The Blasphemy of the Spirit

The Blasphemy of the Spirit

By Fred O. Blakely

He who blasphemes the Holy Spirit "hath never forgiveness," declared Jesus, "but is in danger of eternal damnation" (Mk. 28-30). The context indicates that blasphemy against the Spirit consists in attributing the function of the Spirit to Satan rather than to God, since that was what the Jews had just done with reference to the Lord's work, with which act He paralleled blasphemy of the Spirit.

Whatever else is involved in the unforgivableness of Spirit blasphemy, it is certain that it is not because the Spirit is of greater rank in the Godhead than Jesus. The reason for the weightier sin, as opposed to the rejection of Jesus during the days of His flesh, must be because of the finality of the Spirit's work, as He strives with people through the gospel. To impute to the Devil, or any other agency, such striving today, and so to reject it, is to certainly consign oneself to eternal hell, if such resistance of the Spirit is persisted in. This is the case, whether one rejects the Spirit's initial leadership to faith and baptism, or in the mortification of the flesh after coming into Christ.

In the new life, the Spirit leads unto holiness of heart and life, and only those who submit to that leadership are reckoned "the children of God" (Rom. 8:13-14). To ascribe to some other agency the demand of the Spirit, for example, for abstinence from sexual sins (as the Nicolaitans seem to have done), and give oneself over to such sins, is to blaspheme the Spirit, and to incur the inevitable wrath of God, unless there is repentance (I Thess. 5:7-8). The same holds true all along the line of the Spirit's leadership in conformity to the good and perfect will of God. It is not weakness of the flesh of which we here speak and subsequent repentance and eager turning to God for forgiveness, but a rebellious rejection of the Spirit's leadership as actually being that of God.