Hebrews 6:4-6 reads, “For as touching those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit and tasted the good word of God, and the power of the age to come and then fell away, it is impossible to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame.” This is a sober warning and many troubled people have asked, “Have I reached the point in which I cannot be forgiven?”
Similar to this passage is another in which Jesus warned, “Verily I say unto you, All their sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and their blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme but whosoever shall blaspheme against the Holy Spirit hath never forgiveness, but is guilt of an eternal sin: because they said, He hath an unclean spirit” (Mark 3:28-30).
Are these two circumstances the same? Some say, “Yes” while others say, “No.” If they are the same, the answer to troubled souls as to whether they have sinned the “unpardonable” sin is plain: “We cannot sin against the Holy Spirit in the sense Jesus spoke of here.” Notice the context. Jesus had worked an undeniable miracle. There were those who witnessed that miracle, and although they could not deny a miracle had been worked, they said Jesus worked the miracle by the power of Beelzebub, the prince of devils. Jesus warned that those who attributed the work to be the work of the devil were in danger of having committed an unpardonable sin. The miracles Jesus worked were God’s witness to man that Jesus had been sent by Him and was His Son (John 20:30-31). To attribute what was undeniably a miracle to the devil instead of God was blaspheming the Holy Spirit. One cannot commit this type of sin today because the working of miracles was to cease (1 Corinthians 13:8).
However, the sin Jesus warned against in Mark 3 (while also dealing with miracles) is different from the one in Hebrews 6. The circumstance in Mark 3 describes one who saw a miracle worked but attributed it to the devil rather than God. The context of Hebrews 6 deals with one who actually possessed power to work a miracle. Notice the person described in Hebrews 6. That person described was one who had partaken of the Holy Spirit. The person in Mark 3 had seen the miracle; the person in Hebrews 6 had actually had one of the nine spiritual gifts Paul named in 1 Corinthians 12:8-10. These gifts came through the laying on of the apostles’ hands (Acts 8:18; 2 Timothy 1:6), but these gifts have now passed away. Those gifts were to cease when that which is perfect had come, and that which is perfect has come. Jesus has come and finished His work of redemption of man and revealed His completed, perfect will to us (1 Corinthians 13:8).
Therefore, while a person today cannot sin in the same way as the sin named in Hebrews 6, there is a serious matter which cannot be ignored: the sin in Hebrews 6 was a deliberate one. Now, while we cannot fall away and be in danger the way the Hebrew writer warned the Hebrew Christians, we can reach the state where it is impossible for us to be “renewed again unto repentance.”
It was true (and still is) that some people may commit a sin through ignorance while others may sin purposefully and knowingly. Yet, who is there, who at some time or the other, has done something that he knows is wrong at the time he does it? And, whether a person sins knowingly or ignorantly, has not he who sins ignorantly crucified the Lord afresh and put Him to an open shame, as well as he who sins knowingly?
There are several things that we may have in common with those described in Hebrews 6. That one knew what he was doing and so can we. We cannot work the spiritual gifts he might have worked, but we can certainly and knowingly commit sin as that person did and to do so is a fearful and troubling thing. He who sins knowingly does something to his conscience that will surely, if persisted in, lead to a seared conscience — one that is past feeling. And, when a person reaches that state, he has reached the point where he cannot be renewed again to repentance. We may not reach the place where God is not willing to forgive us; yet reach the place where we cannot repent. Have you reached that point in your life, my friend? If you can still repent, hurry, do the things God commands you to do, lest by searing your conscience you cannot repent and therefore cannot be forgiven.
Jim McDonald