How do I know if I've committed the unpardonable sin of blaspheming the holy spirit?
Hi, welcome to Little Lessons, thanks for joining me.
Today's question is a good one about the unpardonable sin and blasphemy against the holy spirit,
which Jesus said is unpardonable.
We find Jesus's warning against that sin recorded in three out of the four gospels, Matthew,
Mark, and Luke, the Synoptic writers, and I think Matthew gives us the most context
in order to try to come up with at least a semi satisfactory answer to the question that
we've posed about the blasphemy against the holy spirit, the unpardonable sin.
So I'd like to start reading in Matthew, Chapter 12, verse number 22 to get the context.
"Then a demon possessed man who was blind and mute was brought to Jesus and he healed
him, so that the mute man spoke and saw."
Now wouldn't that have been great to have been there to see that instantaneous miracle,
undeniable by the power of God.
A man whose blind instantly sees, and the man is also is unable to speak, and he can
talk.
It's all because he had a demon, and he was possessed, and Jesus cast that demon out.
Well the reaction of the crowds who saw it was they were amazed, and they were saying,
"This man could not be the son of David, can he?"
Are wondering if he's the messiah, but then Matthew contrast the reaction of the watching
pharisees.
Verse number 24, "But when the pharisees heard this, they said, 'This man cast out demons
only by Belzebul, the ruler of the demons.'"
So they're crediting the source of Jesus's power as satanic.
Yikes.
That's hard hearted there.
So this is when Jesus begins to delve into the subject of the unpardonable sin, "And
knowing their thoughts, Jesus said to them, 'Any kingdom divided against itself is laid
waste, and any city or house divided against itself will not stand.
If Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself, how then will his kingdom stand?'"
Well that's pretty good logic, alright, and then he asked the second question, "If I by
Belzebul cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out?"
We don't have the background on that, but apparently some of the sons of the pharisees
were casting out demons, and were they doing it by the power of the devil?
Okay, for this reason Jesus says, "They'll be your judges.
But if I cast out demons..." listen to this.
Here's what Jesus believed, "By the spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon
you."
So Jesus believed that his ability to cast out demons was by the spirit of God.
Then he talks about the strong man, and buying the strong man, and so forth, but two verses
later, Verse 31, "Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people,
but blasphemy against the spirit shall not be forgiven."
So there's the unpardonable sin.
Blasphemy [inaudible 00:03:20] ... And we just got an example of that right?
These guys said what the holy spirit is actually doing, that's the devil.
They're crediting the devil for the holy spirit's work, and that's blasphemy against the holy
spirit.
Jesus then says it again, maybe a little more detail, "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."
Now do I know why it's more grievous to speak against the holy spirit than to speak against
the son?
Can't say that I do, I don't understand that and I never heard anybody explain it in a
satisfactory way to my own thinking, but nevertheless Jesus did say that.
Now also, this is a little bit of speculation here, so please understand that, I'd like
to think that the unpardonable sin, the blasphemy against the holy spirit, is not so much unpardonable
because God lacks the grace to pardon such a sin, although I could be wrong.
But I like to think it's because when a person's heart is that hard, they have sin away their
day of grace, they have indicated that they are past the point of possible redemption.
So that they themselves, you can't argue this, they themselves put themselves in a position
to where they could not be forgiven because of the incredible hardness of their hearts
to see an undeniable, instantaneous, super amazing, powerful miracle, and saying that's
the devil doing that through a very holy man who we can't find any sin in him.
Oh my goodness, your heart ... You're in bad shape, okay.
I wish there was more that I knew about all this, but let me say that if you're concerned
that you've committed the unpardonable sin, that's a good indication that you have it
'cause you're concerned, right?
Your heart's not so hard.
You wouldn't be listening to this video, watching this video if your heart was that hard, alright?
So if you in the past said something derogatory or negative about the holy spirit, that doesn't
mean you've blasphemed the holy spirit, you didn't see an incredibly miracle like these
guys saw and then say, "That's the devil doing it."
No, no, that's way beyond anything that I think you might have done in your past that
you think, or the devil's telling you, "Well I've blasphemed the holy spirit."
Okay?
Alright, that's my best answer, thank you so much for joining me.
God bless you.