The verse that says “Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven ” (Matt. 12:31) alarm me very much. Sometimes I think that I committed the sin of blasphemy so I fall into
All your fears are temptations from the devil to make you fall into despair so be comforted.
As for the meaning of the blasphemy against the Spirit and the sin that is without forgiveness, this, with the grace of God I shall explain to you.
The blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is not the unbelief in the Holy Spirit or His Divinity or His work and it is not insulting of the Holy Spirit. If the atheists believe, God forgives them for their unbelief and their mockery of God and His Holy Spirit. All those who followed Macedonius in his heresy and his denial of the Divinity of the Holy Spirit, when repented the church accepted, them and forgave them.
What then is the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit? And why there is no forgiveness for it?
The blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is the complete and continuous refusal of any work of the Spirit in the heart which is a life time refusal.
As a result of this refusal, man does not repent and accordingly God does not forgive him.
God in His mercy accepts every repentance and forgives as He said, “The one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out” (John 6:37) and the saints were correct in their saying: “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out”.
[There is no sin without forgiveness except that without repentance].
So if a person dies in his sin without repentance, he will perish as the Lord said “Unless you repent you will all likewise perish ” (Luke 13:5).
Then non repentance till death is the only sin that is without forgiveness. If the matter is so, that brings up a question:
What is the relation between lack of repentance and the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit?
Obviously, a person cannot repent without the work of the Spirit in him. For the Holy Spirit will reprove the world of sin (John 16:8) and lead the person in the spiritual life and encourage him. He is the power that aids in every good work.
Without the communion of the Holy Spirit, no one can accomplish any spiritual work.
So the refusal of the communion of the Holy Spirit (2 Cor 13:14) absolutely can not produce any good. For all the works of righteousness the apostle had put under the title “fruit of the Spirit” (GaL 5:22). That person without any fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire (Matt. 3:10) & (John 15:4-5).
He who refuses the Spirit, will not repent, and will not bring forth any spiritual fruit.
If his refusal of the Spirit is a complete and life long refusal, then he will spend all his life without repentance, without works of righteousness and without fruit of the Spirit, so of course he will perish. This is the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.
It is not that the person grieves the Spirit (Eph. 4:30) or quenches the Spirit (1Thess. 5:19) or resists the Spirit (Acts 7:51) but it is the complete and persistent refusal of the Spirit. So he would not repent and would not have fruits in a righteous life.
Here we are faced with a question:
What if a person refuses all works of the Spirit then turns back and accepts Him and repents?
We say that his repentance and acceptance of the Spirit even just before the end of his life, is an indication that the Spirit of God still works in him and led him to repentance. Then his refusal of the Spirit was not complete and not life long. A case like this is not a blasphemy against the Holy Spirit according to the definition mentioned before.
To fall into a sin that has no forgiveness is a form of a war of the devil against us to make us fall into despair which will destroy us, make us depressed; and that does not help us in any spiritual work.
To the person that asked the question I say: the mere asking of the question is an indication of your concern about eternal fate. This is not blasphemy against the Spirit.
Now we need to answer the last part of the question.
How this unforgiveness coincides with the mercy of God?
God is always ready to forgive and nothing prevents His forgiveness, but the important thing is that the person repents to deserve forgiveness.
If the person refuses repentance, God waits for his repentance till the uttermost breath of his life, as happened with the thief at the Lord’s right hand. If the person refuses to repent all his life and refuses the work of the Spirit in him till the time of his death then he not God-blessed be His name would be responsible for the perishing of his soul.
