Matthew 12:31, commentary and pictures

Jesus spoke these words after He healed a demon-possessed man who was blind and dumb, the people wondered if He was the Son of David, and the Pharisees charged that He cast out devils by Beelzebub, to which He answered that a divided kingdom cannot stand and that His work was by the Spirit of God. All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven to men, and even speaking against Jesus in ignorance and blindness can be forgiven when the soul repents and believes. The blasphemy against the Holy Ghost is wilfully attributing the work of the Holy Spirit to Satan and deliberately rejecting it after ample and convincing evidence that it is from God. It is not forgiven, not because God refuses mercy, but because the Holy Spirit is God's channel to convict and convert, and to cut off that channel leaves no further means to bring the soul to repentance and faith. It is no mysterious sudden word or mere error of fallible judgment, but persistent, settled resistance to light and invitation until perception dulls and the heart hardens beyond recovery.

Setting and Wording

The saying was given right after the healing of a man possessed by a devil who was blind and dumb, so that he both spoke and saw. The people were amazed and asked whether this was the Son of David, but the Pharisees, who refused to unite with Christ and opposed His work of relieving the afflicted, said He cast out devils by Beelzebub the prince of devils. Knowing their thoughts, Jesus answered that a divided kingdom cannot stand, and that if He cast out devils by the Spirit of God then the kingdom of God had come, and then declared that all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven to men except blasphemy against the Holy Ghost.

All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven to men, and whatever the sin, if the soul repents and believes the guilt is washed away. Even speaking against Jesus Himself, even words of insult and derision against the Son of Man spoken in ignorance of His divine character and in great blindness, remain within the boundary of mercy and can be forgiven. Such a person can still be brought by the Holy Spirit to see the error and repent. In this setting the Pharisees had ample evidence of Christ's mission in His works yet rejected it and attributed the power of God shown in those works to Satan, and this was sin against the Holy Ghost.

The saying stands closely joined to the warning about idle words, for foolish, frivolous, and improper talk grieves the Holy Spirit and belongs with lack of faith and spiritual power, weak piety, and no spiritual growth. Words reveal what is in the heart, but they also shape character and thought. Careless, irreverent criticism of divine light can foster unbelief and lead a person on to criticize and reject the work of the Holy Spirit. Words spoken under a momentary impulse can deceive the speaker into believing them, and pride may then keep the speaker from taking them back.

Nature of Unforgivable Sin

The blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is wilfully attributing the work of the Holy Spirit to Satan, deliberately rejecting the Spirit and declaring its work satanic after ample and convincing evidence that it is from God and in harmony with Scripture. Speaking against Jesus Himself in ignorance of His divine character can still be forgiven because the Holy Spirit can yet bring such a person to see the error and repent, but final rejection of the Spirit cuts off the channel by which God communicates, reproves, convicts of sin, and works upon the heart. By rejecting the Spirit and denying the evidence God has given, a person shuts out the light and is left in darkness, and may for a time appear to be God's child while character will ultimately show taking the enemy's side.

It was committed when the accusers saw Christ's wonderful works of healing and deliverance, which no man had done or could do and which could not be evaded or attributed to natural causes, manifestations of the power and mercy of God in relieving the afflicted, healing the suffering, and seeking the lost. They could not deny that supernatural power attended His work yet charged that He was in league with hell and acted through the devil, though He gave them no reason for the accusation. This warning applies to those who charged Christ's works to Satan, for by resisting the evidence of divine power they were quenching the last light reaching their prejudiced souls and placing themselves in peril.

Those who committed it recognized the supernatural power yet condemned what they knew was divine because they were determined not to be converted by the truth and not to admit error. They did not really believe the charge but acted from prejudice, and every additional proof only provoked increased resistance. As people reject the light they receive, spiritual perception grows duller and hearts harder, until pride and chosen deception can leave them controlled by Satan and unwilling to yield.

The sin is not mysterious or indefinable and is not any sudden word or deed. It is persistently slighting heaven's invitation to repent, persistently refusing the Holy Spirit's invitations, and settled, determined rebellion and resistance of truth and evidence that leaves no further reserve power to reach the case. Each step in rejecting Christ moves a person toward rejecting salvation and committing this sin, and persistent, settled rejection can place people beyond forgiveness because they have made themselves unreachable by refusing the Spirit's work. When the power and Spirit of God rests upon His messengers it is holy ground, and firm resistance there, with pride and persistent stubbornness doing despite to the Spirit, puts the person where rays of light cannot reach and where the conditions of repentance and confession cannot be fulfilled.

It includes calling the Spirit's work fanaticism, delusion, or deception, calling righteousness sin, and attributing manifestations of the Spirit to fanaticism. Those who call God's work fanaticism and persist in rejecting the Spirit grow less sensitive in conscience, lose appreciation for the Spirit, and become less able to recognize God's message and the means He uses to save them. Deliberately repulsing the Spirit's work and turning from its blessings treats God's gracious messenger with contempt, and those who receive light and evidence but refuse them, choosing evil influence and darkness instead, harden their hearts and face judgment and death.

It is committed by rejecting the workings of the Spirit of God and heaven-sent testimony by weighing it in human scales, holding a cherished interpretation such as the interpretation of the law in Galatians as more dear than acknowledging the Spirit, and refusing any truth and power of God unless stamped with idolized ideas. Defending that resistance with a critical, unchristlike spirit that bears bad fruit puts men in exactly the same place as the Jews in reference to the work and mission of Jesus, whose interpretations of Scripture were not correct yet who would receive no evidence from the revelation of the Spirit when contradicted, even to murdering the Son of God. Any understanding and application of Scripture that needs such a spirit and bears such fruit is to be feared and kept as far from as possible, for genuine truth should produce gentleness, kindness, patience, and Christlike character.

It is committed by placing oneself where the light and messages God sends will not be recognized, turning to find some little fault to hang doubts upon, and questioning whether God sent the truth and raised up men to proclaim it. It judges them by imperfections or a word or little item instead of seeing what God is doing with them and acknowledging the Spirit revealed in them, and to lift the hand against such messengers is against Christ who is to be recognized in them. To close the eyes so as not to see, close the ears so as not to hear, and darken the understanding is to set the feet in the path of unbelief followed by the men of Nazareth, and to call the work of the Spirit the work of Satan brings blindness smitten by the infatuation of the ruler of the powers of darkness.

It is committed by those who have seen the fruits, received help, and known the evidence of the Spirit testifying through messages and messengers, yet make false accusations. It treats those messages with indifference because they reprove the course and do not agree with ideas, and persists in doubt and unbelief because reproved. Their doubts bring greater guilt than the prejudice of those without that experience, and while persisted in they cannot be saved until they see and confess their errors. The sin is therefore not an error made in ignorance, but deliberate rejection and misrepresentation of truth and warning given through the Spirit.

It is committed by stubbornly resisting clear light and evidence concerning the character and mission of Christ brought by the Holy Spirit, including the evidence of His divinity in His resurrection and ascension. As with Judas, sufficient evidence was given concerning the wrong course, but failure to improve the light made it darkness.

It comes very near when, after God has manifested His power and given evidences of His Spirit to move and stir people from doubting and unbelief, they remain fixed and unmoved. To disbelieve, place oneself under the enemy's power and work against it through false reasoning, perversion of words and positions, and misunderstanding brings deadly danger. Claiming not to know that God is working is no excuse when the evidences have been given, for God is jealous and will not be trifled with.

It includes denying truth confirmed by the Holy Spirit after experiencing the Spirit's remarkable demonstration in the discovery and confirmation of biblical truth. It includes crediting to a human what was done by the inspiration of the Spirit of God, as when messages bear unmistakable evidence of being given under that inspiration and it is said of them that a human gave the inspiration, and those words are written in the books of heaven.

It includes ascribing to Satan what belongs to God or what the Holy Ghost has done, as in calling the shut door the work of the devil though it was of God. Calling the Holy Ghost's power attending the first and second angels' messages the devil's work and then refusing to hear the third message is rejection of heavenly light that leaves people shut out. Those guilty come into close quarters, are lost in foggy fear, cannot tell where they are, are seized with anguish of spirit, dare not admit the truth because admission is against their own lives, and shall die the death, being shut out while those who never knew the first two messages and have not hardened their hearts may still receive the truth.

The same blasphemy was repeated when opponents attributed to Satan the miracles performed in Christ's name through Paul at Corinth, with opposition growing despite convincing evidence and conversions. Doing despite to the Holy Spirit is shown when, as soon as the heart is no longer under its subduing power, Satan's attributes are revealed in oppression of fellow men and an influence contrary to truth, justice, and righteousness, seen in harsh relations between workers and in the desire of one institution to control all others. Men entrusted with weighty responsibilities commit this sin when warnings from God come again and again and they cast them aside and venture on in the same course, indulging the same spirit as Korah, Dathan, and Abiram and as the Jews in the days of Christ.

Resisting and dishonoring the Spirit in this way can place a person beyond recovery, and the warning concerns such resistance rather than merely holding a mistaken view. The Pharisees committed this sin in their use of the talent of speech to abuse the Redeemer in unbelief, speaking of the Son of God as merely human, and their words are written in the books of heaven. The blasphemy becomes unpardonable through a stubborn, sullen, ironhearted determination to close the eyes to all evidence.

Why Forgiveness Becomes Impossible

Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, neither in this world nor in the world to come, in this life nor in the life to come. Those who refuse the gift of salvation offered through the gospel and opened by Christ's death show the highest contempt for God. Tempting the Spirit can lead to this sin, so those doing God's work must practice strict temperance and keep body, soul, and spirit under God's protection. It is the sin that surpasses all others, because the Spirit's power is what enables people to overcome evil, and to reject that power is to cut oneself off from Christ and from communion with Him.

The Holy Spirit is God's means of communicating with men, reproving them, convicting of sin, and working upon the heart. Wilfully rejecting the Spirit and attributing its work to Satan cuts the sinner off from the fountain of blessing and cuts off the channel by which God works upon the heart and communicates with men, leaving no further means by which God can convict and convert him. By rejecting the Spirit and denying the convincing evidence God has given that the work is from Him and in harmony with Scripture, a person shuts out the light and the channel through which God reaches the heart and is left in darkness. By contrast, even speaking against Jesus Himself in ignorance of His divine character can be forgiven, because the Holy Spirit can still bring such a person to see the error and repent, and whatever the sin, if the soul repents and believes the guilt is washed away.

Every sin can be forgiven when a person repents and believes, but when the Spirit is finally rejected there is no more that God can do for the soul. The only Spirit that could lead, enlighten, and save has been resisted, and the person continues in sparks of his own kindling into midnight darkness. The lack of forgiveness is not because God refuses forgiveness, nor because any degree of guilt would exhaust His mercy or because He lacks mercy or power, but because the person persistently rejects the only means by which he can be brought to repentance and faith. The light is shut out, the stubborn will is not yielded, and the conditions of repentance and confession cannot be fulfilled, so mercy and pardon cannot be found. As people reject the light they receive, their spiritual perception grows duller and their hearts harder, until pride and chosen deception can leave them controlled by Satan and unwilling to yield.

Progress Toward Final Rejection

Each step in rejecting Christ moves a person toward rejecting salvation and toward committing this sin, for the sin is persistently slighting heaven's invitation to repent. It remains unforgiven not because forgiveness is refused, but because the person persistently rejects the Spirit's work and shuts out the only means by which repentance and faith can be reached. As light received is rejected, spiritual perception grows duller and the heart grows harder, until pride and chosen deception can leave a person controlled by Satan and unwilling to yield.

Pharaoh's hardening illustrates the process, since he was not forced into obstinacy but, after rejecting the first miracle, was allowed to reap the fruit of unbelief as the Spirit's restraining influence was gradually withdrawn. Repeated resistance dulls the spiritual senses and conscience until appeals no longer move the person and the desire to obey is gone. God does not destroy such a person; the sinner's own impenitence brings his ruin.

Those who resist and misrepresent the Spirit's work and call God's work fanaticism grow less sensitive in conscience, lose appreciation for the Spirit, and become less able to recognize God's message and the means He uses to save them. Those who receive light and evidence but refuse them, choosing evil influence and darkness instead, harden their hearts and face judgment and the sentence of death, with their refusal of light leaving them unforgiven. Contempt for the Spirit's manifestation can reach a point from which there is no return to repentance, and this applies to despising the light of the third angel's message, which must not be treated with contempt.

What Does Not Qualify

Matthew 12:31-32 distinguishes sins that can be forgiven from blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, which will not be forgiven, and it gives no mortal authority to declare that another has committed the unpardonable sin or is lost. Erring in judgment and making mistakes in dealing with fellow workers is not that blasphemy, for fallible human judgment, wrong words, or an unfavorable attitude toward others does not by itself amount to it, and such evil can still be corrected by the Lord. Those who have made mistakes are not to be told they have committed it, but are to be invited to work together and seek salvation. God's warnings are meant to correct errors, and those who heed His word can be corrected and guided.

Hopeless feelings do not mean a person has committed the unpardonable sin addressed in Matthew 12:31-32. Losing faith that Christ loves the person is no proof of it, and the belief of being forsaken by the Lord is a deception intended to destroy faith. A brother's greeting and kiss to a married woman after a meeting was not the unpardonable sin, though jealous accusers wrongly treated the incident as an enormous offense.

Warnings for Believers Today

The verse calls all who know the truth to reformation and whole surrender to Christ, for He is the only hope and will receive everyone who comes to Him and lead them into all truth. Mere intellectual assent to truth is worthless, and hearing must be accompanied by conviction and faithful practice, or trial and persecution will find people unprepared and unable to stand the test because they have entwined themselves about frail human supports. He that is not with Christ is against Him, and he that gathers not with Him scatters abroad.

It warns against religious controversies driven by self-seeking over matters that are not vital but that people have made important, where self seeks supremacy. Teachers in particular are urged to consider whether they have crossed the line into hardness of heart and blindness of mind, for they risk this blasphemy when they call the Spirit's work deceptive or fanatical and call righteousness sin. Deliberately repulsing the Spirit's offered influence and turning from its blessings treats God's gracious messenger with contempt.

Those doing God's work must therefore practice strict temperance and keep body, soul, and spirit under God's protection, because tempting the Spirit can lead to this sin that has no forgiveness in this life or the life to come. God is also blasphemed when a person claims to be led by Him while neglecting duty to children and home. Such a course offends God, misrepresents the Father and the Son, and dishonors God, causing many others to blaspheme and turning what should glorify His name into blasphemy of His name. Unless such a person turns about, cherished wrong ideas gain strength to control reason and judgment and remove the person farther from proper duty.