Why is the Blaspheme of the Holy Spirit unpardonable?

Why is the blaspheme of the Holy Spirit unpardonable?

When I am sharing the Gospel, occasionally, people will say, “I have made the unpardonable sin. I have blasphemed the Holy Spirit.” Maybe you remember the popular trend about sixteen years ago on YouTube. A group called the Rational Response Squad encouraged people to blaspheme the Holy Spirit verbally.  

I could not help but think about this gross misunderstanding of the scripture these young people were a part of. Here is the video for your viewing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7QVbJnSPQEWhat

If I told you, the proper understanding of (Matthew 12:24) is about lying to yourself, others, and maybe both, would you believe me? I am going to try and convince you in this brief article. We will see what this text means when it refers to blaspheme. We will understand this text compared to blaspheming God’s name in Leviticus 24:16. Finally, for our monthly champions, we will see why this deception and lie is unpardonable in God’s eyes.

What does this text mean when it refers to blaspheme?

“Therefore, I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.” Matthew 12:31-32

We must look at a previous verse to understand Jesus' indictment against the Pharisees one sect of religious leaders during Jesus' life.

But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons.” Matthew 12:24

In this verse, we see the context for why Jesus said what He did. If you are reading the above text scratching your head and being a bit confused, I was too when I first read this text twenty-three years ago. Here are a few questions I had: the Pharisees say nothing about the Holy Spirit? Why will saying a few words label them with the unpardonable sin? 

To understand the fuller context, reread verses twenty-two through thirty-seven of chapter twelve in Matthew. You will not read the Pharisees' mention of the Holy Spirit anywhere. Jesus is the only one to mention the Holy Spirit in the entire text. We must conclude that this blaspheme has nothing to do with what you are verbally saying, which people can be misled to think, like the Rational Response Squad. 

If it is not about what you are saying, what does it mean to blaspheme the Holy Spirit? In short, it is about lying and self-deception that produces more lies. I will cover this in detail in the third section of this article for you monthly champions.

To better understand this blaspheme, we must first understand what it is not. We do this by understanding what it means to blaspheme God’s name.

How is the blaspheme of God’s name and the above blaspheme different?

“Whoever blasphemes the name of the LORD shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him. The sojourner as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death.” Leviticus 24:16

In the Old Testament and New, to blaspheme God’s holy name is to use God’s holy name irreverently; it is to use his name to either express disgust verbally or to use it instead of a curse word. However, when we look at the Greek word for blaspheme in the above Matthew twelve text, it is slightly different: “speech slander, detraction, speech injurious, to another's good name.”[1]

The Greek understanding of blaspheme in Matthew twelve is to detract from someone's good name. You can do this by lying about somebody. In part, this is some of what the Pharisees did with Jesus. Their lying was coming from their rebellious hearts. We see that the blaspheme of God's name is verbal, but the blaspheme of the Holy Spirit starts in the rebellious nature; it produces a lie about God and His power on display. In short, God was at work through Jesus, and the Pharisees lied and said Satan was doing what God was doing.

Jesus exposes this lie by sharing that Satan can’t oppose himself; if he did, he would destroy his kingdom. However, they were still unwilling to accept the truth even when what they either believed or postulated was counter-intuitive and illogical. It is about the heart of these Pharisees who refused to see the reality of the Holy Spirit at work in front of them: healing, providing food for thousands of people, etc.

There is a big difference between the blaspheme of God’s name and the blaspheme of the Holy Spirit. One is only verbal, and the other is deception and lies about the power of God at work around them. This leads me to my third and final point.

Why is deception and detracting from God's good name (blaspheme of the Holy Spirit) unpardonable in God’s eyes?   

Why is the sin against the Holy Spirit unpardonable? It is a universal departure from true Christianity and an opposition to the Gospel it communicates. The Holy Spirit has a minimum of four roles. “One, instructing and illuminating the truth; second, restraining evil in the world and individuals. Third, convicting people of sin, righteousness, and judgment. Fourth, the task of convicting and sanctifying.”[2]

The denial of what the Holy Spirit is doing in the world and individuals is a rejection of the power of God at work in his world. It goes from not just denying but attacking this truth and saying that it is either a lie or is the opposite of what it truly is. That God is evil. The Gospel is not good but wicked. Jesus doing His works are not from God but from Satan himself—Beelzebul.

We read here of the Pharisees doing this very thing, “But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons.” (Matthew 12:24). What is going on in this verse? They are lying and stating the opposite of what is happening.

They are trying to give Satan the credit for what God is doing.

This raises what it means to be unpardonable. It must be understood rightly. If not, this passage can be taken entirely out of context. The flaw does not come from the mercy of God or what was gained through the power of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection on the Cross. The defect comes from the sin. The very thing that is required to understand the gift of salvation—the Holy Spirit is rejected or denied in their blaspheme.

So, to deny the Holy Spirit – the only one who can convict you of sin and instruct you into the regeneration of Salvation is to cut yourself off from how God saves. Your sin against God cannot be pardoned by denying the very one that grants that pardon—the person of the Holy Spirit. This is what makes this sin unpardonable.

An example of this picture is if your boat full of people had capsized in the sea, and the coast guard came to save you from the raging sea, and you stated no, these people are evil; don’t take anything they have to offer you. The Coast Guard would eventually label you and your passengers unsavable. It does not have to do with a lack on the Coast Guard's part but everything to do with the persons rejecting the help and labeling the Coast Guard as evil and dangerous.

In closing, I answer my question as a young Christian. Why will saying a few words label them with the unpardonable sin? It is not them saying a few words about the Holy Spirit that makes them unpardonable. They reject the very mode in which God saves the uses of the person of the Holy Spirit. The Pharisees lied about the work of the Holy Spirit and called His work evil and demonic. They are rejecting the only power that can save them: the power of God found in the person of the Holy Spirit.

We see that blaspheming God’s name differs from blaspheming the Holy Spirit. We understand the difference between the two blasphemes and why God considers the blaspheme of the Holy Spirit an unpardonable sin.

Hopefully, you can see now why the efforts of the Rational Response Squad served as a weak effort to gain negative attention. To truly blaspheme the Holy Spirit would be rejecting what God is doing and labeling it the work of Satan. Until next month, go out and share the Gospel because the truth worth sharing is the truth that transforms.

[1] https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g988/esv/mgnt/0-1/

[2] Institutes of Elenctic Theology; Francis Turentin- Pg 648.