What is the unpardonable sin?

[superdave5221]

Matt 12:30-32 [Jesus speaking] Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. For this reason I tell you, people will be forgiven every sin and blasphemy, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. 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.

What is Jesus saying here? How does one blasphemy against the Holy Spirit? Is it possible to blasphemy against the Holy Spirit without knowing it or does one have to have enough knowledge to know better?

This is certainly a sin to be avoided!!

 

[Ryan1976]

The Pharisees knew full well that the miracles being performed were being done by God. They distorted the truth that they themselves knew to be self-evident, God is at work. They distorted, The Truth. If you look at the theology of the Pharisees it's apparent that they were simply going into self-preservation mode when they made the prince of demons remark.

To blaspheme the Holy Spirit is to know full well the work the Spirit is doing and then turn around and say that this work is not the work of God but of demons or bad etc....

However, we should also take into special consideration demonic possession and also mental/medical ailments (two different things) that might make it appear that the person is willfully blaspheming against the Holy Spirit but in all likelihood will not be held accountable for this sin. Is the man that suffers from Tourette's syndrome going to, even though he can not restrain himself, going to have to answer for all that escaped his mouth in the same exact way that the one who can willfully restrain their tongue is going to be held accountable for what he says? Probably not.

God bless

 

[wattie]

The blasphemy of the Holy Spirit in Matthew is something that was done by unsaved.. Pharisees... that is who Jesus was talking to when He talked about the sin of blasphemy.. it applies to unsaved ones.. who deny the means by which the Holy Spirit regenerates somebody... they are continually denying salvation through Jesus.

When a person gets saved.. this verse does not apply to them.. once they have accepted Christ.. they are no longer able to commit the sin of blasphemy.. because they have accepted the means by which they are saved. They are not Pharisees.. they are not unsaved.. they have been regenerated by teh Holy Spirit.


Seriously.. if blasphemy of the Holy Spirit was something along the lines of being rebellious toward Him or saying you don want Him anymore.. how many times would you lose and have to regain your salvation in your life? MANY!

So--

note--

Jesus was talking ot the Pharisees and Scribes who were not saved when talking about the sin of blasphemy-- this sin is against the Holy Spirit.. and the Holy Spirit is the one who indwells believers at salvation.. thereby they are rejecting salvation.

 

[Harley_Angel]

So you are saying, really the only way to blaspheme the Holy Spirit is to deny it in your life, thus denying salvation, or to willfully KNOW that the Holy Spirit is doing something and attribute it to bad things?

The idea of somehow accidently or unknowingly blaspheming against the Holy Spirit scares me a lot. I went through a time where I was very angry with Christianity, and even God, and was atheistic. There were times I made jokes I shouldn't have, and I literally felt my soul crying. I was telling a friend a joke against Jesus I had heard and I couldn't do it, I couldn't finish it, the shame of letting it past my lips was too much. Even today, I'm still so ashamed about it that I beg Jesus to forgive me for saying such an awful thing, or thinking about it. Whenever the joke pops up in my head for whatever reason, I stop whatever I am doing and pray pray pray that God removes it from my head, makes me forget all about it.

Unlike blaspheming against Jesus, or God, I don't think we can truly blaspheme against the Holy Spirit so easily. It's just hard for me to understand what Jesus meant because blaspheme is such a strange word. We don't really use it much, and I don't know what context He was using it then. Any light that could be shed on this in addition to what wattie said would be appreciated.

 

[phil36]

one thing to remember is that, we all wilfully deny Christ that is mans sinful condition (Romans 1:18-32; Eph 2) before we are saved we are all anti God!

However, the difference here as noted above is the attributing the works of the Holy Spirit (God) to the devil, and doing this through flagrant, wilfull rejection of God and His commands, this sin can oly be committed by unbelievers who deliberatly refuse/reject the calling to salvation by the Holy Spirit.

It is the persistant Blasphemy against the work of the Holy Spirit and not words spoken in haste. I myself before I was saved, blashemed, but not in the way described in Matthew, and I am sure if we are honest most of us did before becoming saved one way or another.

This passage is great, Jesus' power over the demons through the Holy Spirit (cf, Mt 3:16), He is the Messianic son of David, and in that we have the arrival of the Kingdom (inaugarated though not fully realized) Jesus binding the strong man (Devil) to gather His people to Himself. but the Pharisees with hate ascribe the good to the devil and mean it, and wilfully carry on in their belief disregarding the call to salvation.

Soli Deo Gloria

Phil

 

[Cup-of-Ruin]

one thing to remember is that, we all wilfully deny Christ that is mans sinful condition (Romans 1:18-32; Eph 2) before we are saved we are all anti God!

However, the difference here as noted above is the attributing the works of the Holy Spirit (God) to the devil, and doing this through flagrant, wilfull rejection of God and His commands, this sin can oly be committed by unbelievers who deliberatly refuse/reject the calling to salvation by the Holy Spirit.

It is the persistant Blasphemy against the work of the Holy Spirit and not words spoken in haste. I myself before I was saved, blashemed, but not in the way described in Matthew, and I am sure if we are honest most of us did before becoming saved one way or another.

This passage is great, Jesus' power over the demons through the Holy Spirit (cf, Mt 3:16), He is the Messianic son of David, and in that we have the arrival of the Kingdom (inaugarated though not fully realized) Jesus binding the strong man (Devil) to gather His people to Himself. but the Pharisees with hate ascribe the good to the devil and mean it, and wilfully carry on in their belief disregarding the call to salvation.

Soli Deo Gloria

Phil

Phil, I totally agree with you. I could not have said it better myself.

 

[CarrierOfChrist]

I think what Jesus was talking about is rejecting the Holy Spirit, which means if you die without accepting Him, you're not forgiven; your ties are severed with the only One who can give you your ticket out of Hell. Please continue reading, I know you might be thinking "BUT HE SAID REJECTING THE HOLY SPIRIT!" Read on..

The only way you won't be forgiven is not by refusing to accept that Jesus died for your sins. When you accept Him, that gets the gears turning, making the Holy Spirit come into your life. You cannot accept Jesus and refuse the Holy Spirit; it's a package deal, quite literally! If you attempt that, you're rejecting Jesus anyway, because you're not accepting His teachings. Rejecting the Holy Spirit = rejecting Jesus.

John 14:26 - But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My Name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

The good news about this is though, once you've accepted the Holy Spirit, He's with you forever:

John 14:16 - And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever —...

But, if you try to do things your own way, you're being worldly about spiritual matters, which just doesn't work at all.

John 14:17 - ... the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.