The Narrow Path Ministries

I have always thought of blasphemy of the holy spirit, the unpardonable sin, to be the continuous rejection of Jesus so that a person will not accept the salvation being offered to them. However while reading Matthew 12:31 in context it seems that the blasphemy is that the pharisees were attributing Jesus casting out demons by the Holy Spirit as the work of the devil. Is this blasphemy of the Holy Spirit?

I always thought that the Pharisees knew, in their heart of hearts, that Jesus was who He said He was. However, they rejected this for their own purposes and to protect their own power base. Thus, when they said Jesus was casting out demons via Satanic power, they said this knowing full well that what they were saying was a bunch of hogwash. they were KNOWINGLY attributing the works of the HS to the devil, which was unforgiveable. if they were doing it in ignorance, it would be a different story.

TK

rammac wrote:However while reading Matthew 12:31 in context it seems that the blasphemy is that the pharisees were attributing Jesus casting out demons by the Holy Spirit as the work of the devil. Is this blasphemy of the Holy Spirit?

Yes, I think you hit the nail on the head!

I have come to take it as the Pharisees knowingly rejecting Jesus as the true Messiah. Not just the single act of knowingly claiming His works were of the devil.

If for example they had immediately repented as David did, would Jesus have said sorry can't do it?

tim

rammac13 wrote:I have always thought of blasphemy of the holy spirit, the unpardonable sin, to be the continuous rejection of Jesus so that a person will not accept the salvation being offered to them. However while reading Matthew 12:31 in context it seems that the blasphemy is that the pharisees were attributing Jesus casting out demons by the Holy Spirit as the work of the devil. Is this blasphemy of the Holy Spirit?

Why do you call this sin unpardonable?

ESV Mat 12:31 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.

CLV Mat 12:31 "Therefore I am saying to you, Every sin and blasphemy shall be pardoned men, yet the blasphemy of the spirit shall not be pardoned. 32 And whosoever may be saying a word against the Son of Mankind, it will be pardoned him, yet whoever may be saying aught against the holy spirit, it shall not be pardoned him, neither in this eon nor in that which is impending.

Could it be only unpardonable in Jesus' present age and the one to come after his death and ressurection? Could there still be a future age in which it is no longer unpardonable?

Paul

Murf you wrote:If for example they had immediately repented as David did, would Jesus have said sorry can't do it?

Of course not. That thought seems to come from the odd idea that there is a single sin which one can commit which cannot be pardoned. The single act of attributing the work of the Holy Spirit to being the work of the devil is forgiveable. But if one continues doing so it cannot be forgiven.

However, I am not at all sure that my thinking is correct here. For it seems to apply to every other sin as well.

1 John 3:4 Every one that practises sin practises also lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.
1 John 3:8 He that practises sin is of the devil; for from the beginning the devil sins. To this end the Son of God has been manifested, that he might undo the works of the devil.
1 John 3:9 Whoever has been begotten of God does not practise sin, because his seed abides in him, and he cannot sin, because he has been begotten of God. Darby's translation

John 16:8
8When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt[a] in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: 9in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me;

Matthew 12:31
And so I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. 32Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.

I would like to share my understanding of the verse. In John 16:8 Christ is telling us that the role of the Holy Spirit is to convict us of our sins therefore the Holy Spirit is the one who influence our hearts to repent so when the Holy Spirit convict us of our sins there are 2 ways we can respond and these are to repent or to ignore the Holy Spirit. If we repent we will be forgiven but if we ignore then we will not be forgiven.

In Matthew 12:31, Christ is telling us the same thing since the Holy Spirit is the one who convict ( influence )us of our sins and yet we decided to blaspheme ( deny ) the Holy Spirit then we have rejected the only one who can make us repent and He is the Holy Spirit according to this verse.

For example if the only person in the universe who can save my life because we have the same blood type decided not to share his blood to me then no one else can which means I will die .

My conclusion from my previous post is that the only unpardonable sin is the unrepentant heart.

All sins are pardonable except to an unrepentant heart which was the heart of the pharisees because even though they know

that Christ has all the characteristics of the Messiah they still refused to believe.