“Any sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. Whoever speaks a word against the son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or the age to come.” This is Jesus speaking in Matt. 12: 31, 32.

This topic has long been an uncertainty for me.  So I’m thinking that if I finally take a crack at it by writing about it, prayerfully the Holy Spirit will help me reason it out and come to a final conclusion.

We know that the Holy Spirit’s work around the world is to bring before everyone the conviction of sin, of righteousness, and judgment (John 16: 8). So for the longest, I’ve gone along with the following view; that being that a constant, perpetual resistance to hearing the Spirit’s voice results in a seared conscience (1Tim 4: 2).

As a result, the capacity to repent is lost because one can no longer hear the Spirit. For the Spirit is grieved to the point of not striving with the person any longer and goes away (Gen. 6: 3). The person cannot be saved at that point because it is the Spirit that gives us the sense of repentance (Acts 11: 18). The conclusion to this view is that any sin could be the unforgivable sin; that is, if one long enough resists the Spirit’s promptings that an action is sinful.

That still makes sense to me except for the part that says any sin can be the unforgivable one. Going over again Matt. 12: 30-32 (top of the article) and the following two related passages, I see coming from them a different explanation as to what the sin is.

Mark 3: 28, 29—“All sins shall be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin.” Verse 30 adds that Jesus said this because they (the Jewish scribes) were saying that Jesus had an unclean spirit.

Luke 12: 8-10—“Everyone who confesses Me before men, the son of God will confess him also before the angels of God; but he who denies Me before men will be denied before the angels of God. And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him.”

First of all, I see that Jesus relates the sin of blasphemy to those in the camp of unbelievers; to those who ultimately deny and are against Him.

Secondly, I see that the blasphemy is a spoken sin. The context for the idea that the sin is a spoken one is framed around the words “confess” and “deny.” Additionally, there are the words “speaks a word against,” “blasphemies they utter,“ and “speaks against.”

Lastly, the blasphemous sin itself seems to be the act of calling the Spirit an unrighteous being, even going so far as describing Him and His works as demonic—this after repeatedly witnessing the Spirit’s good fruit.

Putting this all together, it seems that the unpardonable sin is only committed by those who are unrepentantly against what Jesus stands for. This would apply to both secular and religious groups. They rebel not only against the Father’s and the Son’s testimony of the gospel, but also against God the Spirit; the only one of the Godhead that carries the converting power of conviction.

It appears that the hearts of the unpardonable are so hardened, their eyes so blinded, their ears so deafened, that they ignore the Spirit’s knocking on their soul’s door. And they refuse to acknowledge the works of the Spirit in the lives of others.

It seems that if one is in this state of being, and there is a denial of the Spirit by characterizing the Spirit or His works as something other than godly, then that person has committed the unpardonable sin.

Now that raises a “what if” question. What if they later recanted and professed repentance? Wouldn’t our forgiving God honor that with forgiveness?

Well, again, it’s God Himself who gives repentance to us in the first place. That’s how loving and concerned He is for us. But His omniscience allows Him to know the sincerity and insincerity of our hearts’ response to that repentance.

Satan, as an example, comes to mind as I say this. God knows his heart and would not grant him forgiveness if it were asked for. Jesus said that if one blasphemes the Spirit, it is an unforgivable, unpardonable sin. Obviously, God has drawn a limit and there is a point of no return. That emphasizes the seriousness of the spiritual warfare in which we find ourselves.

I suspect that if one expressed a change of heart after blaspheming the Spirit, it would only be from a desperate desire to grab hold of immortality. It would not be from a love and appreciation of what Jesus has accomplished for humanity.

So that’s my take on the subject. If I’ve missed something, please, let me know. I’ll be happy to share any additional biblical light on the matter.