Blasphemy Against the Spirit
“But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”— for they were saying, ‘He has an unclean spirit.’” (Mark 3:29-30)
Oh, how this passage has troubled a many of souls! As it should. Sin is nothing to trifle with, and our society stands to take sin more seriously. To do just that, let us ask exactly what is happening in this passage. The Pharisees watched Jesus’ miracles being worked in the power of the Holy Spirit, and they heard Jesus’ words full of wisdom and truth. To use the language of Hebrews 6:5 - They “have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come.” And every time, their hatred of Christ grew to a violent, senseless rage. How senseless, you ask? They claimed that the Holy Spirit was an “unclean spirit,” that Jesus cast out demons by the prince of demons himself. As J.C. Ryle said, the Pharisees had “light in the head and hatred in the heart.”
When we consider this grievous sin committed by the Pharisees, what we find is that they did not wake up one morning and decide to jump into deep, unquenchable fire. No, they arrived at this moment by degrees. John Bunyan best illustrates this in The Pilgrim’s Progress: “First, they draw off their thoughts, all that they may, from the remembrance of God, death, and the judgment to come. Then they cast off by degrees private duties - as closet-prayer, curbing their lusts, watching, sorrow for sin, and the like. Then they shun the company of lively and warm Christians. After that they grow cold to public duty - as hearing, reading, godly conference, and the like. Then they begin to pick holes in the coats of the godly, and that devilishly, that they may have a seeming reason to throw religion behind their back. Then they begin to adhere to and associate themselves with carnal, loose, and wanton men. Then they give way to carnal and wanton discourses in secret, and glad are they if they can see such things in any that are counted honest that they may the more boldly do it through their example. After this, they begin to play with little sins openly. And after being hardened, they show themselves as they are.”
We often envision to descent to hell as the jumping off a cliff, but the Bible and Bunyan paint it less as a cliff and more like a boat ramp. If your heart is sorrowful at the thought of grieving the Holy Spirit, your conscience is tender and your love warm. You need not fear. However, if you have no concern, if your biggest concern is your own personal safety and not the person of the Holy Spirit, you do have reason to worry. I would strongly encourage you to ascend Mt. Calvary, to lift your eyes to the ascended Christ before the downward descend into darkness leads to “light in the head and hatred in the heart.”
