The Unforgivable Sin – Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit

There are a lot of misunderstandings and consequent misapplications about the concept of the “Unforgivable sin – Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit”. It is deplorable that many preachers and teachers exploit this concept to irrationally create a fear in the hearts of Christian Believers, so as to keep the Believers from questioning them or their ways and teachings. Thereby these people get away with many wrong doctrines, improper theology, and questionable behavior in their lives by invoking and taking shelter under alleging “blasphemy against the Holy Spirit” to frighten and silence those asking questions or seeking clarifications. To understand what such ‘blasphemy’ actually is, and why is it unforgivable only against the Holy Spirit, we need to look into some facts and concepts from the Word of God.

Firstly, why only against the Holy Spirit?

God’s Word, the Bible presents the Lord our God as a Triune God, the Holy Trinity – God the Father, God the Son – the Lord Jesus Christ, and God the Holy Spirit. They are absolutely one and co-equal in all aspects, with no difference whatsoever of any sort amongst them – the Triune God, the Holy Trinity – God manifesting as three in one and one in three. So then, why is it that only the “blasphemy against the Holy Spirit” has been ascribed such severe consequences, whereas the same has not been stated or implied for blasphemy against either God the Father, or against God the Son – the Lord Jesus?

To understand this we need to look at some ‘finer points’ related to the three persons in the Godhead.

God the Son – the Lord Jesus Christ, when He came down to the earth as our Savior, He left His heavenly Glory, Majesty, Form, and Stature. The Bible tells us that in this His human form He emptied Himself of His heavenly glory and was made lesser than the angels (Philippians 2:5-8; Hebrews 2:9). In this human form, He had come down to bear the sin of the world and be sacrificed for the redemption of the world. For him to accomplish this, He was destined to be despised, to be spoken against, to suffer grief and chastisement, and to face rejection and dishonor from the people of the world (Isaiah 53). He too had to experience and endure all that people of the earth have to go through; He had to live like any other human being (Hebrews 4:15; 5:7-8), and eventually suffer the ignoble death on the cross. In this context of His human form and existence, having been made lesser than the angels to suffer death, His human form was in a manner of saying ‘lesser’ than His Godly form as part of the Triune God. Therefore the offence of any blasphemy or dishonor of His human form, which He was destined to suffer anyways, would be different from and of somewhat lesser magnitude than the dishonor of God the Holy Spirit. Since the Lord Jesus was destined to suffer ignominy and rejection as part of His ministry to secure our redemption, therefore declaring things that were, or will be said against Him in a derogatory manner (i.e. against His human form), as an unforgivable sin would defeat the very purpose for which He had come, and end up sending the world into condemnation, rather than redemption. Hence dishonor of God the Son could not be declared an unforgivable sin.

In context of God the Father, the terms ‘God’ and ‘Father’ are also quite commonly and generally used terms in all cultures and religions, and even atheists and non-religious people use them as expressions for swearing, e.g. in phrases like “good god,” “god damn it,” “god forsaken,” “swear by god” etc. Their use by a person does not necessarily mean that he is using them against ‘God the Father’ of the Holy Trinity. Similarly, the word “father” too is used worldwide in many ways, and is often also used in abusive or swearing expressions. Therefore any derogatory or vulgar usage associated with the words ‘god’ i.e.  an object of veneration of any faith or religion, and of the word ‘father’, had it not been excluded from being the ‘unforgivable sin of blasphemy’ clause, would have automatically condemned the person forever and taken away any chance of his salvation, ever. So these two terms ‘God’ and ‘Father’ too could not be associated with the ‘unforgivable sin.’

That leaves only God the Holy Spirit, amongst the persons of the Holy Trinity. A very important consideration here is the fact that the concept of the Holy Spirit of God is unique to Judaism and Christianity; it is not found in any other religion or faith anywhere in the world.  Since the Holy Spirit was well known to even the people of the Old Testament (e.g. Genesis 1:2; Psalm 104:30; 139:7 etc.) – the Scriptures that the Pharisees, Sadducees, and the Scribes studied, therefore they could in no way claim to be ignorant of Him, and His status as part of the Triune God. So, essentially, keeping in mind the above stated concepts about God the Father and God the Son, anything blasphemous against the Holy Spirit is the only blasphemy that can actually be said to be against the one true God. To speak against the Holy God is the same sin that caused the fall of Lucifer (Isaiah 14:12-14; Ezekiel 28:12-15), and made him into Satan – forever the opponent of God and anything to do with God. Lucifer had rebelled and spoken against the glory and majesty of God, despite well knowing God in all His glory, majesty, stature, dominion and power; this knowledgeable and deliberate act of rebellion became the unforgivable sin against Lucifer, turned him into Satan, and he was thrown out of heaven.

If this sin of blasphemy against the holiness, majesty, and stature of God were to be condoned, or made ‘forgivable’ for us, then the irreproachable and absolutely impartial justice of God would demand that Lucifer too be forgiven – thereby making a mockery of the holiness, majesty, stature, and absolute sovereignty of God. Not only was Lucifer’s sin of incalculable severity, but also since at the time of his fall, no one had paid the price for anyone’s sin, as Christ Jesus has now paid for ours, therefore there was no atoning remedy available for sin either; it had to be dealt with by being punished. In such a situation, the mere acceptance of an apology would have resulted in unbridled chaos and anarchy in the heavenly realms. Since then, any created being could have done whatever it pleased, and got away with it by simply offering an apology – an absolutely unacceptable situation. Hence Lucifer had to be made an example and be held to account for his sin of blasphemy against God. Lucifer had to be prescribed the due penalty; a penalty proportionate in severity to the magnitude and heinous nature of his sin. If blasphemy against God is ‘unforgivable’ for one sinner, then as per the nature of God’s equitable justice, it will remain unforgivable for everyone else. Hence, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is called the unforgivable sin.

Secondly, let us now look at what the word ‘blasphemy’, actually means in God’s Word, in context of its being an unforgivable sin. We see from Mickelson's Enhanced Strong's Dictionaries of the Greek and Hebrew Testaments that this word comes from the Greek word “Blasphemeo” (Strong’s G987), which means:

1. To revile, to speak abusively against, to malign.

2. To vilify, to injure someone's reputation, to defame.

3. (Specially) to speak irreverently.

It is apparent from the above definition of this term, that blasphemy is a willful, deliberate and intentional act; which may or may not be based on any facts, rather may even misuse those facts to convey impressions quite different from what the facts actually convey. And this is done with the sole aim of denigrating the person being spoken against – rightly or wrongly. Simply stated, blasphemy is calling and proclaiming a person evil though knowing quite well that the person is not evil; yet despite evidences to the contrary, with the intention of maligning him, deliberately doing so.

That blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is not vacillation, or doubt, or desiring of a clarification, or asking for an explanation or a further elucidation, is well illustrated by the fact that though the Lord’s works were through the anointing and power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 10:38), yet many, including some very important persons in the New Testament, had doubts, even disbelief, about the Lord Jesus and His ministry – John the Baptist had doubts whether the Lord was the Promised Messiah (Matthew 11:2-3); the Lord’s disciples had doubts about who He was (Mark 4:38-41); Jesus’ own brothers did not believe in Him (John 7:5); the father of the demon possessed son had his doubts whether of not the Lord will be able to cure his son (Mark 9:24); Martha, the sister of deceased Lazarus, had doubts about the Lord’s ability to raise Lazarus from the dead (John 11:21-28); Thomas had doubts about the Lord’s resurrection (John 20:25) etc. But none of them have been condemned by the Lord as having blasphemed Him or having committed the unforgivable sin, for their questions, doubts and unbelief. Resisting or disobeying the Holy Spirit has been condemned (Acts 7:51-53), but has not been called the “unforgivable sin.”

Even the use of coarse or inappropriate language against the Lord (Peter’s three denials of the Lord, using intemperate language – Matthew 26:69-74), has not been labelled as blasphemy or called unforgivable in the Bible. We need to recall and remember that the Pharisees, Sadducees, and the Scribes were not the only ones who had accused the Lord Jesus of having a demon, many others amongst the general public too had said the same (Matthew 10:25; Mark 3:21; John 7:20; 8:48, 52; 10:20); but in none of these instances did the Lord Jesus either accuse those people or warn them of committing the unforgivable sin. Stating this as blasphemy – the unforgivable sin, was reserved by the Lord only for the Pharisees in Mark 3:28-30 and Luke 12:10; why?

Now let us look at how those Pharisees were guilty of the unforgivable sin of blasphemy:

Look at John 3:1-3 : “There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, "Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him." Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” It is quite apparent from what Nicodemus was saying to the Lord that the Pharisees well knew that the Lord Jesus was a teacher come from God, and His deeds testified that God was with Him, was working through Him. The religious leaders were neither ignorant nor in doubt about the Lord’s antecedents; rather, they were well aware of them! Nor had the Lord left them in any doubts about who He was. Not just here but otherwise too, on many occasions, even till the point He was being subjected to the mock trials before being condemned to be crucified, the Lord had repeatedly made clear who He was (John 5:17-43; 8:25; 10:24; 14:11; Luke 22:67-70), but they never believed Him (John 12:37), rather despite this knowledge, for ulterior motives and for their personal gains, they plotted to eliminate Him (John 11:47-50).

In other words, though the religious leaders of the Jews well knew of who the Lord Jesus actually was, and that God was with Him, working through Him, yet they deliberately, for selfish gains, chose to ignore Him, chose to not believe in Him, and worst of all, knowingly decided to misguide the people about Him by labeling the power of God the Holy Spirit being manifested before them through the teachings and works of the Lord as the power of Beelzebub – the ruler of demons. It is this, their deliberate and selfish slander against Him, despite their knowledge about Him and their knowing evidences contrary to their allegations, that the Lord Jesus has called the unforgivable sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.

So blasphemy against the Holy Spirit and committing of the unforgivable sin is not what is often stated and conveyed by many religious leaders of our times. It is a phrase used in the Bible for a very specific offence, and that is all that it should be used for.