There is an intense feeling of fear with the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Those worried about it often find it hard to understand whether or not their salvation is indeed through faith in Christ alone.
The reason is because blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, according to Christ, is the Unforgivable Sin. So, if you commit that sin, you cannot receive forgiveness for it.
That is disturbing, or is it not? While you think about that for now, the main question is: what is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit?
In this message, we will look at blasphemy in the Bible, the statements of Jesus about blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, what it means, how, and why it is an unforgivable sin.
Meanwhile, have you seen the message, Who Is The Holy Spirit And What Does He Do? You should give it a read!
What Is Blasphemy Against The Holy Spirit?
I am not cheering you by saying, Hey, you probably have not blasphemed against the Holy Spirit because you are reading or listening to this. You probably did. And I hope I did not scare you off.
Jesus said in Matthew 12:31 WEB, “Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men.”
Hold on for a moment; did you see every sin? Hmm. Besides that, two kinds of blasphemy are present in the statement: the normal and the one against the Holy Spirit. To understand the latter, let us look at the first.
What Is Blasphemy?
The Greek word for blasphemy is blasphēmı́a; it means evil-speaking or defamation. And to blaspheme is to speak evil of or defame someone or something, especially God or a holy thing.
Blasphemy is a show of willful disobedience and open disrespect to an authority or order. It is more a show of irreverence or reproach to God in words and deeds.
In the Hebrew scriptures, the word blasphemy is נאצה, transliterated as ne‘âtsâh, and also presented as rejection in 2 Kings 19:3 and Isaiah 37:3.
Note: blasphemy is a noun word, and blaspheme is the verb form of it, bārakh in Hebrew. Under the Old Testament, it was deemed an offense worthy of death.
| Leviticus 24:15–16 WEB: “You shall speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘Whoever curses his God shall bear his sin.
He who blasphemes Yahweh’s name, he shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall certainly stone him. The foreigner as well as the native-born, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death.” |
Take note of the underlined phrases. An example of someone murdered for blasphemy against God was Naboth and the unfortunate thing about his story is that it was a setup.
Naboth appeared in 1 Kings 21 as a Jezreelite who owned a vineyard in Jezreel, close to the palace of Ahab, King of Samaria. The King approached him to transfer ownership to him for a worthy reward because of its location, but Naboth refused because it was an ancestral inheritance.
King Ahab went home saddened, and Jezebel, his wife, came to him to inquire of him. When he told her what happened, she assured him that she would get the vineyard for him. What did she do?
“She wrote in the letters, saying, ‘Proclaim a fast, and set Naboth on high among the people.
Set two men, base fellows, before him, and let them testify against him, saying, ‘You cursed God and the king!’ Then carry him out, and stone him to death.’” 1 Kings 21:9–10 WEB.
They did as she commanded, and Naboth suffered for a crime he did not commit. It reminds me of what happened to Christ in Mark 14:56–65.
In Acts 18, something interesting took place. Then, Paul stayed with Aquila and Priscilla and went to the synagogue on the Sabbath to reason with Jews and Greeks.
“But when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul was compelled by the Spirit, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ.
When they opposed him and blasphemed, he shook out his clothing and said to them, ‘Your blood be on your own heads! I am clean. From now on, I will go to the Gentiles!’
He departed there, and went into the house of a certain man named Justus, one who worshiped God, whose house was next door to the synagogue.” The Acts 18:5–7 WEB.
Blasphemy Against The Holy Spirit
There are three main views about what Blasphemy Against The Holy Spirit means. The first is that it refers to attributing the works of the Holy Spirit to demons and vice versa. The second is refusing to repent from sin and rejecting what Christ had done for salvation. The third is apostasy.
I think if only saying something wrong were to be the case, there would be many more reasons to worry in Christendom on this topic because many so-called men of God get to slander the Spirit, lie against the Holy Spirit, put words in the mouth of God, saying, God said what He never said, and the Holy Spirit did what He never did. They do all that to deceive people and deceive themselves.
I have been privileged to hear a father figure among Christian Pentecostals call his Lord a loser and a failure. What would you make of that? Well, let us not go there.
Returning to the verse about blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, Matthew 12:31, let us look contextually at the passage.
“Then one possessed by a demon, blind and mute, was brought to him and he healed him, so that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw.
All the multitudes were amazed, and said, ‘Can this be the son of David?’
But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, ‘This man does not cast out demons, except by Beelzebul, the prince of the demons.’
Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said to them, ‘Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand.
If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand?
If I by Beelzebul cast out demons, by whom do your children cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges.
But if I by the Spirit of God cast out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you.
Or how can one enter into the house of the strong man, and plunder his goods, unless he first bind the strong man? Then he will plunder his house.
‘He who is not with me is against me, and he who doesn’t gather with me, scatters.
Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men.
Whoever 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, neither in this age, nor in that which is to come.” Matthew 12:22–32 WEB.
When Jesus said that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven men, according to Matthew, He implied that speaking against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. Now, what is speaking against the Holy Spirit? The statement came in line with the Pharisees saying that Christ did not cast out demons, except by Beelzebul, the prince of the Demons.
However, according to the account of Luke 12:8–13, the statement appeared in verse 10, linking to the confession of Christ before men, as opposed to the denial of Christ.
With that, I believe Matthew 12:30 is necessary to understand verse 31, as we note the following in His statements:
- Those who are not with Him will be against Him, and those who do not gather with Him scatter.
- Every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven, men.
- Those who speak against the Son of Man will be forgiven.
We can say he was addressing people who were against Him, people who sinned even of blasphemy, and those who spoke against His humanhood. He made them understand there would be forgiveness for their sins if they repent, I would say. But those who choose to stand against the Spirit of Truth, by whom God does His works to deliver and to save, will not have forgiveness for all ages.
| John 14:17 NASB: “That is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.” |
The group of people Christ admonished against was the Pharisees, and if you noticed, they were the same group of people who withstood Paul when He told them by the Spirit that the Jesus they crucified was the Christ.
He continued in Matthew 12:33–37 WEB, saying:
“Either make the tree good, and its fruit good, or make the tree corrupt, and its fruit corrupt; for the tree is known by its fruit.
You offspring of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.
The good man out of his good treasure brings out good things, and the evil man out of his evil treasure brings out evil things.
I tell you that every idle word that men speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment.
For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
Jesus used His usual analogy of a good tree and the opposite to make a distinction, pointing to the fact that it is from the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.
Therefore, there is a confession that reflects the decided state of the heart, total stands against the Spirit, the Truth, and rejection of the workings of the Spirit, which by extension is salvation and deliverance through faith in Christ Jesus. The workings of miracles by the Spirit in the man Jesus were testimonies to the salvation that God would perform through Him.
There is a position — blasphemy, and opposition — the speaking against. Therefore, the continuous opposition, unrepentant stands against the Holy Spirit, will not be forgiven. How so, and why?
How Do You Commit Blasphemy Against The Holy Spirit
Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is taking a position of opposition against the workings of the Spirit, which God wrought in Christ Jesus. Without taking you further, one commits blasphemy against the Holy Spirit by rejecting what the Spirit offers in Christ Jesus instead of believing.
So, when you see someone taking a perpetual stand against Christ and what He represents, then you know that person is both an Antichrist and a blasphemer of the Holy Spirit because they operate with a different spirit, speaking against the Holy Spirit of God.
Let this be known to The Believers Today: our salvation and acceptance of God in Christ is a profession of faith in agreement with the conviction of the Holy Spirit of God.
For those asking for examples of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, look no further than the Pharisees, who stood against Jesus being the Christ, the Son of God, and everything He stood for. They stood against the disciples for preaching in the authority of Jesus Christ and persecuted them, training other people to do likewise.
Saul of Tarsus, also called Paul, being one of their students, grew up and was given a prominent position with them, and when he converted and received the Spirit of God, bearing witness to Jesus as the Christ, he was persecuted by the same.
Another example was the Sadducees, and today, you can tell the different groups of individuals that have made it their responsibility to blaspheme against the Holy Spirit, speaking against everything that God did in and through Christ Jesus.
Why Is Blasphemy Against The Holy Spirit Unforgivable?
When we believed in Christ Jesus, what happened? According to the scriptures, God confirmed our faith in Him by giving us His Holy Spirit as the Seal to witness our justification and acceptance into the family of God. We are kept secure in Christ by the Spirit of God for the day of redemption.
Now, why is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit the unforgivable sin? It is because the one who chooses to blaspheme the Holy Spirit rejects the very essence of salvation and the forgiveness of sins.
They will not be forgiven, not because they tried to keep all the laws of God and could not, but because they reject the very Spirit that forgives sins. Therefore, they will die in their sins.
