22 Then a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute was brought to Jesus, and He healed him, so that the mute man spoke and saw. 23 All the crowds were amazed, and were saying, “Could this man be the Son of David?” 24 But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, “This man casts out demons only by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons.”
25 And knowing their thoughts, Jesus said to them, “Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and any city or house divided against itself will not stand. 26 If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself; how then will his kingdom stand? 27 If I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? For this reason, they will be your judges. 28 But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. 29 Or how can anyone enter the strong man’s house and carry off his property unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house.
30 He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters.
31 “Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. 32 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 in the age to come.”
Introduction
You cannot imagine anything more horrible than having to spend eternity in Hell, separated from God. One thing that leads to hell is sin—not a lack of education, money, wealth, or knowledge, and not a failure to achieve big things—only sin.
Jesus is the only Savior who forgives all our sins. If that only Savior, who can forgive all sins, says there is one particular sin that, if committed, will doom the guilty party to Hell for eternity, it is a truth we must heed. This is a sin for which there is absolutely no forgiveness. That is a pretty sobering truth! This sin has come to be known as the Unpardonable Sin, which is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. There is no forgiveness for this, now or forever.
Is it possible to commit a sin so hideous, awful, and repulsive to God that He, the very God of Grace and God abounding in forgiveness, cannot and will not forgive it? Yes, it is! In fact, there may be some who are in danger of committing this sin today. If that danger is a possibility, wouldn’t you want to be warned beforehand? Of course, you would! Only a fool would continue in sin and go so far that he becomes hopelessly, irrevocably, and eternally lost. This sin was committed by the Pharisees and scribes in Jesus’ day.
The Situation and Accusation
We have seen that this situation started with a healing. The Lord healed a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute. This so amazed the crowd that it made them wonder, “Could this be the Messiah?” A small spark of faith began to rise in their hearts. This was not a confession by the audience but a perplexed questioning of whether the Messiah had indeed come.
While the possibility of faith began to arise in the minds of the crowd, the Pharisees did not simply cast doubts. They made the most serious accusation: they attributed what Christ had done by the power of the Holy Spirit—in testimony to His Messiahship—to be the work of the devil. The clear revelation of Christ as the Messianic King, affirmed by the unmistakable healing and deliverance by the power of the Spirit, was totally rejected and declared to be of the devil.
Think of the miracles Christ did. He did not do them for the sake of drawing a crowd, thrilling audiences, or fulfilling men’s dares, like a superhero. Every miracle Christ did—healing the leper, casting out demons, healing terribly suffering people—was done by His compassionate touch. He told John the Baptist’s disciples, “The blind receive sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.” Each miracle demonstrated the compassion and great kindness of God to suffering people. Only God, coming to deliver His people, can do such things. The crowds guessed correctly. To attribute those works to the Devil requires a hardened conscience.
Sadly, instead of guiding those people in the right path, the scribes and Pharisees from Jerusalem began to spread a lie and quench the little faith that was starting, saying He was doing these miracles by the power of the devil.
Jesus’ Three Responses
We saw our Lord marvelously show that their accusation was:
- Stupid: Verse 25, “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand. 26 If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand?”
- Prejudiced: Verse 27, “And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out?” Your own sons/disciples do the same work, and you claim that is done by God’s power.
- A Sign of Hardened Hearts: Since your accusation that I am doing miracles by the devil is stupid and false, only one possibility exists: I am doing the miracles by the power of the Holy Spirit. Verse 28, “But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.” This third point shows their hardened and rebellious hearts against God and His kingdom. What I do by the Holy Spirit you are claiming is the devil’s work, and in fact, you are now acting as Satan’s agents. Your hearts are so hardened you cannot recognize God’s work.
Then, in Verse 29, He explained what is happening in the spiritual realm with a parable: “Or how can one enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house.” Satan has taken human souls captive and put them in his prison. He sits as a strong man and defies anyone to take the souls from him, laughing at who can touch his goods. I am the stronger man. I have come and bound the strong man; now I am taking his goods. The fact that I am able to cast out Satan is evidence that I have bound him. That is the true explanation for what you see, not your stupid reason.
He says, “I drive demons by the power of the Holy Spirit.” There is a great doctrine here: Jesus set aside all His rights and took the form of a servant. He was completely dependent on the power of the Holy Spirit sent by the Father. He, mysteriously, the second Person of the Trinity, set aside His own rights as God, submitting Himself to the will of the Father and the power of the Spirit. Everything He said, everything He did, was energized by the Spirit of God sent from the Father. So, when you looked at Jesus Christ and evaluated Him, you were, in fact, evaluating the will of the Father and the power of the Spirit as manifested in His human form—the Lord Jesus Christ. The Father, through the Holy Spirit, was doing these miraculous works and attesting that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. So, when you accuse His works as devilish, you are not accusing Him, but the Holy Spirit who is using those works to point out that He is the Messiah.
The Great Decision
He just puts them in a corner with Verse 30: “He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.” He pushes them for a decision. When it comes to Jesus Christ, you cannot be neutral. You are either this side or that. Jesus Christ does not allow for such neutrality. You are either with Him or against Him. To be “with Me” is to be in a relationship with Christ. It is not a casual agreement with the propositions of the Bible but the radical nature of relationship with the crucified and risen Lord. To be with Christ is to embrace Him as your Lord, to know Him as your Savior and Redeemer, to rejoice in Him as the passion of your life, and to set your affections upon Him as your chief delight and love. Many are living as church members but are against Christ, living in neutrality. We prayed for Friday… how many of us honestly can say: “Jesus Christ is the greatest joy of life”?
So, the Holy Spirit through Christ has attested who He is. Now, what would they do with this revelation that the Holy Spirit had made known to them? That is the same question that must be asked of each one of us who has heard the gospel message. You have heard the truths of God the Son becoming man, and proving His identity by mighty works. And not just that, but you have heard more truth: He took on your human nature to bear your penalty before God’s wrath at the cross. You’ve heard of His suffering a bloody death, His burial, and His triumphant resurrection. You’ve heard the gospel exhortations to come to Christ, to repent of your sins and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and to follow Him alone as Lord.
Now, what have you done with the revelation of God in the gospel? Have you sought neutrality so that you are not numbered with the outright opposition of atheists, worldly men, and idolators, and yet you have not been numbered among the disciples of Christ? Hear the words of Jesus Christ: “He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters.”
To scatter is to perish. It happened to Israel. It was less than 40 years after this that God destroyed the entire Jewish society in 70 A.D. He destroyed the temple, wiped out the city of Jerusalem, massacred over a million Jews, and in the years that followed, conquerors came through and slaughtered the Jews of many towns and villages. It was over; they were scattered. This is not just for the nation; this is the story of every man and woman who does not come to Christ wholeheartedly. You are either with Him, in a close relationship and love where He is everything for you, or you will be scattered. This is the infallible truth coming from the Son of God.
The Warning of the Unpardonable Sin
In this context, He says in Verse 31, “Therefore“—in other words, based on all that He has said and all that has gone on—He says two things: a concluding declaration in Verse 31 and a sobering warning, the most terrible warning in the entire Bible.
“I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men.” 32 I tell you… In Mark, He says, “Truly, truly,” or “Amen, amen.” When our Lord says “truly,” He is pointing to the absolute truthfulness or trustworthiness of what He is about to speak. “I say unto you…” He is pointing attention to His person: God’s incarnate Son, Christ, anointed as Prophet, Priest, and King. “I say unto you by my authority, with my unique seal of authority…”
“To you…” The specific recipients of this solemn declaration and warning were the Pharisees and scribes who accused Him. It is vital to understand the meaning of our Lord’s words: to whom He is saying specific words, spoken to specific recipients in a specific setting, in response to specific accusations.
The Glorious Affirmation
It begins with a glorious affirmation, then a frightening warning. This truth is a glorious truth. We must realize this entire book we are reading is the Gospel according to Matthew; it is good news. What is the good news? There is available for all manner of sin and blasphemy complete forgiveness. All kinds of sins imaginable in general can be forgiven, but specifically, all blasphemy in particular can be forgiven. Sin is a large category of evil deeds or thoughts or attitudes. Blasphemy is one kind of sin within that broad category.
Blasphemy is the unique sin of speaking evil against God, of saying things about God that are not true about Him, or of speaking of God in a derogatory manner. That is blasphemy. It is a defiant irreverence. If someone mocks God, we call it blasphemy. Blasphemy is mockery of God and all His works, ways, and people. This includes such crimes as cursing God and the degradation of holy things.
Blasphemy is serious. Do you know the penalty for blasphemy in the Old Testament? You’ll find that the penalty for blasphemy was death by stoning—there was no sacrifice. If anybody spoke an evil word against God, they were stoned and their life was taken. It is very serious. When you look at the vile and wicked society of the antichrist that exists at the end time and read Revelation 13, 16, and 17, you will read that it is characteristic of the society of that day that they blaspheme the God of heaven. They speak evil against Him. It is a serious sin. But He says all manner of blasphemy also will be forgiven.
It is amazing that in this passage of sober warning, there is a Glorious Truth of the Gospel: all manner of sin will be forgiven. There is no sin committed by man, or any blasphemy, that cannot be forgiven and cleansed by the blood of Christ. What good news! Though the Lord is not saying forgiveness is given to everyone universally without any condition, it is only for those who believe in Him and repent of their sins.
Every manner of sin and blasphemy is forgiven by the substitutionary work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at the amazing thing: the most serious warning about unforgiveness is in the same context as this free and gracious pardon of God. All manner of sin… He doesn’t say only adultery… People try to qualify many things: “He who killed 15 children has no forgiveness.” Christ says he can be forgiven. “He who spoiled 100 women.” He can be forgiven. “He who murdered 300 souls.” Yes, forgiven. This is the free forgiveness of God.
The Bible records the forgiveness of the most wicked king, like Manasseh, and the forgiveness of David, who, with all his privileges and knowledge of the truth, sank down to murder, adultery, and hypocrisy. It records the forgiveness of Paul (“I was a murderer and blasphemer… chief of sinners, but I obtained mercy”). Am I speaking to someone here who has heard the gospel many times, and when the heart of the gospel is proclaimed—that here is full, free pardon and forgiveness for all your sins, based on the work and person of Christ, offered to you through faith and repentance—you have secretly said, “Ah yes…”?
“Preacher, if you only knew the sins I have committed, you would have to put some condition on that offer. You don’t know what only God and I know: the deep, dark secret of my own complexity of my sins, in lust, sexual violation, even as a child, when I knowingly and willingly committed sins, with terrible relationships…” Am I speaking to someone who says, “Yes, Jesus forgives all sins, but not my sins“? “I have dabbled in sins no one can imagine. You don’t know my sins.” Yes, I don’t know, but God, who knows all your sins, says in this verse, “All manner of sins and blasphemies shall be forgiven.” That is the gospel. “Pastor, you don’t know I have sinned so many times, uncountable, more than the hairs of my head. I have grieved the Holy Spirit, and if I were God, I would not forgive myself…” He says, “All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven.”
This is the gospel truth. When the Lord Jesus on the cross gave Himself to receive and experience the unleashed fury of His Father against sin (“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”), then He said, “It is finished.” He says, all that is necessary to forgive all manner of sins I have accomplished. There is full pardon in Me, and He welcomes us to the cleansing now.
Oh, the most sobering warning begins with the full, free, complete pardon of all manner of sins and blasphemy. If you live unforgiven and in guilt today, it will be for one reason alone: wicked, horrible unbelief, not willing to believe the true testimony of God. All manner of sins in general and all manner of blasphemy in particular shall be forgiven.
The glorious affirmation that all sins and blasphemies will be forgiven is followed by a frightening exception or warning.
31 “Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven.”
32 “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 in the age to come.”
The sin is further defined in Verse 32. If you speak against the Son of Man (Jesus Christ in His humanity and humiliation), it is forgivable. When Jesus used the title Son of Man, He was emphasizing His human nature and role as a servant through whom the Spirit was working. You could speak against Him by seeing nothing more than His humanness, perhaps because you didn’t know the facts, hadn’t seen the evidence, or lacked a perception of the divine. Speaking a word against the human Jesus in His humiliation is forgivable because you may simply not know who He really is.
However, when you speak against the Holy Spirit, that will not be forgiven. This happens when you recognize the supernatural power at work (the powerful working of miracles) but have decided that power comes from the devil. If you only see the human plane, you might still be brought to believe and understand. But if, when you have seen the supernatural ministry of the Spirit of God through Christ, and you maliciously conclude that it is of the Devil, you cannot be forgiven. You are speaking against the Spirit of God, the power of God, and the energy of God as manifested through Christ. In a real sense, you are speaking against His divine nature and calling it satanic.
This sin—thinking and speaking mocking, vicious things against the Holy Spirit—is a settled state of mind that will never attain forgiveness. Mark says the person is guilty of an eternal sin, lying under its guilt and therefore receiving punishment for all eternity.
What Is Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit?
The Pharisees were so knowledgeable; they had three levels of revelation:
- General Revelation: God’s glory revealed outside in creation (“the heavens declare the glory of God”) and inside through their conscience, which told them right from wrong.
- Special Written Revelation: God’s Word, the Old Testament, which they knew intimately.
- Direct Revelation: God Incarnate (Jesus) was right before their eyes, performing miracles, casting out demons, and healing the sick by the agency of the Holy Spirit.
They were so perverse that even though they could not deny Jesus was doing things by the power of God (their consciences affirmed it), they were so committed to rejecting His claims and refusing to submit to Him that they came up with the illogical, stupid, and blasphemous accusation that He was doing it with the power of the devil.
Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is the act of taking the final, culminating testimony of Christ—the undeniable evidence of the Spirit’s power—refusing to yield to that truth, and perversely attributing it to the power of the devil. In that specific way, this sin was committed by the Pharisees who had the maximum evidence (general, written, and direct revelation). They saw dramatic and massive numbers of miracles and heard powerful teaching, yet concluded He was of the Devil.
They could never be forgiven because they would never believe. Forgiveness is based on repentance and faith in Christ. If they concluded Christ was filled with the Devil, they would never listen to His message of repentance or put their faith in Him. They were hopeless because, having been given all the evidence there was to believe, their conclusion was the very opposite of the truth. For them, it became a permanent, hardened state. This is why the sin is unforgivable in this age or the age to come.
The Sin Today
The sin consists of the conscious, malicious, and willful rejection and slander of the Holy Spirit’s testimony concerning the grace of God in Christ, attributing it, out of hatred and enmity, to the prince of darkness.
While the exact context of Christ being physically present and performing miracles is unique, the core sin is still possible:
- The Holy Spirit still testifies of Jesus, declaring Him to be all that the Scriptures say (John 15:26).
- The Holy Spirit still convicts of sin (John 16:7-10).
- The Unpardonable Sin is simply rejecting the Spirit’s witness of the Son and, therefore, refusing to receive Him as Personal Savior (1 John 5:12). No other sin will send you to Hell; everything else was paid for at the cross.
The Pharisees knew that if they acknowledged Jesus, the only course left was to repent of their sins and yield to Him fully. This would mean acknowledging they were completely depraved and needed the new birth, repentance from their pride, hypocrisy, and mere formal religion.
If you have heard all the evidence (through the Bible, preaching, and the Holy Spirit’s inward witness) and continue to remain unrepentant, you are entering a dangerous state: the hardening of the heart in the presence of truth. Hearing God’s truth repeatedly and not responding will harden you.
The only safe place and best way to avoid hardening of the heart and be sure you never commit the eternal sin is to offer immediate, unreserved surrender to Jesus Christ and all His claims over you. The Holy Spirit is pleading with you to come to Him now. If today you hear His voice, do not harden your heart (Hebrews 3:7).
- Sinning Away Your Day of Grace is very dangerous. The day may come when the Holy Spirit stops striving with you (Genesis 6:3) and ceases to draw you (John 6:44).
- The Book of Hebrews warns of this possibility, speaking of those who were enlightened and partakers of the Holy Spirit but then fell away. It states that it is impossible to renew such a heart to repentance because the defiance has made the heart incapable of true repentance.
The aim of this passage is not to cause fear of the unpardonable sin but to remind us that there is forgiveness with the Lord, and that forgiveness is available for all who will repent and believe the gospel.
Will you yield yourself to Christ today and be certain you are not hardening your heart against His Spirit?
Grace Reformed Baptist Church, Bangalore 