One day after the church service a little freckled-faced girl, nine or ten years old, pulled my coattail and asked to talk to me. We went to a quiet corner in the sanctuary, and with tears in her eyes and trembling lip, she managed to say, “I think I’ve committed the unpardonable sin.”

Many others have the same concern. There’s something frightening about the very phrase “unpardonable sin.” It can lead us to picture an angry God, shaking His head and saying, “This time you’ve gone too far.” And struggling Christians from nine to ninety-nine have worried about passing the limits of God’s grace and mercy.

The woman taken in adultery was sure she had gone too far. With bowed head and downcast eyes, she silently waited for the stones to fly. She was amazed to discover that the door of mercy was still open for her. She was uncondemned. God still offered His forgiveness and power.

Let’s read about the unpardonable sin in Matthew 12:31. Jesus said,

“I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.”

The first part of the verse is encouraging, All manner of sin shall be forgiven. But what does it mean to sin against the Holy Ghost? Simply this: Since it is the work of the Spirit to convict of sin

(see John 16:8, 9) and since all manner of sin can be forgiven, then the sin against the Holy Ghost would be to refuse His conviction and refuse to come to repentance.

Forgiveness is conditional. If it were not, then everyone in the world would be saved. What are the conditions for forgiveness? First, that we confess our sins. We are told that

“if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.” 1 John 1:9.

Therefore an unpardonable sin would be any sin for which we refuse to confess and seek forgiveness.

Some today have decided that confession is not important. They say that God is a loving Father and that a father would not insist that his children confess their wrong deeds. They say a father forgives his children because he loves them. But that’s not what the Bible says. The Bible teaches that confession is important. In order to be forgiven, we must ask for forgiveness and accept it.

How do we accept God’s forgiveness? Steps to Christ, page 51, says,

“If you believe the promise,-believe that you are forgiven and cleansed,-God supplies the fact; you are made whole, just as Christ gave the paralytic power to walk when the man believed that he was healed. It is so if you believe it.”

Sometimes we have gotten the idea that the condition for forgiveness is that we never sin again.

We promise God, “If you’ll just forgive me this one more time-” And then we commit the same sin again and are afraid to come to Him for forgiveness. This is what often causes people to fear they have committed the unpardonable sin.

But the Bible promise is,

“Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” John 6:37.

There is no expiration date on that as there is on a roll of film. No message that says, “Not good after such-and-such a time.” The one who comes to Christ is always, always accepted.

It doesn’t matter who you are or what you have done. If you come to Jesus today, ask His forgiveness, accept His gift of repentance and pardon, you will be forgiven.

“Jesus loves to have us come to Him just as we are, sinful, helpless, dependent. We may come with all our weakness, our folly, our sinfulness, and fall at His feet in penitence. It is His glory to encircle us in the arms of His love and to bind up our wounds, to cleanse us from all impurity.” - Steps to Christ, p. 52.