That is why I tell you that all sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.
~Matthew 12:31 (NRSV).
This problem is loaded like a cannon and ready for completely misinterpretation, as many have been victims of misuse or have felt condemned by it. Let’s make it clear that this is not a damn blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.
Rather it is the “deliberate perversion of the truth” in a way that is an “established decision to oppose the work of God”.[1] That, in short, in this context in which Jesus was, were the Pharisees. To go to death virulent in opposition to the power and work of the Holy Spirit is to welcome at the gates of hell.
Securing Our Own Guilt
We have all blasphemed against God. That subject is not in doubt and that is something for which we are forgiven, without a doubt.
Jesus’ situation was one in which the Pharisees were pulling every conceivable dark trick against the ministry of the Holy Spirit in and through him. The accusations leveled against Jesus were inflammatory equivalent to death; if Jesus hadn’t thrown the problem back at them with holy cunning like he did, he might as well have found himself going to the cross sooner…of course, that wasn’t the Father’s plan!
Thinking about the action of the Pharisees to trap Jesus, here and on other occasions, it is easy to see their wickedness against the work of God. These blind guides were pushed into evil so much that it is difficult to contrast them with an equivalent in today’s terms: an open group in ‘said’ position for God, but very much against the purposes of the Spirit.
Well, we know that the false teachers that Jesus and the apostles wrote about fit into this category; those teachers preaching one thing and clearly living another… to the point of total dichotomy.
Our approach is to know that the normal (ie penitent) belief is unconditionally forgiven.
Who is left unforgiven?
The unpardonable sin is the action of the person who actively worships Satan; the one who does his dirty work against the kingdom of God. That is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.
Who are these people in today’s terms? There are some who, like these first-century Pharisees who tried to trip up Jesus, may say they are zealous for God, but their very activities to discourage and deter God’s work are working against Kingdom purposes. This is a hardened heart; a heart turned against certain devices or methods that God might be using…in a word, legalism.
These, ironically, are the ‘ministers’ who are quick to judge the action and intent of others as heretical, especially if those they judge are genuine Kingdom workers. He who is not against the kingdom of God is for it (Mark 9:40). Kingdom workers are never above reproach; they must be ready to give an account of their ministries. No one ever ministers without fault, theologically or practically. That is, however, forgivable.
The saved person who actively works against the devil’s purposes is for God – his forgiveness is sureno matter what they have said or done in the past to the contrary.
Copyright (c) 2011 SJ Wickham.
[1] RTFrance, Matthew – New Bible Commentary (Leicester, England: InterVarsity Press, 1953, 1954, 1970, 1994), p. 920.