Yesterday a young man, who attends a regular Bible study at my work, came in looking uncharacteristically subdued. “I’m not born again,” he said. Normally this young man likes to play and have fun, so I watched him and waited for the punch-line, but none came. He simply repeated, “I’m not born again,” and I could tell that this was no joke. I asked what he meant, and he related that because of his sin he just felt that there was no way that he belonged to the Lord, and that God must surely have had enough of him. I immediately let him know that I was well-acquainted with that sentiment, and we got into the Word of God to see what He had to say about us.
We were studying Matthew 12 that day, which was perfect as Jesus speaks of what will and will not be forgiven in verses 31-39. I asked the group what sin we stopped committing in order to become Christians, essentially, how are we saved? They arrived at the Biblical answer: faith (Ephesians 2:8, Hebrews 11:6). We have to believe that Jesus is everything that He says He is; that He died in our place, satisfying the just demands of the law; and rose again, conquering death for us. We entrust ourselves to His Word and call on the Lord to save us. So, again, I asked what sin we stopped committing? What is the only sin that will not be forgiven? We arrived at the rejection of the grace of God, of His Son. That is the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, which will not be forgiven.
The bottom line is that we can all feel like we’ve gone too far, and there is no way that God could still be merciful to us. But what does He say. He says “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9). He says that “having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). He says that He “so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16). He says: “I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand” (John 10:28-29). He says that “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39). He says that “there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). He says that “whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13). And, because we consider Him faithful who has promised, we say: “I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day” (2 Timothy 1:12).