Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. ~ Genesis 3:8

And after he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Enoch lived 365 years. Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away. ~ Genesis 5:22

This is the account of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God. ~ Genesis 6:9

I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people. ~ Leviticus 26:12

And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul … ~ Deuteronomy 10:12

But be very careful to keep the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the LORD gave you: to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to obey his commands, to hold fast to him and to serve him with all your heart and all your soul.” ~ Joshua 22:5

… and observe what the LORD your God requires: Walk in his ways, and keep his decrees and commands, his laws and requirements, as written in the Law of Moses, so that you may prosper in all you do and wherever you go … ~ 1 Kings 2:3

“And if you walk in my ways and obey my statutes and commands as David your father did, I will give you a long life.” ~ 1 Kings 3:14

“He forsook the LORD, the God of his fathers, and did not walk in the way of the LORD.” ~ 2 Kings 21:22

He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness rather than light … ~ Lamentations 3:2

All the nations may walk in the name of their gods; we will walk in the name of the LORD our God for ever and ever. ~ Micah 4:5 … He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. ~ Micah 6:8

As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. ~ Mark 1:16

During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.” “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?” ~ Matthew 14:25-31

They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him down the cliff. But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way. ~ Luke 4:29-30

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” ~ John 8:12

Then Jesus told them, “You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you. The man who walks in the dark does not know where he is going. ~ John 12:35

As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognizing him. He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?” ~ Luke 24:15-16

Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did. ~ 1 John 2:6

Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. ~ Revelation 3:4

Here is a God who has wanted to walk with us since the very beginning. When we stopped walking the same direction He was going, all we could do was walk before Him. As we got further away, all we could do was walk in His ways. At last, we walked away … all the way to captivity and estrangement and lamentations, alone. He spoke through his prophets of walking in hope, back toward Him. Then He came, in the flesh, and walked among us. He healed those who could not walk. He rescued those in engulfing water who tried to walk to Him, but couldn’t. He walked a lifelong example for us, then walked up a hill with a cross on His back. He still walks with us in a different way now, and when He speaks our hearts burn within us, and we recognize Him in each word. It’s the yearning to walk with Him again which ignites our spirits – and one day, washed and dressed in clean white, we will.

It’s what He has wanted all along.

“And so I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.” ~ Matthew 12:31

“I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin.” ~ Mark 3:29

“And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.” ~ Luke 12:10

Jesus speaks of a sin that will not be forgiven. It’s not divorce and remarriage or failure to attend church or doubting God (contrary to what some have taught), unless you can somehow prove that all of those things and many more somehow equate to “blasphemy against the Spirit.” I am sure there are some who have tried.

Here’s why I believe those teachings fail:

There is never a point at which you cannot repent of those things.

“… if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” ~ 2 Chronicles 7:14

“Peter replied, ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.'” ~ Acts 2:38

“The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” ~ 2 Peter 3:9

God wants to forgive those who repent, and will.

So if all those sundry sins are not “blasphemy of the Holy Spirit,” then what is?

I believe that the key to understanding the term is – of course and always – in the context of the verses in which it is planted.

All three of the synoptic gospel writers record this teaching of Jesus in what is likely the same situation: the first two with fairly short teachings; the other in a much longer one.

In Matthew 12, Mark 3, and Luke 11 & 12 the setting for this warning from Jesus comes right after a charge by Pharisees (Matthew) and teachers of the law (Mark), who said: “He is possessed by Beelzebub! It is only by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons.” Matthew has already told us that Jesus has just healed a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute (Luke adds that afterward the man spoke), and that when it happened, people around were astonished and wondered “Could this be the Son of David?”

The teaching and record of the events that followed in Luke is so much longer that the healing takes place in chapter 11, and the teaching continues through chapter 12. Matthew adds that Jesus knew their thoughts before he began teaching: “How can Satan drive out Satan?” and adds: “He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters. And so I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.”

The people accusing Him of consorting with demons are so twisted in their thinking that – because they have already rejected Him as good and of God – they see the wonderful outcome of a wondrous miracle as deceit from Satan; from Beelzebub.

They are so prejudiced that they can no longer tell right from wrong. They are like the people that the prophet Isaiah proclaimed a woe upon hundreds of years before:

“Woe to those who call evil good
   and good evil,
   who put darkness for light
   and light for darkness,
   who put bitter for sweet
   and sweet for bitter.” ~ Isaiah 5:20

It’s impossible to repent when you believe evil to be good and good to be evil.

I believe this is the reason why God commanded the Israelites, fresh into their promised land, to dedicate/completely destroy some of the cities which they would take after He had conquered them: men, women, children, old people, cattle, donkeys, sheep and goods (Deuteronomy 7). The original word may have a footnote in your NIV Bible that helps define it, saying “The Hebrew term refers to the irrevocable giving over of things or persons to the LORD, often by totally destroying them.”

Why? God tells them:

“You must not worship the LORD your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the LORD hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.” ~ Deuteronomy 12:31

They did these horrible, despicable things as worship to their gods, Baal (the earlier name for Beelzebub) and Molech and others; it was their religion, their culture, their upbringing to believe that this evil was good.

They were like the false teachers that Paul would warn Timothy about, hundreds of years later:

“The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.” ~ 1 Timothy 4:1-2

It’s impossible to repent when you believe evil to be good and good to be evil.

That’s why I chose to change the word “will not” in the title of this post to “cannot.” It isn’t just that God will not forgive this sin.

It’s that the sin cannot be repented of.

This is how the writer of Hebrews tried to explain the common-sense justice of it:

“It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.” ~ Hebrews 6:4-6

“If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ and again, ‘The Lord will judge his people.’ It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” ~ Hebrews 10:26-31

That, I believe, is what Jesus is talking about when He speaks of blaspheming the Holy Spirit.

It’s a passage of scripture that is not without problems. Why Jesus is recorded as saying “Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven” in Matthew 12:32 and Luke 12:10, yet is also recorded as saying “But he who disowns me before men will be disowned before the angels of God” in Luke’s previous verse 9 goes over my head, even when I’m standing on a chair.

It may be a simple as the fact that while here, enfleshed as a man, Jesus our example showed the same respect and awe toward God’s Holy Spirit as any man should. Blaspheming Jesus or disowning Him at that time, perhaps, could be forgiven: He looked like a man; ate, drank, walked, grew weary, slept, lived, died as a man. But the life-giving, life-sustaining, life-returning things the Spirit did through Him were undeniably good, and should not have been mistaken for evil – could not have been by any right-thinking person. Jesus seemed to be communicating that He understood this when He said: “The miracles I do in my Father’s name speak for me” (John 10:25) and “even though you do not believe me, believe the miracles, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father” (John 10:38), and “Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves” (John 14:11).

Peter, perhaps, could be forgiven when He disowned His Lord three times – having traveled with Him; having seen all the miracles; having been part of some of them. Even though he was the one who identified Jesus as God’s Son, he could be forgiven for those moments of cowardice when he said, “I don’t know Him” thrice.

The Pharisees and teachers of the law, on the other hand, may not have been forgivable at all. For they tried and tortured and crucified Him, all the time believing it to be the right and just and holy thing to do; their consciences seared as with a hot iron … calling good “evil” and evil “good” … trampling the Son of God underfoot.

It’s impossible to repent when you believe evil to be good and good to be evil.

So I hope this helps explain, at least – even if I am totally wrong – why I sometimes become passionate in my discourse with brothers in Christ who preach that it is right and just to be judgmental and condemnatory toward those who do not observe their rules … why I sometimes lose my composure when dealing with those who proclaim that they love the targets of their attacks yet spew words of hatred and mockery; who do all of their witch-hunting and false-prophet marking and apostate-declaring with absolutely clear consciences, believing themselves directed by God to do so without a hint of mercy, compassion, or grace.*

I know that it’s easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye than for someone so enriched by the satisfaction of knowing he is right to ever enter the kingdom of heaven, ruled by the One who is perfect.

I know that I should pray for them, and I try. I really do. I want to care about them. I want to love and respect them. I want to remind myself that Christ died for them as surely as for me.

But from time to time, all I can pray for is “May God have mercy on their souls.

“And on mine, because of what I feel toward them.”

---

_{*This tasks me, because Christian Courier editor Wayne Jackson, after quoting Matthew 12:31 earlier in the article, writes that “Any sin for which one seeks forgiveness through God’s prescribed plan can be forgiven.” (Blasphemy: What is This Great Sin?). For Apologetics Press, Kyle Butt concludes that “The fact that it is not mentioned after the resurrection, lends itself to the idea that it cannot still be committed. In fact, the indication from passages such as 1 John 1:7,9 is that ‘all unrighteousness’ that a person could commit today can be forgiven by the blood of Jesus.” (Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit—The “Unpardonable Sin”) That scripture, of course, closes with: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” One cannot confess what one does not perceive as sin. I can find no reference to this question on Forthright.net nor Seek The Old Paths. Other references to it on the Web are, as you might expect, all over the map – but so far, I have not encountered the view I’ve outlined here.}

Take a look around on the Internet at the orders of worship and sermon topics of churches which post them, and you might get the impression that many ministers of the gospel have the idea that “You can only preach so much Jesus.”

Really?

Because you can preach “the plan” all you want to, and if you don’t preach “the man,” you’ll have converts to a system, not the Savior.

You can preach “the church” all you wish, and if you don’t talk about the Bridegroom who purchased her with His blood, you’ll be preaching narcissism.

You can preach against sin all year every year, and if you don’t proclaim the One who died to save us from it and lived again so that we could live, you’ll only be spreading guilt and despair and hoplessness – not the gospel.

You can preach about your experiences in life till the cows come home, but if you don’t share His, will your church end up knowing more about your life on the farm than the Son you live for?

You can preach about biblical history, eschatology, pneumatology, soteriology, theology, or any other -ology … but if you don’t tell people about Jesus of Nazareth and what He taught and how He lived and how He reigns, just exactly what are you doing in the pulpit of a church in the Christian faith?

Have you actually shared all there is to know about Jesus of Nazareth, Son of God, Son of Man, Savior, Redeemer, Rabbi, Teacher, Lord, Master, Friend, High Priest, Sacrifice, Good Shepherd, the Holy and Righteous One, Firstborn of the Dead, Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace? The One to whom virtually all scripture points and praises – like John, His cousin – “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!”

Has your church plumbed the depths of its relationship with God through Christ?

Have you told them all there is to know about His love; how far He would go and what He gave up?

Or have you given up?

Paul didn’t give up, and Christ was all he resolved to preach (1 Corinthians 2:2).

Peter knew there was no other name that could save (Acts 4:12).

John knew that it is through Him that we have fellowship (1 John 1:5-7).

Not just a plan. Not just a church. Not just a history. Not just a theory of His return, His Spirit, His divinity, His salvation, or His relationship with His Father.

But HIM.

Have you actually worn out the Ancient of Days?

Have you truly out-taught the Teacher?

Have you really mastered the Master?

Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the Feast. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. “Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Jesus.” ~ John 12:20-21

“… Your sins are forgotten
They’re on the bottom
Of the ocean floor

“Your sins are erased
And they are no more
They’re out on the ocean floor.”
~ Ocean Floor as performed by Audio Adrenaline

“You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.” ~ Micah 7:19

Unless you can afford to send Dr. Robert Ballard down there after them, that sounds really remote; pretty much irretrievable.

So why bother?

Let ’em sink and die.

If you’re going to teach that, you’ll have to ignore or explain away:

“All of us have become like one who is unclean,
   and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;
   we all shrivel up like a leaf,
   and like the wind our sins sweep us away.” ~ Isaiah 64:6

Our righteousness is worthless before God.

“‘These men who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’
“But he answered one of them, ‘Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’
“So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” ~ Matthew 20:12-16

God is sovereign. He pays the denarius at the end of the day. It is His denarius.

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. ~ Ephesians2:8-10

We are not saved by our works, but to do good works.

“Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged.’ ~ Hebrews 6:17-18

God doesn’t communicate His purpose or promise unclearly: it is our hope. He does not hide His instruction for us by His silence, nor does He obscure it in code requiring logical decryption from the awardees of Ph.D.s in biblical languages and deductive reasoning. His desire is for all to come to repentance, not just the smart people.

Those few are just a handful of verses you’ll have to ignore or explain away in scripture in order to teach that we earn our salvation through our obedience.

You see, Jesus earned it through His obedience (Romans 5:19). Our obedience comes from faith in Him (Romans 1:5). And faith itself is God’s gift to us (Ephesians 2:8).

There are a lot more verses like that.

But these few are enough.