Many people are familiar with the unforgivable sin found in Matthew 12:31-32
“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.”
(Matthew 12:31–32 ESV)
Jesus defines the unforgivable sin as blasphemy – not suicide, murder, or any other horrific sin. Only blasphemy.
What is blasphemy? It means to denigrate, defame, to slander.
Many people may have even wondered if they can accidentally or unintentionally commit this sin. Some are afraid they have already done so. Bible scholar F.F. Bruce writes “the very fact of their concern over having committed it proves that they have not committed it.” [Hard Sayings of Jesus, p. 89]
In the context of this passage above, Jesus was accusing the Pharisees of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit because they rejected Jesus to the extent that they attributed the work he was doing in driving out demons to be done in the power of Satan. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
In his message on this text, Pastor Mike Ruel points out three aspects of blasphemy:
- It is intentional. One other commentator puts it this way “blasphemy is not an impulsive action of statement. It is rather a determined course of godlessness arising from a settled conviction that God’s chosen servant, on whom God has put his Spirit, is an agent of the very demonic powers Jesus came to defeat.” [Gospel Transformation Study Bible note on Matthew 12:31-32]The Pharisees are intentionally accusing Jesus of being from Satan, and not from God.
- It is continual. Blasphemy is the settled position of the heart that shows itself in words. Another commentator has this helpful quote: “Blasphemy is something that one does with the mouth or the pen. It involves words…those who commit such a sin would be so hardened of heart and abandoned in their sin as to feel no remorse for it.” [Reformation Study Bible note on the “Unforgivable Sin”] Words matter, as Jesus indicates in the very next passage in Matthew 12:36-37.
- It is irretrievable. Words are the overflow of the heart. [Matt 12:34]. A heart that intentionally, continually rejects Jesus will one day stand before Jesus and then know beyond a shadow of a doubt that they were wrong…but it will be too late.
Ultimately, blasphemy is an intentional, continual, irretrievable disbelief in Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God – God in the Flesh and that is what is actually from Satan. John reminds us that what we make of Jesus is the determining factor in our salvation or damnation.
“By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.”
(1 John 4:2–3 ESV)
The spirit of the antichrist is in the world already and has been at work since Jesus. It is everything that rejects Jesus. But, to reject Jesus is to reject God himself, and therefore it is blasphemy. Our modern culture is increasingly blasphemous. It rejects God and makes a mockery of any truth that aligns itself with him. God will not be mocked, but one day will judge everyone by their words and the position of their hearts towards Jesus Christ. For many, they will persist in their rejection and disbelief of Jesus, and will not be forgiven in this age, or eternity to come.
What’s the answer to this? The gospel. The bad news that we are enemies of Go because of our rejection of him and the good news that he has a plan to reconcile the relationship through faith in the work of Jesus. Many of us at one point, rejected Jesus and his gospel, but the Holy Spirit softened our hearts to the truth through the gospel. Let’s pray for faithfulness to stand firm in this blasphemous culture and also to hold out the hope of the transforming power of the gospel to soften blasphemous hearts before it is too late.
