Unforgiven

We come, as we typically do, to the sin that will not be forgiven.

This is a sticking point for Christians, of course, because so much of what we do and say revolves around forgiveness.  The  essence, core and focus of the Christian faith has always been around the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.  The Christian belief is the one in which you and I have, through our words and deeds, angered our God, and he is justly livid with our sinfulness.  We would be lost forever unless delivered from sin, death and everlasting condemnation.  But the God of all grace and mercy has sent his son, our Savior Jesus Christ, to shed his blood on the cross, to open the kingdom of heaven to all believers, and to forgive the sins of all who trust in him.

All the sins except one.

And this is the strangest thing of all, is that there is a sin that Christ specifies will not be forgiven.  Now, Jesus, in his ineffable wisdom, is always right, that's a function of being God, and when he says things, it's wise for us to listen to his dialogue, for he knows what's up.  And when he talks about how there are sins that cannot be forgiven, it's worth listening, especially in a universalist age in which we all assume that all dogs go to heaven.  But if all dogs go to heaven, if all sins are universally ignored, then who is God, after all?  Is he good? Or does he not care.

I hate to inform you that the universalist God doesn't exist. That's an idol, and you really ought not take him too seriously.  He's a forgery based on wishes and hopes.  As all idols are.  The idea and conception that you can possibly, happily have a God out there who doesn't care, who is happy to shrug his shoulders and not be too bothered about things, well, that should give you pause for consideration.  Even people who say that they want a universalist God, who doesn't care that much about sin, what they really mean is that they want a God that doesn't care about their sin.  That's about it.  They still know about right and wrong, good and evil, as long as it applies to other people.  We all know Trump is a dummy, that Hitler is a bad dude, and that Pol Pot was a disaster, but we get to be relatively laid back about our sins, and those of people like us.  But that's not a universalist God, that's a tribal god, and those two things are really really different.

The point I'm trying to make is, although we many kick and scream, we may get all agitated about it and pretend that we won't, we're looking at a matter of God actually caring about sins, and we all seem to agree with that.  That is, as long as you believe in God.  If not, you're a fool.  For the rest of us, we agree that God does seem to care about sins, and like it or not, if he cares about Hitler's sins, he cares about yours too.  They may not be equal in scope, but that doesn't mean he doesn't care about your sins at all.  He really, really does.  This isn't ranked on a curve, and as long as you've got a real dunce like Hitler the rest of us look okay.  He absolutely cares about everyone's sins as individuals, which is why he sent Jesus from the very beginning.  At the very beginning ,from the moment of The Fall, Jesus was promised, and came to the earth at the right time, the appointed time, to shed his blood and die for the sins of the world, to atone for everyone.  It was the good look, and one that prevented mass damnation.  All good so far, and that leads us to the unforgivable sin.  Or rather, the eternal sin.

This isn't the sin that God hates worse than the others, the one that he has hand-selected as the Bad One, but rather, sinning in this capacity ruins and destroys your ability to be forgiven in the first place.  The way that Jesus describes it in the Gospel is in the framework of a man's house being safe from plunder if he isn't tied up or incapacitated in some way, and we all know that this is true.  It's not that you want to steal the man in question, or his gun, but you can only steal anything else from him if he's not home pointing said gun at you.  If he is, the only thing you're going to end up stealing is a bullet.  To understand this is to understand what this passage is all about - you can't steal anything unless the strong man is tied up.  Once he is, then everything else can be stolen.  If the plunder of your house, your temple is not protected by the strong man of the Holy Spirit, then it is ripe for robbery.  Once the guard is down, once the wall is breached, it doesn't matter how nice everything looks, none of it can last. Think of it like military spending, which is to say that military spending seems expensive, of course, but if you don't have that part of your budget worked out, it's not going to matter where you're spending the rest, because someone, somewhere is going to take everything that belongs to you.

What happens when you blaspheme against the Holy Spirit, when you bind him, excise him, chase him away, is not that that sin won't be forgiven so much, as you have effectively removed the conduit through which your sins are forgiven.  You can't have the rest of the ugly sins forgiven if you've removed the means through which sins themselves are forgiven.  You've cut off the branch that you were sitting on, which was the means through which you were connected to the tree.  You've gone to all the effort of removing from yourself the means through which forgiveness of sins is given, and then you can't get too terribly confused if the forgiveness of sins doesn't show up.

Think of the creed for a second.  I know, nobody wants the dogma, I get it, but think of the creed.  What do you believe in?  I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.  The Holy Spirit, the conduit through which sanctification happens, the means through which you are made Holy, the part of God that lives and dwells with you, who encourages, builds faith, and equips you for every good work.  To quote Dr. Martin Luther's large catechism, 'We believe that in this Christian church we have forgiveness of sin, which is wrought through the Holy Sacraments and absolution [Matthew 26:28, Mark 1:4, John 20:23] and through all kinds of comforting promises from the entire Gospel.'  It also says, in a question and answer session 'How does the Holy Spirit make me holy, what are his method and the means to this end?' 'By the Christian church, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.'

This is the best edition of this book. Because it's the one I grew up with.

This is the province and ability of the Holy Spirit, how he makes us holy.  If you blaspheme against him, if you reject him, deny him, turn from him and forsake him, then how is that forgiveness of sins supposed to happen?  Magic?  This isn't a matter of saying that this sin is worse than all the others, because if you break part of the law, you break all of it.  Rather, this is a rejection of the means of grace, the sanctification that God brings, the rejection of the promise of the Gospel, and the forgiveness of sins that the Holy Spirit brings.  It's not as though this sin is worse, but committing this one means that the rest cannot be forgiven.  Not that they won't. They can't.

So how to avoid committing this sin?  Daily and richly renew your Christian activity.  Remind yourself of the activity of the Holy Spirit in your life.  As much as I hate to keep on quoting Dr. Martin Luther's catechism, but he has you begin and end every day blessing yourself with the Holy Cross, saying 'In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.'  He wants you to be immersed in the word and attending the sacraments.  He wants you to be mindful of the means of grace, and to be strengthened through them in your faith.  In other words, he wants you to be ever aware of the great gift of the forgiveness of sins that the Holy Spirit gives, to find Him where He promises to be, and to delight in his presence.  And above all other things, to bring to him all our sins and iniquities, and to delight in him taking them away.  To do otherwise is to live and dwell in our sins alone, and to stand before the Lord our God coated with them.  If you're in this frame of mind, receptive to our Lord's gifts and excited for his sacraments, then you're going to be in great shape.  When you find yourself seriously wondering if you even need this forgiveness of sins thing anyway, well, that's when you need it the most.