James,

Let me try to answer your question with another question with Bible references from Thursday's study as quoted below:

Quote:

---

If, however, the "unpardonable sin" is constant rejection of the Holy Spirit, why is someone who fears he or she has committed that sin, someone who clearly has not committed it? See also Ps. 51:1-4, Luke 5:8, 18:13.

---

As long as a person is concerned whether or not they have committed the unpardonable sin, then that person can be assured that they have not yet committed it.

Here is a quote from Friday's study that makes sense to me:

Quote:

---

"But if a man, by repeated refusals of God's guidance, has lost the ability to recognize goodness when he sees it, if he has got his moral values inverted until evil to him is good and good to him is evil, then, even when he is confronted by Jesus, he is conscious of no sin he cannot repent and therefore he can never be forgiven. That is the sin against the Holy Spirit."—William Barclay, The Gospel of Mark (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1976), p. 81.

---

A person who has reached that point wouldn't even be concerned about whether or not he has committed the unpardonable sin.

Good answers Daryl.

May I also say that sin against the Holy Spirit is a life for self, which is the way of death?

In His love

James S

Thanks, Daryl, for keeping this topic alive, but the lesson text hasn't helped much, I fear...

Resisting the Spirit's approaches cannot be unforgiveable though it is unrepentant! An unrepentant course of action results in an absence of forgiveness and effectively unforgiven sins... but Mk 3:29 "He that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness,..." Verse 30 explains why Jesus uttered the words of condemnation: "Because they said, "He hath an unclean spirit."

Quoting William Barclay on resisting the Holy Spirit - as supporting one's own interpretation - isn't sufficient proof. What of mentally and verbally slandering the Spirit as an unclean spirit??? Given that the Spirit convicts of sin, righteous and judgement, it takes a deliberate and antagonistic mentality to attribute that work to the Devil.

A lifelong build up may well be necessary, but blasphemy must be an action, and against the Spirit is it unforgiveable, is it not? That's what Luke 12:10 says most clearly, compared to Matt 12 and Mark 3.

I copied this from some lesson study helps I receive by email:

Quote:

---

Read Matthew 12:31-32. What sin does Jesus say cannot be forgiven? (Speaking against the Holy Spirit.)

This text tells us that we can speak against Jesus and be forgiven, but we cannot speak against the Holy Spirit and be forgiven. Since they are both God, since they are both part of the Trinity, (or Godhead), how can this make any sense?

(Logically, the problem cannot be with the nature or status of Jesus or the Holy Spirit. They are the same in importance. This suggests that we are not in trouble for speaking against the Holy Spirit because He is God. Instead, it must be some other quality of the Holy Spirit that creates the problem.)

---

Any thoughts on the above quote?

Note: For the sake of remaining on topic, let's ignore the controversial word Trinity, solely on the basis that it isn't a Bible word but a theological word.

Try the practical angle: The Spirit of Jesus and of God deals with sinners as their representative, revealing all truths and leading to salvation in Jesus. Should that activity be ascribed to the Devil, the enemy of God, the gentle approach of God's Spirit is rejected and the Godhead identified with sin: such arrogance, in full knowledge of the truth, is reasonably where divine grace loses its patience.

It's clearly not an issue of Jesus versus the Spirit, but of the Spirit representing divine gentleness and grace that gives the Spirit the priviledge of Jesus refusing to forgive that blasphemy. The Spirit doesn't forgive, but Jesus does.

I agree with Barclay's comments. That makes perfect sense to me. In fact, even the words he used are very close to the words I would choose to use myself.

Jesus spoke of the same concept Barcley menioned many times. Here's one example:

Jesus said, "For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind."

Isaiah mentioned it too:

Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil,
who put darkness for light
and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter. (Isa. 5:20)

It's not that God arbitrarily favors some over others, but that we perceive God according to our character. To the pure, God reveals Himself pure: to the froward (crooked), He reveals Himself froward. (Ps. 18).

If each time the Holy Spirit comes to us, we resist Him, eventually the "light" we have will be nothing by darkness, and the darkness light.

Another way of looking at it is that we have all fallen for Satan's counterfeiting of God. Satan presents himself of God, and is a master of doing so. Confusing his voice with God's is forgivable. However, if we confuse God's voice with Satan's, what can He do?

By attributing Jesus' work as that of the devil, this is effectively what Jesus' opposers were doing. There could have been no clearer indicationg than Jesus was doing God's work than the healing of demoniacs. Surely the people could not have helped but be impressed by the difference in demeanor in the victims before and after being healed. The Holy Spirit was also speaking to their hearts as to who Jesus was. To turn one's back on this is very dangerous, as it is turning one's back to God's Spirit, the only means be which He can reach us, in a very stark way.

God is love. The love of the Father and the Son is an attributable of every believer. The Word of God is the channel through which divine love is communicated to man. God's truth is the medium by which the intellect is reached. The Holy Spirit is given to the human agent who works in cooperation with divine agencies. It transforms mind and character, enabling man to endure as seeing Him who is invisible. Perfect love can be enjoyed only through the belief of the truth and the reception of the Holy Spirit.(Upward Look 104)

If we reject the work of the Holy Spirit's work of revealing truth to us, what can God do?

In a nutshell then, the sin against the Holy Spirit is really ignoring Him.