers to temporarily/occasionally fall into sin; and the persistent unrepentant sin unbelievers/false professors are pleased to remain in.

Speaking of puddles John acknowledges the reality for saints, that as sinners, we may still sin. This is why he speaks not only of once for all legal forgiveness (1:9) but also ongoing relational forgiveness (2:1).

Speaking of pools of sewage John says, “If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practise the truth” (1 Jn 1:6) and “No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.” (1 Jn 3:6).

If you are swimming in sewage, repent!

If you’ve fallen in a puddle, repent!

1 John is full of 30+ tests of assurance to see whether we are in Christ (that you may know, 1 Jn 5:13).
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To read more on perseverance see here.

It is such a little word; it seems as if the answer would be correspondingly simple.
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For many sin is an inconsequential thing. It is not that bad. It is merely a wrong or a bad act. Others differentiate between really bad sins and really small sins (or mortal and venial sins). Mr. Oxford defines it as “an offence against God.” Wayne Grudem defines it as: “A failure to conform to the moral law of God in act, attitude or nature.” Many other Christian and non-Christian definitions have been offered.

What then is sin? The answer, like many, is simple but not simplistic; in fact it is rather more expansive than many people think.

Pride

Prior to the act of disobedience in Genesis 3 we actually find the root of sin, which is pride—the desire to be as God (Gen 3:5). This is the opposite of the humility—entire dependence upon God—that Adam and Eve were designed for. Standing at the centre of both the English words sIn and prIde is the letter “I”. So to sin is to be proud, to place yourself ahead of God as the most important object, the centre of attention and worship and the determiner of right and wrong.

Distrust

Perfect humility is perfect trust. Corresponding to our pride comes the presence of distrust. In pride faith is turned from God to self and the things of this world. Hence it follows that Heb 11:6 says, “without faith it is impossible to please God” and Rom 14:23 says, “whatever is not of faith is sin.” This is a rather more expansive definition of sin! It means that even a good act done without faith is sin. It means we cannot be saved by our works. It certainly means salvation can only come through believing the Gospel. It means even doing the right thing for the wrong reason as a Christian is not pleasing in God’s eyes, it is sin.

Is it any wonder then that we are saved by faith alone in Christ alone. The undoing of our problem could not come through any other means. We must trust in the Gospel of Jesus Christ; the one who was perfectly humble and filled with trust that He went to the Cross to stand in our place so we might go free.

Disobedience

Because of the inter-working of pride and distrust in the heart, this root sin becomes disobedience to God’s Law.[1] He is the great and holy Law giver. To break a single command of His is to sin and be guilty lawbreakers, criminals, rebels, dishonourable, etc, (Ja 2:10). The wages, or consequences, of which can only be death, our due penalty (Ro 6:23a).

The word sin means to “miss the mark.” It is an archery term. We sin through putting ourselves first, distrusting God’s character, commands and promises and ultimately by disobeying His Law.

We truly are great sinners; yet rejoice that Christ is an even greater Saviour!

May we not remain in sin but come to Him for justification and sanctification, forgiveness and holiness.


[1] In the Garden, though pride and distrust were part of the temptation to sin, these were only realized in the act of disobedience. Now, however, because Jesus teaches sin springs from the heart, the presence of pride and distrust are sin. We don’t sin and so become sinners; we’re sinners and so we sin. 

What precisely happened on the Cross? The momentous events surrounding it like the darkness, the earthquake, etc, all point to the fact that something of cosmic significance took place.

We call what happened on the Cross the atonement, what Christ did in His life, and ultimately His death, that earned the believer’s salvation. Put another way, what He did to enable sinners to become right with their Creator (at-one-ment, the act of making someone at one with someone else).

The atonement, because of the infinite criminality of our sin against a holy God, has a certain wonderful multifacetedness to us. Not only does it have a depth but a breadth. This is borne out by the number of different pictures of the atonement that Scripture uses to convey just what transpired on that day. Knowing these helps us contemplate the wonder of the Cross.
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* Moral Example: I don’t include this in the numeric list because this is less what Jesus accomplished and more the example He set. Nevertheless, in His death, Christ did set an example for us of self-sacrificial service. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. (1 Pet 2:21).

1. Sacrifice: The act of giving up something to gain something else. Christ gave up His life in order to gain salvation for us. He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. (Heb 9:26).
2. Reconciliation: A relational word. Through sin our relationship with God was severed, broken. Through Christ’s death He restored that relationship for the believer so we might be called friends of God (Jn 15). All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself (2 Cor 5:18a).
3. Redemption: Slave language. The act of buying or purchasing someone out of slavery. The believer was in bondage to sin, but faith in Christ releases us because He paid the price. These have been redeemed from mankind as firstfruits for God and the Lamb. (Rev 14:4).
4. Ransom: A ransom of is usually paid to someone to release a hostage. Great controversy has debated whether Christ paid that ransom to Satan, but no, Christ owed Satan nothing, the ransom was paid to God so the believer might be released. “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mk 10:45)
5. Healing: Sin is like contracting a deadly disease. Christ's death is the cure or the medicine. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. (1 Pet 2:24).
6. Washing: Sinning against God, we became stained, dirty, unholy. Jesus’ blood cleanses, or washes the believer. “What can wash away my sin, nothing but the blood of Jesus.” Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! (Ps 51:2).
7. Honour/Shame: The Ancient Near East, as the Middle East is today, was an honour and shame culture. We were created to honour God with our lives, but in sinning we dishonoured Him, thus bringing shame upon ourselves.  Through His death Jesus enabled the disgraced one’s honour to be restored. “Fear not, for you will not be ashamed; be not confounded, for you will not be disgraced; for you will forget the shame of your youth, and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more.” (Isa 54:4).
8. Propitiation: This means a sacrifice that turns God’s wrath [just anger] toward sin into favour. Because Jesus bore God’s wrath, God’s wrath passes over the believer. Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. (Ro 3:24b–25a).
9. Penal: Legal speak. That because we’d broken the Law of God, we were legally guilty of a penalty, a punishment. Jesus stood in the believer’s place to bear God justice against crime.

In all these things Jesus was the believer’s substitute, which accomplished a variety of different things to enable us to become at one with God. Captivated by this Isaac Watts wrote the hymn, When I survey, which has been adapted by Chris Tomlin that includes the chorus, O the Wonderful Cross…

Even though the rainbow is such a beautiful aspect of Creation and a reminder of God’s covenant with man to never flood the earth as a judgement for our sin again, it has been hi-jacked of late to represent a double godlessness in the spirit of Isa 5:20 and Ro 1:32.

The month of June was labelled “pride” month and the rainbow flag, taken up as a symbol of the LGBT+ community (there is an irony here[1]), was flown from many school and government flag poles, hung in residential windows, etc. Those who fly it symbolically encapsulate Isaiah’s charge to ancient Israel, who celebrated calling “evil good and good evil.” Yet this flag represents more than simply the diversity of expression within this community (itself not a hegemonic movement either[2]), it is coming to be a representative flag of our times.

The rainbow flag is not simply being flown during the month of June; it is gaining a popularity far beyond those who support the LGBT+ movement or sympathize with them. The pride flag is growing in popularity because it stands for the values of the age: post-modernism, diversity, difference, acceptance, “tolerance,”[3] etc. In effect it is the new symbol of moral anarchy, that everyone can believe and do what they like and no one can tell them otherwise. It is the warrant to be licentious. It is an embrace of the pride of the diversity of sin. Now, someone need not be LGBT+ or even support this precise cause, the flag is taking on a new meaning as a symbol of your support for the right of others to sin so that you yourself may do as you please: Though they know God's decree that those who practise such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practise them. (Ro 1:32).

As such the rainbow flag has become the flag of our times.


[1] The irony is that the very symbol they have taken up is actually related to a great judgement upon the world over its sinfulness.

[2] For example, many who identify as gay men or women, resent the fluidity expressed by the transgendered community. While the media presents the wider community as unified it is anything but.

[3] Here we see the intolerance of tolerance. Tolerance used to mean disagreeing with someone respectfully, but now it means accepting those of similar belief’s so long as you don’t challenge them.