Is there a sin that is “unforgivable”? How can we know if we have accidentally committed it and doomed ourselves?
Looking at what happened 2,000 years later you almost have to laugh at the ridiculous argument of the Pharisees. Jesus has just healed a blind and deaf man, and they claim he is exorcising demons using evil powers….until Jesus points out that they also have priests who exorcise demons. Oops.
The Pharisees are only a subtext here however. Their ignorant and feeble attempts to grab power aren’t meant to be taken seriously, and they aren’t the topic or focus of what Jesus has to say. He brushes them aside and begins to speak about spiritual power.
In any contest the one who wins is either wiser, stronger or both. Jesus points out that when He casts out demons He is proving that He is wiser and stronger than the devil. If He weren’t, then the devil wouldn’t leave the person. By His actions, He reveals that He is the Son of God, because there isn’t anyone else who can defeat the devil besides God himself. In fact, any time you see evil suppressed you can be sure that a higher power has suppressed it. If evil had it’s way, there wouldn’t ever be any good news. There wouldn’t be any beautiful sunrises or sunsets, no intoxicating smells, no joy, no laughter, no expressions of love of any kind. The fact that any of these exist at all is proof that a power higher than evil exists.
That power, the power of God, is manifested in the person of the Holy Spirit. Galatians 5 tells us that love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self control all come from the Spirit. All spiritual abilities come from His as well. Without the Spirit we don’t have the hymn writers, the praise leaders, the evangelists or the preachers. Without the Spirit there aren’t Sunday School teachers or VBS teachers, or workers of any kind at the church. All the power to relate to one another, live in harmony, forgive, love and show compassion…..all of it….comes from the Spirit.
This is a hard one for me to explain, since the whole concept is beyond human comprehension anyway. But, God the Holy Spirit is a person, and also a “power” or “force”. The Holy Spirit was present at creation “hovering over the surface of the deep”. Without the Holy Spirit, there is no creation. Without the Holy Spirit, man doesn’t receive breath. It is the Holy Spirit that raises Jesus from the dead, heals the crippled, the blind and the deaf. To speak against what the Spirit does, is to speak against who the Spirit is. Am I saying that correctly? In other words, if you criticize the work that a person does, you are in effect criticizing the person. The same is true for the Holy Spirit. Somehow the Pharisees were in danger of criticizing the work of the Holy Spirit while they were attacking Jesus. Jesus is pointing out that you can attack Him all you want, no problem…..He will forgive. You can say that Jesus is a liar or a fake…and you will be forgiven. But when you start talking about the power that forces a demon out of a person, you are “changing the subject” slightly. Jesus didn’t do anything by Himself, it was always in harmony with the Spirit. Jesus will forgive what you say about Him…but apparently the Holy Spirit isn’t part of that deal. If you offend or discount the Holy Spirit, you will not be forgiven.
How can we avoid such a grievous error? And why would any parent place something within reach of the children that could snuff out their life? Has Jesus allowed a bottomless pit to remain where I could carelessly fall into it? Has he allowed a certain phrase to exist that, if uttered in a momentary fit of carnal rage, could cause me to lose my eternal life? Looking at it that way, and knowing that Jesus is always good and always works for our good, I have to conclude that it must not be as easy to offend the Holy Spirit as we might fear. Otherwise, there would be far more instruction regarding Him.
It does stand to reason however that we should be careful when we talk about what God does, and has done in the past. If the history of Israel tells us anything, it tells us that God is jealous for His glory, and isn’t willing to share it with anyone. Giving credit to anyone for what God has done is a sure-fire way to incur God’s wrath. That would include saying that something God intentionally did happened “by accident”.
In verse 36 Jesus confirms that there will be a “Judgment Day” and we will have to answer for what we have said. Even if we said it carelessly, we will have to answer for it. The only good news there is that Jesus also says our sins are removed from us when we repent, and God remembers them “no more”. So, if we are found on Judgment day to be adopted into the family of Christ, the careless things we said should already be gone. Even if they are brought up, it won’t be by Jesus…He will be defending us against whatever accusations the devil brings.
Vs. 39: the sign of Jonah…3 days in the whale, 3 days in the grave…I wonder if Jonah had any idea how God would turn his hard-heartedness around to be a testimony to His power? I wonder if Jonah was ready to be released from the fish in 1 day but had to stay for 3 because God would need to be in the grave that long, or did Jonah take 3 days to repent, or did the fish take 3 days to get to shore….and that’s why Jesus was 3 days in the grave? Which event set the time at 3 days? Or, did God the Father arbitrarily set “3 days” for some other reason that we know nothing about?
When demons leave people (when they are cast out, like the ones cast out of the blind and deaf man here) they don’t cease to exist, and they apparently don’t inhabit inanimate things either. This demon(s) wanders through the desert looking for a new person to occupy….and if he can’t find one, then he returns to try and reenter the person he just left. I wonder how long that takes? How much time do you have before a demon tries to reenter your body? Are there other displaced demons out there, looking for homes as well? The danger for the man who was just healed is that the demons may return. He could be blind or deaf again…and according to Jesus, he could be worse off than before. The only way to avoid it is to make sure there is someone living inside him stronger than the demons who will try and return.
Having the demons cast out is one step…it’s only temporary if we don’t invite Christ to enter our lives and take ownership of our being. Without Jesus…in the form of the Holy Spirit!!!! living within us, we are in serious danger.
Thinking of that, as long as the Spirit is living within us, and we are following His lead, I cannot imagine how we could offend the Spirit. The Spirit wouldn’t offend itself.
Faithfully,
PR