The Unpardonable Sin

Title: The Unpardonable Sin

Today’s Bible Verse: [Mark 3:22-30 ESV] 22 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." 23 And he called them to him and said to them in parables, "How can Satan cast out Satan? 24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. 26 And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but is coming to an end. 27 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. 28 "Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, 29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin"-- 30 for they were saying, "He has an unclean spirit."

So, what does this mean. Essentially the scribes were claiming that Jesus was doing all His works by the authority of Beelzebub rather than the Holy Spirit.

First of all, we need to look at when this was written and to whom to get context. It was written in the first century to believers. This means that the reference to Beelzebub is not to the mythological Satan of today but to the Babylonian dung god; yes, the Babylonians had a god for poop, and this was throwing a very grave insult on Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

At this point I must stress that we must relate every book in the Bible back to the time it was written and also to whom it was written at that time. This is the only way to understand Biblical context. When you do Bible research you also have to research the context. That is our biggest problem today in regard to many theologians and pastors; they always want to bring the Bible forward to modern times. Yes, there is meaning for us today; however, that meaning still needs to have its context brought with it to understand the impact.

One of my biggest arguments is the relation of terms like Beelzebub, demon, devil, and evil spirit to our modern concept of Satan. The authors of the Bible did not have the modern concept of Satan being a fallen angel hellbent on the destruction of humanity. This myth of Satan we have today developed around the concepts brought forth in Milton’s Paradise Lost and Dante’s Inferno.

They didn’t even have the concept of fallen angels as we do today. To the authors a satan was an adversary; any adversary and angels were messengers and could be human.

What we consider angels today they would call hosts and their job was to do the bidding of God and hosts continually worshipped God and could not fall. Only man falls.

Returning to the verses, as I said, relating what Jesus was doing through the authority of the Holy Spirit to the authority of the Babylonian poop god was a supreme insult to the Holy Spirit, it was blaspheming the Holy Spirit.

Jesus was warning the scribes not to reject the work of the Holy Spirit because that would mean that they would eternally bound to that crime and there was no way back from it; no way to repent. This is also a warning for us today; we must be very careful what we say or think.
 
Faith is given to His elect by God. Faith is the overwhelming belief in God; it is not head knowledge, it is a deep down in your soul belief that God is your creator and your means of salvation from His wrath due to the fall. This faith was given to His elect from before creation. We have it for His glory.

Through our faith we know that Jesus died for us, and we have justification through Him. This justification means that our sin is covered with the blood of Jesus and, though we may die physically, we are not dead spiritually and will be resurrected into everlasting life when Jesus returns.

It is the elect that have salvation and it is my prayer that you are among the elect and that this serves as your catalyst for awakening.

This is the gospel:

[1 Corinthians 15:1-6 NLT] 1 Let me now remind you, dear brothers and sisters, of the Good News I preached to you before. You welcomed it then, and you still stand firm in it. 2 It is this Good News that saves you if you continue to believe the message I told you--unless, of course, you believed something that was never true in the first place. 3 I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. 4 He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. 5 He was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve. 6 After that, he was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died.

[Acts 2:22-24 NLT] 22 "People of Israel, listen! God publicly endorsed Jesus the Nazarene by doing powerful miracles, wonders, and signs through him, as you well know. 23 But God knew what would happen, and his prearranged plan was carried out when Jesus was betrayed. With the help of lawless Gentiles, you nailed him to a cross and killed him. 24 But God released him from the horrors of death and raised him back to life, for death could not keep him in its grip.

[1 John 2:2 NLT] 2 He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins--and not only our sins but the sins of all the world.

This is penal substitution; that is, our sins were transferred to Jesus and His righteous transferred to us.

We all have a job.

[Matthew 28:18-20 NLT] 18 Jesus came and told his disciples, "I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. 19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

All of the disciples of Jesus are to spread His word and the gospel.

Go forth and spread this good news.

I pray that God has revealed Himself to you and that you have salvation.

Remember, God is sovereign. That means that he controls everything.

I hope this has been a blessing to you. May the rest of your day be blessed. Peace.