Fallen from grace: Hint # 3 Turning from obedience to wickedness

You know the old expression about painting yourself into a corner. Well, I find myself with brush in hand, standing on tiptoe trying to keep my shoes clean. How did I ever allow myself to start speculating on theological questions as if I were any good at it? This to say that the notion of falling from grace didn't seem that tough until I actually started trying to figure it out.

It would be tempting to be a universalist at this point, if only to rid myself of these complex questions. But as I've posted elsewhere, you can have free will or you can have universalism, but you can't have both. It takes free will to jump out of Christ's hand. Nobody can pull you out from between his fingers (John 10:27-29). That decision is purely one's own.

And as we've seen, the New Testament warns us in various places that giving up one's place in the Kingdom of God is a live option. Consider, for instance, St. Paul's words (employing nautical terms of which he seemed to be fond):

Timothy, my son, I give you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by following them you may fight the good fight, holding on to faith and a good conscience. Some have rejected these and so have shipwrecked their faith. Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme (1 Timothy 1:18-20).

It seems, by the way, that Hymenaeus failed to learn his lesson, even with the protection of God removed:

2 Timothy 2:15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. 16 Avoid godless chatter, because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly. 17 Their teaching will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, 18 who have wandered away from the truth. They say that the resurrection has already taken place, and they destroy the faith of some. 19 Nevertheless, God’s solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness.”

...must turn away from wickedness. The Apostle John obviously was thinking along similar lines as he wrote his first epistle:

1 John1:5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.

Paul and John are focusing on two things here:

1. Nobody is perfect. John matter-of-factly says that nobody can claim to be faultless, so walking in darkness isn't the same thing as falling short of perfection. Similarly, Paul tells Timothy to do his best in working for God. Clearly he wasn't expecting perfection either. Paul refers to his own failings in Romans 7:24-25 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!.

2. Perverting God's truth, rather than imperfect knowledge or occasional faltering obedience, is the big issue, especially when this action is compromising the beliefs and trust of other people. St. John is particularly graphic--if we contradict God's truth we are calling God a liar. This certainly reminds one of the sin of Lucifer--seeing himself as God's equal and able to take positions of his own that rival God's.

We keep coming back to the same themes as we explore the idea of sin finally going unpardoned: substituting one's own preferences for God's will as revealed in creation, Scripture, or conscience; thinking that these preferences (whether they be beliefs or actions) are genuine options that one would not only continue to pursue but to impress upon others to their detriment; and persisting in these illusions rather than heeding any advice or action to the contrary. Perhaps this is what it means to blaspheme the Holy Spirit.

Fallen from grace: Hint #2 The unpardonable sin

How would this sound at the gospel tent meeting?: "Christ died for all your sins--except one!"

I'm not sure how that would go over with the people on site, but it appears at first blush that this is what the Bible teaches. Here are the relevant verses.

Matthew 12:31 And so I tell you, every kind of sin and slander can be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. 32 Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.

Mark 3:28 Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter, 29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin.”

Luke 12:10 And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.

Other passages that might be relevant.

Hebrews 6:4 It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age 6 and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.

Hebrew 10:26 If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. 28 Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?

Now compare these verses with the wonderful promise in 1 John 1:9: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

A few tentative conclusions:

a. What is in view in these passages is not a lapse into neglect of one's faith, or an indiscretion. My heavens, consider Simon the Sorcerer in the book of Acts chapter 8 who at first believed the apostles' message concerning Jesus, was baptized into the fledgling church, and then thought he could purchase the power of the Holy Spirit with his own money:

9 Now for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria...11 They followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his sorcery. 12 But when they believed Philip as he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. 13 Simon himself believed and was baptized. And he followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw.

14 When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to Samaria. 15 When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit, 16 because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

18 When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money 19 and said, “Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”

20 Peter answered: “May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! 21 You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God. 22 Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord in the hope that he may forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. 23 For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin.”

24 Then Simon answered, “Pray to the Lord for me so that nothing you have said may happen to me.”

Simon was guilty of what one could say was a heinous crime--perverting God's grace by thinking that he could buy it with money. Peter made himself rather clear that Simon might consider disabusing himself of that notion. Despite such wickedness, Peter still held out hope that Simon could be forgiven (for free, Simon, for free) by God. Whether Simon ever did avail himself of God's grace is left unanswered, and certainly he became a symbol for wickedness in the centuries to come. Nevertheless, the clear indication is that he had not committed an unforgivable sin.

One can think of other Scriptural giants who were guilty of great wrong yet who still found forgiveness and acceptance by God. King David, for instance, was an adulterer and a murderer. Yet in Psalm 19 he wrote that the law of the LORD is perfect, restoring the soul (v. 7). In the beloved 23rd Psalm, it is God who restores his soul (v. 3). The Hebrew word for 'restore' means that a person, having strayed from a place, is now restored to that same place. In this case, the place is God's arms.

Other Scriptural passages appear to indicate that "falling away" from the faith is a live prospect; e.g., 1 Corinthians 10:11-12; Hebrews 2:1-3, 3:12-13. Why be warned about the dangers of abandoning or distorting one's faith if it is not possible? But as we see with Simon and David, in such situations God's pardon is still available.

b. Whatever this sin is (and it seems to me that it can't be one act of disobedience but some kind of settled state), its effect is to prevent the person in question from wanting forgiveness, or being able to ask for it. It seems to me as well, particularly from the Hebrews chapter 6 and 10 passages, that the person whose sin is unpardonable is one who should have known better because s/he had had some significant experience with the Holy Spirit. This would certainly apply to Lucifer (Satan) and his demons who had had first hand experience with the Triune God, but through overweening pride and a desire to be God's equal, had fallen and were assigned a permanent place in Hell (i.e., abandonment by God).

This gets harder and harder! Maybe the next thing to consider is the role of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps we shall yet be enlightened.
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I can't finish this post without first drawing your attention to a song written by that great Canadian troubadour, Gord Lightfoot. One of his lesser-known songs, Rich Man's Spiritual, is a great modern rendition of Simon's sin. You can listen to it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfJONSE8Ze0.