“Why, what evil has this man done?” – Pilate
“Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come. Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.” (Mat 12:31-34)
Journal,
An issue that believers sometimes find themselves grappling with has to do with what blasphemy against the Holy Spirit means, and if this ‘unpardonable’ sin has a bearing on a believer.
Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is one of the least understood of all Biblical teachings. Because of this it has been a cause of pain for the uninstructed child of God. This is especially true when a child of God ‘senses’ that a thing being done in the name of Jesus, may not be of the Lord. But someone then warns him or her to be careful, ‘You might blaspheme the Holy Spirit.’
The short side of the story is that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is not a believer’s sin. It has never been, not today, nor any other time. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. This sin comes from darkness. It comes from a continual Satanic warfare against God Himself. And this is what we need to determine from the Scriptures.
It is important to understand that the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit was placed at the front door of a certain element of the Jewish leadership during the time of Christ. It was against that particular element that the charge was made and not at all against all the Jewish people at large. Keep in mind that the early church began fully as a Hebrew believing people. To help understand this element view these Scriptures: (Place cursor over any Scripture reference and it will appear.) Gen3:15; Mat3:7; Mat12:34; Mat23:33; John8:44; Rev2:9; Rev3:9.
This charge of blaspheming the Holy Spirit goes along with this statement made by the Lord,
“Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and it was your fathers who killed them. So you are witnesses and approve the deeds of your fathers; because it was they who killed them, and you build their tombs. For this reason also the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send to them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and some they will persecute, so that the blood of all the prophets, shed since the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the house of God’, yes, I tell you, it shall be charged against this generation.” (Luk 11:47-51)
The term ‘generation’ comes from two Greek words that suggest the idea of a multitude of contemporaries. It is also used as a special reference to the moral circumstances of a particular time or people. Jesus is addressing a class of people in Judaism who did the work of the devil. As a nation group Israel’s purpose was to bring forth the Messiah for all the nations. However, Satan had his place in Israel and especially in the leadership. This is why John the Baptist and Jesus spoke of this group as being of Satan. Whereas the gospel is for all people of all nations, Jews and otherwise, this particular element comes under a different banner. They are not simply non believers. They are active agents of Satan. It is one thing to be an active agent and another to be caught in the chords of ignorance such as was Paul. Cf. 1Tim1:12-15
Lets begin by examining a Scripture in its context. Jesus said,
“Everyone who confesses Me before men, the Son of Man will confess him also before the angels of God; but he who denies Me before men will be denied before the angels of God. And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him.” (Luke 12:8-10)
Notice that the believer who confesses Jesus is placed out of the picture on the issue of blasphemy. The one doing the blasphemy is against Christ. The primary
reason for the charge of ‘unforgivingness’ is because this sin is against God’s work of redemption in Christ. Thus we can readily guess who was the inspiration behind this sin.
A sin of defiance against God Himself
When you read the Scriptures where the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is noted, in nearly every case the leadership has openly defied Jesus before the people. It was the leadership that contributed the work of Jesus as being of the devil. So the sin was in reality a sin of defiance against God Himself. The Holy Spirit has always been reckoned as the Spirit of the Almighty God. It is without question that the testimony of God Himself rested upon Jesus.
We need additional background for this. In Isaiah 63, God brings a charge against those of Israel who turned from Him. Listen carefully;
“In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them; in His love and in His mercy He redeemed them, and He lifted them and carried them all the days of old. But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit; therefore He turned Himself to become their enemy, He fought against them.” (Verses 9,10)
Did the Jewish leadership in the day of Christ rebel and grieve the Holy Spirit? The point was that Jesus was doing things that only God Himself could do. He resurrected the dead. He opened blind eyes. He walked on water, multiplied loaves and fish, healed deformed bodies, healed lepers, and did all the things that the ancient sages said would be the signs of Messiah.
Carry this over to Acts 7:51,52, where Stephen makes his defense against the same Jewish element that had Jesus crucified. He says,
“You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did. Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become.”
I hope that this gives you an idea on what the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is. It is an open defiance against God, and it is done with a degree of knowledge. The blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is the sin where Satan seeks to maintain his warfare against the Lord of glory.
What is it that makes this sin unpardonable
What makes the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit unpardonable is that it actually aligns itself with Satan. But it is very important to understand that this is a sin against knowledge. Paul was ignorant of his role. Not all are innocent in this regard. This level of blasphemy is a sin that blatantly denies and defies and defiles all the evidence of the work of the cross in Jesus Christ. It is a sin where one’s conscience can become seared. It is a sin against the Light of God. It is the sin of Antichrist. This is why Jesus said,
“If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates Me hates My Father also.” (Joh 15:22-23)
Listen also to John:
“Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also.” (1Jn 2:22-23)
The Lord very carefully lays this issue out. Listen carefully to the language:
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
“This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.” (Joh 3:16-21)
Is the same spirit of antichrist at work today
There is no question that the antichrist spirit is in the world. It manifests in many forms. One of its most belligerent forms is found in Talmudic or Rabbinic Judaism. When the temple was destroyed in 70 a.d., the Pharisees took on the mantle of Judaism and set about to establish their authority over all Israel. In their Talmudic writings the Lord Jesus is treated as a sorcerer and a deceiver.
This is how Jesus is treated in the Talmuds:
1) He and his disciples practiced sorcery and black magic, led Jews astray into idolatry, and were sponsored by foreign, gentile powers for the purpose of subverting Jewish worship (Sanhedrin 43a).
2) He was sexually immoral, worshipped statues of stone (a brick is mentioned), was cut off from the Jewish people for his wickedness, and refused to repent (Sanhedrin 107b; Sotah 47a).
3) He learned witchcraft in Egypt and, to perform miracles, used procedures that involved cutting his flesh, which is also explicitly banned in the Bible (Shabbos 104b).
Now for the good news. Jews by the multiplied thousands are turning to Jesus Christ today. Why are they turning? Because of the power of the gospel. The apostle said that there was nothing that could be done against the truth. AntiChrist, you are on the way out. Enjoy hell!
Here are examples from the untold hundreds of Jewish people who have come to discover new life in Jesus…
In Christ always,
Buddy
Views: 53
