Have you ever wondered who has committed the unpardonable sin?
Holy Spirit is the very heart of God made manifest in those who believe in the birth, death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ. He is the ultimate gentleman and He so loves His creation.
John 3:16-18
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. 18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Satan is the father of lies and it may be the only lie that he can get you to believe. Do not fall for it. He would love for you to distance yourself from the forgiveness of God by planting the seed in your mind that you have committed the unpardonable sin.
Mark 3:28–30
28 “Assuredly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they may utter; 29 but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is subject to eternal condemnation”—30 because they said, “He has an unclean spirit.” The New King James Version
In this context, this refers to insistently and unapologetically misrepresenting the workings of the Holy Spirit as demonic. Faithlife Study Bible
It is apparently not a single act of defiant behavior, but a continued state of opposition entered into willfully. The tense of they said indicates a continued action, not a onetime event. The words and works of Christ were spoken and performed by the power of the Holy Spirit. To attribute them to Satan is to call the work of heaven a work of hell. For such perverse belief there is no remedy. The NKJV Study Bible
It was plain that the doctrine of Christ had a direct tendency to break the devil’s power; and it was as plain, that casting of him out of the bodies of people, confirmed that doctrine; therefore Satan could not support such a design. Christ gave an awful warning against speaking such dangerous words.
It is true the gospel promises, because Christ has purchased, forgiveness for the greatest sins and sinners; but by this sin, they would oppose the gifts of the Holy Ghost after Christ’s ascension. Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Many Christians have heard that there is an unpardonable sin and live in dread that something grave they have done before or after conversion might be that sin.
Their fears are unfounded. While there is an unforgivable sin, it is not one that a true believer in Jesus Christ can commit.
The one sin which God cannot forgive is mentioned in Mark 3:28-30 and Matthew 12:31-32. Jesus had been performing miracles, including driving demons out of people by the power of the Holy Spirit. Instead of recognizing the source of Jesus’ power and accepting Him as God’s Son, the religious leaders accused Him of being possessed by the devil and driving demons out in the power of the devil.
Jesus responded by saying, “I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin.”
The sin of the religious leaders, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, was a refusal to accept the witness of the Holy Spirit to who Jesus was and what He had come to do, and then submit their lives to Him. Jesus said concerning the Holy Spirit, “When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment” (John 16:8). They chose rather to reject the Spirit’s witness to their sin and to Jesus, and accused Him of being demon possessed!
The point for us is that if we have received Jesus as our Savior and Lord, we have not blasphemed the Holy Spirit; we have accepted His witness. One study Bible explains it as follows: “To commit this sin one must consciously, persistently, deliberately, and maliciously reject the testimony of the Spirit to the deity and saving power of the Lord Jesus.” If a person keeps doing that until death, there is no hope of forgiveness and eternal life in heaven. Billy Graham
In Matthew 12:22–31, after Jesus had just cast a demon out of a man, the Pharisees accuse him of using the power of Satan to do so. In response, Jesus first points out that this is not only illogical, for what kingdom divides against itself (v. 26), but that his signs, done in the power of God’s Spirit, actually reveal that God’s kingdom has entered into their reality and is standing before them (v. 28). But then Jesus gives the Pharisees a rebuke, saying,
Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. 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.
So what exactly is blasphemy against the Spirit, what many call the unpardonable sin?
Simply put, the unpardonable sin is the rejection of God’s grace. Let’s consider again the context of Jesus’ words.
Jesus had just restored a man’s sight and hearing by ridding him of an evil spirit (v. 22). This act was certainly done for the wellbeing of that man, but it was also done for the well-being of the crowds, the disciples, and even the Pharisees. It is through this miracle that Jesus was once again providing a graphic sign of himself, as the redeemer of the world, who will ultimately rid all evil from his creation. And this sign was done in the power of the Holy Spirit, who is the one who reveals Christ to us for salvation. And while the crowds received the sign for what it was and were amazed (v.23), the Pharisees despised the grace that had been revealed to them, and aggressively tried to destroy it.
For the Pharisees, there was no misunderstanding, or ignorance, or confusion over what had been done. Their promised God stood in their midst, revealing himself to be gracious, loving, and good, and yet they called him evil. Jesus had liberated a demon-possessed man and restored his sight. And at this, the Pharisees shut their eyes and closed their ears, refusing to embrace Jesus as the Messiah. The Spirt had enlightened them to the truth of Christ, and yet they closed themselves up in darkness.
The unpardonable sin is not an accidental failing, nor a misguided moment of irreverence, nor is it even willfully committing a sin when you know you shouldn’t. For those who look to Christ for their only hope of salvation, all sins are forgiven.
The unpardonable sin isn’t even an ignorant hostility against the Church or a disdain for Christianity. For even as the Apostle Paul, former persecutor of Christ (Acts 9:4), says of himself, “I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 1:13–14).
But for those who rebel against the Holy Spirit’s revealing, who have been shown the loving kindness of the Father through the death of his Son on their behalf and yet call evil what is good, poison what is medicine, and of hell what is of heaven, they will never be forgiven. It is not simply that they did not know the truth, but that they knew it and hated it. To blaspheme the Spirit is to reject the very grace that has been shown to you in Christ. And without Christ, there can be no forgiveness.
The weight of our sin is great, and the burden of our guilt grows as each day reveals newer vestiges of our failings. But it is for this reason that we must recall the gospel every day, so that we may rejoice with Paul, who said, “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost” (1 Tim. 1:15).
This gospel is hard to believe because it sounds too simple. As creatures hardwired for right and wrong, we are well acquainted with failure and guilt. Grace does not make sense to us and a gospel of forgiveness always seems too good to be true. But while it may be the habit of our doubts to search the peripheral and perplexing pages of our Bibles, looking for anything that confirms the familiar condemnation we hold over ourselves, the truth of the gospel is this: If you look to Christ as the only way of salvation, there is no sin that God does not forgive. In Jesus, you have been forgiven of all your sins. Core Christianity.com
Matthew 12:31 “Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men.
Matthew 12:32 Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.
Luke 12:10 And anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but to him who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven.
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