Matthew 12:31

All manner of sin. Even “blasphemy” can be forgiven — with one exception.

Blasphemy. In the particular situation Christ here refers to, a group of Pharisees had attributed the power of the Holy Spirit (see on v. 28) to the devil (v. 24) in the full knowledge that their charge was false (see DA 322). It was this deliberate rejection of light that was leading them, step by step, toward “blasphemy against the Holy Ghost.” It is important to note that the statement made by the Pharisees came as the climax of a protracted process of rejecting increasingly clear evidence of divinity of Jesus (see DA 213, 538), a process that had begun with the birth of Jesus (see DA 63) but which became more intense as His ministry progressed. The clearer the evidence, the stronger their opposition to Him (cf. Hosea 4:6). As time went on and each encounter with Jesus served only to reveal their hypocrisy, they became more and more bitter and outspoken. Now they came out openly, declaring Christ to be demon possessed and working in collaboration with Satan, as one of his accomplices (cf. 5T 634). Henceforth they were under the control of the very power they had accused Christ of being subject to (DA 323).

Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, or the unpardonable sin, consists of progressive resistance to truth that culminates in a final and irrevocable decision against it, deliberately made in the full knowledge that by so doing one is choosing to pursue his own course of action in opposition to the divine will. The conscience is seared by continued resistance to the impressions of the Holy Spirit, and one may hardly be aware that he has made the fateful decision. There may, indeed, be nothing more than continuing failure to reach a decision to act in harmony with God’s will (see DA 324). A person troubled with a haunting fear that he has committed the “unpardonable sin,” thereby has conclusive evidence that he has not committed it.

The most miserable person in the world is one whose conscience troubles him for doing wrong when he knows that he should do right. A miserable Christian experience is usually the result of not living up to the light one has. A person whose conscience troubles him may solve the problem and remove the tension in one of two ways: He may yield to the transforming power of the Holy Spirit, and respond to the promptings of the Holy Spirit by making wrongs right with God and man, or he may sear his conscience and eliminate its painful promptings by silencing the Holy Spirit (see Eph. 4:30). The person who takes the latter course cannot repent, because his conscience has been forever made insensitive, and he does not want to repent. He has deliberately placed his soul beyond the reach of divine grace. His persistent perversion of the power of choice results in the loss of the power to discern between good and evil. Evil finally appears to be good, and good appears to be evil (see Micah 3:2; see on Isa. 5:20). Such is the deceptiveness of sin.

Conscience has been aptly called the eye of God in the soul of man. It is a divinely implanted monitor that prompts men ever to live in obedience to the light that has been revealed to them. To tamper with it in the least is to risk the peril of eternal loss. Deliberate and persistent disobedience to God finally becomes a habit that cannot be broken (see DA 324). Compare the process commonly spoken of as “hardening the heart” (see on Ex. 4:21).

Not be forgiven. Not because God is unwilling to forgive, but because the one who has committed this sin has no desire to be forgiven. Such a desire is vitally necessary to forgiveness. Such a one has severed his line of communication with heaven in order that he may no longer be troubled with the warning calls of the Holy Spirit.