Can a Christian Blaspheme the Holy Spirit?

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.580 | - We get a lot of emails from listeners every month

00:00:08.240 | and I don't think there's a more common question

00:00:09.880 | in our inbox than one that we recently received

00:00:12.440 | from a listener who asks this,

00:00:14.080 | hello Pastor John, I read your article

00:00:15.720 | about the unforgivable sin of blaspheming

00:00:18.960 | against the Holy Spirit.

00:00:20.680 | My questions are two.

00:00:21.920 | Number one, can a true believer whose salvation

00:00:24.340 | is eternally secure in Christ still be guilty of blasphemy?

00:00:28.520 | And number two, is blaspheming the Holy Spirit

00:00:31.120 | the same as grieving the Holy Spirit?

00:00:33.760 | Pastor John, what would you say to this listener

00:00:35.920 | and many others?

00:00:37.720 | - Let's put a couple of key passages in front of us

00:00:41.160 | about the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit

00:00:43.240 | so we know what we're talking about.

00:00:45.280 | So here's Mark chapter three, verse 28 to 30.

00:00:48.280 | Truly I say to you, Jesus is talking,

00:00:51.280 | truly I say to you, all sins will be forgiven

00:00:54.480 | the children of man.

00:00:55.960 | And whatever blasphemies they utter,

00:00:58.200 | but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit

00:01:01.720 | never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin.

00:01:06.720 | For they were saying, he has an unclean spirit.

00:01:11.080 | In other words, they were attributing Jesus' deeds

00:01:15.520 | to the devil instead of the power of God in him.

00:01:19.320 | One more text, Luke 12, 10.

00:01:21.660 | And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man

00:01:25.520 | will be forgiven.

00:01:27.280 | But the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit

00:01:32.040 | will not be forgiven.

00:01:33.320 | Now, over the span of my ministry,

00:01:38.640 | there have been several people, not a lot, but several,

00:01:42.100 | probably a lot more people who don't come forward,

00:01:45.640 | but these came forward.

00:01:47.240 | Several people who came to me deeply convinced

00:01:51.120 | they had committed the sin against the Holy Spirit

00:01:55.520 | and were therefore beyond forgiveness.

00:01:58.600 | And they were terrified, as you can imagine.

00:02:02.680 | Now, it seems to me that we need,

00:02:06.400 | in helping those people deal with what they're saying,

00:02:11.200 | we need to put alongside the statement

00:02:14.500 | that blaspheming the Spirit cannot be forgiven,

00:02:17.600 | which is there, the many statements

00:02:20.720 | that whosoever believes on the Lord,

00:02:24.160 | Jesus will be saved,

00:02:27.320 | not whosoever believes

00:02:30.080 | if they haven't done a few other things.

00:02:33.200 | For example, Acts 16, 31,

00:02:35.820 | believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.

00:02:39.320 | He didn't ask the jailer.

00:02:40.560 | Now, you ever blasphemed against the Spirit of God?

00:02:44.120 | He just said, "If you believe, you'll be saved."

00:02:47.260 | And John 6, 40, Jesus said,

00:02:49.200 | "For this is the will of my Father,

00:02:51.160 | that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him

00:02:56.160 | will have eternal life,

00:02:59.560 | and I will raise him up at the last day."

00:03:01.240 | So it has always seemed to me

00:03:04.440 | that there is something about blaspheming the Spirit,

00:03:08.040 | as Jesus intended us to understand it,

00:03:12.120 | that has brought a person to the point

00:03:16.720 | where they are sinning in such a way

00:03:20.480 | that they are unwilling and unable to repent and believe.

00:03:25.480 | That's why I'm putting the two together.

00:03:27.720 | Esau would be an example of this in Hebrews 12, 17,

00:03:31.880 | where it says, "You know that afterward,

00:03:34.520 | when he desired to inherit the blessing,

00:03:37.600 | he was rejected, for he found no place of repentance."

00:03:42.600 | That's a literal translation.

00:03:44.920 | I changed the ESV, "No place of repentance,"

00:03:48.320 | which I think means he couldn't do it.

00:03:50.840 | He couldn't find a place in his heart of genuine repentance,

00:03:54.280 | though he sought it with tears.

00:03:57.280 | So the point here is not that Esau repented

00:04:00.480 | and could not be forgiven.

00:04:02.200 | He couldn't find the place of repentance.

00:04:05.260 | He had come to such hardness of heart against God,

00:04:08.960 | such love for the world,

00:04:10.720 | his bowl of cereal against his inheritance.

00:04:13.640 | He loved the world so much,

00:04:15.280 | he couldn't stop loving the world.

00:04:17.080 | He could find no genuine repentance, and so he perished.

00:04:22.080 | And his tears were not tears of repentance.

00:04:25.200 | They were tears of remorse that he couldn't repent.

00:04:28.560 | So let me give a quote

00:04:30.840 | from one of my favorite commentators, Henry Alford,

00:04:34.780 | about the sin,

00:04:38.680 | the unforgivable sin of blasphemy against the Spirit.

00:04:42.200 | Here's what he said, just one sentence.

00:04:45.560 | "It is not a particular species of sin

00:04:50.040 | which is here condemned."

00:04:51.480 | Like, ooh, I've done that one thing.

00:04:54.200 | "But," he says, "it is a definite act

00:04:58.680 | showing a state of sin,

00:05:02.480 | and that state a willful, determined opposition

00:05:07.480 | to the present power of the Holy Spirit.

00:05:12.760 | And this as shown by its fruit, blasphemy."

00:05:17.240 | The declaration in substance

00:05:20.000 | of what the New Testament often says.

00:05:22.640 | So here's the key phrase there.

00:05:24.640 | It's a state of willful, determined opposition

00:05:29.640 | to the power of the Holy Spirit.

00:05:34.900 | And then he gives,

00:05:36.040 | as one of those other places in the New Testament,

00:05:38.640 | 1 John 5:16, which says,

00:05:40.900 | "If anyone sees his brother committing a sin

00:05:43.640 | not leading to death, he should ask,

00:05:46.560 | and God will give him life."

00:05:48.680 | To those who commit sin,

00:05:51.160 | there is sin that does not lead to death,

00:05:54.000 | but there is sin that leads to death,

00:05:58.320 | and I do not say that one should pray for that.

00:06:03.080 | So this is not, there is a sin that leads to death,

00:06:07.160 | but there is sin.

00:06:09.200 | That's the way it should be translated.

00:06:10.320 | There is sinning.

00:06:11.320 | There is a kind of willful, determined, settled opposition

00:06:16.320 | to God and His Spirit.

00:06:21.840 | So here are my answers to the two questions.

00:06:24.360 | One, can a true believer

00:06:26.840 | whose salvation is eternally secure in Christ

00:06:29.200 | still be guilty of blaspheming the Holy Spirit?

00:06:31.740 | No, because I think the meaning

00:06:35.360 | of the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit,

00:06:37.440 | as Alford says, is a willful, determined opposition

00:06:41.000 | to the present power of the Holy Spirit,

00:06:42.440 | and Christians cannot commit that kind of sin.

00:06:45.760 | They don't settle in like that

00:06:47.920 | with a settled, determined, willful opposition.

00:06:51.920 | Christians can commit all kinds of sin,

00:06:56.260 | but what marks a Christian is

00:06:58.000 | they don't settle in long-term.

00:07:00.400 | They hate it, and they repent from it.

00:07:02.720 | They feel bad about it.

00:07:03.920 | They turn to God for fresh forgiveness.

00:07:06.680 | So no, a Christian cannot commit

00:07:09.960 | what Jesus calls blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.

00:07:14.120 | Question number two, is blaspheming the Spirit

00:07:16.760 | the same as grieving the Spirit?

00:07:18.560 | No, they are not the same,

00:07:20.240 | and you can see the difference in Ephesians 4, 29 to 31,

00:07:23.680 | where Paul says, "Let no corrupting talk

00:07:26.200 | "come out of your mouths,

00:07:27.760 | "but only such as is good for building up

00:07:30.040 | "as fits the occasion,

00:07:31.680 | "that it may give grace to those who hear."

00:07:34.160 | Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God

00:07:38.040 | by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

00:07:43.040 | Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor

00:07:47.360 | and slander be put away from you with all malice.

00:07:49.720 | So two things.

00:07:51.420 | One, when we grieve the Holy Spirit, Paul says,

00:07:54.920 | we're grieving the one who has sealed us

00:07:58.060 | for the day of redemption,

00:07:59.560 | which means that in the very same breath

00:08:02.720 | of saying you can grieve him,

00:08:04.240 | he's saying, "You're secure, you're sealed.

00:08:08.040 | "He will not break that seal.

00:08:11.080 | "He has got you and he's keeping you

00:08:13.540 | "for the day of redemption."

00:08:16.200 | And the other thing to notice is specifically

00:08:18.940 | what it is that does grieve him.

00:08:21.180 | What grieves him is bitterness and wrath

00:08:24.160 | and anger against other people.

00:08:27.160 | These are the things that Christians do and regret doing

00:08:31.100 | and have to repent of doing and ask forgiveness for doing.

00:08:35.080 | And that very repentance is the work of the Holy Spirit

00:08:40.080 | in great mercy to awaken the children of God to repentance

00:08:44.960 | so that we will make it to the day of redemption.

00:08:49.100 | - That's so good and deeply reassuring for believers.

00:08:52.840 | Thank you, Pastor John.

00:08:53.920 | And this is such a common question

00:08:55.560 | that we get all the time.

00:08:56.960 | And if you have a question for Pastor John,

00:08:58.680 | please send it in to us via email.

00:09:01.140 | Keep it concise and to the point.

00:09:02.860 | And go to our online home and click on the button

00:09:05.100 | that you'll find at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.

00:09:10.100 | Well, we are all about delighting in God.

00:09:14.140 | There is nothing more important in the world.

00:09:16.660 | But if it's so important for the Christian life

00:09:18.500 | and so precious to us individually,

00:09:21.200 | why does it seem like our joy in God is so short-lived?

00:09:24.580 | If the shelf life of our delight in him seems so short,

00:09:28.140 | what can we do to preserve it?

00:09:29.660 | That's the question on the table tomorrow.

00:09:31.740 | I'm your host, Tony Ranke.

00:09:32.620 | Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast

00:09:34.660 | with longtime pastor and author, John Piper.

00:09:37.780 | We'll see you tomorrow.

00:09:38.940 | (upbeat music)

00:09:41.520 | (upbeat music)

00:09:44.100 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

Can a Christian Blaspheme the Holy Spirit?

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