Topic(s): Bible Authority, Moral Issues, Sin

Dennis Lee Curtis was arrested in 1992 in Rapid City, South Dakota, for armed robbery. Curtis apparently had scruples about his thievery. In his wallet the police found a sheet of paper on which was written the following code, a sort of a robber’s rules:

1. I will not kill anyone unless I have to.
2. I will take cash and food stamps—no checks.
3. I will rob only at night.
4. I will not wear a mask.
5. I will not rob mini-marts or 7-Elevens.
6. If I get chased by cops on foot, I will get away. If chased by a vehicle, I will not put the lives of innocent civilians on the line.
7. I will rob only 7 months out of the year.
8. I will enjoy robbing from the rich to give to the poor.

This thief had a sense of morality, but it was flawed. When he stood before the court, he was not judged by the standards he had set for himself, but by the higher law of the state. Likewise, when we stand before God we will not be judged by the code of morality we have written for ourselves, but by God’s perfect law. —Brian Burrell

“He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.” —John 12:48

Born Again?

Topic(s): Humor

A husband said that before his wife’s conversion to Christ, she endlessly nagged, picked on, and berated her husband. When she became a Christian, nothing changed. She kept nagging. Finally he told her, “I don’t mind that you were born again. I just wish you hadn’t been born again as yourself.”

“Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.”—Romans 6:6

What Is the Unpardonable Sin?

Topic(s): Bible Study, Sin

There is really no such thing. Neither the phrase nor the idea which it connotes appears in the sacred writings. The implication in it is that it is possible for one to so sin as to find it impossible to obtain forgiveness. There is no such situation. Taught repeatedly and with the greatest emphasis throughout the New Testament is the glorious fact that when

1. one genuinely repents of all wrong-doing,
2. ceases the practice thereof, and
3. complies with the conditions applicable, pardon full and complete is by our Lord gladly and graciously bestowed.

This, indeed has been the divine assurance through the ages. In the long ago Isaiah penned these comforting words: “Seek ye Jehovah while he may be found; call ye upon him while he is near: let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto Jehovah, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon” (Isaiah 55:6–7). And, God promised through the covenant, “And their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more” (Hebrews 10:17). With such comforting assurances the scriptures abound.

The passage usually, but erroneously, designated as teaching the doctrine of “unpardonable sin,” is 1 John 5:16, where reference is made to the “sin unto death.” But, this is simply a sin which a brother will not confess—a fact which the larger context clearly shows. The Lord will forgive every sin a brother confesses (1 John 1:9); but, there is a sin which the Lord will not forgive (1 John 5:16). Therefore, the sin which the Lord will not forgive is simply a sin which a brother will not confess.

The context corroborates this view and the premises lead logically to this conclusion. If I witness sin on the part of an erring brother or sister and such may be brought to penitence and confession, I not only may, it is my duty to pray for such with the assurance that the Lord will hear and answer the petition made (James 5:16). But, if the brother or sister persists in such rebellion it is vain and useless exercise to pray for the forgiveness of impenitent persons, and the Lord will not hear and answer such a prayer for the brother or sister involved.

The “sin against the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 12:31–32), is, in principle, the rejection of the revelation which the Spirit, the third person of the godhead, made, first through our Lord, and then through His representatives. It is the denial of the Spirit’s message initially by direct inspiration, and then through the Book, the practical effects of which is the rejection of the deity of our Lord, the repudiation of His sacrificial death, the annulment of the atonement, and the implication that a sacrifice will yet be made. Those who thus do would crucify Christ “afresh” from the allegation that He who died on the cross was an imposter and that the Suffering Savior must yet appear, and suffer. Salvation is denied those of this category, not because it is not offered to them, but because they have permanently rejected it (Hebrews 6:1; 10:25–28). The ever-flowing waters of the Well of Life are always available to those who desire to come and to quench their thirst. How we should rejoice that “There is a fountain filled with blood, Drawn from Immanuel’s veins; And sinners plunged beneath that flood, Lose all their guilty stains.” —Guy N. Woods, Gospel Advocate, July 16, 1981