No 21
Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit
If you had to name the greatest or most grievous sin,
which one would you say it is - murder; theft; rape or how about sins of the
heart such as pride, envy or jealousy?
None of these sins is worse than the other – in God’s eyes a sin is a
sin. There are sins that have
consequences more than others do but that’s about the only difference; they are
all bad. The Bible however, names three sins that are
the greatest of all – we will look at one of these is this study: Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. The Bible says in Matthew
Is it possible to commit a sin so grievous that it cannot
be forgiven? Some have suggested that
this sin could be :
1) Continuous rejection of the Saviour;
2) Denying that Jesus was God; 3) Using the name of the Holy Spirit in
vain; there are others. However, none of
these sins measure up to the strong emphasis that Jesus had put in those
words. As true believers, we know full
well that no sin, I repeat no sin is grievous
enough to not be forgiven (1 John 1:9). So what was Jesus referring to when He
said this? Let’s look at this a little
closer. Just before saying these words,
Jesus had cast out demons from a person who had been deaf and blind. The people
who had witnessed this great miracle had said, “Is this not the Son of David?” (v23b). The religious leaders were alarmed at the
reaction of the people for they saw Christ as a threat to their power and said “This man casts out
demons only by Beelzebul the ruler of the demons.”. (v24b). Even
after having seen with their own eyes the Holy Spirit perform this miracle they
equated Satan with the Holy Spirit and had therefore committed blasphemy both
individually and as a nation; they crucified the Son of God and did so in total
ignorance. Paul echoed this in 1 Corinthians 2:8 “Which none of
the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”
This sin could only have
been committed during Christ’s ministry on earth. Today, we can grieve the Holy
Spirit (Ephesians 4:30) ) and we can
quench the Holy Spirit (1 Thess 5:19) but never can anyone commit blasphemy
against the Holy Spirit because “ For God so loved the world,
that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not
perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)