Sin against the Holy Spirit!

Luke 12:8-12

8 And I tell you, Whoever declares openly [speaking out freely] and confesses that he is My worshiper and acknowledges Me before men, the Son of Man also will declare and confess and acknowledge him before the angels of God. 9 But he who disowns and denies and rejects and refuses to acknowledge Me before men will be disowned and denied and rejected and refused acknowledgement in the presence of the angels of God. 10 And everyone who makes a statement or speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit [that is, whoever intentionally comes short of the reverence due the Holy Spirit], it will not be forgiven him [for him there is no forgiveness]. 11 And when they bring you before the synagogues and the magistrates and the authorities, do not be anxious [beforehand] how you shall reply in defense or what you are to say. 12 For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour and moment what [you] ought to say.

Food for thought!

The unforgivable sin, which is the sin against the Holy Spirit.

Both Matthew and Mark record that Jesus spoke about this sin immediately after the scribes and Pharisees had attributed his cures to the prince of devils instead of to God (Matt.12:31-32; Mk.3:28-29). These men could look at the very grace and power of God and call it the work of the devil. So, the sin against the Holy Spirit is about calling good evil, treating good as if it was evil. Why is this so?

Why is that the unforgivable sin? Because in such a state repentance is impossible. If a man does not even realize that he is sinning, if goodness no longer makes any appeal to him, he cannot repent. Will he? God has not shut him out; by his repeated refusals he has shut himself out. That means that, he is so dead to God that he is conscious of no sin at all.

 We offend God when we love evil, when we prefer evil to good, when we deliberately refuse to see and acknowledge the good in others. This is what the Pharisees and scribes did with Jesus. They called him agent of Satan. How often do we do the same? The people we dislike we label them as evil, even when they do good, we see their good as evil. This is the sin against the Holy Spirit. We do well to acknowledge the good, even when it comes from our enemies. Goodness is holy, and when we accept it we accept and embrace holiness itself. And there is no holiness without the Holy spirit.