Unpardonable sin

“ The next thing to be considered is, That all other sins and blasphemies, whatsoever may be forgiven. Be our sins ever so great and many, though we be the vilest wretches that ever lived, yet there is hope of pardon upon repentance. ”

“ The sins against the Holy Ghost are not unpardonable, if we consider the omnipotence of God. Just as God can cure miraculously a disease that is humanly incurable, so can He pardon a sin which, according to its nature, is unpardonable; for He is able to bring hope and repentance to those who were in despair, for example. Hence, we repeat, there is no sin which, if repented of, cannot be forgiven in this life. ”

“ But you are to take the words of our Saviour in their true sense and meaning; it is all manner of sin and blasphemy committed within the compass of a man's life, that shall be forgiven, except the sin against the Holy Ghost; for the sin of final impenitence, and final unbelief, is not completed until the very moment of a man's death; and then you know that there is no repentance, and consequently no pardon after death; for Christ said, "He that sins against the Holy Ghost, hath no forgiveness, neither in this world nor in the world to come." ”

“ There must not only be grace, but truth as well. God can only forgive sin in consistency with His justice. In our ignorance we think of pardon as the removal of a grudge, the overlooking of an insult, but this loose view keeps justice out of sight. Would you accept a pardon which would degrade the character of God, represent Him as a lawless being conniving at the very sin He forgives, shake the foundations of His throne, and subvert the interests of truth and holiness in the universe? Sin is no such light thing lightly forgiven. ”

“ Remission of sins immediately follows true repentance; but how shall a man have his sins remitted when he does not repent of them, nay, when he still rejoices in them? Nothing surely could be more preposterous than to expect that sins should be pardoned which a man has no design to renounce; and nothing can be more absurd than to seek consolation in the sufferings of Christ, and yet continue in the mire of sin which caused Christ's death. ”

“ And the apostle tells us expresly, the ungodly: He, that is, God, justifieth the ungodly: the ungodly of every kind and degree, and none but the ungodly. As they that are righteous need no repentance, so they need no forgiveness. It is only sinners that have any occasion for pardon: it is sin alone which admits of being forgiven. ”

“ Thou shalt not be ashamed, that is, thou shalt no more do a shameful thing, as thou hast done." The guilt of sin being taken away by pardoning mercy, the reproach of it shall be rolled away from the sinner's own conscience, that being purified, and pacified, and cleansed from dead works. ”

“ Thus our Lord does not carry with Him a scourge against us, but makes one of our sins. Sin is its own worst punishment, for what can be equal in torture to the reproaches of a lacerated conscience, or, if the sinner's state be yet more deplorable, what can be a greater curse than the silence of an obdurate heart? Divest yourself, then, of all sin, and God can find no instrument of punishment against you. You cart find no real gratification in sin, and by seeking for it there, you only increase your misery. ”

“ I will confess my sins afterwards. If God should let you die first, if he should entirely desert you, what would become of you for all eternity? Alas! how many in this way have been lost! They too hoped for pardon, but the hour of death came, and they were lost. O tremble, for fear the same thing should befal you.
He deserves no mercy who takes advantage of the goodness of God to offend him. God has already pardoned you so many sins. You have reason enough to fear that God will not forgive the next mortal sin you commit. ”

“ Dear friends! there are some of you who are wasting your lives in paroxysms of fierce struggle with the evil that you have partially discovered in yourselves, alternating with long languor, fits of collapse and apathy, and who make no solid advance, just because you will not lay to heart these two convictions—your sin has to do with God, and your sins come from a sinful nature. Because of the one fact, you must go to God for pardon ”

“ But in so far as sin is sin, considered as being the perversion and setting wrong of my relation to Him, its consequences, which are its penalties, are swept away by forgiveness; for forgiveness, in its essence and deepest meaning, is neither more nor less than that the love of the person against whom the wrong has been done shall flow out, notwithstanding the wrong. Pardon is love rising above the ice-dam which we have piled in its course, and pouring into our hearts. ”

“ I do not hesitate to say that beneath the copes of Heaven there never was, there is not, and there never will be, any case of sin being washed away, unless at the same time the heart was led to repentance and faith in Christ. Hatred of sin and a sense of pardon come together into the soul, and abide together while we live.
These two things act and react upon each other: the man who is forgiven, therefore repents; and the man who repents is also most assuredly forgiven. Remember first, that forgiveness leads to repentance. ”

“ Son, add not sins to those which you have already committed, but be careful to pray for the pardon of your past transgressions; otherwise, if you commit another mortal sin, the gates of the divine mercy may be closed against you, and your soul may be lost forever. When, then, beloved brethren, the devil tempts you again to yield to sin, say to yourself: If God pardons me no more, what shall become of me for all eternity? ”

“ Personal pardon — and there is no other, for Principle never pardons either sins or mistakes — leaves the offender free to repeat the offence; if, indeed, he has not already suffered sufficiently from vice to make him turn from it with loathing. Truth bestows no pardon upon error, but wipes it out in the most effectual manner. Jesus suffered for our sins, not to annul the divine sentence against wrong, but to stop the sin, and show that it must bring inevitable suffering.
Asking God to be God is a “vain repetition.” Habitual goodness is unceasing prayer. ”

“ There are present, and for the most part outward, consequences of a forgiven man's sin which are not averted by forgiveness, and which it is for his good that he should not escape. But when the assurance of God's unhindered love rests on a pardoned soul, those consequences of its sins which it has to reap cease to be penal and become educative, cease to be the expressions only of God's hatred of evil, and become expressions of His love to the forgiven evil-doer. ”

“ Now, as long as these defilements of sin remain in the soul, it is impossible God should be reconciled to her. When, therefore, upon the sinner's sincere repentance, Almighty God, through the merits of Christ, pardons sin, He cleanses the soul by His justifying grace; this renders her beautiful and agreeable to God, and restores her to His friendship and favour. So that the pardon or remission of sin, properly speaking, consists in delivering the soul from the guilt of sin, adorning her with the grace of God, and restoring her to His favour. ”

“ We, at least those of us personally engaged in this controversy, maintain no such doctrine as the pardon of sin on condition of repentance—as if repentance were something offered and remission an equivalent received instead. On the contrary, we see in repentance but the painful revulsion of a soul from a moral state found by sad experience to be unworthy of it: a struggle upward in many sighs and fears to the high estate from which it has fallen, in repentance itself we see but an additional instance of the anguish which sin never fails to entail. ”

“ I cannot tell what innumerable mischiefs would certainly occur if you could divide repentance and forgiveness, and pass by the sin while the sinner remained as fond of it as ever. In the very nature of things, if we believe in the holiness of God, it must be so, that if we continue in our sin, and will not repent of it, we cannot be forgiven, but must reap the consequence of our obstinacy. ”

“ We seek deliverance not from penalty and debt—but deliverance [63] from the life of sin into a life of holy will.
There is still another aspect to sin which must be considered before we can fully appreciate the way of salvation which the Gospel reveals. Sin not only spoils the sinner’s life and drags him into slavery. It separates him from God. It opens a chasm between him and his heavenly Father, or to vary the figure it casts a shadow on God’s face. God seems far away and stern. The sense of warmth and tenderness vanishes. The sinner can see God only through the veil of his sins. ”

“ Though ungrateful we have been, only made returns of sin, Though ungrateful we have been, only made returns of sin. While we pray for pardoning grace, through the dear Redeemer’s Name, Show Thy reconciled face, shine away our sin and shame ”

“ We can imagine but two reasons why God should not truly forgive us our sins in the process of justification: inability and unwillingness. To say that He is unable to forgive us our sins would be to assert that the remission of sin involves a metaphysical impossibility. This no Protestant will admit, because all believe that “nothing defiled shall enter into heaven.”901 To assert that God is unwilling to forgive our sins would be to contradict the plain teaching of Scripture, as set forth above. ”

“ After I had been in this furnace some weeks, in which I felt as others do in similar cases, much grief, anger, rebellion, and discontent, but not quite without a spirit of prayer that I might be favored with the very gracious visits of the Saviour, and a sense of God’s approbation in my own soul, though despised by others, I entreated the Lord to shew me the exceeding sinfulness of sin, as well as I could bear it; for I am convinced no man could ever behold sin in all its malignity—none but the God-Man could bear that—yet I desired to see sin as most abominable in God’s sight. ”

“ Can a pardoned sinner be thus unholy?” — And, if then, instead of immediately crying to God, they reason with him that is wiser than they, they will be in heaviness indeed, in sorrow of heart, in anguish not to be expressed. Nay even when God shines again upon the soul, and takes away all doubt of his past mercy, still he that is weak in faith may be tempted and troubled on account of what is to come; especially when inward sin revives, and thrusts sore at him that he may fall. Then may he again cry out,
I have a sin of fear, that when I’ve spun My last thread, I shall perish on the shore! ”

“ When they have sinned, they show how discord begins in mutual frailty, and how it ought to cease in mutual forbearance; how confidence of the divine favour is forfeited by sin; and how hope of pardon may be obtained by penitence and prayer. A state of innocence we can only conceive, if, indeed, in our present misery, it be possible to conceive it; but the sentiments and worship proper to a fallen and offending being, we have all to learn, as we have all to practise. ”

“ So a sense of guilt and shame hardens the human heart, but a consciousness that the sin has been freely forgiven and forgotten melts it into contrition and love if it is not utterly dead to moral influences. ”

“ But the central idea of this first promise is that it must be God's hand which sprinkles from an evil conscience. Forgiveness is a divine prerogative. He only can, and He will, cleanse from all filthiness. His pardon is universal. The most ingrained sins cannot be too black to melt away from the soul. The dye-stuffs of sin are very strong, but there is one solvent which they cannot resist. There are no 'fast colours' which God's 'clean water' cannot move. This cleansing of pardon underlies all the rest of the blessings. It is ever the first thing needful when a soul returns to God. ”

“ IV. See that malignity in every one of your particular sins, which you can see and say is in sin in general.—It is a gross deceit of yourselves, if you will speak a great deal of the evil of sin, and see none of this malignity in your pride, and your worldliness, and your passion and peevishness, and your malice and uncharitableness, and your lying, backbiting, slandering, or sinning against conscience for worldly commodity or safety. What self-contradiction is it for a man in prayer to aggravate sin, and when he is reproved for it, to justify or excuse it! ”

“ Because sinne in respect of the guilt that is joyned with it, hath a kind of power whereby it drawes all evill; like as faith and prayers obtain every good gift from God. Hence is it, that our sins are said to cry for vengeance; and also to draw punishment unto it as it were with strong cords, Isaiah 5.18. For while men draw sin with such-like cords, they do also draw the punishment of sinne, which is joyned unto it. ”

“ It is wicked to pray what we do not believe. "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin." I believe that God pardoned us from the beginning, and that this pardon will be realized through death and the resurrection. And when I pray that God would pardon our sins, I mean that he would grant us an evidence of that pardon, which unchangeably existed in his eternal mind, by enlightening our understanding in the Scriptures of truth, and giving us correct views of his character as a Being of tenderness and compassion to the children of men. ”

“ But we may, at any rate, guard our people against misunderstanding it; and they are guilty, and full of guilt, who live in sin,—sins of avarice, of ill temper, of calumny, of hatred, of sensuality, and of unforgivingness,117 and yet daily ask to be forgiven, because, forsooth, they are innocent of any bad intention!
No man or woman who sins with the knowledge that it is sin can have God's forgiveness. It is no use to plead the frailty of the flesh. ”