Is there an unforgivable sin (blasphemy against the Holy Spirit)?

During a confrontation with the Pharisees, Jesus gave a grave warning: “Everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him” (Luke 12:10)

His admonition leaves us with questions:

1. What is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit?
2. If we do it, will that sin be something God will never forgive?

You may have seen the YouTube video, where a variety of people are filmed looking straight into the camera and declaring, “I blaspheme the Holy Spirit.” I imagine they are atheists, or at least agnostic, to so boldly speak against the Living God. But have they committed a sin that cannot be forgiven? Will God refuse to forgive believers if they commit blasphemy against the Holy Spirit?

Ironically, blasphemy is the very thing for which the Sanhedrin tried Jesus, the crime for which they sentenced Him to death.

What had Jesus done to merit their accusation?

During the trial, the high priest had confronted Jesus with a simple question: “Are you the Christ (Messiah), the Son of the Blessed One?”

Jesus affirmed with total clarity: “I am.”

It was the statement they had been waiting for, a claim to be God. The BDAG Greek lexicon defines blasphemy as to slander, revile, defame; to speak in a disrespectful way that demeans, denigrates, or maligns. If Jesus was claiming to be deity, He was putting Himself on the same level as God. It was a statement that insulted and detracted from the Lord God Almighty. Blasphemy.

If He was lying. And they were sure He was.

How then were the Pharisees blaspheming the Holy Spirit?

The Holy Spirit speaks to the hearts of humanity. He teaches and guides. He was the power enabling all of Jesus’ miracles. Those miracles were meant as affirmation from God as to what He taught.

Jesus may have walked the earth in humility, but there was no mistaking the demonstration of the Holy Spirit’s power in Him.

But the Pharisees didn’t see it that way. Rather than credit God for what they had seen, they attributed the power in Jesus to Satan. Blasphemy.

But wasn’t that sin covered by Jesus’ death on the cross? Scripture teaches that Jesus died for the sin of the whole world (1 John 2:2). So technically, the sin problem has been dealt with—His one sacrifice was for everyone, for all time (Hebrews 10:12). Paid in full. Done deal.

But those whose names are written in the Book of Life are those who have believed His claim to be the Son of God. It was the message the apostles preached over and over again: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31). It was the main message John was relaying with his gospel: “These things are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:31). Peter preached: “There is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Paul wrote the Romans, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).

The Pharisees and chief priests weren’t interested in the truth. When soldiers that were guarding Jesus’ tomb rushed into the city to tell them an angel that had appeared and rolled the stone away, they responded with a bribe. They paid the soldiers to circulate the story that Jesus’ disciples came and stole the body. They were to deny what really had happened (Matthew 28:11-15).

The Pharisees had all the information they needed to accept Jesus as their Savior.

Their hard-hearted denial of Him defamed the Holy Spirit’s obvious work that had been played out right in front of them. They had looked the Son of God in the eye and rejected Him. And that was blasphemy to the Holy Spirit.

It is the only thing that can keep us from an eternity with God, a refusal to accept who Jesus is: Son of God, come to save the earth by paying for our sin with His life, then raising from the dead (Acts 4:2).

But when we do believe, we are saved. Forgiven and welcomed into the Kingdom of God. Sealed with the Holy Spirit as a guarantee of our salvation and coming inheritance as God’s sons and daughters. And no one can snatch us from the Father’s hand.

The Pharisees were eye witnesses to the Holy Spirit’s powerful affirmation as to Jesus’ identity. They discredited what they saw.

Can we blaspheme the Holy Spirit today? I tend to think that particular sin was something only that generation could have committed, the only generation that were eye-witnesses to the Holy Spirit’s affirmation. But whatever the case, we all need to decide who Jesus is for ourselves. Because only by believing can we be saved.