“…the unclean spirits, whenever they saw Jesus, fell down before Him and cried out, saying, “You are the Son of God…when His own people heard about Jesus casting out devils, they went out to lay hold of Him, for they said, “He is out of His mind.” And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, “He has Beelzebub (the devil),” and, “BY THE RULER OF THE DEMONS JESUS CASTS OUT DEMONS.” So He called them to Himself and said to them in parables: “How can Satan cast out Satan?” (Mark 3:11, 21-23) “Assuredly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they may utter; but HE WHO BLASPHEMES AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT NEVER HAS FORGIVENESS, but is subject to eternal condemnation.” (Mark 3:28-29)
So, we see two factors that resulted in blasphemy by the religious leaders:
- They were saying that Jesus acted by the power of the devil.
- They hated Jesus and were always looking for ways to shut Him up.
Blasphemy against the Spirit is any HARDENED AND CONSISTENT STANCE AGAINST GOD. We all have moments, even sustained periods of our lives, when we defy God. But there may come a point in a person’s life when that becomes AN UNYIELDING DEFIANCE AGAINST GOD and he or she refuses to let the Spirit speak. At that point, God finally says, “You want to do this on your own? You want me out of your life? Okay.” Or to put it another way…
THE ONLY UNPARDONABLE SIN IS REFUSING TO LET GOD FORGIVE YOU.
-Bill Stockham