To the point, Jesus stated the following, "...
All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men:" (Matt.12:31) This is in opposition to the opinions expressed that try to make other sins equivalent to "
Blasphemy of the Holy Ghost."
Here is a little sermon that is necessary for me to write, since it seems so difficult to distinguish "
Dying in your Sins" from "
The Unpardonable Sin." To not be forgiven is not equivalent to sinning in a MANNER that is unforgivable.
Jesus stated that "...
All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men:" (Matt.12:31) So, rejecting Jesus Christ CAN BE FORGIVEN. Everyone who is made into a child of God by His grace knows this firsthand. If there is unforgiven sin in your life, if there is sin you refuse to deal with before the LORD in true humility, seeking His forgivenes, it is unforgiven, and not necessarily UNFORGIVABLE. To confuse the two is to miss just about everything important in scripture. THIS is why I am telling this over and over!!!
Hebrews 9
27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
Romans 14
10 But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
We can see that EVERYONE will stand before the LORD in Judgment. The good thing about this for some is that:
Romans 8
1 ¶ There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
So the distinction to be understood is that Jesus forgives sin for those who He saves according to the scriptures. (don't abandon the scriptures, for they hold our hope!) I have given a case of a man facing the truth of what I say about 365 years ago. Each of us deals with the same thing in coming to Jesus Christ. We have rejected the only way God had made for our reconciliation to Him. We have chosen our own path, and refused the drawing of God's Holy Spirit upon our heart.
How can I say this so categorically? Well, I hear it all the time, and I experienced it my self. The first drawing of God's Holy Spirit is the conviction of sin, and we think, "
The devil is really working on me today..." We do not understand an outside force working upon our hearts, and trying to gain ENTRANCE. We stand our ground at the first hint of this force coming upon us, trying to make us feel bad for the choices we made, and the things we did because we thought they would make us feel good!
It is a common sin, in that EVERYONE has done it. Everyone continues to do it till God breaks down the resistance, and brings the person to the end of himself. If this were unforgivable, we would ALL be hopeless. The really good news for us, though, is that there is hope. if God calls sufficiently loud enough, and long enough, and draws upon our hearts sufficiently strong enough, and does whatever is necessary for us to be sufficiently humbled (humiliated,) we may be brought to submit to Christ. For some this is a great amount of time, and effort. For others, they are more ready and willing.
For us then to say that doing what EVERYONE does is unforgivable is to ignore the words of Jesus, who is our only hope. Jesus stated that "...
All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men:" (Matt.12:31) You are not submitted though, and you have nothing to offer the LORD that He wants!!! You are destitute, and your sins are overwhelming. As John Bunyan wrote, I could see that, if I were able to stop sinning right now, I would not be alright, for I see a mountain of sin in my past that will sink me to the lowest Hell. That must be paid, and I have nothing the LORD wants in order to pay for it.
Then, I see that, if I were to be pardoned for every wrong thing I ever did, I would not be alright, because I see NEW SIN intermingling itself with the best of my performances. Do something good, like working on the Church building, and pride seeps in to say, "
look what I did!" Read your Bible, and learn something vital, and say, "
look how I have grown in understanding!" SIN is endless in its ways to drag us down.
ALL of this is in the category we are being told is "
rejecting Jesus Christ," and "
refusing the drawing of God's Holy Spirit." However, anyone and EVERYONE who has come to Christ for salvation, and have been received by Him, and been regenerated, and had their sins paid for BY THE BLOOD OF THE LORD, has done these things at one time or another, and in one way or another.
It is not UNFORGIVABLE to do these things, but, if these are never unresolved, and we die in our sins, we will face the Judgment Seat of Christ, and be ever condemned in our sin. We will NOT have the Blood of Christ as a covering, and we would not have any benefit He ever offered.
Hell is full of people who rejected God, and SO WILL HEAVEN BE. The people who God saves were saved in spite of all the difficulty God endured, and the patience required of our LORD, and His longsuffereing on our behalf. All the work on our behalf is overwhelming when we get a small glimpse of it. We have no idea what lengths God went through to draw us to Christ. We do not seem to have a sense of the time as a child we resisted the thing God did to restrain us, and we simply blamed our parents for telling us it was not good for us!!!
All manner of sin (not every sin, because not all people will submit) is forgivable according to the LORD of glory. He stated it in Matt.12:31.
Matthew 11
28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
You are commanded to REPENT and come to Christ. If you stop resisting, you may be drawn to the LORD. It will be the right way, though, and it will be in the manner the LORD prescribed!
Luke 13
24 Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.
If you think you will decide to come to Christ, and you think you can choose to accept Christ, you may find you have missed the whole thing altogether! Seek the LORD with all your heart, and you may find that He had come to you, and apprehended you.
Isaiah 55
6 ¶ Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:
Jeremiah 29
13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
Joel 2
12 ¶ Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning:
Do not be slothful. Awake thou that sleepest!