The Grievous Sin of Unbelief

“To whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?  So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief” (Hebrews 3:18-19).

After Jesus repeatedly demonstrated his Messiahship with many signs, wonders and proofs, he rebuffed the Pharisees craven appetite for more proof.  It is very telling that Jesus scathingly rebuked the Pharisees, saying, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign” (Matthew 16:4).  As Bob Dylan put it, “Ya either got faith or ya got unbelief, and there ain’t no neutral ground.”  More proof—even another sign—is therefore fruitless; an evil and adulterous heart of unbelief cannot be persuaded.

Moreover, when God asked—“IS THERE NO BALM IN GILEAD?” (Jeremiah 8:22)—what did he mean?  Well, Gilead is a city in Israel known for its medicinal balm.  And “Gilead” means “Heap of testimony or evidence.”  So, in other words, “Is there no balm or healing virtue in a heap of testimony or evidence?  Haven’t I abundantly proven myself?  Even to the point where unbelief is outrageous?  Do you recall how the Lord chided with his disciples about unbelief?  I have long maintained that—IF the Son of man were ever to have sinned (an impossibility, I know)—it would have been over the disciples’ unbelief.  Nothing made Jesus more incredulous or angry than unbelief—especially in the presence of HEAPS OF EVIDENCE proving that faith in Jesus Christ is the only correct conclusion.

Enough evidence is supplied to know Jesus Christ, therefore the Lord demands obedience and perseverance with or without further enlightenment.  We place our faith in him because we have enough evidence to do so.  Increasing enlightenment is for enrichment and fellowship, not to provide further proof of what is already proven beyond a shadow of doubt.  When the disciples asked Jesus, “Increase our faith,” he replied, “if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed” you can say thus and thus, and it will obey you.  No more faith or evidence is needed to convince a convinced soul.  In fact, Jesus indicts those who continually ask for more proof by calling them “evil and adulterous”—evil because they refuse the light of truth and adulterous because they are unfaithful to God.

After the spies—excepting Caleb and Joshua—gave a bad (faithless) report concerning the Promised Land, the Lord asked Moses, “How long will this people despise me?  And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs which I have wrought among them?” (Numbers 14:11).  Oh, THE GRIEVOUS SIN OF UNBELIEF!!  To remain faithless in the face of a demonstration of the Spirit’s power is both disturbing and incredulous.  Can you hear the Lord’s heart break over the callousness of unbelief?  Can you feel his pain when he asks, “How long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs which I have wrought among them?”  These faithless Israelites (who died in the wilderness) were so grievous, Paul used them as an object lesson.  He said, “Let us therefore be zealous and exert ourselves and strive diligently to enter that rest [of God, to know and experience it for ourselves], that no one may fall or perish by the same kind of unbelief and disobedience [into which those in the wilderness fell]” (Hebrews 4:11).

The verse of scripture immediately following Hebrews 4:11 seems out of place, but actually it fits like a glove!  “For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power [making it active, operative, energizing, and effective]; it is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to the dividing line of the breath of life (soul) and [the immortal] spirit, and of joints and marrow [of the deepest parts of our nature], exposing and sifting and analyzing and judging the very thoughts and purposes of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).  Herein this description of “the Word of God speaks” is the key to why unbelief is a lie.  Because it is “active and full of power,” dynamic and penetrating to the depths of human nature, unbelief in the face of such overwhelming proof of God’s efficacy, is not only grievous, but stupid beyond belief.

The cynic, agnostic and/or atheist has no ground for skepticism.  God and His word demand our attention and belief, and no one is excused because the proof is clear and irrefutable.  “But I say, did they not hear?  Indeed they have; their voice [that of creation bearing God’s message] has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the [farthest] ends of the world” (Romans 10:18).  Also, “that which is known about God is evident within them [in their inner consciousness], for God made it evident to them.  For ever since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through His workmanship [all His creation, the wonderful things that He has made], so that they [who fail to believe and trust in Him] are without excuse and without defense” (Romans 1:19-20).

THE GRIEVOUS SIN OF UNBELIEF is ultimately the unpardonable sin.  In the end, it is naked and fully-convinced unbelief that proves unpardonable.  G. K. Chesterton—on a path to his conversion from agnosticism/atheistic leanings—came to see the unpardonable sin as “sincere pessimism.”  Though it took some time and meditation to wrap my mind around what Chesterton said, I came to agree with him.  To hold stubbornly fast to unbelief in light of the irrefutable proof of God and His love is sincere pessimism and ultimately the unpardonable sin.  Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit—defined in scripture as “the unpardonable sin”—is to disparage the character of God by calling Him evil in light of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.  The word “blasphemy,” according to James Strong, means “vilification (espec. against God)...evil speaking; to attack the reputation of (a person or thing) with strong or abusive criticism.”  Jude succinctly captured what blasphemy looks like by quoting Enoch’s strong indictment against ungodly men: “Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of ALL THE HARSH THINGS WHICH UNGODLY SINNERS HAVE SPOKEN AGAINST HIM” (Jude 1:14-15).

Blasphemy is therefore calling evil good and good evil to the extent that it becomes an entrenched belief; since from the heart the mouth speaks, words spoken from such a person originates from a condemned heart.  And Jesus called them “condemned already”; those who did not believe Him or His works.  No matter how you look at it, “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin” (Romans 14:23).  “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin” (John 15:22).  Because they refuse to believe that God loves them and desires to save them, they forsake their own mercy.  Ultimately, their strident sin of unbelief kills them because they refuse to believe in God’s only way to life, Jesus Christ. 

“Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God” (Hebrews 3:12).