“…Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.”
This is one of the hardest passages in Scripture to understand or interpret. Piper has an excellent sermon here and Doug Wilson has an excellent post here on this subject. Although I don’t I have the enormous gift of wisdom that God has given these men, I hope to try deal with this passage in more detail later. But for now I want to concentrate on one segment of Christ’s statement:
“…Anyone who speaks a word against (blasphemes) the Son of Man will be forgiven.”
This part of the passage blows my mind. Vine’s Expository dictionary defines blaspheme as “to rail against, to injure, to revile, or to speak slanderously of”. The Pharisees spoke against Christ calling him a glutton and a drunkard (Luke 7:34), and worse (John 8:41)! Jesus even had one of his closest friends, Peter, speak against him calling down curses from heaven in front of everybody on the day of his Master’s crucifixion! On the same day all of his disciples deserted him.
Please bear with me, hopefully I can flush this out. How is it possible that Jesus can forgive such great sin against Him? Thankfully God graciously allows for our weakness and ignorance that comes from a rotten sinful heart. Some of the Pharisees could have been caught up in their zeal for the law or the temple (like Saul was in Acts). Peter was caught up in fear of being identified with a man that was being executed. How quickly our sinful hearts are to desert Christ for any reason! This should show us that were it not for God’s grace we would all be separated from Him forever because that’s where sin leads…away from Him!
Have you blasphemed Christ in a moment of weakness? Have you blasphemed him in a season of ignorance (leaning on your own understanding)? Confess it to Him, repent and believe. Some commentaries have said that forgiveness only applies if the person comitting it isn't "thinking about it". I have a hard time with that, first because that's not in the verse, and secondly, how many sins does a person commit that they don't think about or give in to some degree or another. Was Peter thinking about it by the third time he denied Christ?
A word of caution, though. If you are currently blaspheming Him and know it and are blinded by your own sense of security, repent! Don’t presume upon His grace in order to keep sinning against Him, for you may approach the point of no return that some of the Pharisees did. Rather use His grace as an opportunity to stop where you are, confess your sin, and turn to Him for mercy which He will gladly give.
“Amazing love, how can it be...?”
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