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.
