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The Unpardonable Sin

As a pastor, I have had numerous people come to me over the years wondering whether they had committed the unpardonable sin.  In Mark 3 we have Mark's record of Christ's statement of the unpardonable sin:

And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, "He is possessed by Beelzebul," and "by the prince of demons he casts out the demons." And he called them to him and said to them in parables, "How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but is coming to an end. But no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house. "Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin"-- for they were saying, "He has an unclean spirit." (Mar 3:22-30 ESV)

The context of the unpardonable sin lies in a confrontation between Jesus and some scribes who had come from Jerusalem.  These scribes claimed that Jesus' power to cast out demons came from Satan himself.  Jesus response can be divided into three parts:

  1. There argument is illogical.  Satan doesn't cast out Satan.  It would be totally counterproductive for the enemy to turn on his own troops.  I would further venture to say that the scribes knew this to be true.  There was nothing in their knowledge of the Old Testament that would validate their accusation.
  2. Jesus uses a parable of a burglary to make the point that demons can only be cast out is someone stronger than the demons was involved.  Again the scribes knowledge of the Scriptures would validate this truth.  Only God can cast out demons.
  3. If they know that the work is God's, yet attribute it to the Devil, they have committed the unpardonable sin.  All sins at forgivable except this one.

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