The unforgivable sin

[Rachel]

hi,
  In Matt. 12:31 it says that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven unto men. This doesn't make sense to me because I thought that Jesus forgave all sins. It also says that whoever speaks against the Son of Man it will be forgiven but speaking against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. I'm just a little confused about this right now.

[Vlad!]

Hey, Rachel, I'm glad you decided to stop by. We may not answer your question, but we'll discuss it to death

First off, you may be interested in 1 Tim 1:13, in which Paul says "Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief."

You may also be interested in a similar verse, seemingly out of nowhere in Ephesians 4, (verse 30, to be exact), which says "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption." What? He's talking about purity of speech in the passages before and purity of action in the passages after. More on this in a moment.

Some things I have read suggest that blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is a sin of the tongue (hence the juxtaposition above with Eph. 4:28-29, an injunction to not let anything unwholesome come out of your mouth). Blasphemy is spoken and, therefore, a spoken sin. This is definitely supported in Scripture, with the phrase "speaks against." But I would suggest that blasphemy would start in the soul and the mind, far before any words come out. This is sort of supported in verse 25 of that Matthew passage, where it says that Jesus saw what they were thinking. Therefore the blasphemy will first manifest itself spiritually (verse 30) and then verbally (verse 31).

With this interpretation, it can be argued that one who has blasphemy in his spirit is unpardonable not because of some shortcomings of divine mercy but because the blasphemous soul is unrepentant. With this view (taken by some commentaries), the very fact that you believe and are concerned about this is good proof that you are not unpardonable. Blasphemy of the soul may be equated to other Biblical phrases such as "hardening of the heart," and if your heart is honestly seeking then I don't think anyone would call it hard.

I hope some of this helps
 

[Guest]

As Max Lucado said "Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is unforgivable not because God is unwilling to forgive, but because man is unwilling to let God forgive."

[Rachel]

Thanks for the explanations, but I still can't comprehend why a loving God would not forgive us all our sins. I have heard in so many places that Jesus died on the cross for all our sins. Were they wrong? And why did Max Lucado say that we are unwilling to let God forgive us if we have commited that sin? Also, in 1 Timothy 1:13, I don't think it is talking about the same kind of blasphemy as blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.    

[Vlad!]

Possibly not. I haven't exactly done a study of the Greek word for blasphemy and what exactly it signifies, and also of the different actions of blasphemy that man can commit.

I have to admit that this is a bit strange. After all, Christ is God, or so orthodox Christians are told. So is the Spirit of God. We can see the nature of God through Christ. Christ is humble. Speaking against the Son of Man, Christ, is pardonable, because Christ is loving and forgiving. So what's up with the Holy Spirit? It would seem that blasphemy of the Spirit is no different.

What both I and Lucado are trying to say is that blasphemy of the Spirit is internal and is actually a rejection of the Spirit's guidance in our lives, the voice of God through the spirit to our souls, and perhaps a denial that we belong to anything greater than ourselves. Since God won't force salvation on those who reject it, said rejection essentially "hardens the heart" of the person and causes them to become incapable of receiving grace. So there's no lack of grace on God's part, but a lack of acceptance on our part.

This is pretty much what I believe. Though I suppose that, just as God told Adam and Eve "you may eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil," Christ says "you may be forgiven of any sin, but you cannot be forgiven the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit." Like a big button labeled "Do not push."

[Guest]

Truly, there is no sin that God will not forgive and yes, Jesus died for all of our sins on the cross.

I've always seen blasphemy of the Holy Spirit as turning your back on God and rejecting His gift of salvation.  So blasphemy being unforgivable is just God respecting your decision to give up your salvation.

I think you're thinking that if you were to do that that God would never forgive for it; that even if you decided years down the road that you wanted to come back to Him that He wouldn't let you.  I don't think that's the case.  It's only unforgivable as long as you want it to be.

[Rachel]

I understand it much more clearly now  Thank you so much! =)