Blaspheming the Holy Spirit (Matthew 12:22-32; COD Head 5: Art 6; RE 4)

Jesus is confronted with a situation where He heals a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute. The Pharisees, seeing this miracle, accuse Jesus of casting out demons by the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons.

The Pharisees are spiritually blind.  The pharisees  in their religious pride and self-righteousness, are unable to recognize the work of the Holy Spirit in Jesus’ ministry. These men slander the work of the Holy Spirit by attributing it to Satan.  They do this despite the clear  working of God in their midst.  So they willfully, and consciously attribute the work of the Holy Spirit to Satan.

The "unpardonable sin" is not a specific act but an ongoing, hardened stance of slandering the work of the Spirit when the Spirit’s work is overwhelming evident.The seriousness of this sin is attributing God’s work to evil, showing how it reflects a heart that is closed off to the Spirit’s transformative power.

The Sin Unto Death (1 John 5:16-18, COD 5 RE 4, 5)

John tells us that if we see someone sin we should pray for that person provided that they are not committing the sin unto death. This can result in us being concerned that maybe we committed the sin unto death and we might wonder if we are saved. The assurance that we have is that if we are concerned about committing the sin unto death then we need to be confident that we did not commit the sin.

Demon Lord or Lord over Demons? (Matthew 12:22-37)

Christ warns that there is a sin that we can commit that will not be forgiven.  This is pretty serious because we might live our lives thinking that we are honoring the Lord only to get to glory to find out that we did not live an honorable life at all because of one sin.  How do we know that we did not commit this sin unto death?  

Christ’s Family (Mark 3:7-35)

We can understand why people who were genetically tied to Abraham may be tempted to think that they had a better place or a guarantee of Yahweh’s love.  They have a genetic tie to the Lord giving them special privilege or so we think.  What about the immediate family of Christ?  They are those who witnessed the birth and maturing of Christ.  They really have a right to determine His treatment.  So, why is their intervention for Christ so wrong and so encouraging at the same time?