I didn’t get into any detail in my earlier post but I feel that this is an important Biblical teaching.
Jesus said in Matthew 12:31, “Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men.” If a person truly listens to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and asks for pardon and forgiveness that person is not guilty of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.
The sin that cannot be forgiven is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit:
Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is any sin that a person clings to by continually resisting the convicting power of the Holy Spirit. This isn’t one specific sin that is unforgivable, such as lying, stealing or murder, but rather a perpetual hardening of the heart and willfully sinning against God and man (1 Timothy 4:2; Titus 1:15). In Acts 7:51, Stephen says the following to the Pharisees, "You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you.” The unpardonable sin is any sin that a person doesn’t want to give up, confess, or even ask forgiveness for and additionally doesn’t want to hear any more about it from the Holy Spirit.
Any sin mankind wants pardon for is forgivable. However, if we turn our backs on the voice of the Holy Spirit we begin to silence His convictions and eventually we cannot hear His convicting power. This effectively blocks the working of God in our lives because we have reached a point where we are unable to respond to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.
Consider this scenario, imagine you are tired of the Holy Spirit convicting you of a particular pet sin. You want to completely remove His promptings even though the voice is warning you of danger and lovingly trying to show you the right path. So what do you do? You begin building a theoretical brick wall to block your conviction. Each brick in the wall represents a singular time you reject the conviction of the Holy Spirit. As you continue to reject the Holy Spirit, the “voice” you hear gets softer and softer. You become more and more confident in your current pathway of life. Eventually, as you lay more and more bricks down you cannot hear the Holy Spirit anymore, thus effectively cutting off your way of repentance and therefore salvation.
If a person wants to be forgiven and confesses his sins, those sins will be forgiven and blotted out. As long as you are under conviction, which is the Holy Spirit’s job (John 16:8) and you want to be forgiven you are not guilty of the unpardonable sin.
There are examples other than Judas, the Pharisees were warned by Stephen. The Pharaoh of Egypt had more than ample evidence that he was dealing with God's will but after all the plagues he was still drown.