What is The UNFORGIVABLE Sin

The Unforgivable Sin

So, what is the unforgivable sin? Have you ever said something out of anger, something really dark, really ugly, and immediately thought, “What in the world is wrong with me?” Maybe it’s something you said to God. Maybe it’s something you said to a loved one. Maybe it’s something you said to someone you hate and you’re still embarrassed about it years later. Or maybe you walked away from God for a season. Maybe you doubted everything, and then there’s somewhere in the back of your mind this lingering question: Did I cross a line that I can’t come back from?

Because Jesus actually does say, believe it or not, in the Gospel of Matthew that there is one sin that will not be forgiven. Let me read it to you. This is Matthew 12:31-32.

“And so I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the 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 the age to come.”

Wow. So, what do I have to say about that? Well, I have three things to say.

1. God Is Not Looking for Reasons to Reject You

Because before we even talk about the one thing that can’t be forgiven, I want you to see what Jesus says right before that. He says, “Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven.” And we read right past that. We’re so anxious about the second half of the verse that we blow past the first half. And the first half is actually pretty amazing.

The people who mocked Jesus on the cross - forgiven. The people who bailed on Jesus, the disciples, when he was arrested - forgiven. Paul, who was dragging Christians out of their houses and having them killed - forgiven. Became an apostle. Wrote half the New Testament. In fact, the whole Bible is basically a catalog of God forgiving people you’d expect him to be done with.

In Genesis chapter 1, God says, “Let there be light.” And in the very next verse, there was light. Happened right away. But in Genesis 3, God says, “Let there be salvation.” And it took centuries before it could happen. So, I don’t know if you know this, but forgiveness isn’t easy. It’s not easy for you, but you know what? Forgiveness isn’t easy even for God. It cost him everything. It took the cross, and that’s exactly why it’s so central to the Christian faith.

And so the God that you’re worried about is not a God who’s hunting for reasons to reject you. He is a God who altered the course of humanity so that he could forgive you. That’s number one. God is not looking for reasons to reject you.

2. The Unforgivable Sin Isn’t Something You Said - It’s Something You Keep Choosing

Here’s where almost everyone gets it wrong. They think that the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is like a specific phrase - like there’s a combination of words, and if you say them at the wrong moment, you’ve triggered a spiritual landmine and you’re just done. That’s not what Jesus is saying.

In context, in Matthew chapter 12, Jesus has just healed someone in a way that was undeniably miraculous. And the Pharisees watched it happen. These are the religious people. And they watched him do stuff like this over and over and over. And their conclusion after all of that was, “He’s doing this with demonic power.” So they looked at the Spirit of God working right in front of them and they called it evil. And Jesus says that is the unforgivable sin. Not a phrase, not a dark thought. It’s a settled, sustained, deliberate verdict against the work of the Holy Spirit.

And here’s why it’s unforgivable. It’s not because God holds a grudge. It’s structural, you could say, because the Holy Spirit’s job is to move you toward truth, toward repentance. A lot of times when you hear something saying, “This needs to change,” or, “Come back,” or, “You’re going down the wrong path” - that’s the Holy Spirit. And when you respond, things can be healed. Anything can be healed. But if you keep saying no over and over and over for long enough, your heart can harden to the point where you no longer can even say yes. Not because God stopped forgiving, but because you stopped being able to ask.

C.S. Lewis wrote a book called The Great Divorce, which is a very interesting book about heaven and hell. In this book, there’s a character, a woman, who grumbles and complains her whole life. Her whole life was about complaining and grumbling. Look at what he says:

“It begins with a grumbling mood, and yourself still distinct from it. But there may come a day when you can do that no longer. Then there will be no you left to criticize the mood, but just the grumble itself going on forever like a machine.”

That’s what the unforgivable sin looks like. Not a moment, but a direction. Small, repeated choices of “no” that eventually calcify into the inability to say “yes.”

And now here’s what I want you to hear the most. If you’re watching this because you’re afraid you’ve committed the unforgivable sin, I want to tell you with great confidence: you almost certainly haven’t. The fact that you’re concerned shows that you haven’t done it, because if you had, you wouldn’t be concerned about it. A completely hardened heart doesn’t worry about its own hardness. The very anxiety you feel - the fact that you want God, that you’re scared of being cut off, that you’re watching this video - that’s the Holy Spirit working on the inside of you.

So that’s number two: the unforgivable sin isn’t something you said, it’s something you keep choosing.

3. Goodness Can Be Its Own Kind of Blindness

And number three, and this one might be a little surprising - goodness can be its own kind of blindness.

Every single time Jesus warns about the unforgivable sin, he’s not talking to people who are obviously broken and messed up. He’s talking to the religious people, the Pharisees, the people who know the Bible. They show up every week. They give their tithes. They follow the rules. They even tithe on their spices. They’re the most religious people in the room. The Pharisees aren’t afraid that they’ve committed the unforgivable sin. But Jesus looks at the religious people and he says, “You’re the ones I’m warning.”

Years ago, I had a friend who died of cancer. When his cancer had first developed, he lost his appetite. And so he started losing weight and he had more energy, and everyone said, “Dang, man, you look fantastic.” He thought something was going right, but he was dying - it just felt like he was getting healthier.

That’s why I say the most dangerous kind of sin is the kind that makes you feel more righteous. And that’s what happens when you perform Christianity instead of receiving it. Religion says, “I live a good life and God rewards me for it.” The gospel says something different. It says the opposite. It says you were loved before you earned it, and that love changes you from the inside out.

People can be in church for years - serving, giving, leading - and be running all of that on the wrong engine. In fact, Jesus tells a story in Luke chapter 15, and people call it the parable of the prodigal son, but it’s really more a story of two different sons. And it’s actually the older brother, not the prodigal son, who ends the story outside of the house of the father. What’s crazy is he never left home. He did everything right. And at the end, the younger brother, the messed-up one, is at the party in the house, while the older brother is standing outside, angry. He was closer to the father geographically his whole life, but he was further from the father’s heart - and he couldn’t see that.

So the question worth asking isn’t, “Have you done something terrible?” It’s, “Have you actually let the Holy Spirit do his work in you?” - not just checked religious boxes.

The unforgivable sin is not a phrase you said. It’s not a dark season. It’s not having doubts. It’s a settled, sustained, hardened rejection of the Spirit of God, repeated so many times that repentance is no longer possible.

And if you’re watching this, that’s not you. A hard heart doesn’t go looking for answers. A hard heart doesn’t care. And you care. So if you’re afraid that you’ve committed the unpardonable sin - you haven’t. That worry - “I might be missing God. I want him. I don’t want to miss him” - you can’t produce that on your own. Only the Holy Spirit can.

So celebrate your anxiety today. The Spirit is still working. The door is still open. You still want God. Just recognize that on the inside of you. All you have to do is walk through that invitation.

And so you might be wondering, “Well, what does it mean to be led by the Holy Spirit?” Well, that’s another question.