Misunderstood Verses of the New Testament - Week 3
Continuing on this week with our blog series called "Misunderstood Verses of the New Testament" we will be picking out 2-3 verses, briefly reviewing them by listing the perceived problem, the solution, and a few notes containing our thoughts on them. Today we are going to tackle a verse in Mark 3 regarding the unforgivable sin, and Mark 7 regarding dietary instructions.
Mark 3:29
Problem: “but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is subject to eternal condemnation”
If Yeshua’s sacrifice allowed forgiveness of all sins, then how, or what is the “unpardonable sin”?
Solution: Hebrews 10:26-28 - For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.
Blaspheming is to “revile” or “despise”, so one who blasphemes the Holy Spirit is one who reviles or despises the Spirit of Yah. It does not state that the one who “blasphemed” (past tense) the Spirit never has forgiveness. At one time, we all blasphemed the Spirit because we all hated the Word of God...until we came into the faith, and start growing to love the Word of God. There is a difference between currently being unrepentant and blaspheming the Spirit or hating the Word of God....that person never has forgiveness....and then the person that blasphemed the Spirit but repented, and loves to walk in His Torah just as our Messiah taught and practiced...it is he that has forgiveness. For more on this topic, please see our teaching titled “The Unpardonable Sin”.
Mark 7:15
Problem: There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.”
Many understand this verse to mean Yeshua made all things clean
Solution: There are 2 things with this.
1. The audience Yeshua was speaking to was made up of Jews, including some Jews who already understood the dietary law restrictions and they were not in question here.
2. The context of the verse is regarding the disciples not washing their hands before eating, a rabbinic tradition not something from the Torah; he was not being accused of breaking the Torah.
The rabbinic teaching was that if a person did not wash their hands a certain way before eating, then what was being eaten was not ceremonially clean, thus it would defile them. Yeshua is telling them this is not what defiles a person. For more on this topic please see our teaching titled: Can We Eat All Things: 1 Timothy 4.