If you see any brother or sister commit a sin that does not lead to death, you should pray and God will give them life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that you should pray about that. All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death. I John 5:16-17 (New International Version, NIV)

This verse mentions a sin that leads to death. The King James Version renders it as a sin unto death. As we continue our study on turning away from God, today we examine the sin unto death. Sin is sin, yet some sins are more serious than others. However, all sin will lead to death if not repented of and placed under the blood of Jesus.

The sin unto death is a purposeful rebellion against God and His Word. It involves rejecting Christ and His grace and resisting the Holy Spirit and His dealings. This leads ultimately to spiritual death, separated from the life of God. To refuse the forgiveness that is in Christ, you reject the opportunity to have eternal life with God and the result is death, or eternal separation from God (in hell).

It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace. Hebrews 6:4-6 (New International Version, NIV)

We used these verses to describe apostate people, but it also speaks of the sin unto death. It involves mature believers who reject Christ.

1. They were once enlightened by God’s Word and Spirit.

2. They has tasted of the heavenly gift of salvation.

3. They were made partakers of the Holy Ghost.

4. They tasted the good Word of God and were mature beleivers.

5. They experienced the power of the world to come, operating in the power of God.

One who knows Christ, then chooses to reject Him and does not turn back to Him, commits the sin unto death. There’s no way to have eternal life if you have rejected the only means of getting it. The person who does this no longer wants God and walks away.

Persistent sinning can lead to the sin unto death because you become hardened and choose to separate yourself from God. This sin unto death is apostasy and blaspheming the Holy Spirit. We see that these three terms are closley related and intertwined together. They are the result of:

• A hard heart

• An unbelieving heart

• A departure from God

• All by choice

When a person resists God and the Holy Spirit repeatedly and refuses to repent of sin, their heart progressively gets so hard that they do not hear God or feel His pull. They become separated from the life of God, which is spiritual death. As I stated before, only God knows for sure when a person has reached this point of no return. As I noted yesterday, if you are worried that you may have committed the unpardonable sin, then you have not done so. People who have reached that point are so hardened that they do not care about it.

In conclusion, we must constantly guard our hearts from all sin that could harden us and draw us away from Jesus. If we do that, we will be safe and protected from anything that would separate us from God.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39 (New International Version, NIV)