The Good News is that Jesus Christ has already saved you, with no past or future action required on your part regardless of whether or not you realize this. Everything can and will be forgiven, including ignorance of Him, except deliberately and knowingly rejecting the truth of Jesus Christ. This is the fundamental and frequently obscured truth of New Testament soteriology. It is practically screamed by Jesus as He recounts the parable of the wedding feast, the invited guests who refuse to come, and the stewards going out and bringing in anyone and everyone they meet on the streets, back alleys, and ditches, the homeless and destitute alongside the middle class and respectable. The salvation of the world is an accomplished fact with no further input required by us. Those of us who know the truth of Jesus Christ are called to be disciples of Jesus Christ, apprenticing to Him and His teachings, so that the world might know the Man who saved them through His disciples. We are the stewards informing the rest of the populace of the invitation to the wedding feast, or bringing them in on stretchers if need be.
Salvation comes only through Jesus Christ. This is a truth which is foundational to Christianity, and cannot and must not be compromised. Jesus Christ alone is “the” Way, “the” Truth, and “the” Life. But the great deception, however intentional or unintentional it might be, is that the Church has set itself up as a gatekeeper for a salvation which has already taken place and is freely offered, declaring instead, "Salvation comes only through the Church." The Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches declare this boldly and overtly whereas the Protestant churches and denominations tend to be more subtle and discreet to varying degrees, but their practice and preaching cannot be any clearer. We act like gatekeepers for an event which has already transpired. We seek to "get people saved." What misguided arrogance we have be handed down over the centuries.
Jesus Christ has already died for the sins of the world and risen from the dead. Nothing anyone can do can get someone more saved than they already are because of Jesus Christ. Should a man die in total ignorance, not having rejected Christ overtly or intentionally by any means, he would still be greeted by the God who loves him without limit because of Christ. What is done is done. The salvation of the world has been accomplished. This is why arguing about how one might be saved, and what one must do is absolutely worthless and pointless. This is also why Jesus said to "Disciple the nations, baptizing them." He said, "Preach the good news!" He did not say, "Go get people saved! Go rescue them from the fires of damnation!" Because He had already accomplished this through His own death and resurrection.
So then what remains? That we ourselves become disciples and disciple the nations as He commanded. That they all know Him through us. That we love as He loves. The His words are spoken through our lips, and His actions performed through our hands just as the Father’s words were spoken through His lips and the Father’s actions performed through His hands. We are not gatekeepers of the kingdom of God but ambassadors of it, and we have forgotten the difference.
There are only two sins in the New Testament that Christ is clear on them being unforgiven. Deliberate, knowing rejection of the testimony of the Holy Spirit about the truth of Jesus Christ, and refusing ourselves to forgive others the wrongs they have done us. The first is a deliberate, knowing turning away from Christ and rejection of the salvation He has brought for one's own selfish ends and delusion. The second is a deliberate refusal to love the other person as He taught. We are not talking about struggles, we are not talking about difficulties in trying to follow and obey, we are not talking about the ups and downs on the path. We are talking about deliberate choices on the part of the individual to either refuse to love God or to refuse to love their neighbor. It is the refusal and rejection of the God who is love which sends a person into outer darkness, and it is their choice to go there.
The blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is knowing Christ to be true, knowing Jesus is the Son of God, and deliberately rejecting Him for selfish and self serving reasons. This can be done by either the non-Christian who recognizes Christ for who and what He is, or the Christian who has experienced Him, tasted of His Spirit, and become intimate with Him. This was the context in which Jesus described it, and this is the context in which the author of Hebrews brings up the unforgivable, that of Christians having known His Spirit and throwing Him away to return to Mosaic (or shall we say, Pharisaiac/Sadducaic) Judaism out of self preservation or personal gain. These are the people whom Paul references in his letters as having their god as their belly, and to whom John refers as having come from us but were not genuinely of us. This is unforgivable precisely because the person, in the depths of his hamartia insanity, knowing the truth of Jesus Christ, having experienced Him and shared in His life, has denounced and denied Christ in order to get some selfish worldly gain out of it.
This was the case with the Pharisees who, knowing Him to be Messiah (it couldn't be more obvious), deliberately slandered Him and sought to destroy Him for their own selfish ends. This was the case also with Judas Iscariot. It is also this state to which the author of Hebrews refers in 6:4-6. As long as one remains in this state, it is unforgivable because they have deliberately and knowingly cut themselves off. Paul, as a Pharisee, was forgiven for his attacks and opposition to Christ because, according to his own account, he acted against Christ in his ignorance. He did not recognize Him for who He actually was. Yet the Pharisees who constantly tried to trap him, and the Sadducee High Priests, Ananias and Caiaphas, knew perfectly well who He was and deliberately worked to destroy Him. Being the High Priests, it was perfectly obvious to them that Jesus of Nazareth was the real Messiah, and thus was a threat to their power.
The soul that commits the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is a soul that rejects the Love of God because it is the God who is love. This is a soul that has made its choice to love the darkness deliberately and reject the light. This is an insanity that is willfully incurable, that knows there is a cure and slaps it away, devolving into further derangement and delusion. This is also the depth of Lucifer's insanity, and many if not all of his demons. There is literally nothing more which can be done because they do not want anything done, and so they must be secured away to stew in their own self reinforced insanity, and burn with their own delusions.
It is a revolutionary and controversial thought to consider that the Buddhist Abbot who honors both “Lord Buddha” and “Lord Jesus” would enter the wedding feast before a baptized Christian who has knowingly turned away from and against Christ. The ignorant person who may not have worked towards Christ, but has never rejected Him as such will find himself being generously given a wedding garment. The man who is not knowingly against Christ in God’s eyes is welcome to the wedding feast as for Him. God is not willing that anyone should be destroyed, but that all should come to repentence. Christ did not come to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. Our evangelistic message was never to be the gatekeeper’s message of “you must go through my booth alone in order to cross,” but to go and tell people they may cross freely, the toll has already been paid, the party is waiting for you on the other side.
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