Why would blasphemy against Jesus be forgiven, but not blasphemy against the Holy Spirit?
In Matthew 12:31-32 Jesus says:
31 Therefore, I tell you, people will be forgiven every sin and blasphemy, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. 32 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, either in this age or in the one to come.
There are a few potential questions tied up in this passage.
One, why will ‘the blasphemy against the Spirit’ not be forgiven?
Two, what does it actually mean to ‘speak against the Holy Spirit’?
Three, how come speaking against Jesus (the Son of Man) can be forgiven, but not speaking against the Holy Spirit?
The third question can particularly be confusing. After all, if Jesus is the only way to life and salvation, then surely blasphemy against him should be the eternal sin!
So, what is going on? Let’s work back through those questions from the third to the first.
Blasphemy against Jesus?
It is possible to ‘get’ Jesus wrong and to reject him. Perhaps to misunderstand or miss his role or identity or power. Or to even speak against him.
And yet, there is still hope.
As the Spirit convicts us of Jesus’ identity and work, and of our sin, we have the opportunity by God’s grace to humble ourselves and to repent and trust in Jesus for forgiveness and new life. So, sinning and blaspheming against Jesus doesn’t have to be an unforgivable or eternal sin.
The Apostle Paul is a good example of this. Paul went from being against Jesus and Jesus’ people, to instead trusting that “Jesus came into the world to save sinners – and I am the worst of them” (1 Tim 1:15). And in describing his shift from the enemy against God, even as a devoutly religious Jew, to ambassador for Jesus, Paul calls himself ‘formerly a blasphemer’ (1 Tim 1:12-23). So, he says:
12 I give thanks to Christ Jesus our Lord who has strengthened me, because he considered me faithful, appointing me to the ministry— 13 even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an arrogant man.
Paul rejected Jesus. But when confronted face-on with and by Jesus, by God’s grace and the work of the Spirit, he came to trust in the risen Jesus as Lord and his Saviour.
Blasphemy or speaking against the Holy Spirit?
The context to Jesus’ statements about blasphemy of the Holy Spirit in Matthew 12 provides clarity in working out what it means to ‘speak against the Holy Spirit’. There we read that a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute was brought to Jesus, and Jesus heals him. But, while the crowds ask ‘could this be the Son of David?’, the Pharisees declare that Jesus drives out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons.
Can you see what the Pharisees have done and are doing?
Firstly, they have rejected Jesus and the work he is doing by the very Spirit of God. After all, as Jesus says in verse 28, ‘If I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you.’ And that’s exactly what Jesus has just done as the Spirit-anointed Messiah. Yet, the Pharisees have deliberately despised the light of this revelation and the work of the Holy Spirit.
But then secondly, not only are they actively rejecting Jesus and the work the Holy Spirit is doing, but they have even gone so far as to call good, evil by saying, ‘he drives out demons only by Beezebul, the ruler of the demons’ (v. 24). What an utter act of steeled defiance! And what a great insult to the very person and work of the Spirit as he has pointed these men to the only hope found in Jesus.
Can you see how they are ‘speaking against the Holy Spirit?’?
In the Pharisees here we see both a despising of Jesus and a defiant twisting of the evidence. And in doing this, they are actively, with hardened and hardening hearts, working against the very work of the Holy Spirit to show them life.
The unforgivable sin?
God warns from Numbers 15:30-31:
“But the person who acts defiantly, whether native or resident alien, blasphemes the Lord. That person is to be cut off from his people. He will certainly be cut off, because he has despised the Lord’s word and broken his command; his guilt remains on him.”
The Spirit convicts people of sin and righteousness and judgment (John 16:8) as he points us to the life found in Jesus, God’s very Word to us. And that same Spirit exhorts us to repent and believe this good news of Jesus. And as we said, anyone who does humble themselves under this conviction can be saved as they come to Jesus – their sins can be forgiven. What grace of God!
But the other side is also true. Namely, anyone who deliberately and defiantly continues to despise the Holy Spirit’s conviction acts in such a way as to place themselves in a position where, as Numbers says, ‘your guilt remains on you’. Or, in Jesus’ words from Mark 3:29, you are ‘guilty of an eternal sin’.
We have had people fearfully ask us whether various things are unforgivable sin. But the Scriptures are clear: there is one unforgivable sin and it is to blaspheme the Holy Spirit. Why is that an unforgivable sin? Because it is a continued rejection of the Holy Spirit’s bold and clear conviction of where forgiveness of sins can be found. To deliberately and defiant move away from the very direction of life that the Spirit makes clear. That, is unforgivable.
May that never be true of any of us. Lord, have mercy.
