Jesus Christ called the Holy Spirit "Spirit of Truth" (John
14:17;[19] 15:26;[20] John 16:13)[21] and warned us,
"All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto
men; but the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit shall not
be forgiven unto men" (Matthew 12:31).[22]
"Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit" is conscious and
hardened opposition to the truth, "because the Spirit is
truth" (1 John 5:6).[23] Conscious and hardened
resistance to the truth leads man away from humility
and repentance, and without repentance there can be
no forgiveness. That is why the sin of blasphemy against
the Spirit cannot be forgiven, since one who does not
acknowledge his sin does not seek to have it forgiven.
Matthew 12:30:[11] "Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does
not gather with me scatters. Therefore I tell you, people will be forgiven for every
sin and blasphemy, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.
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."[7]
Mark 3:28–30:[12] "Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and
whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit
can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin—for they had said, "He
has an unclean spirit.""[7]
Luke 12:8–10:[13] "And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before others,
the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God; but whoever
denies me before others will be denied before the angels of God. And everyone
who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven; but whoever
blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.
" Hebrews 6:4–6:[14] "For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those
who have once been enlightened, and 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, since on their own
they are crucifying again the Son of God and are holding him up to contempt."[7]
Hebrews 10:26–31:[15] "For if we willfully persist in sin after having received the
knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful
prospect of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.
Anyone who has violated the law of Moses dies without mercy "on the testimony
of two or three witnesses." How much worse punishment do you think will be
deserved by those who have spurned the Son of God, profaned the blood of the
covenant by which they were sanctified, and outraged the Spirit of grace? For we
know the one who said, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay." And again, "The Lord
will judge his people." It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living
God."[7] 1 John 5:16:[16] "If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto
death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death.
There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it."[7]
Belief of others
The blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, specific as it was to the Pharisees’
situation, cannot be duplicated today. Jesus Christ is not on earth, and no one can
personally see Jesus perform a miracle and then attribute that power to Satan
instead of the Spirit.
The only unpardonable sin today is that of continued unbelief. There is no pardon
for a person who dies in his rejection of Christ. The Holy Spirit is at work in the
world, convicting the unsaved of sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:8). If a
person resists that conviction and remains unrepentant, then he is choosing hell
over heaven. “Without faith it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6), and
the object of faith is Jesus (Acts 16:31). There is no forgiveness for someone who
dies without faith in Christ.
The term blasphemy may be generally defined as “defiant irreverence.” The term
can be applied to such sins as cursing God or willfully degrading things relating to
God. Blasphemy is also attributing some evil to God or denying Him some good
that we should attribute to Him. This particular case of blasphemy, however, is
called “the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit” in Matthew 12:31. The Pharisees,
having witnessed irrefutable proof that Jesus was working miracles in the power
of the Holy Spirit, claimed instead that the Lord was possessed by a demon
(Matthew 12:24). Notice in Mark 3:30 Jesus is very specific about what the
Pharisees did to commit blasphemy against the Holy Spirit: “He said this because
they were saying, ‘He has an impure spirit.’”
