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The Sin that Leads to Death

Pastor Ian recapitulates last Sunday's exhortation on 1 John 5 and shares what's to come as we enter into the season of Advent.

Last week we closed the final chapter of our twenty-week study on the letter of 1 John. At the face of it, John’s final exhortation—“Little children, keep yourselves from idols”—seems disjointed and disconnected from the rest of his closing comments.

the-sin-that-lead-to-deathHowever, if you were in the service on Sunday, you were reminded to assume this closing word had direct relationship to the primary, internal threat the early church was under. It was the threat caused by men who posed as believers, but who John identified as “antichrists”: those who were intentionally seeking to replace Jesus Christ in the hearts and minds of believers. They had usurped Christ’s authority, they claimed His power and they longed for the praise that belonged to Him alone. They had in fact, sat down on the throne designed for Christ alone, and had made themselves idols. And so in the closing of his letter, John exhorts the spiritually vulnerable believers, “Stay away from them!” 

It is within this context, that he encourages confident prayer for those believers who had stumbled in their Christian walk. God’s forgiveness is promised for “those who commit sins that do not lead to death” (1 John 5:16a). But then John goes on to say, “There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that.” (1 John 5:16b) So the question lingers: What is that sin? What is the sin for which forgiveness cannot be found and for which prayers are not encouraged?  

In Hebrews 10:29, the author writes, “How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?” And then in 12:17, he warns his readers not be like Esau, who after selling his spiritual inheritance to his brother, was rejected “for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.”  

In Mark 3:28-29, Jesus responds to the religious leaders by saying, “Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin.”  

Assuming then, that the Holy Spirit comes to convict the world of sin and righteousness and judgement (John 16:8), and realising that false teachers were leading the early believers to see them as visible replacements for the invisible Christ, it seems plausible that the unforgivable sin about which John warns, is to die while resolutely, rebelliously sitting on the throne meant to be occupied by Christ alone!  

This is why, beginning this coming Sunday as we enter into the Advent season, we will begin looking at a different kind of king. King David was an example of an earthly king who longed to joyfully abdicate his throne for the sake of the coming, anointed King of all kings. Let me encourage you to prepare your heart for this Sunday by reading Psalm 2 as we all prepare to “Submit for Our Joy!”