The Unpardonable Sin

“Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.” (Matthew 12:31,32)

There is actually such a sin called “the unpardonable sin”. This is mentioned only in Matthew and Mark. What is so different about this sin that makes it unpardonable? Why is speaking against the Holy Spirit so offensive, that God will never forgive the offender? Does it mean that, if we poked fun at the Holy Spirit and apologized to God later, He will still hold it as a grudge against us? Is God such a sensitive fellow?

It is against God’s nature to be unforgiving, after the finished work of Christ on the cross. Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit must be something fundamentally different from all other sins. First of all, we have to understand what “blasphemy against the Spirit” means.

In both accounts where the unpardonable sin is mentioned, it is important to note the portion of Scripture that comes just before that. In both accounts, Jesus spoke about the seriousness of blaspheming against the Holy Spirit directly after He was accused of casting out demons “by Beelzebub, the ruler of demons”. The unpardonable sin must be seen in its context.

The Pharisees was attributing the work of Christ to Beelzebub. The words and works of Christ were spoken and performed by the power of the Holy Spirit. To attribute Jesus’ work to Satan is to call the work of heaven a work of hell. There is no remedy for such perverse belief. A person who persists to degrade the work of Christ by insulting His work or attributing it to Satan is pushing himself to a point of no return.

How can someone be forgiven of his sins, if he keeps thinking that Christ’s work is a work of the devil? His refusal to accept Jesus as God’s Anointed One, and his insistence that Jesus works through the power of Satan places himself outside the redeeming grace of God. Certainly God cannot forgive him if He doesn’t believe that God is working through God’s power. It is similar to the case of not believing that Jesus is the Christ.

So, why is Jesus so solemn when it comes to the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit? It is not a case of God being overly sensitive, or over-reacting just because “He couldn’t take a joke.” The kind of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit mentioned here is unpardonable because it is not just a single act of defiant behavior. It is a continual state of opposition against the work of Christ.

Of course, if a person realizes the error of his ways and pleads for forgiveness for his perverse thinking, he will be forgiven. But as long as he continues to think that Jesus works through Beelzebub, then he will never be forgiven.