I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?1
When God condemns a soul, He does so with a different disposition than when He saves as soul. It is written, “there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”2 God likens the salvation of the believing to joy of newlyweds3 or to a garden in bloom.4 Yet when God condemns the faithless, there is no joy in Heaven. “When the wicked perish, there is jubilation,”5 among men, yet God weeps in mourning. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!”6 King David felt the same about the death of his wicked, rebellious, adulterous, murderous son Absolom, when he was felled in battle. “O my son Absalom—my son, my son Absalom—if only I had died in your place! O Absalom my son, my son!”7 God proceeds to pour the cup of His wrath upon the unbelieving world, not with the disposition of a berserker ready for battle, but as One who stoically proceeds to an end He never wanted. It is God’s purpose to not allow evil to go unpunished, but He desired another way.
When Jesus Christ suffered on the cross, He did not merely suffer the bodily torments that Pilate’s men and the Pharisees were inflicting upon Him. He became sin for us,8 suffered in our place,9 received our punishment.10 “Not for [our sins] only but also for the whole world,”11 believing and unbelieving alike. He bore all of the guilt, and received all of the punishment. What is the punishment for sin, except eternal damnation? It is impossible to really understand it, but: Jesus, in that finite time on the cross, suffered the fullness of God’s wrath upon all sin that ever was, for all sinners that ever were, suffering as though He were in a hundred billion eternities in Gehenna all at once. Whatever be the complaint of the Devil in the Lake of Fire, Jesus had it worse. “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”12
When God condemns a soul to eternal damnation, it is deeply personal. Again and again, God shows Himself willing to suffer loss of honor for the sake of mankind. “They say, ‘If a man divorces his wife, and she goes from him and becomes another man’s, may he return to her again?’ Would not that land be greatly polluted? But you have played the harlot with many lovers; Yet return to Me,’ says the Lord.”13 He will bend and break His own normal operating rules to save a soul. God condescended to mankind, and put the fullness of Himself into the person of Jesus of Nazareth, the Man, in order to save mankind. God put Himself through the horrors of the cross, which He did not need to do, in order to save mankind. When even this, God’s own Son, is rejected, “there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.”14 Sitting upon the Great White Throne, Jesus has already defeated the Devil, and cast him into Gehenna.15 The accuser before the Divine Court has been himself convicted of sin, and his testimony discarded. When, therefore, Jesus finds the wicked guilty, it’s not a matter of legal formality. It is deeply personal. “Whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny.”16 Jesus knows exactly what it feels like to suffer the wrath and the rejection of God; yet single-mindedly He declares “I never knew you. Depart from me!”17
God is not a man, to be consumed with rage; nay, it is God who consumes.18 His anger burns ever within Him, and He ever stores up within Himself wrath19—all under His perfect control. He desires not the death of the sinner, and is willing to forgive for so little. “I am merciful,’ says the Lord; ‘I will not remain angry forever. Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against the Lord your God.”20 There is but one unforgivable sin: to blaspheme the Spirit of God.21 To reject forever His call to repentance, and to reject forever His Christ who came to save you, is to break the heart of God.22 There upon the judgement throne sits the brokenhearted God, and like a lover scorned who might have wished for some other way, He will not desist from getting his revenge. “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.”23
Ezekiel 33:11
Luke 15:10
Isaiah 62:5
Song of Solomon 2:15
Proverbs 11:10
Matthew 23:37
2 Samuel 18:33
2 Corinthians 5:21
1 Peter 3:18
Isaiah 53:4-5
1 John 2:2
Matthew 27:46
Jeremiah 3:1
Hebrews 10:26-27
Revelation 20:10
Matthew 10:33
Matthew 7:23
Romans 12:19
Hebrews 12:29
Romans 2:5
Jeremiah 3:12
Matthew 12:31-32
I have observed that the English language does not contain language that easily allows us to communicate that one has been hurt without being harmed, or made to experience anguish without being pierced or overpowered. Let’s say that God is brokenhearted in the same way and sense that we might otherwise say that He is offended.
Do you consider the unforgivable sin to be the blasphemy in and of itself or not being repentant for it, and dying in that state? I ask because I've had preachers, and other people give me different answers, and I'm not sure which is correct.