Sin Against the Holy Spirit
All sin is against or contrary to
the Holy Spirit; but this term is generally used to
designate the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, or the
sin which is unpardonable. Many honest souls have been
harassed for years with the thought that they had
committed the unpardonable sin, when there was no truth in
it; and had they known it, the very fact that they were
convicted was a positive proof that they were not guilty
of what they were accused. Satan often employs this means
of discouraging souls and hindering them from finding
peace, and getting a settled experience. While there are
very few who commit the unpardonable sin, it is possible,
and some do commit it. We will first notice the
UNPARDONABLE SIN UNDER THE OLD
TESTAMENT.— "He that despised Moses' law died
without mercy under two or three witnesses." Heb.
10:28. "Died without mercy," that is, they were
not pardoned. There were several sins under the old
Testament which were unpardonable; and when it would be
proven by two or three witnesses, the guilty party
"died without mercy" was stoned to death, or cut
off from among the people. For this reason Paul calls the
law of Moses a "ministration of death" (2 Cor.
3:7), or "the law of sin and death." Rom. 8:2.
This meant that when a man sinned, and it would be proven,
the inevitable end was death, which was known as "the
curse of the law." All the sins mentioned in the ten
commandments, or decalogue, and many others in the law of
Moses, were considered unpardonable, and punishable by
death. Hence under the law of Moses the unpardonable sin
was frequently committed. This sin is known in the Old
Testament by several different names, such as,
"Sinning with a high hand," "Presumptuous
sin, " "Sinning willfully, " etc., etc.
UNPARDONABLE SIN IN THE
NEWTESTAMENT.—The first place in the New Testament we
have mention made of an unpardonable sin is in Matthew the
twelfth chapter, where Jesus was speaking to the scoffing
Pharisees. We have a record of the same in Mark and Luke
also. "Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin
and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the
blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven
unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of
man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh
against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him,
neither in this world, neither in the world to come."
Matt. 12:31, 32.
Here, and here only, is the
blasphemy of the Holy Spirit mentioned—that is, here and
in the parallel passages in Mark and Luke. In this
passage, as in all Scripture, the context goes far to help
us in understanding the meaning of the writer. Jesus had
been casting out devils, and the Pharisees accused Him of
casting them out by Beelzebub, the prince of devils. When
Jesus had heard their accusation or read their thoughts,
He spoke to them the foregoing words, and warned them
about blaspheming the Holy Spirit.
The question might naturally arise
here as to what called forth this declaration from Jesus.
Mark in recording the same thing clearly answers the
question. "Because they: said, He hath an unclean
spirit." Mark 3:30. These wicked Pharisees spoke not
only against Jesus, but more expressly against the power
by which He cast out devils, and Jesus said that He cast
out devils by the Spirit of God (Matt. 12:28), hence they
spoke blasphemously about the Holy Spirit. Jesus hearing
this, or rather knowing their thoughts, told them of their
awful doom.
This, and this only, is the
blasphemy against the Holy Spirit; that is, speaking
blasphemously of His work, mission, operations, or person.
Yet the roads that lead to the unpardonable sin are many,
or at least they are more than this one. Men may
apostatize so far that their case is hopeless, and their
doom is sealed. They may go beyond the reach of mercy and
reach an irretrievable state. They may fall so far away
that it would be impossible to renew them to repentance.
They may reject the truth and take pleasure in
unrighteousness till God will send them a strong delusion
and their case is hopeless. All these are sure roads to
the unpardonable state.
We will next notice those to whom
God has sent a strong delusion "because they received
not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And
for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that
they should believe a lie; that they all might be damned
who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in
unrighteousness." 2 Thess. 2:10-12. Those who will
not receive a love for the truth when they have heard it,
but go on in unrighteousness till the Holy Spirit is
grieved forever away, can never be forgiven. This may be
done by blaspheming the Holy Spirit, or by repeatedly
turning Him away and refusing to admit when He knocks at
the door of the heart. Those who sternly refuse to get
saved when they know the truth, stand in awful danger.
We read in the Bible of a certain
class of people who refused to know God; "and even as
they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God
gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things
which are not convenient." Rom. 1:28. They were
disobedient and even disliked to retain God in their
knowledge; "wherefore God also gave them up to
uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts."
Rom. 1:24. When a man refuses to retain God in his
knowledge—refuses and rejects the Holy Spirit and
receives not a love for the truth, God "gives him
up"— "gives him over to a reprobate
mind," and sends him a "strong delusion"
that he may believe a lie and be damned. From this most
deplorable state there is no escape. Past offered mercies
are gone forever and lost in the chaos of past eternity.
Present mercy is not offered, and nothing but hell and
damnation can be expected in eternity. This is certainly
of all states the most wretched.
"For it is impossible for
those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the
heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of
the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them
again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves
the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame."
Heb. 6:4-6. "If they shall fall away." The
significance of the whole text is founded on this clause.
To "fall away" does not mean, as some suppose,
merely to fall from the grace of God, or backslide. To
"fall away" as Paul uses it here means to
totally apostatize and fall beyond the reach of mercy; to
reject the gospel system and put its Author to an open
shame, by denying Him to be the Son of God.
Three things especially should be
taken into consideration in trying to understand the
Bible, or any other writing. They are: (1) Who is writing,
(2) who is written to, and (3) under what circumstances
the passage is written. If we consider that in the
foregoing text Paul was writing to the Jews, and that at
that time many of them had "fallen away" from
the gospel and had denied that Jesus was the Christ, we
can better grasp the import of his language.
That Paul is here aiming at total
apostasy is further proved by the words, "They
crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him
to an open shame." That is, they say by their actions
and doctrine that His crucifixion was just, and had they
been there they would have helped to condemn Him. They
publicly declare, after having known by a positive
experience that He was the Christ, that He was a
malefactor and died as a man, guilty of crime; thus making
of Him a public example and "putting him to an open
shame."
The simple act of backsliding is
not an unpardonable sin but for the scoffing apostate and
the hardened reprobate, who rejects the gospel system and
Jesus Christ, its author, there is no place of repentance.
And he who utterly "falls away," away from the
gospel plan, and the reach of the Holy Spirit, can never
hope for life. "For the earth which drinketh in the
rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs
meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing
from God: but that which beareth thorns and briers is
rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be
burned." Heb. 6:7, 8. Those upon whom the showers of
grace descend and they bring forth fruit, receive blessing
from God: but those who have become so worth less and have
fallen so far away that they bear only thorns and briers,
are "nigh unto cursing."
Note the strong analogy here
between a worthless piece of earth, or field, and the
apostate soul. That is, when a field after much
cultivation, brings forth nothing but thorns and briers it
is given up as worthless and unimprovable. So a soul, when
it has been often watered with the dew of life and
carefully cultivated, if in spite of all it becomes
utterly worthless, it is then considered unpardonable. It
is then near unto cursing, and to its final end, which is
burning.
There is yet another phase of the
unpardonable sin which we wish to notice, known in the
Bible as "The sin unto death." "If any man
see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he
shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin
not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say
that he shall pray for it. All unrighteousness is sin: and
there is a sin not unto death." 1 John 5:16, 17. All
sin in one sense is unto death; but the death here
referred to is doubtless the second death, or the
"lake of fire." Rev. 20:14. Paul gives us to
understand that all who are in sin are dead (Eph. 2:1; 1
Tim. 5:6); but the death here mentioned by John is one
from which there is no escape. Those who sin and yet do
not fall beyond the possibility of life, may receive life
through prayer and faith; but the "sin unto
death," for the forgiveness of which we are not to
pray, is sin which places the one who sins beyond the
reach of life. John does not here specify any certain act
of disobedience, but possibly refers to any act which
would place the soul beyond the reach of redemption.
There are two unseen lines which
cross the life path of every man and woman. One of these
is the line of death, the other is the line which divides
between God's mercy and His wrath. If the soul is stained
with sin when the death line is crossed, eternal
destruction is the inevitable end. Those who linger in sin
and reject the Holy Spirit may cross the line of mercy
before the line of death is reached. In either case the
state is equally hopeless. What we mean by crossing the
line of mercy is to pass beyond the reach of mercy, or
where the Holy Spirit ceases to call, That this is
possible is undeniable, for God has said, "My Spirit
shall not always strive with man." Gen. 6:3. Any act,
whether that of a neglecter or that of a rejecter, which
places the soul beyond the reach of the Holy Spirit is the
unpardonable sin; whether it be blaspheming the Holy
Spirit and driving Him away in an instant, or whether it
be rejecting and neglecting Him till the heart has grown
too hard to feel His divine touch.
There is yet another text which
doubtless will bear the same construction as Heb. 6:7, 8,
or at least it was written to the same people by the same
writer and for the same purpose. "For if we sin
willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the
truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin."
Heb. 10:26. That Paul here referred to unpardonable sin
seems plausible, from the fact that he directly connects
it with the unpardonable sin of Moses' law by saying,
"He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under
two or three witnesses." Heb. 10:28. However, this
sin includes more than a willful sin of ordinary
magnitude, as is clearly shown by the twenty ninth verse
of this chapter. "Of how much sorer punishment,
suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden
under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of
the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy
thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of
grace?" Heb. 10:29.
This sin, like "falling
away," included rejecting the gospel plan, doing
despite unto the Spirit of grace and counting the blood of
Christ unholy. As we have before stated, Paul was here
referring to the Jews, many of whom had at this time
rejected Christ as being only a man. The Syriac
translation of this text makes this clear. "How much
more, think ye, will he receive capital punishment, who
hath trodden upon the Son of God, and hath accounted the
blood of his covenant, by which he is sanctified, as the
blood of all men, and hath treated the Spirit of grace
contumely?" This makes it clear, that the sin for
which no sacrifice remains includes rejecting Christ and
saying that blood is unholy, or is as the blood of any
other man, together with doing despite unto the Spirit of
grace.
"There remaineth no more
sacrifice for sins." God had at this time, and long
before, ceased to accept the Jewish sacrifices; and those
sacrifices offered to idols, God never accepted; so, of
course, the man who rejected the sacrificial offering of
the blood of Christ, was lost forever, for there remained
no sacrifice for his sins, without which he could not be
saved; for "without the shedding of blood there is no
remission." Heb. 9:22. "There is no longer a
sacrifice which may be offered for sins."—Syriac.
"No longer, for sins, is there left over a
sacrifice."—Rotherham. Christ being the only one
who could atone for sin (Rev. 5:4, 5) there is no longer
"left over" a sacrifice, even in heaven, for the
soul of man. Hence, God having rejected the Jewish
sacrifices, and there being "left over" in the
celestial realms above no sacrifice for sin, he who turns
from Christ and His vicarious sacrifice has nothing left
for him "but a certain fearful looking for of
judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the
adversaries." Heb. 10:27. The unpardonable sin, or
sin unto death, includes anything by which the Holy Spirit
is driven from the soul to return no more. Those acts
which we have mentioned in the New Testament which are
roads to the unpardonable state, or "blasphemy
against the Holy Spirit," are: refusing to retain God
in their knowledge, and persisting in unrighteousness
(Rom. 1:21-32); receiving not a love for the truth, but
taking pleasure in unrighteousness (2 Thess. 2:10-12);
"counting the blood of Christ as the blood of any
other man, and rejecting the gospel plan," also
termed "falling away." Jesus gives us to
understand that no sin is unpardonable except the
blasphemy against the Holy Spirit; but all these other
things we have mentioned are equal to the blasphemy o! the
Holy Spirit in that they insult and drive the Spirit away.
Hence, all sin that is unto death is in effect equal to
the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Consequently all
these sins we have mentioned have "never
forgiveness"; and those who commit them are in danger
of eternal damnation.
THE UNPARDONABLE STATE.—Were this
state more perfectly understood there would be less chance
for Satan to accuse the innocent. Some suppose that the
unpardonable sin is self murder, or suicide, in which case
the state would be temporal as well as eternal death. But
suicide is not unpardonable sin except in the sense that a
man who takes his own life, like all other sinners, has no
chance of repentance after death, hence no forgiveness.
The state is one of hardness of
heart and reprobacy of mind, in which the soul sleeps a
perpetual sleep, only to be awakened by the crashing
thunders of eternal judgment. When a soul has committed
the unpardonable sin, and the Spirit has forever taken its
flight, no feeling of conviction ever visits the desolate
heart. While there may be, from an intellectual
standpoint, some thoughts of eternity, attended with awful
anguish of soul at the thought of death, yet there is no
true conviction for sin, or godly sorrow. I have often
seen souls weighed down with conviction, and sorely tried
by the devil, who was imposing on them the thought that
they had committed the sin "against the Holy
Ghost." Had they known it, their conviction was
abundant proof of the devil's lie.
However it is reached, whether by
blaspheming the Holy Ghost outright, by rejecting the
truth till delusion is sent, or by falling away, the state
is the same. The sad state of a soul that has committed
the sin unto death, is unpardonable, irretrievably lost,
and condemned forever.
WHO MAY COMMIT UNPARDONABLE
SIN?—Some have thought that only those who were saved
and sanctified could commit unpardonable sin. This
position is false for several reasons. (1) The Pharisees
who blasphemed the Holy Spirit were not sanctified, nor
yet justified. Matt. 12:31, 32. (2) Any man may take
pleasure in unrighteousness till God will "give him
over." Rom. 1:24, 28. (3) Any man may reject the way
of truth till he has become deluded. 2 Thess. 2:10-12.
While it is possible for the unsaved to commit
unpardonable sin, it is also possible for those who have
attained to the grace of God to "fall away," as
we have before explained. While in the last case it is far
less probable, it is nevertheless possible. So then
unpardonable sin may be committed by either saved or
unsaved.
WHY SOME SINS ARE
UNPARDONABLE.—When we say that there are other forms of
unpardonable sin besides the direct blasphemy against the
Holy Spirit it might seem to contradict the saying of
Jesus: "All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be
forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy
Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men." Matt. 12:31.
All unpardonable sin is of the same nature; viz., that
which drives the Holy Spirit forever away; but there is
more than one way of doing this. Again, in all other cases
of unpardonable sin mentioned in the New Testament, it is
not a single act, but persisting in sin. Thus, a man who
takes pleasure in unrighteousness may be forgiven, if he
does not go too far; but if he goes too far, God
"gives him over." Rom. 1:28. Again, a men who
has no love for the truth may come and be saved, if he
does not obstinately turn away too often; but if he
persists too long, God will send him "a strong
delusion," and he is then unpardonable.
So there are other sins besides the
direct blasphemy against the Holy Spirit which become the
same kind when persisted in. That is, they become
unpardonable. Then all sin that is unpardonable is the
same "manner" of sin as the blasphemy against
the Holy Spirit. That is, it all drives the Holy Spirit
away to return no more, and this is the express reason why
they are all unpardonable. The reason the blasphemy
against the Holy Spirit is unpardonable is that when He is
blasphemed He departs and returns no more. And for the
same reason any act which would have the same effect is
unpardonable, for not one can be saved independently of
the Holy Spirit. See John 3 :3, 5.
In this dispensation of grace the
Holy Spirit offers the last chance of mercy to the fallen
race of Adam. Consequently, he who rejects the Holy Spirit
until it has turned away for the last time, rejects his
last hope of mercy and seals his doom for darkness
eternal. God has laid all the plans He will ever lay to
save man, and Jesus has died once and for all, and will
die no more, and he who is deserted by the Spirit cannot
find God. God in this dispensation deals with men through
the Holy Spirit only, hence we can easily explain why he
who sins against the Holy Spirit till He departs
"hath never forgiveness."
