Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit

By Mac McFarland

9 August 2002

 

God made a promise.  He will forgive us of all sins that we can, and do, repent from.  (1st John 1-9—one of our memory  verses from the Deep Convictions studies---“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just, and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”)  HOWEVER, there is ONE sin, that God will NOT forgive us for. As strange as that may seem, even JESUS warned of that one.  Turn to Matthew, chapter 12, and read verses 22 through 32.

 

What IS ‘blasphemy of the Holy Spirit’?  First, what does the word blasphemy mean?  The collegiate Dictionary defines it as: 1 a : the act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence for God b : the act of claiming the attributes of deity.  2 : irreverence toward something considered sacred or inviolable’

But notice what Jesus says in verse 32.  You CAN insult Jesus.  You CAN show contempt for Him, but you can NOT do the same when it comes to the Holy Spirit.  Now why do you think that is so?  Well first, let’s further define this unforgivable sin.  In reality, blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is an expression of hostility and defiance against the Holy Spirit – to go after, or attack aggressively, the Holy Spirit.

 

Have you ever done that?  Do you know anyone that has?  If you are reading this, I seriously doubt you have ever done so.  Besides, if you HAD, their would be no sense in you reading this, or any other reference to God or salvation or heaven.  Because, as Jesus said, this sin is unforgivable, and with sin, salvation is impossible.

 

So, if YOU never did this unspeakable thing, and Jesus talks about it, WHO then, has?  Well, this study, which is derived from a lesson I received from the leader of the Tacoma Sector of the Seattle Church of Christ, will attempt to answer that question, as well as, ‘have WE, or CAN WE, do that sin.

 

When Jesus was speaking, he was talking to, and referring directly to, the teachers of the law, the religious leaders of the day, the Pharisees (verse 24).  THEY were the ones that had committed that sin.  WHY?  Simple.  These guys were eyewitnesses of Jesus’ miracles.  They saw, first hand, the work of God, saw the Spirit at work, and were totally against what they did see.  In fact, not only did they say that these miraculous acts were not from God, but they attributed them to SATAN!  Look in Mark 3, verse 22.  They gave credit to the miracles (which the saw), not to God, but to Satan…”by the prince of demons, he is driving out demons.”  Directly attacking the Holy Spirit.  Look a few verses down, starting in Mark 3, verse 28, and read through verse 30.  Here again, Jesus warned them of their actions.  Also, in Luke 12, verses 8 through 10, we find Jesus again talking to the Pharisees and teachers of the law who were opposing Him fiercely (verse 11:53).  Again, he tells them that what they are doing is a sin that God will not forgive.  He said it was okay to acknowledge and disown Jesus, but not the Holy Spirit from which came the miracles they saw first hand.  What the religious leaders of Jesus’ day were saying when they claimed that the works of the Holy Spirit through Jesus, God’s miracles, were actually through Satan, was that ‘these works are invalid’.  Throwing it right back into the face of the Holy Spirit.  Calling the Holy Spirit, a liar.  

One time, a long time ago, God stated that you cannot use the Lord’s name in vain.  He had 9 other major rules he wanted us to live by.  And, as time went on, these rules were expanded through God’s word to further explain them.  A lot of sins were identified so that man would understand how God wanted us to live.  This included, the unforgivable one.  The good thing about Jesus’ arrival, and ultimately His death and resurrection, is that if we repent from sins, then we will be forgiven.  (All except, of course, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.) 

 

How does someone get to the point where they are no longer saved?  Read Hebrews 6, verses 4 through 6.  OH NO!!!!, do you mean if we simply ‘fall away’ (verse 6), that we cannot be forgiven, be brought back to repentance?  I guess so.  That is what the Scripture SAYS!  But let’s quickly talk about ‘falling away’.  We use that term today to mean laziness, pride, temporary hardening of our hearts.  It does NOT really mean just because someone may get angry with his brothers, or the church, and simply not come for awhile.  This teaching would be in contrary to the teachings of God’s grace.  No, it doesn’t mean that at all.  “Falling away”  means to go as far as blaspheming the Holy Spirit.  Can WE do that today.  I tend to fully believe, NO!.    We have never seen any of the miracles that Jesus performed.  Yes, we see ‘miracles’ every day that God does in ours and others’ lives, but not the ones Jesus used for ‘demonstrations’ to the people of His time.  When He did those miracle, the religious leaders insulted God’s works and claimed they were from Satan.  The actually accepted the miracles themselves, but they would not accept Jesus as the Son of God. 

Is it possible for us today to do this?  To blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.  I contend ‘NO’.  We were not around to see those miracles that the Holy Spirit did through Jesus.  Look in 1st Timothy chapter 1, verses 13 and 14.  Here we see the Apostle Paul calling himself a blasphemer, a persecutor, a violent man.  He was a bad dude!  But, notice in verse 14; he said the grace of God was poured out on him.  How can HE be saved, yet the others that Jesus referred to, could not?  Simple, like us, Paul never actually witnessed the miracles that Jesus performed either.  He did not witness them and attribute them to Satan, as did the Pharisees before him.  Yes, he ‘acted in ignorance and unbelief’, but so do millions today.  So did YOU, at one time.  BUT, none of us, Paul included, saw, first hand the miracles of Jesus.  Oops, sorry, he DID see one miracle, and that was when Jesus appeared to him as he was going to Damascus.  And it was at THAT point, that he understood.  At that point, he repented.  At that point, (3 days later) he was baptized and saved.  Paul even watched a servant of God die (Stephen), and gave his approval.  He was a murderer of God’s people.  Yet HE was still able to be saved. 

 

In Acts, chapter 2, Peter tells the crowd of wanna-be believers, to believe, repent and be baptized.  There are absolutely no examples of Peter or any other Apostle talking about blasphemy as being a sin from which you can not be forgiven.  Why?  Because the people of HIS day, the people HE was talking to, had also never seen first-hand, the miracles of Jesus, so THEY could never have committed the sin in the first place.  It is completely different for someone then, or today, to simply not believe that the miracles ever took place.  They MIGHT say they believe it, and say they also BELIEVE that the miracles are from the devil.  But, they were NOT there.  They did NOT actively attack head on, the Holy Spirit.  Denying that He did it, and saying that Satan did.  No, the people to whom Peter and the others addressed their teachings, are just like us today.  Not first-hand witnesses to the miracles.  Hence, we can not commit the sin that Jesus was describing as he talked directly to the religious leaders of His day.

 

In Revelation 22, verse 17, John writes that the invitation to heaven is for everyone.  Revelation was written near the end of John’s life.  It was not written to those earlier Pharisees.  It was written for the current generation of John, and for generations to come.  The invitation is for everyone because no one could possibly have committed blasphemy against the Holy Spirit in HIS day or ours; only during the time the Holy Spirit worked His miracles through Jesus.  Bottom line is, if you don’t know if you have or have not blasphemed against the Holy Spirit, you haven’t.

 

How did the Pharisees ever get to a point in their lives that they acted like they did?  These men were fairly intelligent.  They knew, memorized and taught the Scriptures (what we today call the Old Testament).  They thought THEY, and only THEY, were right.  So, when Jesus came along and taught a ‘different’ philosophy, they violently rebelled.  Their hearts got so hard that they vehemently denied Jesus.  They denied what they saw as being from the Holy Spirit.  They attributed those miracles to Satan.

How does someone’s heart get so hard that even GOD says I will not bring you back to repentance???? 

Let’s start right here in the church today.  Do you miss church?  I mean, do you not go to church sometimes?  Do you let stomach aches, head aches, work, laziness, other desires, stop you from attending church.  Do you schedule other events in your lives when the body of Christ meets.  When you are on vacation, do you NOT go to church?  Because your spouse is slightly ill (and can take care of him/herself), do you miss service?  Hardening of the heart starts with little things like that.  It begins by just being careless.  (Careless meaning to have less care for God!!!).  Satan rejoices when we do things like that.  He loves it when your heart starts to get numb.

Look at Hebrews 2, verse 1.  It says that we must pay ‘careful attention’ so that we do not “drift away”.  Hardening of the hearts starts by drifting away. ‘Drifting’ seems so innocent.  Imagine, if you will, you are lying down on a raft near the shore on a lake.  You close your eyes for a few moments, and when you open them, you are many yards from the shore.  You didn’t even feel the movement.  It happened without you ever noticing it.  Drifting away from God is the same way.  When you get careless about your sin; when you are not being open and don’t talk about our sins to each other; when we are not having our quiet times with God every day, we are drifting.  Drifting is the act of losing faith.  Romans 10, verse 17 states that faith comes from hearing the message.  If we don’t constantly hear the message by attending church or reading our Bible every day, we start to lose faith; we start to drift away.  How else do we ‘drift’?  Well, take sin, for example.  Today, we substitute other words for the sins in our lives.  Like, ‘a white lie’ instead of a lie; ‘struggling’ instead of laziness; ‘working on that one’ instead of lust; ‘desires’ instead of envy; and ‘prosperity’ instead of greed.  The Hebrews writer (some think Paul, some think Peter, others don’t know) tells us how to prevent drifting---how to prevent getting a hardened heart.  In verses 12 and 13 of chapter 3, he writes “See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.

But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness.” He warns us of the power of sin in its deception.  He tells us to encourage each other every single day.  When is the last time you called to encourage a brother or sister?  How many days in a row did you do that?  One, two, or maybe even a whole 3 days in a row?  Sorry, if I seem to be preaching here, but we simply don’t DO what we are told to do by Scripture.  No one calls me on a regular basis to encourage me.  Do they you?  I don’t get daily calls for the simple purpose of being encouraged.  Do you?  I don’t MAKE daily calls just to encourage my brothers or sisters.  Do you?  The answer, I KNOW, is “NO”.  We simply do not follow Scripture, yet we call ourselves Christians.  WE are drifting away and don’t even know it.  We will be in the middle of the lake soon, unless we pick up that oar and start rowing for Jesus.

Are you convicted in your heart by the sin you did today?  Don’t tell me you didn’t sin.  I (and God) know better.  Or did you just brush aside that sin?  Don’t let that sin go unconfessed to others (for healing) so that you will not get “a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God”.  Hardening of the heart comes from the process where things simply don’t bother you any more. 

 

Turn to Hebrews 6 and read verse 4 through 6.  Here we see that ‘falling away’ term.  It is a lot like ‘drifting away’, only the word ‘falling’ seems so much more active.  We are warned in this scripture that if we DO fall away, then, like the blasphemy thing, it is also impossible to be brought back to repentance.  As I mentioned earlier, however, ‘falling away’ is not simply ‘taking a vacation from God’, if you will.  ‘Falling away’ is a hardening of the heart the same as that of the Pharisees who Jesus accused of blasphemy against our Holy Spirit.  These verses refer to the ‘impossibility’ of being brought back to repentance, not because we CAN’T repent, but because we WON’T.  The writer knows, through God’s wisdom, that people who TRULY fall away, those who ‘have tasted the heavenly gift’ and then COMPLETELY disown God in all aspects, and who, like the Pharisees, rebel violently against God’s teachings, will NOT repent, hence, the ‘impossibility’ of them being saved.  Again, it is a matter of WON’T, not CAN’T, and the act of completely disowning God.  We (the people who drift away today, that is), don’t normally FALL AWAY, usually one just drifts for awhile.  Have you ever drifted?  Are you drifting right now?  Probably.  If so, let me ask you a question.  When is the last time you picked up the phone and called, or went over to see, another Disciple to specifically confess your sin and ask for some help?  I am not referring to the times when you have scheduled d-times, or prayer times…those don’t count in this case.  Do YOU have the heart and desire to ask for help without being asked if you need any?  If you have not done this in a while, you are drifting, and in danger of falling away with a hardened heart.

Hardening of the heart begins with friendship of the world.  Read James 4, verse 4.  When we do this, we become God’s enemy.  Look in 1st John, verses 15 through 17.  John warns us not to love the world!  And in 1st Corinthians 11, verse 32, Paul warns us not to be ‘condemned with the world’.   

 

In summary, blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, the only sin that is impossible to be forgiven, is a direct attack on the Holy Spirit.  It was done by the Pharisees of Jesus’ day when they continued to persecute Jesus and vehemently claimed that the miracles he was performing were from Satan, not God.  The Holy Spirit was working through Jesus and healed numerous people from their ailments.  Through the Holy Spirit, Jesus also saved lots of people in His day, and through the Holy Spirit, more are saved every day, even today.  The Pharisees’ hearts had become hardened over the years, so when the Holy Spirit DID appear to them, they couldn’t recognize it.  So they rebelled.  They attacked the Holy Spirit by denying He, Jesus and God had anything to do with the miraculous events they saw.  God did not, and will not, forgive them of that.  Today, we CAN get hardened hearts.  And I suppose one COULD act identically to the Pharisees, even though we didn’t SEE the actual miracles that were performed back then.  But, if you are in the church; if you are a candidate for salvation (remember John’s words in Revelation…ALL people who seek); if you happen to only drift away, you CAN be saved.  You CAN be forgiven.  If you ever wonder if you committed this sin, you didn’t.

 

To God be the glory, Amen.