Can blasphemy against the Spirit be committed today?

The only people who can commit this sin are unbelievers. Christians have been born again through the living and abiding word of God, and cannot fall away. God has enlightened their minds, and brought them from death to life, and he will finish that which he has begun in them. Therefore, Christians cannot commit this sin. They may commit gross hypocrisy, backslide, or even deny their Lord for a time, but in the end God will bring them to repentance as he did the apostle Peter. The only ones who can commit this sin are unbelievers.

Moreover, it is only those who know for certain about Jesus that can commit this particular sin. Jesus directs this charge against those who should know better, and who in fact do know better. He does not warn Gentiles about this sin, or those who have not seen his miraculous works, but only those who know the Scriptures and have seen the miraculous work of the Spirit. Jesus only warns the scribes and Pharisees about this particular sin because only they know well enough to be able to commit it. For this sin involves knowing for certain that Jesus is the Messiah, only to declare his works to be satanic rather than of the Spirit.

For this reason, only certain unbelievers are capable of committing the specific sin of blasphemy against the Spirit. All unbelievers will perish, but only some know enough to commit this precise sin and put themselves beyond the hope of repentance and faith in this life. There is still hope for every unbeliever before they die to repent and believe in order to be saved, unless they have committed the sin of the blasphemy of the Spirit. And as we have seen, only those who unmistakably know that Jesus is the Messiah can commit it. People in this category could be covenant children who have enjoyed the rich heritage of growing up in a Christian home, as well as academics who study the Scriptures full time. If someone with these opportunities was to become convinced of the veracity of the gospel and then call it a lie (knowing full well that it is true) then they may potentially be committing this sin and putting themselves beyond hope. 

How can we help people in danger of committing this sin?

Given that this sin can be committed by people attending our churches it is vital that people understand the exact nature of this sin. This requires us to firstly understand the sin ourselves, and it then takes time to explain it carefully to people. God’s words to Ezekiel in Ezekiel chapter 3 are particularly pertinent here,

17 “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. 18 If I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, in order to save his life, that wicked person shall die for his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand.

We must be faithful watchmen for our friends and family. We must explain this sin and caution people who are in danger of committing it. We must warn our covenant children and the academics in our midst who know the certainty of the gospel but are tempted to call it a lie.

Yet we must also be sure to comfort those who are anxious. We must be aware that people are worried that they may have committed this sin and offer them comfort. For, as many people have said already, those who fear they may have committed this sin almost certainly have not.

However, we must also be alert to the fact that all people, even mature Christians, are tempted to twist what they know to be truth into something it is not. So as we consider this text we would be wise to remember that all people can be tempted to twist truth in order to justify what they want to be true, or so that they can live in a certain way and encourage others to do likewise. We must walk in the light of God’s word and urge others to do likewise.

At this juncture it is also helpful to realise how we work as humans. When a young man comes to his pastor and says ‘I’m not sure if I can trust the Scriptures,’ a wise pastor should think ‘I wonder who he’s sleeping with.’ That’s because our intellectual doubts are often fuelled by our rebellious nature. We wish to do something that the Bible prohibits, so we endeavour to twist what we once held to be true and make it something less prohibitive. In the Bible the heart includes the mind, the will, the conscience, and the passions. And we must understand each of them, and understand that all these aspects influence one another.

So when a young man connected to the church is driven by his passions to lust after a woman and his will capitulates and he then commits sexual sin, his conscience will likely flare up and make him feel miserable. And at this point his mind will either conclude that it is time to repent and seek forgiveness, or it will be tempted to twist known truth into a lie. It is at this last stage that a covenant child is in danger of committing the blasphemy against the Spirit. If he disputes what he knows to be indisputable truth and then calls it a lie, he may reach a point of no return and darken his mind eternally to the hope of the gospel.