Matthew 12:31
“Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven.”
This is a frightening passage. Every new christian sees this and wonders if they have committed it. What prompted Jesus to say this? Jesus healed a demon possessed man. The people around said this, ‘And all the crowds were amazed and were saying, “This man cannot be the Son of David, can he?” But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, “This man casts out demons only by Beelzebul the ruler of the demons.”’ The people’s response was right, He is the Messiah. That was the conclusion that was to be made. Then the pharisees got jealous and said the they said.
They were attributing the work of the Spirit to the devil. That is the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. Were all the pharisees in attendance commit this sin? Probably not. Some of them may have come to Christ later.
I’ve heard pastor Chuck speak about this. People would come to him in fear that they had committed this sin and could never be forgiven. He would ask them if they had accepted Christ and wanted to be forgiven. They would say “yes”. Then they couldn’t have committed blasphemy because they wanted His forgiveness. Those who committed this sin think that Jesus’ power is of the devil or foolishness. They would never think to accept Him. The fact that they would want to means they hadn’t committed this. If they had crossed that line they would never want His forgiveness. If they ever want His forgiveness in the future, that means they hadn’t committed that sin. If we are afraid we have committed this sin, then we haven’t as long as we accept Christ.
This is one of the traps the devil sets for new believers. There are many others. It’s nice to grow in maturity. Hebrews 6:1 says, “Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God”. We learn to not let basic things trip us up.
Some have blasphemed the Holy Spirit. They do much harm. They try to bring others their way. I think of the atheists who say there is no God. There are worldly people committed to sin and seek to bring others along. There are academics who are caught up in their intelligence who seek to have their followers. There is an army of those who are against Christ.
But we are not of them. We celebrate Jesus and His work. We’ve accepted His forgiveness and have been adopted by Him. We are the most blessed. Thank You, Lord.