The Gospel in Twenty Questions (23 page)

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

In a sense, there
is no such thing as an eternal sin. Every sin was forgiven or carried away at
the cross. To suggest Jesus missed one sin, as some translations do, is to
imply his work was less than perfect.

Jesus
is not saying your sins won’t be forgiven
—
they already have been. He’s saying you’ll
never experience his forgiveness if you resist the Holy Spirit. You’ll never
walk in grace if you resist the Spirit of grace.

We
can resist grace two ways: by hardening our hearts to God and saying, “I don’t
need you,” or by trusting the religious spirit that says, “I can make it on my
own.” Both attitudes are fatal.

You
need to know that the Holy Spirit is the best friend you’ve got. He is the most
powerful being in the universe and every day he will seek to point you towards Jesus.
When you sin, he will reassure you that you are forgiven. When you stumble, he
will tell you that in Christ you are as righteous as ever. And when
condemnation comes, he will remind you that your Father is for you and nothing
can separate you from his love.

What
is your part in this? It is to speak
with
the Holy Spirit and not
against him. It is to agree with God and not deny him. It is to thank Jesus and
not supplant him. If you call Jesus “Lord,” then be at peace, for in him you
are eternally safe and secure and forgiven indeed!

A man called
Charles wrote to me because he thought he had committed the unforgivable sin.
“I heard someone speaking in tongues and said, ‘That person is demon
possessed.’” Charles was worried because he had acted like the Pharisees, who
ascribed to the devil the work of the Spirit.

The
Pharisees saw Jesus casting out demons and said, “By the prince of demons he is
driving out demons” (Mark 3:22). Jesus responded by warning them not to
blaspheme the Holy Spirit. But the Pharisees’ problem was not that they were
confused about Jesus’ source of power. Their problem was they were resistant to
the gospel Jesus was demonstrating right before their eyes.

A
demon-possessed man who was blind and mute was brought to the Lord. Jesus drove
out the demon so that the man could talk and see. When the Pharisees said,
“This is the devil’s work,” Jesus didn’t respond with, “You blasphemers. You’ll
never be forgiven for saying that!” He said, “Are you nuts? If Satan were
driving out Satan, there wouldn’t be any Satan left” (see Matthew 12:26, MSG).

I
have seen supernatural activity which some Christians attributed to God and
others to the devil. They can’t both be right. Because I preach the gospel of
grace, some Christians have called me a servant of the Lord, while others have
said I am an instrument of Satan. Again, they can’t both be right. From time to
time, sincere believers are spectacularly wrong about what God is doing among
them. They repeat the mistake of the Pharisees. But that doesn’t mean they have
committed the unforgivable sin. It just means they are confused.

What
does a blasphemer look like? Religion paints a picture of a blasphemer as
someone who is belligerent or foul-mouthed. But a blasphemer may look respectable,
like a Pharisee. The distinguishing characteristic of a blasphemer is not that
they are confused, like Charles. It’s that they call God a liar.

If we have faith in God’s Son, we have
believed what God has said. But if we don’t believe what God has said about his
Son, it is the same as calling God a liar. (1 John 5:10, CEV)

By his own
admission the apostle Paul “was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a
violent man” (1 Timothy 1:13). As a Pharisee, Paul resisted the Holy Spirit and
refused to believe his testimony about Jesus. By speaking against the Holy
Spirit Paul committed the unforgivable sin. He essentially said “God is a
liar.” But God didn’t write him off. He kept pouring out his grace until one
day Paul saw the light. This shows us that no one is beyond the reach of grace,
not even violent blasphemers like Paul.

This
is good news for those like Søren Kierkegaard who worry they have committed the
unforgivable sin. If you are worried, get your eyes off yourself and your sin
and look to Jesus. Stop resisting the Spirit of grace and allow him to persuade
you that the love of God is greater than all your sin
—
your
unconfessed sin, your willful sin, your habitual sin
—
even
those sins you thought were unforgivable.

I
wish I could go back to nineteenth-century Copenhagen, find the gloomy Dane,
and tell him the good news. “Søren, all your sins have been forgiven. God holds
nothing against you.” The gospel is the cure for gloominess. The gospel is the
joyful declaration that God loves the stubborn and the disrespectful. He even loves
blasphemers.

I have a beard, so you may find
this hard to believe, but I shave every day. Most men do. I understand many
women also shave regularly. Perhaps you were shaved at one time, but that
doesn’t mean you are shaved now. You have to work to stay shaved. You may
profess a belief in shaving, but faith without regular works of shaving shaves
no one.

Shaving is a
tricky business. You need to hold fast when you shave. You have to work out
your shaving with fear and trembling because only he who shaves firm to the end
will be shaved.

I’m smiling
as I write this. Why? Because apparently being shaved and being
saved
have much in common. You have to work hard at both of them. At least that’s
what some people think.           

For those of
you who have no idea what I’m talking about, I’m having a gentle dig at those
who ridicule the phrase, “Once saved, always saved.” Why anyone would want to
scorn the believer’s security is beyond me. It’s like mocking marriage.

Your security
in Christ is a big deal. It’s something to treasure, not scorn.

Since
childhood I have known that I am secure in my Father’s love—he holds me, he
keeps me, and he will never let me go. But many are not secure. They’ve been
told they have to abide, continue, hold fast to the end, overcome, obey,
endure, and otherwise do things to stay saved. Naturally, this unsettles them.
What
if I don’t do what God expects of me? What if I stumble at the last hurdle?
What then?

If this is
you, then this chapter, and the three that follow ought to help. We’re going to
look at some of the key scriptures on the subject of your security. After we
unpackage these scriptures in light of who Christ is and what he has done for
us, you’re going to be so blessed. You’re going to want to shout and thank
Jesus from the rooftops.

But before we
jump in, let’s take a moment to polish our spectacles and check for cracks in
the lenses.

What you look through
determines what you see. If you look at the world through a cracked lens,
everything will appear fuzzy and distorted. Similarly, if you have a distorted
view of God, everything you read will be filtered through your distortion.
Taking that one step further, if you are insecure and uncertain about your
position in Christ, then parts of the Bible will appear to support your prior
notions of insecurity.

I appreciate
this works both ways. If I come to the Bible secure in my Father’s love, then
everything I read will appear to confirm my prior notions of security. So how
do we decide which perspective is correct? The only way is to filter the written
word through the Living Word—who Jesus is and what he has done.

I’m not
claiming to be the final authority on how to interpret scripture. Every one of
us has blind spots and we’re all learning. But may I humbly suggest that if you
are insecure about your salvation, your vision may be obscured by one of the
following blind spots.

Blind spot #1: The insecure don’t
see God as their Father

Jesus came to
reveal God our Father and it is this revelation that makes the new covenant
new. And this is what makes a Christian a Christian
—
we
have received the Spirit of sonship. We are God’s children. We have been
adopted in and we will never be adopted out. But the insecure don’t see it. At
best, God is a generic Father of humanity, but he’s certainly not Daddy. He’s
more like a judge or employer who grades us on our performance.

Lacking
the confidence that comes from knowing the Father’s love, the insecure filter
his words through an orphan’s anxieties. Their survival instincts keep them
from fully trusting his promises.

They
may have enough faith to be saved but not enough to relax. They have to stay
vigilant lest they lose their grip and drift away.

Blind spot #2: The insecure
don’t fully appreciate the cross

The insecure may know Jesus
died for them but they don’t know that his death ended the old system of
rule-keeping. Consequently, they interpret new covenant promises as old
covenant threats.

A classic
example is the commands of Jesus which the insecure read as
instructions
that must be obeyed if you want to stay saved
(see chapter 14)
.
Other examples include the exhortations to continue in the faith (chapter 18)
and endure to the end (chapter 9). When these are read as conditions for
maintaining salvation, a cross-shaped blind spot is revealed.

Blind spot #3. The insecure
don’t see salvation as a Person

The insecure treat
the gift of salvation as though it comes in a box. If you don’t hold on to it
you could lose it. Like your car keys, you can misplace your salvation if
you’re not careful.

Salvation is
not a box; it’s a Person. It is Christ living in you. “Christ is your life”
(Colossians 3:4). It’s always a good idea to hold onto Jesus, but even if you
don’t he still holds on to you, and the good news is he will never let you go
(John 10:28).

Have you ever broken a promise
or failed to keep your word? You probably have. Now you know why some people
are worried they may fail God. They made a commitment to follow the Lord, but
the pattern of their lives reveals a consistent inability to deliver. They have
good days when they confidently declare, “Lord, I will serve you with all of my
heart.” But then they have bad days when they feel like a failure. “Lord, I
messed up.” One week they’re up, the next they’re down. One Sunday they’re
making promises; the next they are apologizing for breaking them. It’s an
endless cycle.

The problem
is they are standing on the brittle promises they’ve made to God when they
ought to be standing on the rock-solid promises he’s made to us. They are
focusing on their own “I wills” rather than the eternal “He wills” declared in
scripture.

Ask them if
they have any assurance of salvation and the honest ones reply, “I don’t know. I
hope so, but I’m not certain.” Their uncertainty reveals the shakiness of their
manmade foundations.

Uncertainty
is a faith-killer. If you are uncertain about what God has said, how will you
be able to stand on his promises? If you don’t settle this issue of eternal
security in your heart, you’ll always wonder whether you have done enough to
qualify.

Uncertainty
regarding the promises of God is actually unbelief.
If
you are
uncertain and in doubt, know that I write so that you might
repent (change your unbelieving mind) and believe the good news. I write so
that you might trust Jesus to finish what he started.

If I could
show you just one promise from the Lord that guaranteed your eternal security,
would you quit fretting? Would
you stop heeding the
misgivings of the muddled and instead
trust in the Rock of your
salvation? Would one bankable promise from the Faithful One do it for you?
Well, here’s one:

He also will keep you firm to the end, so that you
will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful who has
called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. (1 Corinthians
1:8–9)

This scripture is the atom bomb
that obliterates the doubts of the insecure. If you struggle with doubt and uncertainty,
you should frame this verse. It will remind you that salvation is not about
your faithfulness, but his and “God is faithful.”

It is the
nature of the flesh to grasp and strive and say, “I will,” but it is the nature
of faith to rest and trust and say, “He will.” That’s the hope-filled message
Paul is preaching here: “He will … so that you will …”

Let’s look at
that passage again, this time in the Message Bible:

The evidence of Christ has been clearly verified in your
lives. Just think—you don’t need a thing, you’ve got it all! ... And not only
that, but God himself is right alongside to keep you steady and on track until
things are all wrapped up by Jesus. God, who got you started in this spiritual
adventure, shares with us the life of his Son and our Master Jesus. He will
never give up on you. Never forget that. (1 Corinthians 1:6–9, MSG) 

You may give up on God, but he
will never give up on you, and that’s what counts.

And let’s not
forget who Paul was writing to either. He’s addressing the Corinthians, folks
who were unlikely to win big at the Good Christian Awards. The Corinthian
church was a scandal, yet Paul looks at these substandard saints, sees God’s
fingerprints all over them, and speaks confidently of their future. “Our hope
for you is firm” (2 Corinthians 1:7).

Who called
you into fellowship with Christ? God. Who will keep you strong to the end so
that you will be blameless on that day? God. Who is faithful? God. It’s not
about you but him.

Here’s
another promise you can stand on:

Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in
Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in
our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. (2 Corinthians 1:21–22)

The word
guarantee
means
a down payment or pledge, “given in advance as security for the rest.”
[40]
So either God has nothing but more good stuff planned for you—guaranteed!—or he
is a liar.

Are you
getting this yet?