Expert: Rev. Robert Woods - 11/15/2009

Question
QUESTION: I have a question if I committed the unpardonable sin. A year ago I came across the baptist teaching and 5 points of calvinism online. I was in the word a faith movement for 3 years, never read the bible. 3 days of looking at reading on the teaching of God's grace, The lights clicked on and my heart changed! I remember being filled with such grace that flooded my heart! I was set free from a 12 yr addiction to porn for a season. I had the presence and joy of the Lord over me and working in me for about a month. After a months I got comfortable in my faith and I took God's grace for granted, Twice! by turning to my flesh. Right after I did that my heart was filled with conviction and guilt, I was deeply bothered cause I could imagin how my father God felt. I started pondering the truth of his grace to me and instantlly I fell to the floor crying and begging for forgiveness for presuming on his grace to me. I remember cause The window of grace that I saw revealed to me got a little smaller. So after that I did not play with his grace no more! I dugg deep in his word and studied his word cause that was my heart's new desire and wanted to give me whole life to his son's glory. I remember being on cloud 9 for a little over a month of his presence, and couple times after that in the middle of the night when I felt his presence over me to pray and I was thanking him all over again, cause I had that same presence I was looking for two months later. So I kept chugging in his word and my addicttion habits was not like before, I still had strong temptations, but my spirit wanted to serve the lord. I wanted that same presence like before when I was converted and I started studying about the holy spirit. About 8 months later my eys came across Hebrews 6 & 10 and I felt my heart fill with guilt and fear. Now I didn't know if I was God's child cause How I abused God's grace in that past, and in that book of jude it talks abouth those who turn the grace of God into licensing for sin. My heart fell weak and I felt powerless. I started wondering was I really born again? was I real? and Did God forgive me? and could he forgive me? For two months I studied about sin and ther seriousness of sin, and how that empowerment of God's grace is always supost to be used to put to death the deeds of the body. for two months I have been going through a spiritually emotionall depression for what I did in the past after me receiving the light of truth and I don't know now if I am a real son of God? I pray to him and ask for forgivensss all over again and i feel like God left me? I don't know what to do? I feel lost, I feel like God is not listening to me and alone, like his holy spirit is not with me anymore. I am staying away from sin and I am looking to the cross, and at times its hard but I do get joy from Christ. But sometimes I feel like God is casting me out. I don't know what to do. I want to be restored spiritually, what do I do? and what do I do and advice about everyday in the spirit of fear of God after me? If 1 john 1:9 is there what about Hebrews 10:26-31? I don't know what to do. How do I start if there is even hope for me, for God to restore me if he still wants me? I need help, I don't know now if I am even saved and don't know what to ask from God anymore, please save me again? or am I even saved? It seems He is not answering me, and I am terrified of sin now. Please help

ANSWER: Blessings and thank you for your question.

Short Answer:  If you are saved, then you cannot lose your salvation.  The grace of Jesus covers ALL of our sin.  Yes, once we are saved we know the truth.  We strive to live a life worthy of Jesus, but we mess up.  When we ask for forgiveness He forgives us.  

God is not making you fearful.  In fact 2 Timothy 1:7 says, "God did not give us a spirit of fear but of power, of love and of sound mind."  It is the enemy that gives you a spirit of fear, that makes you believe you are not saved and makes you wonder if any of this is even worth it.  Remember, faith is believing when we feel God is distant, when we don't see his hand or aren't hearing his voice.  It is easy to believe when we feel him and hear him, but faith tells us to believe and trust even when we don't.  

The Unpardonable sin is calling the things of the Holy Spirit and Christ, Satan.  This does pertain to your situation.

Long Answer:  Why do we die?  The Bible says, "It is appointed for men to die" Hebrews 9:27.  Yet when it occurs, people have difficulty in accepting the reality of the event.  Paul called death "the last enemy" 1 Cor. 15:26.  He also taught that death entered the world as the result of sin, Romans 5:12.  If there had not been sin, there would have been no death, Romans 5:17.  Death is more than a natural phenomenon:  "The soul who sins shall die" Exek. 18:4  When Paul describes death as receiving the "wages of sin," he means much more than its inevitable consequence Roman 6:23.  Death is God's verdict upon human sinfulness Romans 1:23.  Jesus Christ conquered death when He overcame sin and the devil.  Spiritually, believers have already passed from death to life John 5:24, and the broken relationship with God has been restored.  Believers still face the weakness and pain that accompany dying, but they need not be afraid of death itself.  Jesus Christ the victor will finally overcome the last enemy also 1 Cor. 15:26, 54-57.
Our penalty for sin is death.  Sin is the reason we are condemned to Hell.  The only way to go to heaven is to have that sin forgiven.  The Bible says the only way to do that is to have salvation through Jesus Christ.  In fact, the Bible says no one or other way is available for salvation except Jesus.  John 14:6  “Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me”  You cannot get to God except through Jesus.
How are we saved? God wants you to know that you are a sinner and cannot save yourself. "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23) God wants you to know that Jesus Christ has already provided the way of salvation. "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but will have everlasting life." (John 3:16) You must repent of your sins, confess them and forsake them. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (I John 1:9) God wants you to know that acceptance or refusal determines your destiny. "Everyone who has faith in the Son has eternal life. But no one who rejects Him will ever share in that life, and God will be angry with them forever." John 3:36  “Those who call upon the name of the Lord, will be saved Romans 10:13.   “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast.” Eph. 2:8 If you wish to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior of your life, then you must pray to God and let Him know that you believe, you repent of your sins, you ask for forgiveness, and you ask Him to save you and be your Lord (Master).  A Prayer would go something like this: "Dear God, I believe Jesus died on the cross for me and is alive today. I know I am a sinner. I am sorry for my sin. Please forgive me. I want Jesus to live in me as my Savior and Lord. Thank you for hearing me. In Jesus' name. AMEN."
All those who are saved go to heaven.  All those not saved, go to Hell.  It is that simple.
Remember, God does not send anyone to hell because they never heard of Christ or never accepted Him.  He sends people to Hell because they have sinned.  Romans 3:9-12 tells us “What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. 10 As it is written:  "There is no one righteous, not even one;  there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless;  there is no one who does good, not even one." Even a Child knows the difference between what is right and wrong.  As an adult, we cannot say that we are ignorant of what is right and what is wrong.  The judgment for sin will be in relationship to how much they knew.  A person growing up in the U.S. with a church on every corner will be judged more harshly than someone who never even heard the name of Jesus.  But even someone who grew up in an uncivilized jungle knows in his conscience that there is a god that is worthy of worship.  The Bible says his conscience will either accuse him or excuse him on the day of Jesus Christ.  God is not going to condemn people if their own consciences excuse them.  Regretfully, every human being has sinned against his or her own conscience.  God does not judge people for failure to believe in Jesus, but because they are sinners.  The Bible says that "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God."
What about those people in the Old Testament?  Before Jesus came to this earth, it was faith that put people in right standing with God.  Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for. 3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. (see Hebrews 11)
Original sin is the term for being born a sinner.  Remember, man was created in the image and likeness of God.  Man was a free moral agent, freely able to choose God or turn away from him.  By eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he did the one thing he was asked not to do.  Breaking God's one commandment to him was sin.  At that point Adam and Eve were driven from the Garden of Eden and cut off from the tree of life.  From that moment on, the spirit of man was damaged.  It is as if man is now born with a moral handicap.  He is lame in the most important part of his being- his spirit.  That is original sin.  There is a rebellious nature in most children.  They just like to do whatever you tell them not to do.  This natural rebellion stems from man's original sin.  Instead of being morally free, man has a decided tendency toward sin - urged on toward evil by what is called "the world, the flesh, and the devil."  Original sin is a tendency to do evil, not an act of evil itself.  God does not punish people for tendencies to do evil, only for what evil they do in light of what they know.  In other words, babies and children do bad things but do not truly understand the difference between good and evil.  They may even know that what they are doing is wrong, but they do not understand that it is evil.  Therefore, little babies and young children do not go to hell because of original sin, because babies have never committed any sinful acts.  So babies do not even need to be baptized until they are old enough to choose Christ and baptism themselves.
Baptists believe that once you are saved you are always saved.  That accepting Jesus Christ as your personal Savior and believing in Him means you go to heaven.  Nothing else will give you salvation.  We believe that you are saved forever because: 1. there is security because of God's Promises (Romans 8:31-39), 2.  God's presence assumes security (John 10:27-30 & John 3:16), 3.  Because of God's power the believer is kept (1 Peter 1:3-5),  
My wife and I adopted a child.  We have come to love her just as we love our other 2 children.  Can you imagine that we would stop loving her just because she did something wrong or was disobedient to us?  When you are saved, you are adopted into the family of God.  You must, out of your love for God, try to live a Godly life.  Acts of sin or rebellion will take away the joy of salvation.  When David committed adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband killed, he lost the joy of his salvation.  When he wrote Psalm 51 about it, he said, "Restore to me the joy of Your salvation." He had no joy, because he had rebelled against God.  He did not lose his salvation, only the joy of it.  Jesus said in John 10:29 that "My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand."  Once you belong to God, you can never be taken away.    There is a difference between being immature in Christ (that is still sinning) and rebellion (those who sin without salvation).
However while a person can not lose his salvation, a person can openly denounce God.  If a Christian were to become a Muslim or a Satanist, then they are publicly and spiritually saying that they denounce their salvation.
Hell is both physical and spiritual. It is a place and not simply a condition. It is the place where all those who have refused the gift of salvation from Jesus Christ go upon death. Jesus presented it as a place of eternal torment for the devil, his angels, and the sons and daughters of Adam who rejected him and his sacrifice for their sins.  It is a place of damnation where the fire is not quenched (Matt 23:33; Mark 9:48). Their soul leaves their body and descends into the physical place hell.  Now, at the end of time in Rev. 20:11-15, all those who died without Christ will rise from the dead.  Their literal bodies will reform and stand before God in judgment.  Then their bodies will join their souls in hell for eternity.  
It has been said that if Jesus is not God, then we should worship the man who thought him up. Never has anyone in history spoken the way he did.  I see that the teachings of Jesus are self-validating.  Throughout history, they have been proven true over and over again.  When the teachings of Jesus are put into practice, they lead to peace, harmony, victory, and love.  This does not mean His teachings do not bring conflict.  For evil will always fight against the truth.  Jesus' words pulsate with wisdom.  For example, about governments "Give to Caesar the things of Caesar and to God the things of God."  The teaching that God the Father is a Spirit, not a man or woman.  The Sermon on the Mount has a treasury of wisdom, "Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you."  Remember, "Love your neighbor as yourself."  
Ultimately, I know that Jesus is God.  The only true God.  I know this because of the Holy Spirit.  The Bible tells us that our faith is foolishness to those who do not believe.  When I accepted Christ into my life, the Holy Spirit of God became a part of me.  I can feel His power.  I know the truth as He reveals it to me.  It is an overwhelming knowledge, joy, and peace.  Most other faiths cannot claim that they have true joy and peace.  I have been with a lot of people when they have died.  I have noticed that Christians seem to die at peace.  But non-Christians fight, and fight, and fight to their last breath and still die unhappy.


Mark 3:29 says
29 But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin."

So what is this sin that will never be forgiven??  The religious leaders of Jesus’ day had come out to hear Him teach and perform miracles.  But they came with a heart of deceit and wanted to trap Him in what He was doing.  They wanted to disprove that He was the Christ.  As He was doing miracles and casting out devils, they said, “This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of Demons.”  They were so spiritually blind that they were attributing the work of the Holy Spirit to Satan.  Not only were they doing this, but they were also rejecting the Holy Spirit’s work in their own lives.  The Holy Spirit was saying, “This is the Son of God.  This is God.”
Obviously, the unpardonable sin is not merely saying an unkind thing about the Holy Spirit.  The religious leaders involved had turned totally against the revelation of God.  They were so far into their own wickedness that they rejected not only Jesus, but the Holy Spirit as well.  They were saying that good was evil and evil was good.  They called the Spirit of God, Satan!! They had rejected spiritual understanding and so could never come to Jesus, the one source of forgiveness.  If a person does not accept Jesus, he cannot have forgiveness.  If he rejects the Holy Spirit and turns away from Jesus Christ, he can receive no forgiveness.  That is what these so called “religious leaders” had done. If you want to obey God but are concerned that you may have committed the unpardonable sin, you have not committed it.  If anyone today has committed this sin, it would be one who is hard-hearted, who has turned against Jesus, reviled Him , and become so depraved that he would claim that God’s Spirit is Satan.



know that the unpardonable sin is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, which is to call the work of the Holy Spirit demonic. Are Christian pastors and teachers committing the unpardonable sin by stating that speaking in tongues and the manifestations of the gifts of the Spirit are all demonic?
The Apostle Paul declares that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are "the manifestation of the Spirit" (1 Corinthians 12:7). The gifts stand out as exhibitions of the Holy Spirit in word and deed, signifying that He is on the scene in sovereign grace and power. Thus to declare the gifts of the Holy Spirit to be demonic is a terrible offense against Him and His work. Such an attitude is unpardonable whether or not it is labeled as "blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.".
 If Jesus' blood on Calvary can save us from all sin, then how can there be an unpardonable sin? Also, if someone committed it but wanted to be right with God, couldn't he be?
First, we need to note Jesus Himself spoke of the unpardonable sin: "All sins shall be forgiven the sons of men, whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin" (Mark 3:28-29). The unpardonable sin is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. In another Gospel, the Scripture reads: "Whoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but whosoever shall speak against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age, or in the age to come" (Matthew 12:32, cf. Luke 12:10). The unpardonable sin is not some extremely vile sin of gross immorality, for all such may be forgiven. Nor is it the terrible sin of denying, even repudiating, Christ. Even this may be forgiven. What then is the unpardonable blasphemy or speech against the Holy Spirit? The Scripture clearly states it in the following words: "For they were saying He has an unclean [or 'evil, NIV] spirit." "They" were the scribes and Pharisees who had just been saying about Jesus, "He is possessed by Beelzebub" and "He casts out demons by the ruler of the demons" (Mark 3:22). The unpardonable sin was to maliciously attribute to Christ the work of the devil, to declaim as evil what is of the Lord, to viciously label an act or work of the Holy Spirit as a demonic spirit. Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit shows a conscience so perverse and hardened as never to be able to receive forgiveness.
Those who commit this sin are not the murderers, the thieves, the liars, the worldly corrupt, not even the atheists who deny Christ, but religious leaders (like the scribes and Pharisees) who fight against the Holy Spirit. (For more details see Renewal Theology, 1: page 256 and note 54; also 2: page 66, note 24 and page 132.)


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QUESTION: so if the unpardonable sin pertains, as long as I turn on Christ I'm ok?
I shouldn't look at myself as already committing it? should I?

Answer
Blessings and thank you for your question.

Based on what you have told me, I do not believe you have committed the unpardonable sin.  As long as you do not renounce your faith in Jesus Christ, then you are okay.  But remember, we ALL should try and live a life worthy of the grace we have received.