Forgiveness: Mark 3:28-30
To receive forgiveness, relationship must exist. If I do something wrong and hurt another person, unless I have relationship with them, I cannot apologize to them. Likewise, unless they have relationship with me, they cannot express forgiveness to me. Relationship is not forgiveness. Relationship is the conduit through which forgiveness comes to us.
Jesus teaches today that every sin humans come up with is on the list of forgivable sins except one. Perhaps it seems weird that there is one sin so separate from all the others that it alone stands as the unforgivable one. That sin is the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. That description isn’t very beneficial, though. What exactly is the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit?
Blasphemy is defined as doing sacrilege. That, of course, prompts the question: what is sacrilege? Sacrilege is the misuse of something sacred. Sacred is defined as something which is holy or connected to God. Therefore, the blasphemy against God is misusing God’s stuff.
That’s still broad. It isn’t helpful, either. After all, if God created this world, is not everything God’s stuff? If we keep our definition that broad, isn’t every sin I do sacrilege? That can’t be right; Jesus tells us the vast majority of sin is in the forgivable category.
Traditionally, Christians narrow the definition of blasphemy of the Holy Spirit considerably. Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is not the intentional misuse of God’s stuff, but the intentional misuse of God Himself. Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is a direct attack on God’s character. For example, to say that God is not real is a blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. To say that salvation comes by any other means than the grace of God is a blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. When we demean or deface the nature of God to ourselves or to others, we blaspheme against Him.
This makes much more sense. Except blaspheming against the Holy Spirit, any sin can be forgiven because relationship with God still exists through which grace can come. To blaspheme the Holy Spirit, however, is to turn our back on relationship. It is unforgivable because in turning our back on God we no longer keep ourselves open to His grace and the forgiveness that comes with it. To receive forgiveness, relationship must exist.
