The Unforgivable Sin and God's Power
I don't recall exactly when it was that I discovered Quora.com. I'd never heard of it, but I started receiving almost daily emails from the site perhaps after stumbling across something on their page during a search. Regardless, it is a site devoted to user questions and user answers of just about anything you can think of under the sun, including questions of faith. I have answered several questions there, all of them until today questions that I had already addressed here. Today a young man asked, "Is there any sin that cannot be forgiven by God? Does that limit the power of God?" My answer follows:
Yes. There is one and only one unforgivable sin and that is rejecting Christ. One can only be forgiven if he asks for forgiveness. God does not forgive those who do not realize their sinful nature, repent and then ask for His forgiveness.
Many people reference Mark 3:29 and Scripture’s mention of blaspheming the Holy Spirit. What this means is that anyone who rejects the Holy Spirit’s convicting influence and does not repent will not be forgiven. A thorough reading of Scripture as a whole makes it clear that the one and only unforgivable sin is permanently rejecting Christ.
This in no way limits God’s power. The sin is not unforgivable in the sense that God doesn’t have the power to forgive it. It’s unforgivable because it's committed without remorse and repentance. Forgiveness is never asked; therefore, it is never granted.
God created man as a free moral creature. We have free will. That means some of us will freely choose to repent and turn to Christ, making Him Lord of our lives. Unfortunately, some will choose to remain lord of their own lives, rejecting Christ forever.
Those who repent and are saved will spend eternity in the presence of God. Those who do not will spend eternity separated from God, and that is what hell is - eternal, permanent, and irreversible separation from God. J.P. Moreland said, “Hell will forever be a monument to human dignity and the value of human choice. It is a quarantine where God says two important things: I respect freedom of choice enough to where I won’t coerce people, and I value my image-bearers so much that I will not annihilate them.” [1]
Now I don’t mention this to get off track and start down the road of a discussion on hell. I mention it because I think that while it is primarily about hell, Moreland’s statement also beautifully illustrates why this in no way limits God’s power. God is merely honoring the choice each one of us makes, whatever the consequence may be. God remains all-powerful. He is simply letting us choose whether we spend eternity with Him or without Him.
[1] Lee Strobel, The Case for Faith: A Journalist Investigates the Toughest Objections to Christianity (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000), 192.