Is forgiveness out of your reach? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.
I’ve been meaning to write a post recently on the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, but I think that should extend to most every other sin. When it comes to the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, too many Christians I meet struggle with the fear that they have committed this sin. Personally, I am under the impression now that it looks like every Christian and their mother wrestles with this at times, and that includes myself in the past. There was a time in my life when I also struggled with forgiveness and interestingly, I was in Bible College at the time. I struggled with knowing if I was acceptable in the eyes of God and spent much time in the chapel at my college praying about it and trying to find peace.
What really changed all of that? I’d say it was apologetics, but it was only apologetics in part. Apologetics led to really thinking about my positions on faith issues. Until you do that, you are simply feeling your positions and if you feel miserable, well that means that God is against you. If you feel great, well that means God is for you. Truth is that you can feel wonderful and God has His wrath on you and you can feel miserable and the favor of God rests on you. Your feelings can’t tell you anything about the way of God in your life. (And this is one reason I get so concerned when I hear calls for donations at a church where we’re told to give as we feel led. We dare not give divine authority to our feelings.)
As hard as it can be, at the times in our life when we struggle with our suffering, we must go to the Scriptures. We look and ask “What do the Scriptures say?” If the Bible says X and I feel non-X, well my feeling is wrong. It doesn’t mean I don’t feel it. It doesn’t mean it isn’t a strong feeling. It doesn’t mean that the issue is immediately settled in my mind as the feeling is still screaming out loud, but it does mean I at least know the true answer and I am willing to fight to accept that true answer. If I say my feelings trump the Scripture, then at that point why even need a Bible? I can just say whatever I feel comes from God Himself. (This would be odd for many Protestants who don’t like the Pope speaking ex cathedra but want to give divine authority to their feelings.)
For me then, when apologetics came along, that led to sound theology. Sound theology is really thinking about the God you worship. Many of us claim God is #1 in our lives, but we only really know Him based on how we feel and the Bible more than anything else just tells us how we are supposed to live. Now the Bible does give tips on how to live, but it also reveals to us the nature of God, especially in the person of Jesus. We need to strive to know Him as He is. We have had too many misconceptions on the nature of God and these are not perceptions that come from Scripture and do not match the God revealed in Jesus Christ. When you have good theology, your world makes a lot more sense.
So how does this sound theology relate to the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit?
It’s noteworthy that Jesus never says anyone has blasphemed the Holy Spirit. There’s no indication that anyone in the crowd was permanently unforgiven. What was the danger? The danger was that they had the clear evidence right there of the work of the Holy Spirit in identifying who Jesus is and they were denying it. It’s as if Jesus is saying “If you cannot believe what is right before you, then you cannot receive forgiveness.” Now why would this be the case?
Because to receive forgiveness from someone, you must believe that they have the authority to forgive you and that they can and will forgive you. If you do not believe, you cannot be forgiven. If you believe in Christ and confess, you will be forgiven. If you don’t think that, then you are saying that you think God would rather delight in punishing you rather than forgive you. Now that doesn’t mean there might not be some consequences to your sin, but it does mean that you will be restored in the relationship to where you were before.
So let’s look at some relevant passages on forgiveness. Let’s start with Romans 4:4-8.
4 Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. 5 However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness. 6 David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the one to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:
7 “Blessed are those
whose transgressions are forgiven,
whose sins are covered.
8 Blessed is the one
whose sin the Lord will never count against them.”
This is talking about how Abraham was declared righteous. Please note this. Abraham’s sins are never declared righteous. That cannot be. When we speak about justification, we do not mean that sin is justified. There can be no excusing the wrong that was done. Now there are of course circumstances that can explain why you did what you did that was wrong. It’s no good to mention those to God. He knows all of them and He knows the ones you haven’t thought of. Somewhere in all of this there is still something wrong that was done. That is what must be forgiven. When God justifies you, He declares you are in the right. He does not declare that your sins are right.
So what do we see in this passage? Righteousness is not given to someone because of an obligation. That’s a wage. It is simply given because of trust. Please emphasize as well the part in verse 5. God who justifies the ungodly. This is something quite amazing because there were always people that were seen as outcasts in the time of Jesus because of their sinful lifestyles. These were the very people Jesus gravitated towards. Jesus wanted to spend most of His time with prostitutes and tax collectors and said they are making it into the Kingdom of God ahead of the Pharisees. After all, when the message of repentance came, they believed it.
If you could earn forgiveness, it wouldn’t be a gift. Forgiveness must be a gift. It must be free and it must not be forced. That doesn’t mean you don’t ask for it, but it does mean you don’t bend someone’s arm to get it. You don’t jump through hoops to get forgiven. All the hoops that were done were taken care of by the Holy Trinity.
Romans 8:28-39:
28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
It’s almost as if at this point, Paul is wanting to cement your position in Christ as strongly as He can.
Start out with the beginning. All things work together for good to them that love the Lord. It is not that all things are good. They are not. Sin is not good for instance. It is that all things will work for good. That does not mean that you do evil so good may result such as Paul is accused of saying in Romans 3. It does mean that even if you do sin, and you will, that it will not be used by God somehow so you don’t need to despair. Paul then goes on to say that you will be conformed to the likeness of Christ. Which means that you will be looking like Jesus one day.
That means God is on your side. Who can be against you? Imagine going into a court trial and knowing the judge was in your corner. Why would you be afraid? What charge could be brought against you if you have such a great advocate? Not only do you know the judge, you know the judge’s son. He’s the one arguing on your behalf. What better situation could you get in a court room than to have this? What separates us then from the love of Christ? Nothing. NOTHING.
If we could get the reality of this passage sunk into our heads, we would never be the same.
Let’s also think about the Prodigal Son story here. The sad part is that we call it the Prodigal Son when really the main character of the story is not the son but the father. The father is the one that is astounding and this is not a father the elite of the day would care about. His son pretty much says to him “I wish you were dead” and the dad gives in. Then when the son returns, all the father cares about is his son is returning and then he runs after him. Yes. Grown men did not run unless they were in a race. That was shameful. He decorates him with a robe and a ring, meaning that the son was restored to his old position, one of authority, and then he has a feast for him.
Or the unmerciful servant. The servant in this case was forgiven by the king of a debt that he could never ever hope to repay. It was totally canceled and what is the response by the servant? He shows unforgiveness to another servant. Why would he do this? Chances are he didn’t really believe the king had forgiven him so he did not really receive the forgiveness. This can remind us of what was said in the sermon on the mount after the Lord’s prayer. If you do not forgive others their sins, your Father in Heaven will not forgive you your sins. As C.S. Lewis says, there is no indication he does not mean what he says. This is because this is the ministry of reconciliation that’s taking place.
We could go on and on with more and more in the Bible, but forgiveness is always given when asked for. It’s really tragic that something that God stresses so much in the Bible we do not believe, and yet we want to claim that God is love. Now of course, this forgiveness does seem unbelievable. It does seem like there has to be a catch. There isn’t. There is something asked of you. God does ask that you walk in holiness and honor Him, but you do this not so you will be forgiven, but you do this because you have been forgiven.
Imagine you lived in the world of Jesus and wanted to run a bakery. Problem. You’re a peasant. You don’t have the money for a bakery. You go to someone with the money and ask for their blessing. If the person gives it, then you have a bakery, but they have a catch. You must be telling your customers about who built the bakery for you and who supplies it and what a great benefactor that that person is. Now in the ancient world, the rich person is called a patron. You are called a client. If someone was a go-between for you, that person would be the broker. When the patron gives you a gift, it’s called charis. That’s where we get our word translated as grace. Your response on praising your patron and being loyal to him is called pistis. This is the word translated as faith.
It hasn’t changed today. God is your patron and He gives you a great gift called forgiveness. What is your great response to this? You are to go around the world telling everyone what a great patron you have. The only added part is that Jesus is your broker in this case. God forgives you in fact not because you are so special. He forgives you because He is so gracious and He receives honor by forgiving you. His glory is magnified in forgiving you. Anyone can punish an offense, but to cancel out the offense shows the real power God has in that He is the one who has authority over you in your life and can declare you righteous if He wants. Judging you is really foreign to His nature of love and is only done because of unrepentant sin. A god who does not respond to repentance is a god who delights in suffering. Ours is not like that.
Christian. You are forgiven. Accept it and celebrate it and tell the world what a great God you serve.
in Christ,
Nick Peters
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