From The Heart
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Tonight i want to talk about one of the most controversial passages in the gospel of Matthew. The truth of God’s word in this passage travels well beyond just the isolated incident surrounding Jesus here in chapter 12. The 7 scriptures we will focus most of our attention on contains a confrontation between Jesus and the Pharisees over a dispute of the source of Jesus latest miracle. The outline of our passage is a controversial miracle that shifts into a teaching about belief, hardness of heart, and judgement. These select verses tie together so many strings of doctrine, in a way that only the teachings of Jesus can. Some of the topics we will be discussing includes neutrality, forgiveness of sins, the unpardonable sin, fruit, conditions of the heart, and finally judgment. It may sound like a lot of random topics to be coming from one small passage, but what you will find is all of these things are actually quite related. It all stems, FROM THE HEART!
30 Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. 31 Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. 32 And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.
33 “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. 34 You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. 35 The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil.
36 I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, 37 for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
First we see that Jesus is drawing a line. This is exactly the kind of thing Christ said that He came to do.
34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household.
It’s not that Jesus within Himself is divisive, but yet His very presence brings division. Truthfully, one cannot play both sides of the fence. Christ is the starting point of a life lived in complete opposition to the world. Jesus said, “If you’re not with me, your are against me”. There is no in between. There is no gray area. We know this to be true. For what does James say? Friendship with the world is enmity with God. It puts us in opposition with Him.
For people who say, “Oh i believe in Jesus. But there’s more to life than just my relationship with Him.” Is there? Does not everything we have and everything we will have all flow from Him? Is not our beginning and end through HIM? Creation, salvation, children which are a gift, provision which He provides, breath that He breathed into our lungs, is it not all HIM! Jesus said we must ABIDE IN HIM. Which is to remain, to dwell, to LIVE!
It’s kind of like the person who says, “I’m not religious, I’m spiritual.” That’s not quite correct. For the well meaning Christian, I understand the saying, I’ve said it before, trying to show babies in Christ that this walk is based off of relationship. Not works or religious behaviors. But James makes it clear, that true Christianity IS PURE AND UNDEFILED RELIGION. But Usually when a person says “I’m not religious, I’m spiritual” they mean “I believe in something, but I lack true devotion to Christ.”
Think about how divisive Christianity is in the world. They want separation of Church and state. Teachers can present our children with books encouraging homosexuality, which is happening today, but our teachers cannot talk about Jesus. Christians claiming there is only ONE TRUE GOD puts us at odds with all other religious sects. Muslims wish to kill us for our deifying of who they consider to be just a man. Mormons wish to pervert the truth and present Jesus as a separate God than the Father; which all true Christians reject. Take it to social issues, our biblical stance on abortion, marriage, and so many other topics puts us directly at odds with the world. The point? There is no in between. If you’re for Jesus, you’re for everything He teaches and represents. If you’re not for everything He teaches or represents, then you are AGAINST HIM!
But here’s what I love about this verse. Let’s look at the word WITH in it’s original greek. It is the word Meta and it’s defined as: “a marker of association in which one party acts or exists for the benefit of another” - Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament
Jesus makes it clear, if you are not closely associated with me, then you’re not on my side at all. But clearly it denotes so much more than that. This word With shows one party acting or existing FOR THE BENEFIT OF ANOTHER! Jesus acts for our benefit. For those of us who choose to believe and associate and identify with Christ, He is constantly acting on our behalf, for our benefit. For our good. That’s why He is saying, if you’re not all in, you’re all out. You cannot receive the BENEFIT without the commitment. Wives, I know you’ll say amen to this one. Your husband cannot receive the BENEFITS of marital rights unless he is willing to ACT like he is married. He cannot receive the benefits of marriage unless he is willing to commit. Unless he is willing to choose you, and you alone, and say goodbye every other potential lover. If he chooses to so commit, there is great benefit. You are now WITH him, and your job is to act or exist to benefit him, and him to benefit you. That’s the beauty of marriage, it’s no longer about you, and neither is your relationship with Christ.
So Jesus says if you’re not with me, you’re against me. He said those who do not gather with me scatters. That word gather in the greek denotes a UNION, to assemble together with emphasis on TOGETHERNESS. If we do not assemble closely to Christ, we will SCATTER. That word scatter in the greek implies each going a DIFFERENT DIRECTION.
Listen, your either walking towards the cross, or you’re walking away from it. Notice those who reject Christ, always seem to scatter about, wondering after whatever is right in their own eyes? We have to understand that there is only low ground, and HOLY GROUND. There is no middle road. We must choose our destination of travel.
31 Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. 32 And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.
Okay.. very scary verse right? This is a verse I’ve seen plague the minds of so many believers, babies and mature alike. (Even when i was in prison i had brothers ask me about this verse). But through study, i believe there is a very logical explanation for what this unpardonable sin is, and it opens up several other hard to interpret passages as well. But first, there is something SO IMPORTANT that is immediately lost in this passage as readers rush through and get floored by Jesus very hard warning.
This passage, before the harsh warning, reveals a blessed assurance all Christians should hold dear.
31 Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.
Thank you Lord! This is such a blessed promise that it bears pausing and reflecting. EVERY SIN and EVERY BLASPHEMY will be forgiven people! We have forgiveness for EVERY SIN. This, for me, is extremely encouraging. To know that Jesus said He would forgive me of every sin. Of course the qualification here is salvation. You have to receive this forgiveness as a gift. But when i think about the depths of darkness that has ruled my life. When i think about the evil thoughts that can still try to rule my mind. When i think about the flesh and the evil desires that i must deny, I THANK GOD that every sin will be forgiven me.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Knowing that He is faithful to forgive me of my sins, and all i must do is truly believe and confess; that my friends is blessed assurance. That my friend is a deep sigh of relief. So let me ask you this. Are you sin conscious? Carrying around the shame and guilt of your past? If Christ is faithful to forgive us of our sins; and according to Matthew 12:31 EVERY SIN that is not the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, then who are you to not forgive yourself. Your standards are not higher than God’s. It is time to let it go. It is time to experience the liberty of FREEDOM IN CHRIST. Sometimes i think we forget there are liberties.. (Andrew’s story). It is for FREEDOM CHRIST SET US FREE.
So if we can be forgiven for EVERY SIN but this one.. that leaves the million dollar question. What is the unforgivable sin? There’s a lot to unpack here. First, let’s look at what that word Blasphemy in the greek means. It is the greek work blasphemia which means to slander, to speak against someone in such a way as to injure their reputation. So to blaspheme is simply to slander.. with that in mind, let’s look back at the text.
31 Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. 32 And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.
First we need to ask why is Jesus saying this? If we look back just a few verses, we will see that Jesus is responding to a claim by the Pharisees that He casts out demons by the power of demons.
22 Then a demon-oppressed man who was blind and mute was brought to him, and he healed him, so that the man spoke and saw. 23 And all the people were amazed, and said, “Can this be the Son of David?” 24 But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons.”
Jesus responds to this blasphemous claim by showing just how ignorant this statement really is. How can a kingdom divided against itself stand? If satan casts out satan, he is defeating himself. Jesus then continues saying it is by the finger of God that He casts out satan, proclaiming that the Kingdom has come upon them, and they refuse to recognize it. Jesus said that you must first bind a strong man before you can enter and plunder the house; Jesus was showing them His power over satan, that He had authority to bind the strong man. He flexed His authority in front of their very eyes; and they refused to see. So once again, with this in mind, let’s look at the text.
31 Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. 32 And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.
Notice what Jesus said. What every sin will be forgiven, but blasphemy of the Holy Spirit will not be. Even stronger, He says EVEN IF YOU SPEAK A WORD AGAINST THE SON OF MAN IT WILL BE FORGIVEN, but to speak against the Holy Spirit will NEVER be forgiven. So why is that? As both the Son and the Spirit are persons of the Godhead, why can blasphemy for one be forgiven and not the other. Well, think about this. Jesus came as a man, God in the flesh. Therefore His deity was veiled. Even His disciples had problems accepting and understanding the fullness of Christ. Jesus was the revelation of God’s wisdom, His plan of salvation from the beginning of time; yet to be revealed. Even on earth Christ did not reveal Himself before the time, constantly charging the people He healed to tell no one. Christ’ coming was a mystery. One can speak against Christ and later come to salvation through the revelation of who He truly is.
13 though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, 14 and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
Now things are starting to get a bit clearer. To blaspheme is to slander. Paul slandered, a self proclaimed blasphemer and persecutor of the church. But he received mercy. Why? Because he acted ignorantly in UNBELIEF. Many say as you study and you read that the Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is exactly what the pharisees did; that it is simply attributing the work of God, the work of the Spirit, to the works of Satan. But we are going to find that it is much more than that. See Jesus says, “You can speak a word against Me, and it can be forgiven, but to speak against the Spirit, it will NEVER be forgiven”. That’s because it is much more than words. It is about the heart, behind the words.
33 “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. 34 You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
35 The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. 36 I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak,
37 for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
So here we see Jesus points to three things in relation to the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. Fruit, Words, and the Heart. Jesus tells them, make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. What is this fruit He speaks of? The next verse makes it clear.
34 You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
The fruit which they are known by are their words. Jesus said “you can’t speak good FOR YOU ARE EVIL”. How does Jesus know they are evil? Of course, He is God with us. So He certainly knows everything. But in this circumstance, it’s obvious that they are evil, because of their words.
We need to piece some things together here. So Jesus is casting out demons, He is healing the sick, He is fulfilling prophecies of the old testament. The pharisees have been trained in memorizing torah since their youth. The Pharisees see these miracles and these signs, and yet here reveal their wickedness. In the face of overwhelming evidence for the deity of Christ, they choose WILLFUL DISBELIEF IN THE FACE OF GOD’S OBVIOUS TRUTH. That’s what blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is. Being presented with great evidence of the truth of Christ, and in essence closing your eyes in the face of the bright light. It is not so much about what was said, as it is about WHY IT WAS SAID.
That’s why Jesus said, “Either make the tree good and the fruit good, or make the tree bad and the fruit bad.” The Pharisees presented themselves as good trees, but their fruit betrays them. THEY COULD NOT ACKNOWLEDGE CHRIST WITH THEIR LIPS BECAUSE THEIR HEARTS WERE EVIL. So if you’re here tonight and you’ve wondered if you’ve ever committed the unforgivable sin, your concern alone is proof you have not. It’s not about a one time off hand comment cursing God. It’s about an evil, unbelieving, unrepentant heart.
18 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. 20 These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.”
See, we’ve always put so much emphasis on what was said by the Pharisees and not enough on why they said it. Your mouth only reveals your heart. Their blasphemy was seeing the obvious works of the Spirit in the Man of Christ and hardening their hearts anyways. In doing so, they rejected the only force that can convict of sin, judgment, and righteousness; which is the Spirit of God. And without the Spirit of God, one can never come to repentance, for it is only reached through belief.
When we see the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit in this light, it really opens up a couple of other difficult passages. We’ve been so scared for years that at one time, we cursed God, or we used His Name with profanity, or we slandered the church, or whatever we have done; we have been terrified that we had committed the unpardonable sin. But clearly, here you sit; with a heart that would be concerned with such a thing. Showing you have repentance; showing you acted in ignorance and unbelief. Not in blasphemy. Now i want to look at a REALLY scary couple of verses, with this definition of the Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit in mind.
4 For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come,
6 and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.
This passage has haunted Christians who have wilfully gone back into their sin at one time or another. We have had many of conversations on this very chapter in my office. But as we break these verses down in light of scripture, we must remember that the WHOLE of scripture is inspired and will NEVER contradict itself.
Jesus tells us clearly in Matthew 12:31 that EVERY SIN other than the Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit will be forgiven. EVERY SIN means EVERY SIN. Therefore, it is safe to conclude that these two sins are one in the same.
The Pharisees were presented with overwhelming evidence. But they chose to harden their hearts. And slander the work of God in their hearts with their unbelief, producing words of blasphemy. Look at the similarities with this passage in Hebrews 6.
These people have been enlightened, they have tasted the heavenly gift, shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word and the powers of the age to come; and what did they do? They FALL AWAY, in the greek it also denotes to TURN AWAY or to FORSAKE.
I would say the subjects here in Hebrews 6 obviously had plenty of evidence, and chose to harden their hearts. Now, for some this brings up an entirely separate issue; and that’s the Security of Salvation. Does this verse prove that one CAN walk away from salvation?
We need to remember that audience of Hebrews are Jews, who came to accept Christ; and they are being warned not to return to the works of the law and sacrifices of Judaism that really all were simply foreshadows of Christ. With that being said; one can easily ask themselves; if these Jews were tempted to put their trust back into works of the law and sacrifices; did they ever really believe that Christ was sufficient at all? Or deity?
We have two options with Hebrews 6, and neither option conflicts with the core message, because in context, this passage was not intended to teach us the doctrine of eternal securtity.
Option 1. These are Jews who received the evidence of Christ with joy, being enlightened, even witnessing and sharing in the Holy Spirit by feeling the move of God as a “common grace” that both believers and non believers can experience. Perhaps a tug of conviction. These Jews began to profess belief, even looked like believers, came close to being true believers; but instead chose to harden their hearts in the face of truth. We have seen many examples of people coming close to salvation and walking away..
Option 2. These are Jews who believed. They were enlightened and tasted of the Heavenly Gift, yet despite belief chose to harden their hearts and walk away; therefore renouncing Christ and losing their salvation.
Either way, we see that the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit stands true. In the face of overwhelming evidence, they rejected The Holy Spirit’s working, and it is now impossible for them to be restored. It is impossible because they will never WANT to be restored. It is not impossible for God to forgive them, it is impossible for them to be forgiven because their hardened hearts will never repent.
I believe we can use this same logic for a verse i’ve always had a hard time with.
16 If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life—to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that. 17 All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death.
Theres a big debate on this, but if God’s word says there is only ONE unforgivable sin; then this has to be it’s interpretation. Unrepentant, willful rejection is the face of God’s obvious truth. The Sin unto Death. The unforgivable sin.
As i bring this to a close, there’s a couple of applications i think we should really see here. Let’s go back to our text.
36 I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, 37 for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
So Jesus has shown us that our words are simply fruit of the heart. As believers i think this is extremely important to know. I think an important application here is to
Gauge Your Heart
If we find ourselves in a season where our words are unkind, impatient, unfruitful, i think it’s safe to say we have a heart problem. Obviously not a blasphemy of the Holy Spirit problem. But an attitude of the heart problem. When Jesus said that out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. It denotes a revealing of what your heart is filled with. Perhaps it’s a sign we’re filling our hearts with bitterness, with poison. When i find myself struggling with frustration, i realize i am in a state of selfishness. We have to keep our hearts.
23 Keep your heart with all vigilance,
for from it flow the springs of life.
Lastly,
Judgement of the Heart
Jesus said on the day of judgment people will give an account for every careless word they speak. That word careless could also be rendered useless. He goes on to say that we will be justified by our words, or condemned by our words. But if you’ve been paying attention at all tonight, you already know it is much deeper than our words. James says our tongue is set on fire by hell itself, and if any useless or careless word can condemn us, then we all stand condemned.
So why will be condemned or justified by our words? Well, why did the Pharisees blaspheme? THEIR HEARTS. Why were they bad trees? THEIR HEARTS. Why did they speak evil? THEIR HEARTS.
WE NEED A HEART CHANGE.
12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
We must not wait til judgment day. We need to allow this word to judge our hearts NOW. That we may repent and be justified by Christ.
The external things only display the internal. Our words are just the fruit of our hearts. To change our fruit, we must change our root. “Make the tree good, and the fruit good.” Do not delay. The evidence is here. It’s in His word. His death, burial, and resurrection. We have all the proof we need.