Mat 12:31 Therefore I say unto you, Every sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men; but the blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven.Why is there this distinction? Is it still possible for someone to blaspheme against the Holy Spirit today?Thanks.
I believe Chuck Smith has some good words for us on this matter of blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, following is a clip from a sermon of his:_________________________________________________Basically, it is the refusal to harken to the work of the Spirit within your life. For Jesus said," when the Spirit comes He is not going to testify of Himself, He is going to testify of me. And He is going to reprove the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment." And then He said, " of sin, because they do not believe on me." The work of the Holy Spirit is to convict men of sin by revealing to men the answer for his sin, even Jesus Christ. God has made only one provision for your forgiveness; only one provision for the putting away of your sin and your guilt, and that provision is in and through His only begotten Son. And the Spirit of God comes to bear witness to us of this fact that there is only one way you can have forgiveness of your sin, and that is by the receiving of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, as your Savior and Lord. Now if you continually refuse that work of the Holy Spirit in your heart revealing Jesus Christ to you, reproving you of your sin because you do not believe in Him, if you continue in that mode there is no forgiveness because God has provided no other way for men to be saved. As Peter said," neither is there Salvation in any other, for there is no other name given among men, whereby we must be saved." So for you to reject God's provision for your sins through the death of His Son leaves God no alternative: there is no forgiveness for you, not in this world or in the world to come. Because God has made only one provision for men's sin the Holy Spirit bears witness to your heart of that truth. To refuse to believe, to refuse to except the witness of the Spirit, is ultimately to blaspheme against the Spirit. Now as you are progressing in this position against Jesus Christ, ultimately as you are faced with indisputable evidence that Jesus is indeed all that He said He is, by the power of His name and of His life. And your faced with evidence that you can not deny. Because you have continued this rejection mode so long you've got to somehow now rationalize or explain this obvious evidence for the fact that He is indeed the Son of David, the Messiah. And the Pharisees having adopted this mode of rejection of Jesus, were coming close to the place of no return when they said," He is doing those works by the power of the devil." Now they're beginning to deny obvious evidence and when a person comes to that place in his rejection of Jesus Christ, where he begins to deny this obvious evidence that God puts in his path, and begins to try to explain away the evidence that God is placing before him, that person is coming close to that place testified of in John 12:38 where the Pharisees finally came. Therefore they could not believe. He comes to that place where it's impossible for him to change, to believe, to turn around the mode he has established, and he's gone to far down the road, and there is no turning back. And the denial of obvious evidence which is shown when they begin to attribute the works of Jesus Christ, to Satan. Because how are you going to explain the fact that this demon possessed man is now talking, he is now seeing, whereas before he was dumb, and he was blind. Evidence that they can not deny. He is standing there before them talking. And so they have to give some explanation. Denying the evidence before them, you're getting close.
Ron quoted And the Pharisees having adopted this mode of rejection of Jesus, were coming close to the place of no return. When they said," He is doing those works by the power of the devil."AlexisI think this is a key point in this topic. There is a very interesting clue to the underlying meaning of it all. At a certain point in the contest between Moses and Pharaoh's magicians, the magicians were not able to counterfeit Moses's miracles. Then the magicians said unto Pharaoh, This is the finger of God: and Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had said. Exodus 8:19. The magicians testified to the fact that this was clearly God at work. Pharaoh rejected their witness, even though it had been born clearly and faithfully. While this attitude continues there is nothing more that God can do. In the Exodus incident God strengthened Pharaoh's heart to carry through what Pharaoh had determined.This is exactly the phrase that the Lord used; But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you. Luke 11:20. The Pharisees had seen clear evidence of who Christ was. The Spirit was bearing witness to them by the miracles, but in full knowledge of that testimony they were rejecting the witness, and ascribing to Satan what they knew to be the work of God. This is sinning against conscience as well as against God, and while the attitude remains there can be no forgiveness. As Pharaoh proved to his cost, to knowingly and persistently reject the Spirit's testimony to the conscience causes 'hardening of the heart'.
I actually read Ron's (InTheLight) post last night and woke up this morning thinking of asking if there was any "forshadowing" in the OT then I saw your post. Sometimes the Holy Spirit works in advance. :-) Thanks for both of your replies, I think I'm beginning to understand now. For the 2nd part of my question I guess I could say that the answer is 'yes' because the Holy Spirit still bares testimony of who God is and people continue to reject this testimony. In light of this, is it correct to say that the main reason people will be condemned is not so much because of their sin but because they rejected against the Holy Spirit's witness? Luke 11:31 The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation, and shall condemn them: for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, a greater than Solomon is here.
In light of this, is it correct to say that the main reason people will be condemned is not so much because of their sin but because they rejected against the Holy Spirit's witness? AlexisMy short answer (and you don't get many of these from me :-P) is 'yes'.
John 3:18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
Well Alexis,Don't get too excited just because Ron said:"My short answer (and you don't get many of these from me ) is 'yes'." He also has another short answer that we've seen lately. "Moo". :-o Clutch :-D
Alexis,The point behind all this, if you haven't been keeping up on some of the other threads is that apparently, we have different brands of language decoders in our computers. Some times because of the differences in meaning for various words, you might register an interogative on your definition display depending upon the tense, and or gerund that a particular word might be used .So, quite often, as all the kings horses, and allthe kings men wondered: "What does Humpty really mean when he says_______?" :-DComprende?Clutch :-P
Hi ClutchI see they are letting you have visitors again. BTW what is the breth-ern we are supposed to love according to your sign-off. I presume its some kind of tea-urn, but for breths. Yes? I can't remember the last time I had a breth.
Hi Ron,No need to apologize for your pedantic impulses this time. I forgive you. :-D the problem is that I can't spell, and spell check on this American computer has Attention Deficit Disorder aka.(ADD). :-? And since we really don't know what it means anyway, who cares how it's spelled. I am however fluent in American Ebonics, and I believe that you may have stumbled over the root meaning of the term "Home Dog" aka breth.If what I suspect is true; you've stumbled, fallen, and can't get up, moo three times, and I'll ring you up some help. :-D Clutch :-P
A Heart Can Become Too Hard (12:31-32)Jewish teachers acknowledged that deliberate sin against God's law ("sin with a high hand" or "defiantly"-see Num 15:30-31; Deut 29:18-20; CD 8.8), such as deliberate blasphemy against God, was normally unforgivable (Jub. 15:34; 1QS 7.15-17, 22-23). Even such a sin as Peter's denial of Jesus (Mt 26:69-75) clearly does not count in the unforgivable category (28:10, 16-20); the context of blaspheming against the Spirit here refers specifically to the sin of the Pharisees, who are on the verge of becoming incapable of repentance. The sign of their hardness of heart is their determination to reject any proof for Jesus' divine mission, to the extent that they even attribute God's attestation of Jesus to the devil.The equivalent today would be someone who remained so committed to rejecting Christ that she determined to find alternative explanations for any obvious proof (such as miracles) attesting him. Even in what seems to be that case, however, Paul exhorts one of his students and coworkers to remember that we humans cannot judge who has forever crossed that line (1 Tim 1:12-20). Not uncommonly young Christians read about the "unforgivable sin" and fear they have committed it. We therefore must reiterate the point in this context: the sin is unforgivable only because it reflects a heart too hard to repent. Those who desire to repent, troubled by the fear that they may have committed this sin, plainly have not committed it!(IVP New Testament Commentaries)
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