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Post by Anonymous. on Nov 22, 2020 11:29:08 GMT -5
In Matthew 12:31-32 it says that all sin is forgivable except blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. This confused me because I believed that all sin was forgivable if you repented. Did things change after Jesus died on the cross or is it still unforgivable, and if so what is blasphemy of the Holy Spirit?
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Post by Mike Miller on Nov 30, 2020 10:59:42 GMT -5
Great question. I've actually taught pretty extensively on this at our church. Jesus is pretty clear that blasphemy of the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven. In fact, He said it more than once. Nothing has changed that. But the big question is what it means to blaspheme the Holy Spirit. Context is what gives us the answer. Jesus said these things (as recorded in Matthew 12 and Mark 3) immediately after He had been accused of casting out demons by the power of Satan (Beelzebul was the name of an ancient Canaanite deity and was the name Jews used to refer to the ruler of demons). So, these people were seeing the power of God on full display and attributing the work to the devil. In other words, they were identifying the Holy Spirit as Satan. But why is that worse than blaspheming Jesus or the Father? This is where the passage in Luke 12:8-12 will give us some insight. There Jesus speaks of blaspheming the Holy Spirt as a refusal to acknowledge Jesus before others. In other words, the idea is that of rejecting the prompting of the Holy Spirit to confess Jesus, which is ultimately a matter of the heart. And we know that anyone who calls on Jesus will be saved, so this isn't just about a one time event. This is about having a heart so hard toward God--a heart that has so thoroughly rejected the work of the Holy Spirit that a person can no longer repent and seek forgiveness. This is not about God's unwillingness to forgive. It is about a sinner going so far as to be beyond repentance.
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