Jesus is very clear in Mark 3: “Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven their sins.”
That is an amazing statement but too often we in the church have added comments to that word of forgiveness. Too often we have said, “Well, yes, forgiveness is a gift for everyone and God will forgive every sin but…” And it is at this point that we tend to add something like “…but don’t take advantage of that forgiveness and don’t get carried away with sinning and don’t do this or that or…”
In a contemporary translation of the Bible, Jesus’ point is even clearer: “Listen to this carefully. I’m warning you. There’s nothing done or said that can’t be forgiven.” The key word in that version is “nothing.”
Jesus is clear about the universality of forgiveness but then he says, “…whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of eternal sin.” A young Christian wrote to me a while back asking about this verse. He was very concerned about what would happen if he did this seemingly terrible thing against the Holy Spirit. I told him that I am 100% certain that if you are concerned about it, that is a sign that you don’t have to worry about this very strange and unusual statement from Jesus!
I also told him that Jesus’ point is this: the only unforgivable sin is the failure to see that God forgives every sin, every person. The only unforgivable sin is to limit God’s grace, to limit God’s desire to bring all into the light of grace.
One time, Peter quizzed Jesus on forgiveness. He asked, “How many times do we forgive, seven?” Peter most likely knew he was stretching things a bit. The rabbis taught that three times was more than enough, then let it go. By going to seven he was more than doubling the teaching.
Jesus answers, “Forgive 77 times,” or, it’s hard to tell for sure from the ancient Greek, maybe he is saying, “forgive 70 times 7 – 490 times!” Jesus isn’t worried about the math. Forgiveness isn’t something you can figure on a calculator. If you are keeping track, you haven’t yet learned how to forgive.
CS Lewis wrote, “To be a Christian is to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.”
I’m pretty sure that Jesus would offer a hearty amen to Mr. Lewis’ conclusion!
Grace and peace to you,
-Glen
