A dictionary says that irredeemable is “being beyond remedy, hopeless.” In a biblical sense, it means that someone has refused God’s offer of salvation because the heart is so hard it won’t listen. It can happen even to people who claim to be following Jesus. The writer of Hebrews puts it this way:
Hebrews 6:4–6 ESV. For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.
If it can happen to people who have seemingly converted, it can also happen to the unconverted. Israel is an example of a mixture of hard hearts and soft hearts. Those who believed (and believe) in Jesus and do what He says are soft hearted, while those who don’t are mostly irredeemable. Hearts get so hard they are just unreachable.
Irredeemable can also be applied to unforgiving people. Those withholding forgiveness are told specifically by Jesus that they are irredeemable in places like Matthew 6:14.
Matthew 6:14–15 ESV. For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Lack of forgiveness freezes the unforgiven in time, because in the view of the offended there is now no remedy for the offense or sin. The supposed offender is locked in place. Jesus paid the blood price for sin, but the unforgiving person is mocking that sacrifice. They have deemed someone “irredeemable.” But according to Jesus, by declaring thusly, they place themselves in the actual irredeemable boat. Those who don’t forgive will not be forgiven.
No one is irredeemable according to God. All are eligible for redemption if he or she wants it. Jesus paid the price for our redemption, redeeming us from slavery to sin and death with His painful and bloody death on the cross. However, people can make themselves irredeemable by the refusal of this momentous action on their behalf. There is no other payment for our debt of sin, so refusing the sacrifice of Jesus leaves one with no option but to pay for sin with his or her own death (meaning the lake of fire).
Revelation 21:8 ESV. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”
The choices are either eternal life or eternal death. Believers press on to eternal life with confession, repentance and the Holy Spirit. The writer of Hebrews quotes Psalm 95 (in Hebrews 3:7-11) which is a plea to avoid being irredeemable by the hardening of the heart.
Psalm 95:7–9 ESV. For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. There are many chances in life to confess Jesus and repent of doing what is right in our own eyes. The more they are refused, the harder the heart becomes. If you hear his voice, respond and do what He says. Your heart of stone can be turned to flesh and eternal life will be yours as long as your heart stays soft and you persevere.
Shalom
Bruce