The Unforgiveable Sin

1 Samuel 2:12-35, 3:11-13

A common debate among Christians is what the unforgivable sin is. Sometimes it a serious discussion; we really want to know what it is so we can avoid it. Sometimes it’s more of an intellectual exercise; debating for the sake of debate. But, at least among the Christians I know, there’s never any doubt that there is an unforgiveable sin. Jesus said anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. (Mark 3:29).

 

There’s probably a deep theological explanation of what He meant and I won’t ever understand it. But here’s the story of a sin that God refused to forgive. 

Eli’s sons defiled the temple sacrifices. God gave the Israelites a lot of detailed instructions about the sacrifices. There were different kinds – sin offerings, guilt offerings, thanksgiving offerings . . . and they all had specific instructions. But one thing is clear. They were all intended for His worship. The sacrifices belonged to God.

So Eli’s sons took something that belonged to God and defiled it. One of the instructions in Leviticus is that the priest who offers the sin sacrifice should eat the meat in a sacred place. But Eli’s sons sent a tough guy to take the meat from whoever was making the sacrifice and bring it to them to enjoy in what was presumably not a sacred place. They interrupted the ritual to make sure they got what they wanted.

Back in the days of Israel, the nations all around them were also making sacrifices to their gods. They had worship rituals that made sense to them, but they were idolatrous. God’s purpose in the rules about sacrifices was to keep His people’s worship pure. He wanted them to worship Him alone. So the sacrifices had to be made in the temple, not in the fields, to ensure that a priest who had been purified brought the people’s worship before God, not idols.

Worship belongs to God alone.

It matters so much to Him that He made a bunch of rules to protect it.

It matters so much to Him that He won’t forgive men who defile it. 

It matters so much to Him that He will destroy entire generations of families who take what is His.

Because Eli’s sons sinned against God there was no one to mediate for them. God told Eli, “I will honor those who honor me, and I will despise those who think lightly of me.” His sons blasphemed God by defiling the sacrifices, so their sins couldn’t be forgiven by sacrifices and offerings. Their sin was unforgiveable.

God is holy and He requires pure worship. But God is also merciful. And by His mercy and grace, I do have someone to mediate for me. I have dishonored God; I have thought lightly of Him. But my mediator, Jesus, became the sacrifice for my sins. I have been forgiven. 

I never want to commit the sin that can’t be forgiven. But when I understand why it can’t be forgiven, I realize there’s something more important than the state of my soul. I don’t want to blaspheme the holy God who saved me. I pray that He will keep me from dishonoring His sacrifice and the worship that belongs to Him alone.

Scripture and the Power of God

Matthew 22:23-30 

I’m reading a book called Pearl of China by Anchee Min. It’s a fictionalized biography of Pearl Buck, an author I really like. I was surprised by some of the things the book reveals about Buck, so I looked her up on the internet (I used Wikipedia, which I don’t let my students use). She was not only the daughter of Presbyterian missionaries in China, but she was one when she grew up. One reason her life interests me is that my grandparents were also Presbyterian missionaries in China, although they lived in a different part of the country.

The research led me into the roots of the battles over fundamentalism in the Presbyterian church. This topic fascinates me for several reasons. I think I’m just inclined to jump into theological discussions. But I also remember some of my father’s comments about this controversy and have read some comments by my grandfather on the same topic. My grandfather and my father, a Presbyterian missionary in Guatemala, were on a different side than Pearl Buck who was on the liberal side.

There’s something about the Sadducees that reminds me of the supporters of the modernist side of the controversy. The Sadducees didn’t believe in life after death. So they came up with a clever little story to trap Jesus. His answer silenced them and astounded the crowd.

His answer should be the guideline for resolving all controversy in the church.

He told them that they didn’t know the scriptures and they didn’t know the power of God.

One of the big issues in the fundamentalist controversy was whether the scripture was inerrant. The liberals believed the Bible was full of errors and some didn’t believe in the virgin birth of Jesus. There were other doctrines in the Presbyterian confession that they also disagreed with, but I think these two are what make them sound like the Sadducees.

If a person doesn’t accept the inerrancy of scripture, he has nothing on which to base his faith. It just won’t hold together. If you deny any part of it, then there’s no reason to accept the rest. That’s what happened to these liberals. I’ve attended several main line denominational churches where the only thing that was taught was the importance of doing good works. The rest of the truths of Christianity were ignored or even denied.

When the modernists denied the virgin birth, they denied the power of God. I don’t know if they thought God couldn’t do it, but they certainly believed He didn’t do it. 

This post is a little different from my usual meditations on scripture, but it touches on what’s most important to me as a Christian. So I’m going to close by listing the five fundamentals, which were declared by the General Assembly in 1910 to be "essential and necessary" to the Christian faith. They are the source of the term fundamentalist. In this sense I am wholeheartedly a fundamentalist.

The Bible is inspired by the Holy Spirit and is inerrant because of it.

Jesus was born of a virgin.

Jesus’ death satisfied divine justice and reconciled us to God.

Jesus physically rose from the dead.

Jesus’ miracles are historical events.

Painful Discipline

Psalm 39

One afternoon at boarding school, my friends and I were playing in the outbuildings behind the school. Some of the rooms were used for storage and we were allowed in them. But the school maids lived in the others. We were nosy and went into the maids’ rooms to explore. Naturally, just as we were coming out, a teacher caught us. I’m not sure how I managed it, but while the others were receiving a strong reprimand, I managed to hide in one of the storage rooms and avoided punishment.  I’ve always been ashamed of that incident, but I’m sure I’m not alone in wanting to avoid discipline. 

The Psalmist knows he is being disciplined by God, but begs Him to stop. He knows he deserves the discipline and he knows it is good for him, but he doesn’t like it. He wants it to end so he can be happy again.

Sometimes God disciplines me and it’s not fun. I could try to avoid it – although God sees me when I hide from Him – but I know I need it. Instead, I can learn the proper responses from this Psalm.

I should bear the discipline in silence and especially not speak about it to unbelievers. I shouldn’t complain about my suffering. I know God is the One who has done it, and I need to be careful not to malign Him. Of course, that’s not easy. The longer David keeps his mouth shut, the more the words build up in him. But when he finally explodes, it is in prayer. His words are directed toward God, not in complaints about God. 

At this point, David recognizes his mortality. He wants to be reminded of the brevity of his life. I too should respond to discipline with a desire for God to put it into perspective. The things I think are important lose their value in light of eternity. God disciplines me in order to prepare me to live with Him forever. 

David particularly points out the vanity of accumulating wealth. Wealth provides so much for us. We usually get wealth by working, which is where many of us gain confidence and self-esteem. When we have wealth we are able to get all the comforts and pleasures we enjoy. Like David, I need God to remind me that these things are temporary and not trustworthy.

So I should hope in the Lord. He should be the foundation on which I rest and the One I depend on for everything I need and want. 

Not hoping in Him is the reason for my discipline. When I trust anyone or anything other than God I am rebelling against Him. So I need to repent and ask God to rescue me from my rebellion. One of the things I can hope for is that He will eventually remove the scourge. But this isn’t a quick “I’m sorry God” so I can get back to being happy. God’s discipline consumes me and in my desperation I can only cry to God for help. 

When I beg God to leave me alone, what I really want is for Him to stop the discipline by rescueing me from my rebellion. When I’ve responded in repentance and obedience I won’t need His discipline anymore. In that sense He’ll leave me alone and then I’ll be able to smile.

His discipline is painful and I don’t like it. But I have to get through it to reach the smile. He won’t leave me alone until I repent and submit. Ouch.

Justice Outside the Camp

Leviticus 24:10-23

This is one of the Old Testament stories that makes people say they couldn’t believe in a God who would do such a thing. God condemns a man to be stoned to death just for saying a curse. It sounds pretty extreme to us. What happened to love and forgiveness and grace?

I think that we can only begin to understand this judgment when we focus on God instead of the punishment. The crime was against Him. The guilty man blasphemed the Name of the Lord with a curse. We must always remember that God’s name is who He is. It’s not an identifying label; it’s the expression of His character. Blaspheming His name is defaming His character. God is holy so He deserves (and has required of us) reverence.

The context for this judgment is a list of other punishments, including the well known “an eye for an eye.” Many people think this is revenge, but it’s intended to make sure justice is done. The punishment fits the crime and it prevents excessive punishment. But some crimes require death.

If you take an eye, you lose an eye.

If you break a bone, you have a bone broken.

It you knock out a tooth, you lose a tooth.

If you kill an animal, you replace it.

But if you take a human life, how can you replace it? So you lose yours.

This understanding of justice gives me a new understanding of blasphemy. To blaspheme His name is to deny His holiness. If an injury is paid back in kind, what punishment could repay God for damage to His character? Compared to God we have no holiness; our characters are already damaged. So the penalty must be death. Either we follow Him or we go our own way. Either we worship Him or we worship ourselves. Either we submit to Him or we rule ourselves. Either we believe in Jesus or we deny Him. The second of those options always leads to death. We all deserve death because we all blaspheme His name.

When the guilty man was taken outside the camp to be stoned, God told the ones who had heard the curse to lay their hands on his head before he was stoned. In doing so their guilt from hearing the curse was transferred to the victim. It absolved them of the guilt of unwillingly participating in his blasphemy.

It’s the name of Jesus that absolves us from our guilt. He was taken outside the camp to die and our guilt was placed on Him when He hung on the cross. We trust in His name to restore us to the right relationship with God. 

Isn’t it amazing that grace resides in the very heart of God’s justice?