The most frequently asked question from my students throughout my pastoral/teaching ministry is a version of one someone recently asked me after reading The Race Set Before Us. The frequently asked questions focus on Jesus’s statement concerning the one “unforgivable sin” of blaspheming the Holy Spirit (Mark 3:29), on Hebrews 6:4-6, or on the apparently less familiar 1 John 5:16-17. Indeed, there is “a sin unto death,” as the Apostle John tells us. “If someone sees his brother committing a sin not unto death, he shall petition God who will give life to him, to the one sinning not unto death. There is a sin unto death. I do not say that you should pray concerning that sin. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not unto death.” Concerning this passage, three factors seem evident: (1) the “sin unto death” is discernible to Christians; (2) the message of 1 John suggests that the “sin unto death” is repudiation and rejection of Christ Jesus; (3) there is consolation for Christians who sin but do not repudiate Jesus Christ.
Concerning Hebrews 6:4-6, it does not function as a declarative, prophetic statement. It functions as an urgent warning. It projects a tragic cause-and-effect relationship with the objective of avoiding tragedy. This means that the warning’s design, though concerned with an outcome of far greater weight, is like the dire warning a parent impulsively yells to a child who is about to chase a stray ball into a busy street.
Concerning the sin of falling away from Christ (Hebrews 6:4-6), keep in view the chart concerning the ascending strength and urgency of the five warnings in Hebrews, which we included on page 194.
The sin of falling away from Christ, warned against in Hebrews 6:4-6, is more advanced than the sins of drifting (Hebrews 2:1-4) or hardening the heart (Hebrews 3:1-4:13). It may not be as callous as “sinning willfully” (Hebrews 10:19-39) or “refusing to hear” God’s call (Hebrews 12:12-29). But the sin Hebrews 6:4-6 warns against is recalcitrance, defiance, and an intractable heart. The sin of “falling away” is not a single slip but a purposeful, intentional departure from Christ. Clearly, you did not commit such a sin in your youth, which is evident because the Lord has patiently brought you to himself, softening your heart and making you obedient to his Word.
Thus, my reply to everyone who poses the question you have asked is this: “I assure you that if you had either committed the sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit or of forsaking Christ Jesus as warned against in Hebrews 6:4-6, you would not be asking your question.” Why this response? It is because the sins of blaspheming the Holy Spirit or deliberately forsaking Christ calcify one’s heart, making it impervious to the good news in Jesus Christ. Clearly, your heart was not at all hardened to the point of becoming impenetrable by your youthful waywardness. Therefore, do not allow your years of wandering to incite doubt, lack of assurance, and questioning your standing before the Lord God now that redemption in Christ Jesus is yours. Rejoice that the Holy Spirit hounded you after you abandoned the gospel during your youth by softening and renewing your heart with great affection for and obedience to Christ Jesus.
Also, keep in view what is entailed in gospel assurance of salvation. The assurance of salvation the Holy Spirit bequeaths to God’s children is not derived retrospectively but prospectively. Unfortunately, as Tom Schreiner and I argue in The Race Set Before Us, the Puritans have unduly influenced Christians, especially Reformed Christians, to look retrospectively, over our shoulders, to assess the distance we have run since we came to believe in Christ Jesus. Indeed, transformed behavior is concomitant with assurance of salvation, but looking back while running the race is not how the gospel portrays that assurance. Rather, ponder the Apostle Paul’s orientation in Philippians 3:1-16. What does Paul say? “Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead.” Paul’s goal was to lay hold of Christ Jesus.
Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:12-14).
Now, to adopt the Apostle’s forward-looking running, it is vital that you understand that our right standing before God is fundamentally a Last Day reality. God’s publicly declared justification over us awaits the judgment bar of the Last Day. But what does God do in the proclamation of the gospel? In the gospel, God announces over us already his Last Day verdict, JUSTIFIED-ACQUITTED-VINDICATED, in advance of the Last Day. This is why it is crucial that we keep our orientation prospective, not retrospective, and, as I coined the expression long ago, “Christospective,” not introspective. Assurance of salvation comes to us from outside ourselves, from the Holy Spirit who testifies to our spirit “that we are children of God” (Romans 8:16).
I can say with great confidence that every individual I have met who has posed your question concerning an unforgivable sin that dooms one to perdition forever has been a person the Lord has brought to himself. Flawed, defective, and poor preaching and teaching concerning gospel warnings have needlessly incited great and prolonged internal turmoil among so many of God’s children who become preoccupied with them to their own detriment. Thankfully, the Lord graciously gave me insight and understanding concerning gospel warnings and admonitions at a rather young age, many years ago, enabling me to assist many fellow runners in keeping their eyes on the prize, the Lord Jesus Christ.
On April 11, the 25th anniversary of the publication of The Race Set Before Us, Christ Institute, a ministry of Christ Bible Church, hosted a one-day seminar, “God’s Grace Calls, Warns, and Preserves: Running the Race Set Before Us.” I delivered four lectures on the theme. We had invited Tom Schreiner to deliver two of the lectures, but his schedule was already too full. I encourage you to listen to those lectures and download the accompanying PowerPoint slides.
I trust this is helpful in encouraging you in your faith, to run always with your eyes looking forward, not over your shoulder, pressing on to lay hold of Christ that you might stand acquitted on the Last Day in Christ Jesus. Foot races are won by runners who look steadily at the goal and do not measure winning by the distance they have attained from the starting blocks. So it is with the true race of which foot races are only earthly images.
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes in the arena engages in rigorous self-discipline in all things. Therefore, they do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we do it for an imperishable one. Therefore, I run in such a manner as not to be aimless; I box in such a manner as not to punch the
air, but I punish my body and enslave it, lest after I have preached to others, I myself should be a reprobate (1 Corinthians 9:24-27).