Is There Any Hope?

Have you committed the unforgivable sin?

AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

The Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit in Online Comments

The other day I posted this screenshot which is a sample of comments that I get regularly on The Holy Note. These comments have a theme. The blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. Mocking the Holy Spirit is a free ticket to hell.

Even Jesus can't forgive you for that. I can't comment because I fear to blaspheme the spirit. This is a Holy Spirit issue and you should tread lightly so that you do not blasphemy the Holy Spirit. It's very sad to see how often the idea of the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is used to excuse false doctrine and spiritual abuse.

We can see clearly in this first comment that the perpetuated misunderstanding of the blaspheming of the Holy Spirit leads professing Christians to believe that there are sins for which Jesus cannot forgive you and even, it seems, that Christians can commit the unforgivable sin.

It is, of course, impossible for a Christian to commit a sin for which he cannot be forgiven because he's already been forgiven of all his sins, past, present, and future. Jesus knew it all on the cross when he died for us.

So for the 1 of you who think you have committed it, you haven't. It is satanic to suggest that speaking against something like this could potentially be blasphemy.

Of the Holy Spirit and the unforgivable sin, and this has certainly been used by Satan.

To preserve the crazy unbiblical practices that we see in the professing church today that are done in the name of the Holy Spirit. So I took a poll on this post asking if Christians can commit the unforgivable sin.

With over 3 ,000 votes, 23 said that Christians can indeed commit the unforgivable sin, 57 said that they cannot, and 19 don't know. These numbers are troubling, but I hope with this video to dispel any fear that you may have concerning the unforgivable sin.

Matthew 12 and the Meaning of the Unforgivable Sin

As can be seen clearly in the comment section of this post, there are generally two interpretive conclusions about it. The first is simply that speaking against the work of the Holy Spirit or attributing the work of the Spirit to Satan is blasphemy of the Holy Spirit and unforgivable.

After all, Jesus says in Matthew 12, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him either in this age or in the age to come.

It's understandable that some Christians would be afraid to say that some of the things often featured on the Holy Note are not from the Spirit of God because the logic goes that if you speak against what actually is the work of the Spirit of God, perhaps even accidentally you could commit an unforgivable sin.

That is quite frightening because if there is a sin for which a man will not be forgiven, he is certainly doomed to hell. The other conclusion about what Jesus' words could mean, which seems to be the most common, is that the unforgivable sin, the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, is the ultimate rejection of the Gospel, the resisting unto death of the Holy Spirit's presentation of Christ to the individual.

So those are the two positions we see most often, and I don't agree with either one of them, at least not completely. I sympathize more with the first conclusion that the unpardonable sin is just what Jesus describes in Matthew 12, speaking against the Holy Spirit.

I think the second option is untenable in light of the plain reading of the text. The blasphemy that Jesus is talking about is a verbal confession of unbelief in the work of the Holy Spirit. This cannot be talking about one's ultimate rejection of Christ.

If someone dies in their sin, they, indeed, are not forgiven, but that is not the blasphemy of the Spirit that Jesus speaks of here. To understand, we need to view this text in its context. In this passage, Jesus has just healed a man with a withered hand by the power of the Spirit in the presence of the Pharisees.

He then casts a demon out of a blind and mute man and heals him by the power of the Holy Spirit in the presence of the Pharisees, who then attribute the work of the Holy Spirit through Jesus to Satan, even though they know he is who he says he is.

It is the willful unbelief of the Pharisees that is in view here. They are watching the ministry of Jesus and deny that his messianic demonstrations of kingly power have their source in God. They accuse Jesus, incarnate, that is in person on the earth, of being demon-possessed.

And it is then that Jesus rebukes the Pharisees and says the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit shall not be forgiven. The Pharisees' hearts were so willfully hardened and their eyes so willfully blinded that Jesus declares that their blasphemy shall not be forgiven.

Why the Unforgivable Sin Cannot Be Committed Today

Well, Jesus is no longer doing ministry in person on the earth in his incarnate state. So while today anyone can blaspheme any member of the Godhead, the unforgivable sin is limited to the ministry of the incarnate Christ.

Because Christ is no longer on the earth performing miracles, it is impossible for you to commit the unforgivable sin. As Christians, we believe that no person is beyond the grace of God, and we certainly do not believe that a Christian can forfeit his salvation by speaking wrongly about a move of the Spirit, as if a particular sin could cancel out the finished work of Christ on our behalf, rendering his precious blood ineffective, and revoking the salvation once secured for us.

Such a belief is an indefensible position, inconsistent with the faith once delivered to the saints. If you believe that, you have been manipulated into believing that speaking against that which appears spiritual is potentially unforgivable, making nonsense like this Not only permissible, but protected.

And the promotion of this false doctrine is one way by which false teachers exercise and maintain control over those they are deceiving. I hope this video encourages you to rest in the security of the gospel, and emboldens you to wield the sword of the Spirit against false teachers and spiritual abusers.