The Watch Tower brings a role call of familiar proof texts, and we may address them in future, but the one I want to look at is:
'Every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever says a word against the Son of Man ill be forgiven; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come' Mt.12:31,32
'If the Holy Spirit were a person and were God,’ they insist, ‘this text would flatly contradict the Trinity doctrine, because it would mean that in some way the Holy Spirit was greater than the Son. Instead, what Jesus said shows that the Father, to whom the 'Spirit' belonged, is greater than Jesus, the Son of man.'
Why is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit unforgivable but speaking a word against the Son is not? Is the Spirit greater than Jesus? Do the words of Jesus demonstrate the Father is greater than Jesus?
This Matthew text, and its equivalent in Luke 12, is one of the sayings Jesus most misunderstood by Christians. Many have, over the years, worried they have committed the ‘unforgivable sin’ because of something they have said or done.
Roots and Fruits
Because they focus on the Trinity doctrine the Watch Tower totally
misses the point of what Jesus is saying and haven't begun to properly exegete the passage they inexcusably use as a prooftext. They are not reasoning from the Scriptures. The context is one of fruit in someone’s life:
‘Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad. You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.’ (vv 33,34)
This echoes the Baptist’s words in the Jordan:
‘But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance…’ (Mt.3:7,8)
Fruit is a major theme in Matthew (3:8,10; 7:15-20; 12:33; 13:23; 21:43). In the passage we are considering he says, ‘For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.’ The Pharisees have already labelled Jesus a blasphemer who is working hand in hand with Beelzebul (v24). This is itself a blasphemy and demonstrates Jesus’ point; the sin against the Holy Spirit is a persistent and unrepentant rejection of the witness of the Holy Spirit. We see this again at the martyrdom of Stephen in Acts 7:
‘You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your Fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.’ (vv 51-53)
Jesus’ words echo those in Numbers:
‘But the person who does anything defiantly, whether he is native or an alien, that one is blaspheming the LORD; and that person shall be cut off from among his people. Because he has despised the word of the LORD… ‘ (Numbers 15:30,31)
There is a defiance in the work of one who sins against the Holy Spirit, an unrepentant persistence in violently rejecting the prophets. This sin is the fruit of a wicked and unregenerate heart. It is unforgivable because it is not repented. The fruit is bad because the root is rotten.
A Word Against the Son
How does Jesus’ teaching on every sin and blasphemy against the Son being forgiven (Mt.12:31) compare with the above? Does this make Jesus less important than the Spirit? Consider Peter’s denial of Jesus (Mt.26:69-75) and how, ‘he went out and wept bitterly.’ (v75). You will remember how later, in John’s gospel, we read that Jesus restored Peter (Jn.21:15-17) charging him, ‘feed my sheep.’
Peters
bitter tears were the fruit of a regenerate man weeping over his
terrible fall, his restoration was the restoration of a true believer
who experienced the joy of a burden lifted. His tears and joy
demonstrate that Peter had good roots, was a good tree. His heart was
for Jesus, even though his words betrayed a cowardice he bitterly
regretted.
A blasphemer is not someone who, in the moment, speaks and acts in ways afterwards regretted. It is someone who defiantly and persistently rejects the witness of the Holy Spirit, railing against the God who came to save, refusing the conviction of sin the Holy Spirit brings (Jn.16:8). As long as someone rejects the Father’s offer, through the Spirit, of forgiveness in the Son they stand outside the generous mercy offered ‘as long as it is called today.’ (Hebrews 3:12,13)
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