Unpardonable?

One of the greatest helps in my life has been music. God has often picked up my spirits and wrapped me in His arms through song. These are the references for all music to which I referred in this book. My suggestion to you is to make a playlist of these songs and to listen to them much. They have been such a blessing to me.

Dear readers, this book has come to a close, but your spiritual journey has not. I desire to include some helpful quotes, websites, resources, and songs, which not only helped me write this book, but also were God’s tools to encourage and strengthen my growing faith in my personal heavenly citizenship. Typically, this would be the place in the book for references and citation. I am not neglecting that necessity or scholastic obligation. On the contrary, for purposes of this book, I would like to take a step further, to break down what resources are behind this book so that you can do further personal research or find additional encouragement if you so desire.

Dear reader, you have made it through to the final chapter. If you were a curious reader, I hope that by God’s grace you may have picked up on some ways you might be able to encourage those who struggle with the security of their salvation. And if you are a terrified reader, I pray that God’s Holy Spirit will speak to your heart and cause the truth of His Word to come alive within you. As I’ve prayed over myself countless times, I now pray over you: in Jesus’ name, may God give you as much confidence in your eternal salvation as is possible for a sinner saved by grace to have on this side of Heaven. 

It was not as if any of those principles God showed me during that wonderful time were new to me. They were not rules or direct action steps. They were moments and revelations and feelings. I’ve always been and always will be a firm believer in faith over feelings and truth over emotions, but as a black and white brain, I can easily replace all feeling and emotion with straight principles and then I lose the heart and no real change takes place. It’s like I know the rules of the road but they do not affect my unmeditated impulses behind the wheel.

As this book comes to a close, I believe it would be a pity if we wrapped it up as it is at present. We could acknowledge all the right answers and close out the book with a nice pretty bow, and never get practical. 

In the last chapter, we emphasized how our own shame, pride, and mistrust can lead us to wallow in already conquered guilt. In this chapter, we will focus more on the outward factors in this battle than the inward ones. I do believe that spiritual warfare plays into the fear of being unsavable.

"When God the Father holds my hand, it's impossible to feel all that pride, shame, and guilt. There's only humility, glory, and freedom. There's grace - real steadfast grace!"

I think one of the most common questions I’ve heard myself asking is, “Have I actually done it? Have I disqualified myself from salvation this time?” It’s the worst fear I've ever felt. Oftentimes, I’d mull the thought, the words, the incident over and over through my anxious mind, scrutinizing it against all criteria, trying to judge if I’d really, truly done it. Those were horrible days for me, and so wrought with self-condemnation! “Have I done it?”

We’ve established that, if we believe in Jesus and ask Him for forgiveness, we will be saved and redeemed. We understand that someone who comes to Jesus for salvation has not actually blasphemed the Holy Spirit. And that should be the full stop, the long and the short of it, the end of the book, the end of the fears. But for me, it wasn’t. It’s great that those who come to Jesus in faith are saved - oh so very great! But if you’re like me, then the next question is, “Well, what if I don’t have real faith?”

I suppose that books often have a series of points that are presented in the most compelling way in order to compel the reader to accept a certain view on a given subject. In a way, this book will do that too, but slightly differently. As I’ve dealt with the issue of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, it has not been a neat, clean, and tidy journey. It’s been more of a series of theological bunnytrails zig-zagging this way and that as one answered question leads to another. And so, for the remainder of this book, I’d like to lead you down the trails of thought, the questions, the doubts - and the Scriptures that have eventually cleared them all up.

Earlier, I mentioned that, although I’m all for orthodoxy and its various terminologies, the one term that I’m not fond of is “unpardonable sin”. It’s not because I don’t believe Jesus’ words about blasphemy against the Holy Spirit never being forgiven. It’s just that I think the word “unpardonable” makes it sound like God is limited.

My sisters and I were scattered from teen years down to cute girly chaos. The four of us, accompanied by my mother, were a bit of an amoeba in the grocery store: our long hair, constant chatter, and organized girly chaos.