From the very beginning, sin has been the breaking of God’s law, which had been written in the hearts and minds of men and women (Jeremiah 31:33). Paul writes that before the law of God was proclaimed on Mt. Sinai, sin was imputed to all people. “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), and everyone who lived before God met with Israel at Mt. Sinai died. If there were anyone who had not sinned back in those days, they would never have died. Therefore all of those people were sinners and guilty before God. Read Romans 5:12, 13.

What does Scripture say of sin?

“Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4).

“By the law is the knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20).

“I had not known sin, but by the law” (Romans 7:7).

Therefore: “If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well: But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors. For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law. So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty” (James 2:8–12).

The law of God is called “the law of liberty” because we can be free from sin only if we let Christ come into our heart (Galatians 2:20). Jesus said: “I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart” (Psalm 40:8). When He comes into our hearts, the law of God in His heart becomes the law of God in our heart. There is no such thing as Christ without the law of God or the law of God without Christ.

If the law of God could be abolished, sin would be no more sin. “For where no law is, there is no transgression” (Romans 4:15). But, “the strength of sin is the law” (1 Corinthians 15:56), and all sinners should listen to what the law says to them, because they are under the sentence of the law (Romans 3:19) and therefore guilty before God. Christ is our only hope.

To believe in Christ is much more than having a favorable opinion about Him. Those who receive Him (John 1:12) are “justified by faith” (Romans 3:25–28). Experiencing remission of their sins (verse 25) which they did while living in ignorance or “without the deeds of the law,” they are forgiven. But they cannot continue doing the sin they have been forgiving for committing. The person who is forgiven most, loves most (Luke 7:42, 43). “If a man love me, he will keep my words”; “if ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:23, 15). From now on, they will keep the law of God, for Christ says to them, “Go, and sin no more” (John 8:11). Paul writes about the duty of those who have already started a new life in Christ:

“Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.” “Not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified” (Romans 3:31; 2:13).

“The end [Greek: telos, i.e. purpose] of [keeping] the law” is Christ “that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us” (Romans 10:4; 8:4). Compare Romans 8:1–7 with Romans 10:3, 4.

This brief introductory explanation gives us a clear understanding of the function of the law of God in the process of salvation. First of all, we need to know: what is sin? How does Christ want to save us from sin? What are some of the different categories of sin? On what condition can sin be forgiven?

And—this is the main focus of our article—what is an unpardonable sin?

One day a man approached Jesus with a question:

“Lord, are there few that be saved? And he said unto them, Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able” (Luke 13:23, 24, emphasis supplied).

So today, a few “are waiting and watching and working for our Lord’s appearing. Another class are falling into line under the generalship of the first great apostate. Few believe with heart and soul that we have a hell to shun and a heaven to win. . . . Pleasure lovers are still crowding to theaters, horse races, gambling hells. The highest excitement prevails, yet probation’s hour is fast closing, and every case is about to be eternally decided. Satan sees that his time is short. He has set all his agencies at work that men may be deceived, deluded, occupied and entranced, until the day of probation shall be ended, and the door of mercy be forever shut.”1

Many professed Christians think, live, and act like the presumptuous prayer of the Pharisee: “God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess” (Luke 18:11, 12). Even we may have the typical attitude of the Laodicean: “I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing” (Revelation 3:17).

Many think they are already saved. But in my mind I must raise some serious questions: Do they know the truth? Does their life demonstrate the fruits of salvation? Are they happy and holy? Are they able to identify with those who appreciate and accept the truth? Are they prepared to stand before the judgment seat of God?

When I was in Brazil, I spoke with a couple of visitors, husband and wife, at the end of our service. I was curious to know about their religious affiliation, so I asked the man which church they belonged to. He said, “The Church of My Wife and Myself.”

One day a young man knocked at my door offering me a magazine. I said I would read his publication if, in turn, he accepted to read one of our publications. He said he could not do that. I asked him, why? He answered, “Because we have the truth.” I said to him, “then we are in the same boat, because we also believe that we have the truth.” He finally accepted a copy of Steps to Christ, and I accepted his magazine. All professed Christians think they have the truth and expect to be in heaven, but, very, very, few seem to understand the plan of salvation in the light of this fact:

“As many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law” (Romans 2:12).

“God has jewels in all the churches, and it is not for us to make sweeping denunciation of the professed religious world, but in humility and love, present to all the truth as it is in Jesus.”2 Those who have known the three angels’ messages should not come to the erroneous conclusion that they may join any religious group and expect to be saved. Honest souls are scattered everywhere under the patience of God, because they don’t know a better way. But Christ is calling them to leave spiritual Babylon—the mother church and all of her daughters (Revelation 17:4–6)—that they be not partakers of their sins (Revelation 18:4). These honest believers are responsible only for the limited light that they have received so far. But they will not be able to plead ignorance after the full light of the three angels’ message has shone upon them, should they choose to reject it. Therefore, we have a solemn responsibility toward these souls. “Let men see piety and devotion, let them behold Christlikeness of character, and they will be drawn to the truth. He who loves God supremely and his neighbor as himself will be a light in the world.”3

We should make it clear to them that not sinners, but only former sinners, will be admitted into the kingdom. This is true whether the sinner is a member of the church or not.

“Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:9–11).

Those who continue sinning, and sinning, and sinning, rejecting the helping hand of Christ, will finally reap what they have chosen. They will be destroyed under the wrath of God when Christ shall come “in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thessalonians 1:8).

“For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame” (Hebrews 6:4–6).

“For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins” (Hebrews 10:26).

“For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning” (2 Peter 2:20).

“This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light” (John 3:19).

“The wrath of God is not declared against unrepentant sinners merely because of the sins they have committed, but because, when called to repent, they choose to continue in resistance, repeating the sins of the past in defiance of the light given them.”4

For having been “stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears,” and for having resisted “the Holy Ghost” to the very end, many individuals, both in the Old and in the New Testament, perished without salvation (Acts 7:51). Their names and their negative experiences stand as a warning to us. Think of the parables in Luke 12:16–20; 11:23–26. This happened to church members and non-church members alike.

“[Christ warned] those who had been impressed by His words, who had heard Him gladly, but who had not surrendered themselves for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. It is not only by resistance but by neglect that the soul is destroyed. ‘When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man,’ said Jesus, ‘he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there’ (Matthew 12:43–45).

“There were many in Christ’s day, as there are today, over whom the control of Satan for the time seemed broken; through the grace of God they were set free from the evil spirits that had held dominion over the soul. They rejoiced in the love of God; but, like the stony-ground hearers of the parable, they did not abide in His love. They did not surrender themselves to God daily, that Christ might dwell in the heart; and when the evil spirit returned, with ‘seven other spirits more wicked than himself,’ they were wholly dominated by the power of evil.

“When the soul surrenders itself to Christ, a new power takes possession of the new heart. A change is wrought which man can never accomplish for himself. It is a supernatural work, bringing a supernatural element into human nature. The soul that is yielded to Christ becomes His own fortress, which He holds in a revolted world, and He intends that no authority shall be known in it but His own. A soul thus kept in possession by the heavenly agencies is impregnable to the assaults of Satan. But unless we do yield ourselves to the control of Christ, we shall be dominated by the wicked one. . . . Unless we become vitally connected with God, we can never resist the unhallowed effects of self-love, self-indulgence, and temptation to sin. We may leave off many bad habits, for the time we may part company with Satan; but without a vital connection with God, through the surrender of ourselves to Him moment by moment, we shall be overcome.”5

And if we are finally overcome, we must blame ourselves for having committed the unpardonable sin. Let’s not allow that to happen to us!