Wednesday, June 21, 2006
BLASPHEMY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
Matt. 12:31-32. "Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven men, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven.
32. "And whoever shall speak a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever shall speak against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age, or in the age to come.
Mark 3:28-30. 28. "Truly I say to you, all sins shall be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter; 29. but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin" 30. because they were saying, "He has an unclean spirit."
William Hendriksen writes, “In passing, it should be pointed out that these words by no stretch of the imagination imply that for certain sins there will be forgiveness in the life hereafter. They do not in any sense whatever support the doctrine of purgatory. The expression simply means that the indicated sin will never be forgiven. As to the doctrine of purgatory, supposedly the place where the souls of those who are not eternally lost pay off the remainder of their debt by suffering punishment for the sins committed while still on earth, it is clearly contradicted by scripture, which teaches that ‘Jesus paid it all’.”
So what is this blasphemy of/to the Holy Spirit and how does one avoid it? It is not spelled here in the text so we must look to the context of what is going on and let the context be our guide. We see that Jesus is pronounced guilty of operating under the power of Satan while He denies it and claims to be empowered by God’s Holy Spirit. They both cannot be right; it has to be that Christ operates under the power of Satan or the Holy Spirit. The decision made by the religious leaders was that He operated, healed and cast out demons, by the power of Satan. This was their final decision. This final decision had a progression in sin. Initially we grieve the Spirit by the natural sin we play out in our life’s desires. When this is left unrepented we are led into resisting or suppressing the Spirit where we self-justify our sin. This will progress into a state where one quenches the Spirit where one has euthanized his own spiritual conscious. Upon this state one has become his own god and he cannot respond, nor possesses any ember of the Holy Spirit’s influence internally.
We have a snapshot in clear focus as to what the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit looks like. The lens is capturing in its exposure that of the religious leadership who Jesus will now label as: “You brood of vipers,” pronouncing this heinous and hopeless sin against them.
32. "And whoever shall speak a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever shall speak against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age, or in the age to come.
Mark 3:28-30. 28. "Truly I say to you, all sins shall be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter; 29. but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin" 30. because they were saying, "He has an unclean spirit."
William Hendriksen writes, “In passing, it should be pointed out that these words by no stretch of the imagination imply that for certain sins there will be forgiveness in the life hereafter. They do not in any sense whatever support the doctrine of purgatory. The expression simply means that the indicated sin will never be forgiven. As to the doctrine of purgatory, supposedly the place where the souls of those who are not eternally lost pay off the remainder of their debt by suffering punishment for the sins committed while still on earth, it is clearly contradicted by scripture, which teaches that ‘Jesus paid it all’.”
So what is this blasphemy of/to the Holy Spirit and how does one avoid it? It is not spelled here in the text so we must look to the context of what is going on and let the context be our guide. We see that Jesus is pronounced guilty of operating under the power of Satan while He denies it and claims to be empowered by God’s Holy Spirit. They both cannot be right; it has to be that Christ operates under the power of Satan or the Holy Spirit. The decision made by the religious leaders was that He operated, healed and cast out demons, by the power of Satan. This was their final decision. This final decision had a progression in sin. Initially we grieve the Spirit by the natural sin we play out in our life’s desires. When this is left unrepented we are led into resisting or suppressing the Spirit where we self-justify our sin. This will progress into a state where one quenches the Spirit where one has euthanized his own spiritual conscious. Upon this state one has become his own god and he cannot respond, nor possesses any ember of the Holy Spirit’s influence internally.
We have a snapshot in clear focus as to what the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit looks like. The lens is capturing in its exposure that of the religious leadership who Jesus will now label as: “You brood of vipers,” pronouncing this heinous and hopeless sin against them.
# posted by Castusfumus : 3:49 PM
