The Unpardonable Sin

Matthew 12:31, 32

The phrase “unpardonable sin” has struck fear into the hearts of so many believers, causing some to doubt whether or not they are still saved or even if they can be forgiven. Such fear and concern has risen over a phrase that never appears in the Bible. Did you realize that? The phrase “unpardonable sin” is a church phrase, not a Bible phrase. If this be the case, why do we use it, and more importantly, what does it mean?

First, let’s remember what the Holy Spirit is here to do: He comes to guide believers into truth and show us things to come (John 16:13) and to glorify Jesus (verse 14). That last one is crucial because it solidifies the first two; if Jesus is not glorified then it cannot be the Holy Ghost. This includes our doctrine, our teachings and our emotional responses. If Jesus gets no glory then what we think or feel or believe is of little consequence.

The other very important role of the Spirit is to convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgment (John 16:8). The conviction of sin is aimed at non-believers for their rejection of Christ (verse 9); the conviction of righteousness is aimed at believers because they can no longer see Jesus and they are quick to forget who they are in Christ (verse 10); and the conviction of judgment is aimed at the devil, for He has been judged (verse 11).

When you are dealt with for salvation, it is the Holy Spirit that is doing the dealing, for that is His function as it relates to the unsaved. You reject that conviction and you feel a release from it for a time, only to find that it comes back again at another time and place and sometimes stronger than ever. This is the Holy Spirit knocking on the door of your heart, offering you love and grace if you will only believe. Continue to reject this knocking and He will eventually leave you alone, and salvation cannot be found.

Believers need not fear blaspheming the Holy Spirit, for no born-again believer is going to consistently reject the calling of the Spirit in their life. The mark that they are born-again is their ability to be led by the Spirit (Romans 8:14); so they can’t possibly live a life of constantly rejecting His callings.

If you have mocked the gifts of the Spirit such as tongues or healings, those things were done in ignorance, before you understood what the special role of the Holy Spirit is within the church. I have ministered to many people who felt disqualified from God’s good things because they had been brought up in a church that did not believe in the gifts of the Spirit and they said disparaging things about them. God knows your heart, and He knows the speed with which you develop.

The reason that we call it the “unpardonable sin” is because Jesus said that that person “hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation” (Mark 3:29). When you reject the call of the Holy Spirit for salvation, there is no forgiveness and you are in danger of eternal damnation. This warning cannot be for believers who are sealed with the Spirit “unto the day of redemption” (Ephesians 4:30).

Never forget that Matthew 12:31 contains a glorious promise; that all manner of sin will be forgiven. To blaspheme the Holy Spirit is to reject the crucified and resurrected Jesus of which the Holy Ghost always speaks. As a believer, you have nothing to fear in this regard. You are completely pardoned and completely free.

Just Like the Rainbow

Isaiah 54:7-10

Take a moment and concentrate on the words of this passage. Remember the placement of the text, conveniently nestled in behind the horrific and promising 53^rd chapter, which describe what Jesus went through on the cross. Now, God is speaking to us in light of what His Son has just paid for at Calvary, and the implications are staggering and telling of what God’s New Covenant is all about.

This passage is a promise from God to His people. He told us to “Sing” in the first verse of the chapter, and then promised us that we would have more children (fruit). We are told to enlarge our tents in verse 2 and then guaranteed that we will break forth on the right hand and the left (verse 3). “Fear not” is the command of verse 4, and our “Maker is our husband” is given to us in verse 5.

When we arrive at verse 7, we are given the blessed assurance that any forsaking of God’s people that occurred prior to Calvary was “for a small moment”. God’s anger was “a little wrath”, but now “with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer” (Isaiah 54:8). God is now speaking to us in gentle terms, and calling Himself ‘Redeemer’. That 53^rd chapter must have really made a difference!

The time of God’s anger and wrath against man and sin has been expired in Jesus at the cross. Just to solidify this assurance, God tells us that He will no longer be angry with us or rebuke us; and this promise is as iron-clad as the one that He made to Noah regarding flooding the earth. When Noah landed the ark, God made him a promise, sealed with the sign of the rainbow that He would never cover the whole earth over with water again. When God sees the rainbow, He is reminded of His covenant. Regarding His wrath against man, God views the cross with as much intensity as He does that rainbow.

We are now under a “covenant of peace” (Isaiah 54:10), which will never be removed from us. Due to Christ paying for our peace, we have perfect peace in Christ. God now deals with us based upon our acceptance or rejection of the finished work of Jesus. This is why no one goes to hell for sins that they have committed, but rather for rejecting the light of Jesus Christ (John 3:17, 18). God is operating under a covenant of peace that signifies that the war is over between God and sin. Jesus has conquered all, and if we are in His love, we too are more than conquerors (Romans 8:37).

Just how serious is this rainbow business when it comes to reminding God of His covenant? When John had his revelation of Jesus Christ, he saw into heaven and witnessed God sitting on the throne. He saw, “a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald” (Revelation 4:3). There is no need for a rainbow in heaven after all of that time to remind God not to flood the earth; but it does stand as a shining reminder that God is now operating under a covenant of peace. Notice that there is an emerald or green glow about the rainbow. Green is the color of freshness, or newborn. In God’s eyes, the covenant of peace is perpetually young and fresh!

Take a deep breath and relax…God is not mad.

Surely, He Did It All For You

Isaiah 53:4, 5

I love how this 4th verse opens, “Surely”; as if God is saying that there was such an awesome reason for all of the sufferings of the cross that it should be obvious as to whom it was for. We were on His mind and His heart when He bore our griefs and carried our sorrows. Ours sins were the reason that He was wounded and our iniquities are why He was bruised. We have peace because Jesus was chastised; we have healing because Jesus was striped! (Isaiah 53:5)

Let’s put into perspective for a moment what Jesus accomplished at the cross; and let’s get quite simple. Based upon the knowledge that Jesus suffered so that we would not have to, let’s see exactly what He took so that we can know what we should stop carrying on our own.

“Surely He hath borne our griefs” (verse 4) – The Hebrew phrase here is “He has lifted our sicknesses”. Matthew saw this when he quotes this in Matthew 8:17, changing the phrase to “Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses”. When you see Jesus, see your sickness as having been lifted.

“Carried our sorrows” (verse 4) – meaning, “to bear the load of our pain”. Again, Matthew saw this as our sicknesses and our infirmities. When you see Jesus, see your pain as having already been carried.

“Stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted” (verse 4) – God hit Jesus with your sickness; God smote and killed His own Son; God afflicted Him with rejection and sorrow. When you see Jesus, see that God’s anger has been exhausted in the body of His Son.

“He was wounded for our transgressions” (verse 5) – A transgression is a breaking of the Law. We sin when we break the Law of God, and all of us have done that more times than we can count. Jesus was “pierced through” for all of our law-breaking. When you see Jesus, see that your sins have been paid for.

“He was bruised for our iniquities” (verse 5) – Jesus was crushed at the cross for all of our iniquities. Iniquities speak of the sins of the fathers, passed down to the children, for God used it at Sinai when He promised to visit the iniquities of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation (Exodus 20:5). When you live beneath the actions of your predecessors, you live in a cage of bruising. This is why Jesus said that He was anointed to “set at liberty them that are bruised” (Luke 4:18). When you see Jesus, see Him as bruised so that you don’t have to be.

“The chastisement of our peace was upon Him” (verse 5) – Jesus was disciplined at the cross so that we could have peace with God. Paul said that we are justified by faith, and because of that faith we have “peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). When you see Jesus, see yourself at perfect peace because Jesus was disciplined for it.

“With His stripes we are healed” (verse 5) – Jesus was striped by the Roman lash; each stripe being a different strain of virus or sickness that might befall the human race. Peter viewed this act as a “done deal” so to speak when he wrote, “by whose stripes ye were healed” (1 Peter 2:24). When you see Jesus, see your sickness in His body so that you won’t see it in yours.
Rejoice, for surely He did all of this for you!

Not One Feeble

Psalms 105:37

On the night before God delivered the children of Israel from Egyptian bondage, He sent the angel of death to each home in the land. The target was the firstborn of every house, including the cattle. This was to be the last of a series of plagues against Egypt that was to convince Pharaoh to let God’s people go. The difference in this plague from all of the others was that Israel, though not the target was vulnerable to the angel as well; but God had a plan to save His people from death before He delivered them from bondage.

The first Passover happened that night, as God instructed the Israelites to kill a lamb and mark their doors with its blood. They were to then stay in their home all night while the angel of death passed over. While inside, they were to eat all of the lamb, roasted with fire, saving none of it until morning. They could rejoice and sing or cower in the corner in fear; none of that mattered, only the blood.

When the angel of death came over and saw blood marking the doors of the homes, he moved on to the next house as the blood showed him that something had already died there. If one sacrifice had been made, there was no reason to shed more blood in that house. God maintained His righteousness through this act, and He showed us how His heart of judgment beats.

When God put your sin and sickness into the body of Jesus, He did not do it because Jesus deserved it; but rather because Jesus had lived spotless and was qualified to bear the sins and sickness of the rest of the world. Upon shedding the blood of the Lamb (Jesus), God was satisfied with the sacrifice for sins. When you accept Christ, the door of your heart is marked with the blood of that Lamb, thus God sees only the sacrifice of Jesus when He looks at you. If God were to then judge you for your sins, He would have to ignore the blood that was on the door, doing dishonor to the finished work of His Son.

As the sun broke over the eastern sky in Egypt on the morning of the deliverance, the children of Israel opened the doors to their homes and walked out in perfect health. There were nearly 3 million Israelites that came out of Egypt and the Word says, “there was not one feeble person among their tribes” (Psalms 105:37). How is it possible that among any group of 3 million people in history there would be none feeble? Even more impossible would be to find no feeble in a population of slaves that have toiled every day under the hot desert sun of Egypt. Something mighty must have happened behind those blood stained doors!

Jesus’ death at the cross provided more than your forgiveness of sins; He provided for every single thing that you would ever need. Under strict instructions to eat all of the roasted lamb, God was painting us a picture of Jesus on the cross. The believer is to consume all of the roasted, crucified Jesus. When we consume Him as our sacrifice, we partake into us the health and wholeness of our heavenly Lamb. The ceremony of communion that we observe is a shadow of the substance of the cross. We eat into us His health as we see our sickness and disease in Him. When we do this with revelation, there is not one feeble among us either.

His death has provided forgiveness of sins and freedom from sickness. May we go forth from our spiritual Egypt with the knowledge that He has been so good to us.

Renewal of Youth

Psalms 103:5

This entire Psalm is worth your time in reading. In it, you will find David’s response after his prayer of affliction in the previous chapter. As if restored by the supernatural power of God, he comes roaring back in this song to give such high praise to his Redeemer. “Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies” (Psalms 103:3, 4). It is so full of beauty and praise that no other words need to be added!

The great 5th verse should be applied to memory, for it contains a great promise for each believer. It tells us that God will satisfy our mouth with good things. This translation drops the ball so to speak, as the Hebrew word for mouth is “peh”; but here the word used is “ade”, which means “ornaments”. God is promising to satisfy your ornamentation with good things. What ornamentation do we have in His eyes?

Isaiah 61:10 holds the answer:

“I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.”

The robe of righteousness that we wear is not of our own works, for our works are as “filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6). These robes are given to us by our faith in Jesus and we can wear them because He was made to be sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21). The comparison to bridegrooms and brides is due to the fact that we all dress and look our best on our wedding day. In God’s eyes, He always sees His children the same way you saw your spouse on the day of your wedding. In God, you are never the “wife”, but always the “bride”!

When we become satisfied by the robes of righteousness, our “youth is renewed like the eagle’s” (Psalms 103:5). Don’t take the power out of this statement by calling it “young at heart”. We have a promise that as we are satisfied in the right standing that Jesus has given us we can literally have our youth restored to us in this body. I don’t presume to say that you will wake up and be 18 again, but the robe of righteousness that you wear is so powerful that the process of aging in this body can literally be slowed and in many ways reversed, due to His glory in you!

When an eagle is about 30 years of age, it ascends to a high place and begins the process of renewal. It claws at its face and tears out its old feathers. This process is very painful and causes much bleeding, but by doing so, it enables the eagle to live at least another 10 years. God put all of that scratching and clawing into Jesus, so that you could be clothed over with the robes of righteousness. When you rest in the folds of that robe, you have your youth restored to you just like the eagle.

Isn’t it exciting to know that your youth is in His cross? You are righteous in Christ, so let the ornamentation of that righteousness satisfy you today.

Crisis of Life

Psalms 102:1-28


This is a Messianic Psalm which means that it is a Psalm that speaks of the Messiah, whom we know to be Jesus. It is subtitled, “A Prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed, and poureth out his complaint before the LORD”. While we may see ourselves at many times in these verses, it speaks of Christ’s affliction from the Garden through the Cross, and how He suffered so many things for you and me.

The first several verses of this Psalm read like someone who is experiencing a mid-life crisis. The world tends to throw this term around regarding anyone who has lived a few decades, accumulated some wealth and substance, raised their kids, succeeded in business and then finds that one day they still want more. It may very well be a “mid-life” crisis, but it has little to do with “finding yourself” and more to do with finding purpose. Without a relationship with Jesus Christ, life tends to revolve around what you can accumulate and how high you can go. Only Jesus brings absolute fulfillment in our hearts and lives. Through Him, the believer can avoid this so-called inevitability.

In spite of the fact that we are complete in Him, we do however still go through various crises in life. Whether it is the loss of a loved one; a lay-off at work; or an unexpected bill that seems way too big for our budget, life throws us many curves. When our hearts are smitten with grief, they become “withered like grass” (Psalms 102:4). The next step in the progression is a simple one with terrible consequences.

“I forgot to eat my bread” (Psalms 102:4). Seems so innocent doesn’t it? Have you ever been so grief-stricken that you literally forgot to eat? I think that we have all been distracted or stressed and food seemed far away. I know that in my own life and ministry, when some great conflict comes up or something disastrous happens, I can go from hungry to turned off by food in one second.

The problem with this verse is that it speaks of so much more than physical food. We can all probably stand to skip a meal once in a while (our waistline would thank us), but to be so down spiritually that you forget to feed on the loveliness of Jesus is a recipe for disaster. Jesus is not only our goodness and our grace when things go well, but He is actually all the more powerful within us when things go terribly wrong. Jesus said to the Apostle Paul, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). This excited Paul so much that he changed his tune about problems; he almost welcomed them from that moment forward, “Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10).

Whatever crisis you are facing today, place it in the capable, nail-scarred hands of Jesus and leave it there. Don’t forget to feed on His beauty, His loveliness, His goodness and His grace. Remember what He thinks of you and in your moment of absolute weakness, begin to see Him as absolutely strong.

Read the Whole Thing!

Psalms 91:11-13


Satan tried to use scripture on Jesus when he tempted Him in the wilderness. He took Jesus to a pinnacle of the temple and told Him to jump off because, “It is written, ‘He shall give His angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone” (Matthew 4:6). Jesus quoted scripture in rebuttal to overcome the temptation.

The problem with Satan’s quote is not that it was not accurate, but that it was incomplete. He quoted Psalms 91:11, 12, but he left a little something out. In verse 11, he neglected to finish the verse which says “to keep thee in all thy ways”. Jesus’ ways were the ways of His Father, so to hurl Himself off of the temple would have been a breach of His Father’s way. Satan neglects to mention this, hoping to catch Jesus doing something out of the Father’s will.

That omission would be bad enough, but what Satan fails to quote next seals his fate. Notice that he stops quoting the text at the end of the 12th verse. Read on into verse 13 to see why Satan did not want this verse mentioned:

“Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet” (Psalms 91:13).

Jesus’ promise of victory is found in the very next verse after Satan’s quote! The adversary who roams about “as a roaring lion” (1 Peter 5:8) is “the devil”. He is also the adder, or the serpent of the Garden of Eden. As well, in Revelation 20:2, he is called “the dragon, that old serpent”. God’s promise in Psalms 91 is that the dragon will be trampled underfoot. This speaks to the prophecy that God put forth in the Garden of Eden when He said to the serpent (Satan): “It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel” (Genesis 3:15). The heel of Jesus can only be bruised by the dragon if the foot is trampling him!

The composite whole of Psalms 91 is actually speaking about you and me, the body of Christ. The song begins by telling us that when we dwell in the secret place of the most High, we will be abiding under the shadow of the Almighty (verse 1). We also find that He is our refuge and our fortress (verse 2) and that we have no need to fear the sneak attack or the open attack of the enemy (verse 5). Because He is our protector we can claim with confidence that “A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it will not come nigh thee” (Psalms 91:7).

If the first part of the chapter is for you then so is the last part. Though the text is speaking of Jesus, it is giving us a promise that no matter where our foot may land, our Father has given angels charge to watch over us. The New Testament calls angels, “ministers” (Hebrews 1:7), meaning that God uses them to minister to and for you and me. We must be deeply loved for God to go to such lengths to protect us.

Jesus trampled the enemy so that you might go free. Live in the liberty afforded at the cross, which causes us to fall in love with our Protector all over again.