We talk about forgiving sin. Is there such a thing as a sin that can't be forgiven?
The Bible actually talks in Matthew and Mark about "speaking against the Holy Spirit" as the one sin which cannot be forgiven. Well and good...except we don't know exactly what that entails. The Holy Spirit gives us a good portion of mystery and discovery just by his mere presence. We don't even know entirely how to speak of him, let alone what speaking against him would mean. Theologians have debated this for centuries without coming to a firm conclusion. In any case, it's only mentioned briefly and never brought up again. We could talk all day about what it means, but my pastor sense is tingling telling me that this isn't the best answer to your question.
The better answer probably starts with another question: Who are we talking about doing the forgiving here?
It's certainly within the power of God to forgive all sins. When we do the confession and forgiveness thing in church that's the same as God telling you that your sins are forgiven. You are washed clean. That's what makes you able to hear God's Word rightly, to participate in communion, to even sing or pray before God and have him hear your words. God makes you clean so he can stay with you and so you can stay with him...not just in worship, but forever.
When we say, "Your sins are forgiven" we don't mean some and not others. It's not a process of picking and choosing. You can't be sort of clean and get into heaven. There's no such thing as "mostly saved, except for that one thing". Clean means clean. Forgiven means forgiven. God loves us so much that he doesn't leave any sin behind. In that sense there is no unforgivable sin.
The issue gets more complex when you talk about how we forgive each other. We're supposed to forgive each other just as God forgives us. That means being able to forgive the people who do wrong against you, not holding grudges or carrying the hurt and offense around with you forever. Ideally there would be no unforgivable sin in our relationships with each other either.
In practice, though, some sins cause so much hurt that it's nearly impossible to forgive the offender fully...or at least impossible to forgive the offender on a timetable, as in, "You've got to forgive them now!" Sometimes even saying those words, "I forgive you" makes us hurt more because it feels like we're saying the sin didn't happen or wasn't important. Each of us is always free to forgive another no matter what the sin. Each of us should strive to do that. But it's not fair for one person to say to another, "You have to forgive that other person right now or you're a bad person!"
I'm afraid that if I only describe the ideal situation--that we should forgive each other as fully and freely as God forgives us--someone reading this will say, "Pastor Dave is telling me I have to forgive this other person right now or I'm a bad person." What if the sin in question was abuse...somebody was abused or attacked by another person. Would it be fair for me to say, "If you don't forgive the person who abused you right now you're bad" when the whole tragedy of the abuse was that it made you feel bad? I'd just be piling new badness onto the old. That's not what God wants.
That's why we have to be more gentle with this subject. We do say that God is capable of forgiving all of us of any sin. We say that we need to forgive each other too, just like God does. But I'd also say that if the idea of forgiving someone right now is just so painful that you can't do it...I think God understands that. Right now that sin might be unforgivable. If not being able to forgive right this instant is a sin in itself, well...God can forgive that one too.
Therefore when talking about unforgivable sin I tend to say that I'm not certain that I could always forgive every sin but I am certain that God can and I won't stop him from doing it. If someone did something awful to one of my children (or even one of my Confirmation students!) I'm not sure I could forgive them for a long time, maybe not ever. But if that person were locked in jail and a priest or pastor came to see them I wouldn't be angry. I would allow that God could forgive them...maybe even that they should be forgiven at some point. I would just know that I wasn't able to do that right now.
So from a God point of view there are no sins beyond his ability to forgive. From a human point of view we should try as hard as we can to imitate God and forgive each other's sins. That should work 99.9% of the time with 99.9% of sins. But if there are certain sins which cause us so much pain that we cannot bring ourselves to forgive at this time, that's OK. God is here to comfort our pain, not to bring more. He'll forgive in his way and he'll hold us tight in the meantime.
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
No comments:
Post a Comment