Hello everyone. Praise the Lord!
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1 John 5:16 says, “. . . There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it.”
Someone said, “What is this sin unto death?”
Well, the Book of Hebrews tells us.
This sin unto death isn’t a sin that a sinner can commit, but it is a sin that a Christian can commit.
Notice First John 5:16 says, “If any man see his BROTHER sin a sin which is not unto death. . . .” Also, John was not talking about physical death. He was talking about spiritual death or eternal separation from God. This is the sin of denying Christ. Only a mature Christian can commit that sin.
Actually, according to Hebrews chapter 6, there are five qualifications a believer would have to meet before he or she could be guilty of committing the unpardonable sin.
4 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,
5 And have TASTED THE GOOD WORD OF GOD, and THE POWERS OF THE WORLD TO COME,
6 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.
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Before Christians could be guilty of committing the sin unto death, all five conditions mentioned in this Scripture would have to apply to them. These conditions are listed below:
1. They are enlightened and see their lost condition and need for a Savior.
2. They have tasted of Jesus Christ, the Heavenly Gift; that is, they have been born again.
3.They are filled with the Holy Ghost.
4.They have grown spiritually enough so they are not just a baby on the “milk” of God’s Word or a child in the things of God. In other words, they have tasted the good, solid meat of God’s Word.
5.They have had the gifts of the Spirit, or “the powers of the world to come” operating in their lives and ministries.
You can readily see that very few believers could even qualify for committing the unpardonable sin, or the sin unto death. Let’s look at another passage of Scripture in Hebrews which also talks about the sin unto death.
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HEBREWS 10:26-29
26 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,
27 But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.
28 He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses:
29 Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?
This is the sin unto death that John was talking about in 1 John 5:16. It is not the sin of lying, or cheating, or anything like that. God will forgive you of those sins if you are genuinely sorry for your sin and you confess it to Him.
But the writer of Hebrews explains that a person sins the sin unto death who “. . . hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?” (Heb. 10:29).
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If you are familiar with church history, you know that the Hebrew Christians were under great persecution, and they were tempted to go back to Judaism. When a Jew accepted Christ, he was cut off from his kinfolks, and, as a result, the Christian Jew had it hard financially and every other way.
But Paul was warning the Jewish Christians, saying, “If you are going to go back to Judaism then you are going to have to deny Christ to do it; you are going to have to deny that He is the Messiah and the Son of God. And to deny Christ is the same as saying that the blood of the covenant, the blood of Christ, is an unholy thing.”
In other words, to go back to Judaism after becoming a Christian was the same as saying the blood of Jesus was common blood like any other man’s. Our blood is unholy and common, but Jesus’ blood isn’t. And the writer of Hebrews was saying in essence, “If you deny Christianity and go back to Judaism, you are going to tread underfoot the Son of God.”
The thing that made you a Christian was accepting Christ as your Lord and confessing Him as your Savior. In Christ we have eternal life. But James said it is possible for a brother, a Christian, to commit a sin unto death; that is, spiritual death.
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You could see a believer do something that is wrong, and you could pray for him as John suggests here in 1 John 5:16. And if he has not sinned the sin unto death, God will forgive him. But there is a sin unto death. And John said we are not to pray for the believer who has committed the sin unto death. There have only been two people for whom the Lord told me not to pray because they had sinned the sin unto death.
One of them was a Pentecostal preacher’s wife who had backslidden as a mature Christian and had denied Christ. She met all five conditions which are listed in Hebrews 6:4-6 in order to be guilty of committing the unpardonable sin.
Jesus said to me, “Don’t pray for her.”
I asked, “Why not?”
He said, “Because she has sinned the sin unto death.”
I didn’t know then what I know now, so I asked, “What is the sin unto death?” And the Lord gave me these scriptures (Heb. 6:1-6; 10:26-31).
I asked, “What will happen to her?”
God said, “She will spend eternity in the lake of fire which burns with fire and brimstone” (Rev. 21:8).
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That is what the sin unto death is — it is the unforgiveable or unpardonable sin. One who commits this sin will spend eternity in the lake of fire which burns with fire and brimstone. As I said, the sin unto death isn’t talking about physical death. It is talking about spiritual death — eternal separation from God. Of course, physical death is a result of spiritual death. But I’m talking about spiritual death.
I would encourage you to pray for those whom you see sin, as the Bible instructs. The Bible says you pray for folks who have sinned and God will give them life. Only if God shows you not to pray for them because they have sinned the sin unto death will you know not to pray. The Bible says, “. . . There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it” (1 John 5:16).
Once a person has sinned the sin unto death, you can’t change that. There is absolutely nothing you can do. The Bible says, “For it is impossible . . . to renew them again unto repentance . . .” (Heb. 6:4,6).
There was another person for whom the Lord said to me, “Don’t pray for him.”
Again I asked, “Why not?”
That person had been saved and was a child of God. There is no doubt in my mind that he had the call of God on his life to preach because he told me God had called him to the ministry. But he never listened to it, and he never obeyed the call. He even fell away from the Lord. I prayed for him for many years.
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I was holding a meeting out in West Texas in 1945, and I became greatly burdened to pray for the man. I went to the church between two and three o’clock in the morning and began praying at the altar.
Finally, the Lord spoke to me and said, “Don’t ever pray another prayer for him. Don’t pray anymore for him.”
I asked, “Why not?”
Jesus said, “Because he has sinned the sin unto death. Don’t ever pray for him anymore. He will never be saved. He has gone away from Me, rejected Me, and he will never repent.”
This man also had denied Christ as a mature Christian; he knew fully what he was doing when he rejected Jesus.
So, you see, as long as a person stays in Christ, he is eternally secure. But the Bible also says there is a sin unto death, and we don’t want to forget that. The Bible simply says, “. . . There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it” (1 John 5:16). So you wouldn’t know if someone actually sinned the sin unto death unless God told you or gave you a revelation of it or showed you.
Bible Prayer Study Course
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