“WILL you please speak to my sister? She is so low and unhappy, it makes, me quite sad to see her.”
We inquired the cause of her unhappiness. In reply her sister answered for herself, and said, “Oh, sir, I have committed the unpardonable sin; I feel sure there is no forgiveness for me!”
“Please tell me what you mean by the unpardonable sin. Many use the expression without knowing what sin it refers to.”
“Well, sir, I feel sure I have committed it, because I enjoyed religion once; but those happy hours have fled, and now I am most miserable. I came to Christ, received the pardoning love of God into my heart; but it is all gone and I am wretched!”
“Let me ask you a question. When reading in the twelfth chapter of Matthew that they brought unto Jesus one possessed with a devil, blind, and dumb, and He healed him, ‘insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw,’ did you charge Jesus with working that miracle by Satanic power? Did you say, or think, that it was Beelzebub, the prince of the devils, who enabled Him to do it?”
“Say that? No, indeed! I should not think of saying such a thing!”
“Then most certainly you have not committed the unpardonable sin. If you read verse 28 of Matthew 12, you will see that Jesus healed this man by the power of the Holy Spirit. To attribute this miracle to Satan is to commit the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. This is a sin which hath no forgiveness.”
“Oh, if that is it, I never committed that sin!”
“I felt sure you had not. Had you done so, you would not experience the sorrow you now feel.
“Now note what Jesus says, ‘All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men; but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven’ (verse 31). It is clear that among the sins you have committed you have never thus blasphemed. For every other kind of sin there is forgiveness, even for blasphemy, if it be not of the nature of which we have spoken. The grace expressed in those words, ‘All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men,’ cannot be surpassed.
“Let us now inquire what has led to your present state of soul. What is the real cause of your distress? Did it not begin by the neglect of prayer, of your Bible, and the society of God’s dear people? You say you came to God as a lost sinner, felt His love in your heart, but afterward you got right away from Him, and lost all your joy.”
“Yes, that is just my case.”
“Then you are a backslider, not a blasphemer. Now, there is free forgiveness for every repentant backslider.”
“Open your Bible at the fourteenth chapter of Hosea. What is the charge? ‘Thou hast fallen by thine iniquity’ (verse 1). What is the remedy? ‘Take with you words, and turn to the Lord’ (verse 2). Tell God how you got wrong, where you got wrong, and how far you have gone wrong. Conceal nothing. ‘If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness’ (1 John 1:99If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)). This is promised to those who unbosom their guilt and tell God the whole truth.
“What will God’s answer be?
“I WILL HEAL THEIR BACKSLIDING’,
‘I WILL LOVE THEM FREELY.’”
“How simple, yet how blessed! You are to take with you words, and confess to God those sins which have drawn you away from Him. Having told Him all, listen to His answer. He tells the poor backslider, ‘I will love you freely,’ as freely, and fully, and unreservedly as I did on the day when you first turned to Me as a poor lost sinner.”
“Love you freely are words worthy of being written in gold. They tell of the infinite compassion, and profound depths of mercy, and restoring grace of our Saviour-God.
“How these words invite you to return and assure you of a gracious welcome. Ponder them. They are intended to teach you the gracious reception which awaits you and every repentant, self-judged backslider.
“Your part is to ‘take with you words.’ To confess what it was which led to your present unhappy state. Get right down to the bottom. Reach the point of departure in the presence of God your Father.
“Sins committed by a Christian are graver than those of an unconverted man. They are sins against light and love —the sad doings of a child against a loving parent. These sins snap the link of communion, but, thank God, they cannot break the link of relationship.”
“What do you mean? Am I not a lost sinner needing to be saved over again?”
“No; God never treats us as lost sinners after we have been once freely and fully forgiven, and brought into His family as a child. A sinner is like a man covered with a black robe. His sins envelop him from head to foot, but in repenting and believing he is cleansed by the precious blood of Christ. Henceforth he is a saint, a holy one, and is clean every whit. If he should sin it is like a mud spot on a white robe; the spot must be dealt with and be removed. This is brought about by ‘the water of the word,’ accompanied by confession. Confession ensures forgiveness and cleansing. ‘If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.’ Faithful and just to the Saviour who once suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, and thus fully and completely atoned for them. It is therefore due to Him we should be both forgiven and cleansed.
“This result will surely follow if we confess our sins.”
Her sorrow vanished when she learned the true character of what is called “the unpardonable sin, and with a deep-drawn sigh of relief on her part, and a warm shake of the hand, we parted.
How much needless sorrow would be averted if Christians paid more heed to the plain statements of God’s Word as to these things.
How much happier, if the special and particular cause of unhappiness were sought out and confessed the moment communion is interrupted. If you, dear reader, are not as happy as formerly, let us earnestly entreat you to get alone with God. Find out the root of your departure, confess all to God, and listen, in believing confidence, to those precious words-
“I will heal their backsliding,
I will love them freely.”
H. N.