Can a Christian Blaspheme the Holy Spirit?

[Music] we get a lot of emails from listeners every month and I don't think there's a more common question in our inbox than one that we recently received from a listener who asks this hello Pastor John I read your article about the unforgivable sin of blaspheming against the Holy Spirit my questions are two number one can a True Believer whose salvation is eternally secure in Christ still be guilty of blasphemy and number two is Blas fing the Holy Spirit the same as grieving the Holy Spirit Pastor John what would you say to this listener and

many others let's put a couple of key passages in front of us about the blasphemy against the holy spirit so we know what we're talking about so here's Mark chapter 3: 28-30 truly I say to you Jesus is talking truly I say to you all sins will be forgiven the children of man and whatever blasphemies they utter 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 In other words they were attributing uh Jesus Deeds to the devil instead of

the power of God in him uh one more text Luke 12:10 and everyone who speaks a word against the son of man will be forgiven but the one who blasphemes against the holy spirit will not be forgiven now over the span of my Ministry there have been several people not a lot but several uh probably a lot more people who don't come forward but these came forward several people who came to me deeply convinced they had committed the sin against the Holy Spirit and were therefore Beyond forgiveness and they were terrified as you can imagine

now it seems to me that we need uh in in helping those people deal with what they're saying we need to put alongside the statement that blaspheming the spirit cannot be forgiven which is there the many statements that whosoever believes on the Lord Jesus will be saved not whosoever believes if they haven't done a few other things for example acts 16:31 believe in the Lord Jesus and he will be saved he didn't ask the Jailer now you you ever blasphemed against the spirit of God he just said if you believe you'll be saved and John

6:40 Jesus said for for this is the will of my father that everyone who looks on the son and believes in him will have eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day so it has always seemed to me that there is something about blaspheming the spirit as Jesus intended us to understand it that has brought a person to the point where they are sinning in such a way that they are unwilling and unable to repent and believe that's where I'm putting the two together Esau would be an example of this in

in Hebrews 12:17 where it says you know that afterward when he desired to inherit the blessing he was rejected for he found no place of repentance that's a literal translation I changed the es no place of repentance which I I think means he couldn't do it he couldn't find a place in his heart of genuine repentance though he sought it with tears so the point here is not that Esau repented and could not be forgiven he couldn't find the place of repentance he had come to such Hardness of Heart against God such love for the

world his bowl of cereal against his inheritance he loved the world so much he couldn't stop loving the world he could find no genuine repentance and so he perished and his tears were not tears of repentance they were tears of remorse that he couldn't repent so let me let me give a quote from one of my favorite commentators Henry Alfred about uh the sin the unforgivable sin of blasphemy against the spirit here's what he said just one sentence it is not a particular species of sin which is here condemned like oh if I i' done

that one thing but he he says it is a definite act showing a state of sin and that state a willful determined opposition to the present power of the Holy Spirit and this as shown by its fruit blasphemy the Declaration in substance of what the New Testament often says so here's the key phrase there it's a a a a state of willful deter opposition to the power of the Holy Spirit and then he gives as one of those other places in the New Testament 1 John 5:16 which says if anyone sees his brother committing a

sin not leading to death he should ask and God will give him life to Those who commit sin uh there is sin that does not lead to death but there is sin that leads to death and I do not say that one should pray for that so this is not there is a sin that leads to death but there is sin that's the way it should be translated there is sinning there is a kind of of uh willful determined settled opposition to God in his spirit so here here are my answers to the two questions

one can a True Believer whose salvation is eternally secure in Christ still be guilty of blaspheming the Holy Spirit no because I think the meaning of the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit as Alfred says is a willful determined opposition to the present power of the Holy Spirit and Christians cannot commit that kind of sin they don't settle in like that with a settled determined willful opposition Christians can commit all kinds of sin but what marks a Christian is they don't settle in long term they they hate it and they repent from it they feel bad

about it they turn to God for fresh forgiveness so no a Christian cannot commit what Jesus calls blasphemy against the Holy Spirit question number two is blaspheming the spirit the same as grieving the spirit no they are not the same and you can see the difference in Ephesians 4:29 to 31 where Paul says let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths but only such as is good for Bill building up as fits the occasion that it may give Grace to those who hear do not grieve the holy spirit of God by whom you were

sealed for the day of redemption let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor slander be put away from you with all malice so two things one when we grieve the Holy Spirit Paul says we're grieving the one who has sealed us for the day of redemption which means that in the very same breath as saying you can grieve him he's saying you're secure you're sealed he will not break that seal he has got you and he's keeping you for the day of redemption and the other thing to notice is specifically what it is that

does grieve him what Grieves him is bitterness and wrath and anger against other people these are the things that Christians do and regret doing and have to repent of doing and ask forgiveness for doing and that very repentance is the work of the holy spirit in great Mercy to awaken the children of God to repentance so that we will will make it to the day of redemption that's so good and deeply reassuring for believers thank you Pastor John and this is such a common question that we get all the time and if you have a

question for Pastor John please send it into to us via email keep it concise and to the point and go to our online home and click on the button that you'll find at desiringgod.org slas Pastor John well we are all about delighting in God there is nothing more important in the world but if it's so important for the Christian Life and so precious to us individually why does it seem like our joy in God Is So shortlived if the shelf life of our Delight in him seems so short what can we do to preserve it

that's the question on the table tomorrow I'm your host Tony ranky thanks for listening to the as Pastor John podcast with longtime pastor and author John Piper we'll see you tomorrow