Ask Me Anything - What Is Blaspheming The Holy Spirit?

Ask Me Anything 

What is blaspheming the Holy Spirit AKA the unforgivable (or unpardonable) sin?

How many of you are familiar with the phrase “the unforgivable sin”?

If you come from a Catholic background, and probably even if you don’t, when you hear “unforgivable sin” you immediately think suicide. We don’t have time to include a discussion on that tonight, but let me assure that is not what the Bible teaches, anywhere.

There is only one unforgivable sin and it’s referred to as “blaspheming the Holy Spirit.” It’s mentioned in three Gospels, all in similar contexts.

Matthew 12:22–32 (ESV) — 22 Then a demon-oppressed man who was blind and mute was brought to him, and he healed him, so that the man spoke and saw. 23 And all the people were amazed, and said, “Can this be the Son of David?” 24 But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons.” 25 Knowing their thoughts, he said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand. 26 And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? 27 And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. 28 But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. 29 Or how can someone enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house. 30 Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. 31 Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. 32 And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.

 

Mark 3:22–30 (ESV) — 22 And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons.” 23 And he called them to him and said to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? 24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. 26 And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but is coming to an end. 27 But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house. 28 “Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, 29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”— 30 for they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”

Luke 12:8–12 (ESV) — 8 “And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God, 9 but the one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God. 10 And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. 11 And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, 12 for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.” 

I wasn’t really sure how to get my hands around this so let’s just start with the word blaspheme. It refers to “speech that denigrates or defames, reviling, denigration, disrespect, slander.”[1] It’s used 18 times in the NT and is sometimes translated as slander. Of those 18 times, four involve the Pharisees and religious leaders accusing Jesus of blasphemy for forgiving sins or equating himself with God. In our first two texts it’s directed the other way, from Jesus toward the Pharisees.

Now let’s look at the object of the blasphemy, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, or Holy Ghost in the KJV, is the third person of the Trinity. You have God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit each with distinct roles.

You see the Holy Spirit when God is at work creating, renewing, empowering, and inspiring particularly as it relates to God’s people in the OT. You see him when the church is born in Acts 2 as he empowers the early Christians to live out their faith. He is actively involved in the regeneration (salvation) of every Christian.

Now we’re ready, more or less, to try and discover what it means to blaspheme the Holy Spirit. Before we talk about what it is, let’s talk about what it isn’t.

It isn’t the same as quenching the Spirit.

1 Thessalonians 5:16–22 (ESV) — 16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not despise prophecies, 21 but test everything; hold fast what is good. 22 Abstain from every form of evil.

Quenching the Spirit is not allowing him to manifest God’s works through his people in the community fo faith. Quenching the Spirit is bad, but it’s not blasphemy, and it’s completely forgivable.

It’s not the same as grieving the Spirit.

Ephesians 4:25–31 (ESV) — 25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. 26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and give no opportunity to the devil. 28 Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. 29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.

All the negatives things mentioned here as they occur in the community of faith or the life of a believer grieve the Spirit, but they aren’t the same as blaspheming him and are also completely forgivable.

When it comes to grieving or quenching the Spirit, one fellow writes: “These instructions from Paul aren’t warnings of unbelief to Christ’s hard-hearted opponents (as in the Gospel accounts) but exhortations to Spirit-imbued believers to continue in Spirit-empowerment, not giving themselves over to bitterness and conflict. Paul makes it clear: Christians must resist prohibiting the mysterious work of God in the assembly of God’s people.”[2]

It’s also not the same as rejecting or denying Christ, even though some see it that way from the Luke text.

 

Luke 12:8–12 (ESV) — 8 “And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God, 9 but the one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God. 10 And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. 11 And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, 12 for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say. 

Blaspheming the Spirit cannot be the same as denying or rejecting Christ. Consider...

 1.      Paul openly and zealously opposed Jesus, and no doubt in his crazed quest to stamp out Christianity blasphemed — slandered, spoke badly of — our Lord, and yet God saved him and used him to bring many to Jesus.

2.      Peter actually denied Jesus three times but was forgiven and restored.

So what is it?

What it is specifically

Jacob Pennington does a good job of explaining it:

[Blaspheming the Spirit is] a specific, active, and final choice to declare the person and work of Jesus as being demonic in origin. The specificity of this charge is clearest in the most detailed version of the event we have, retold by Matthew (12:22-37). There it’s clear that, after a contracted series of interactions with Jesus, the Pharisees have made a final, declarative decision that Jesus is not from God and must be killed (12:14 is the turning point of Matthew’s narrative on this score). As a result, they have no choice but to openly interpret Jesus’ good works of healing and teaching as Satanic in origin. Jesus, in a showing of his incredible wisdom, reveals the terrible inconsistency of their logic (12:25-29). Instead, he argues, these godly works come from God’s Spirit. Therefore, to call the Spirit’s work through Jesus demonic is the greatest, unforgivable sin (12:31-32).[3]

Some believe it’s so specific to the unique events mentioned in the gospels that it’s not reproducible today. In other words, Jesus has to be present on the earth performing his mission of redeeming us for it to apply.

That may be right, but I think we must consider it what it is generally.

You can be so closed to God, so hard towards Jesus, so opposed to surrendering to him as to make yourself unreachable. God cannot forgive rejecting his Son, Jesus, and it’s the Spirit’s job to open our hearts to that. One Bible scholar says…

The NT acknowledges the possibility that one can be so closed to the spirit of God that one is incapable of receiving God’s forgiveness. But this possibility is never seen as limiting God’s willingness to forgive in any way. Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is never equated with any particular sin; even the sin of denying Christ will be forgiven. The only thing which could possibly result in an unforgivable sin is a person’s refusal to receive God’s forgiveness. This refusal might take several forms. One would be the type of spiritual perversity which would reject God’s forgiveness because it would see that forgiveness as an evil rather than a good. Another would be a deliberate turning away from the forgiveness offered in Christ by one who had already experienced that forgiveness. But even these forms of refusal would have to be permanent to be unforgivable. The NT consistently confronts its readers with God’s willingness to forgive those who turn to him in repentance and are willing to accept the forgiveness offered in Christ. The unforgivable sin is only mentioned as a possibility. God’s forgiveness in Christ is a permanent offer.[4]

How do I know if I’ve committed it? If you’re deeply worried about it, you haven’t committed it. “Hearts with settled hardness against Jesus and his Spirit don’t go around worrying about it.”[5] Back to one of those scholars…

“For Christians today, we need not fear a specific moment of sin, but a kind of hardness of heart that would see Jesus as true and yet walk away — with a kind of hardness of heart incapable of repenting. Again, it’s not that forgiveness isn’t granted, but that it’s not sought. The heart has become so recalcitrant, and at such odds with God’s Spirit, that it’s become incapable of true repentance.[6]