Am I Condemned?

People ask this when considering words Jesus speaks about blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. But before being concerned about Jesus' words, consider the contexts in which He said them.

The posture of the scribes in Mark 3, portrayed in this AI image which replaced the horrible doodle from my journal entry for today, is what causes Jesus to say words that have been more troubling to believers than they ever need to be. [See horrible doodle below, if you dare.]

The words of Jesus are these: “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 [Jesus] has an unclean spirit.’” (Mark 3:28-30

I don’t imagine I’ve been asked more questions about a passage of the Bible than I have about this one and its parallels in Matthew and Luke, who also quote Jesus in saying this.

That’s why people ask me (and, I’m sure, other pastors too), “Have I committed the unforgivable sin, the sin that will keep me from eternal life with God?”

People ask this with genuine anxiety although they love Jesus, are filled with gratitude for His death and resurrection for us, and daily take up their crosses (meaning, they acknowledge their sin and need of God’s forgiveness) and follow Jesus with faith. (Check out Luke 9:23.)

The people who ask the question wonder if there’s some sin they’ve committed that will prevent the forgiveness of God from coming to them.

As always, when interpreting any passage of the Bible, it’s important to appreciate the context. Or, better yet, we need to understand the contexts.

The bigger context is to remember in considering these words of Jesus is to recall Who is speaking these words. This is Jesus, God the Son. This is the God described repeatedly in the Old Testament as He is in Psalm 103:8: “The LORD [Yahweh or I AM in the Hebrew in which the Old Testament was originally written] is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.”

The God we meet in both the Old Testament and the New Testament is just, of course. And He calls us to perfectly obey His moral Law as embodied in the Ten Commandments and summarized by Jesus as love God completely and love others as you love yourself. Jesus puts the demands of God’s Law on us simply when He says, “You…must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48)

But God knows that none of us is perfect, that we don’t obey His Law perfectly, and that the moment we’re conceived, we’re condemned and separated from God. (Check out Psalm 51:5) We inherit an orientation to sin, that is, an orientation to indifference to God and to other people, from our parents who, like us, are sinners.

And that’s where Jesus comes in.

Unwilling to give us up to condemnation and separation from Him without a fight, Jesus becomes a human being, perfectly obeys the Law, and then, though guiltless, takes the condemnation of death we deserve so that He can give us eternal life. The Bible says: “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) All who, by the power of the Word given to us by God’s Holy Spirit about Jesus, believe in Jesus, have eternal life with God.

So, when we consider Jesus’ words in Mark 3:28-30, we have to remember this bigger context: The God Who speaks them loves us and isn’t looking for excuses to toss us aside.

Another context to note when considering Jesus’ words here is something that happened when Jesus was baptized at the Jordan River by His relative, John the Baptizer. Baptism, of course, is for sinners. Through this Sacrament, God drowns our old sinful selves so that our new selves, born of water and the Holy Spirit, can be raised and God makes us part of Christ’s new creation. Jesus was baptized, we’re told in Matthew’s gospel, “to fulfill all righteousness,” immersing Himself in God’s condemnation for our sin so that, as an act of charity, God can give us Christ’s righteousness.

As God the Father in heaven witnessed Jesus’ submission to John’s baptism, foreshadowing how He will soon submit to death on a cross for us, God spoke. “…voice came from heaven,” Mark writes, “‘You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

At the same time, God the Holy Spirit, the life-giving Breath of God, descended to Jesus in affirmation. God the Father and God the Holy Spirit then, had already given their testimony about Jesus: He was God in the flesh, the Savior of the world.

But the nearest context in which Jesus speaks in Mark 3:28-30 tells us tons. A few verses earlier in Mark’s telling, Jesus had, on a Sabbath day, in the synagogue in Capernaum, healed a man’s withered hand. Scribes who happened to be there from Jerusalem found out what Jesus had done and were incensed. This upstart preacher not credentialed by them had labored on the day of rest, the Sabbath. To them, this was a godless act.

They refused to believe the words of God the Father or the witness of God the Holy Spirit that Jesus was (and is) God the Son. When it came to hearing any Word about Who Jesus is and what He could be even for them—God and Savior, they clamped their hands firmly over their ears and refused to listen. They wouldn’t accept that the God Who invented the Sabbath for our good would do good to people on the Sabbath.

In fact, the scribes had words of their own, which they said about Jesus and Who Jesus was. “He is possessed by Beelzebul” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons.” (Mark 3:22) They accused Jesus of being from Satan, the evil one.

Jesus dismisses their accusations as nonsense, pointing out that Satan would hardly have sent Jesus to do the good that Satan never wanted done.

And that’s when He warns against blaspheming—slandering—against the Holy Spirit.

The Pharisees had slandered against God the Holy Spirit by claiming the witness He had given at the Jordan about Who Jesus is was a lie.

To blaspheme against the Holy Spirit is to deny the Word God has given that we are sinners born into condemnation and unable, by our own good deed, to save ourselves from everlasting condemnation and separation from God.

To blaspheme against the Holy Spirit is to deny the witness for Christ Who saves sinners freely as He turns them away from sin, death, and futility and turns them to Jesus in faith, as happened on the first Christian Pentecost.

Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit isn’t a specific sin like taking God’s name in vain or murdering someone.

Blasphemy against the Spirit is clamping our hands over our ears and refusing to hear the truth from God that we are sinners, that Jesus has borne the condemnation for sin we deserve, and that He has risen from the grave to save us from ourselves for eternity.

Blasphemy refuses to hear the truth from the Spirit and so makes confessions opposed to Christ.

Blasphemy against the Spirit is a wall people build between God and themselves, a wall that refuses to receive grace and forgiveness God wants to give to all people through Christ.

I can assure you that people who want God’s forgiveness and want Jesus have no cause for concern. These desires come from the Holy Spirit working in your life and will. You wouldn’t have these desires, so foreign to our inborn human nature, if you had our ears closed to the Holy Spirit’s witness about Jesus, the Savior of the world.

So, take heart. God’s Word is emphatic: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:13)

In Jesus Christ, all your sins are forgiven. If you can stand to hear that truth, you know the Holy Spirit is working saving faith in Christ in you. Turn from sin daily and turn to Christ and so receive the life with God the Spirit already has for you.