I covered this some in my post # 124 of Honest Discussion of the Trinity – which I quoted below – not sure if it helps. I'm not sure what the unforgivable sin was – but think it may have something to do with when Jesus walked the earth - noting that "Son of Man" refers to His humanity - and it was a time of tremendous undeniable display of the power of God by Him. To think of Him as an ordinary person may have been forgivable - since He was human and looked like a common man - but the obvious display of the Holy Spirit's power was undeniably attributable to God. There has never been a time since then of all the miracles and healings that He performed...Perhaps it was an unforgivable sin in that the evidence of the power of the Spirit was undeniable.
Back up and look at the entire incident:
Matthew 12:22-32 NIV
22 Then they brought him a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute, and Jesus healed him, so that he could both talk and see. 23 All the people were astonished and said, "Could this be the Son of David?"
24 But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, "It is only by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons."
25 Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand. 26 If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand? 27 And if I drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your people drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. 28 But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
29 "Or again, how can anyone enter a strong man's house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can rob his house.
30 "He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters. 31 And so I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. 32 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.
I don't see the passage as emphasizing the Spirit as being greater – what strikes me about the account is that both parties were referring to what really drove out the demons. The Pharisees said it was Beelzebub – Jesus said it was the Spirit of God. I'm not sure what the unforgivable sin was or if it's something that one can commit in this age. Perhaps it's significant to note that one of Jesus' favorite ways to refer to Himself was as "The Son of Man" – which emphasized His humanity. He looked like everybody else. Maybe that's why speaking against the Son of Man – who appeared as a humble human – was understandably a less serious sin – one that was forgivable.
It seems the healing of this demon-possessed man was truly amazing because it states, "all the people were astonished." Judging by the crowd's reaction it was undeniable proof of the power of God and made them wonder if Jesus was indeed the Messiah – yet the Pharisees attributed it to Satan…The only comparison I see of who is greater than who – is that the Holy Spirit is stronger than Beelzebub…So perhaps – it was forgivable to speak against Jesus – who looked like an ordinary human – but to witness an undeniable proof of the power of Spirit of God – to see a miracle like this and yet speak against the Holy Spirit by denying who really did it – is unforgivable…Refusing to acknowledge the Spirit's work places one in a very precarious position – for it is the Spirit who bears witness to Christ [John 15:26] and who convicts the sinner [John 16:7-11]. ...
Probably in the long term. But I guess there's not much profit in worrying about it!
According to one of our resident authors, Stephen Spencer, the unforgivable sin is rejecting the new birth. He has a whole chapter on it in his book, "The Genesis Pursuit." I'm not sure I agree as I tend to think the new birth will actually happen at the resurrection. Note that a Google search returns about a half-million hits, so I'm not confident we'll ever get to the truth of it.
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T-Bone
I covered this some in my post # 124 of Honest Discussion of the Trinity – which I quoted below – not sure if it helps. I'm not sure what the unforgivable sin was – but think it may have something to do with when Jesus walked the earth - noting that "Son of Man" refers to His humanity - and it was a time of tremendous undeniable display of the power of God by Him. To think of Him as an ordinary person may have been forgivable - since He was human and looked like a common man - but the obvious display of the Holy Spirit's power was undeniably attributable to God. There has never been a time since then of all the miracles and healings that He performed...Perhaps it was an unforgivable sin in that the evidence of the power of the Spirit was undeniable.
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cman
kind of makes one wonder
since it's 'unforgiveable'
is it really a problem?
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JumpinJive
Probably in the long term. But I guess there's not much profit in worrying about it!
According to one of our resident authors, Stephen Spencer, the unforgivable sin is rejecting the new birth. He has a whole chapter on it in his book, "The Genesis Pursuit." I'm not sure I agree as I tend to think the new birth will actually happen at the resurrection. Note that a Google search returns about a half-million hits, so I'm not confident we'll ever get to the truth of it.
-JJ
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