The Great Divide: Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit Text: Matthew 12:30-32
Introduction: No Spiritual Switzerland
We live in an age that worships at the altar of the "open mind," an age that despises sharp edges and clear distinctions. Our culture wants to believe that there is a vast, comfortable middle ground in spiritual matters, a sort of respectable agnosticism, a neutral territory where a man can stand without having to pick a side. But when Jesus Christ enters the room, He sets fire to all the neutral territories. He dynamites the demilitarized zones. He shows us that in the great war for the souls of men, there is no such thing as a conscientious objector.
The context of our passage is one of direct spiritual warfare. Jesus has just healed a man who was both blind and mute, and possessed by a demon. This was a direct, frontal assault on the kingdom of darkness. He bound the strong man and plundered his house. The crowds were astonished and began to ask the right question: "Can this be the Son of David?" But the Pharisees, the religious establishment, saw the same evidence and came to a diabolically opposite conclusion. They said, "It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons."
They saw the very finger of God at work and called it the claw of the devil. They witnessed the purest goodness and attributed it to the foulest evil. It is in response to this deliberate, high-handed rebellion that Jesus lays down one of the most solemn and terrifying principles in all of Scripture. He draws a line in the sand, not with a stick, but with the sharp sword of His own words. And He shows us that every human soul is on one side of that line or the other. There is no straddling the fence, because Jesus Himself is the fence.
The Text
He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters.
"Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven.
And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come."
(Matthew 12:30-32 LSB)
The Abolition of Neutrality (v. 30)
We begin with the great antithesis in verse 30:
"He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters." (Matthew 12:30)
This is the foundational premise. Jesus is declaring that when it comes to His kingdom, there are no non-combatants. There are no civilians. You are either a loyal soldier or you are a traitor. You are either a citizen of His kingdom or an enemy alien. There is no third option. To refuse to be "with" Christ is not neutrality; it is, by definition, to be "against" Him. To fail to actively gather for His cause is not to be passive; it is to actively scatter.
Think of it this way. If a great ship is sinking, and a lifeboat is launched, the man who says, "I am not getting in the lifeboat, but I am not staying on the ship either," is a fool. His refusal to choose salvation is, in fact, a choice for destruction. In the same way, the man who says, "I don't oppose Jesus, I just ignore Him," is kidding himself. To ignore the King is an act of rebellion. To be indifferent to the Creator of the cosmos is the highest form of contempt.
This verse is a direct assault on the lazy pluralism of our day. Jesus is not one option among many. He is the central question of the universe, and He demands an answer. Are you gathering or scattering? Are you building with Christ or are you a spiritual vandal, tearing things down? Every day, in every decision, in every thought, you are doing one or the other. You are either bringing things into conformity with Christ's rule, or you are contributing to the chaos of rebellion. There is no middle ground.
The Great Exception (v. 31)
Having established that there are only two sides, Jesus now explains the nature of God's forgiveness, and the one terrifying exception.
"Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven." (Matthew 12:31 LSB)
First, we must let the sheer scope of God's grace wash over us. "Any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven." This is a breathtaking promise. Think of the worst sins imaginable: murder, adultery, theft, idolatry, betrayal. Think of the Apostle Paul, who called himself a blasphemer and a persecutor of the church. Think of Peter, who denied the Lord with oaths and curses. Think of the thief on the cross. The gospel declares that the blood of Jesus Christ is powerful enough to wash away any and every stain of sin. God's grace is an ocean that can swallow up mountains of our guilt.
But then comes the exception, stated with stark finality: "but the blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven." What is this sin? It is crucial that we define this biblically and not emotionally. This is not about accidentally saying a bad word about the Holy Spirit. It is not a slip of the tongue. The context defines it for us. The Pharisees had just witnessed the undeniable power of the Holy Spirit working through Jesus, and they deliberately, maliciously, and publicly attributed that divine power to Satan.
The blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is a complete and final moral inversion. It is to get to a point where your heart is so hard, your conscience so seared, and your mind so twisted that you look at manifest goodness and call it evil. It is to see the light of God and call it the darkness of hell. It is, as the prophet Isaiah warned, to call evil good and good evil (Isaiah 5:20). It is not a single act, but rather a settled state, a fixed trajectory of the soul. It is the point at which the concrete of rebellion has fully set. The reason it is unforgivable is because the person who commits it has placed himself beyond the possibility of repentance. He has rejected the very agent of conviction. If the Holy Spirit is the one who convicts us of sin, and you call the Holy Spirit the devil, who is left to convict you?
The Veiled Son and the Clear Spirit (v. 32)
Jesus then draws a crucial distinction that helps us understand why this sin is so final.
"And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come." (Matthew 12:32 LSB)
Why is speaking against the Son of Man forgivable, but speaking against the Holy Spirit is not? Because during His earthly ministry, the Son of Man was veiled in humility. He was a carpenter from Nazareth. He got hungry and tired. His divine glory was largely hidden. A person could, out of ignorance or misunderstanding, stumble over Him. You could look at Jesus and say, "He's just a man," and be forgiven for that mistake once the truth is revealed. The Apostle Paul is the great example of this. He spoke against the Son of Man, thinking he was serving God. He was sincerely wrong, and God's grace broke through his ignorance.
But the work of the Holy Spirit is different. The Spirit's work is the clear, powerful, undeniable testimony to the Son of Man. The Spirit's miracles are the divine credentials, the flashing neon sign from heaven saying, "This is My beloved Son!" To see that clear, unambiguous, supernatural work and to attribute it to the devil is not an act of ignorance. It is an act of willful, high-handed rebellion against the final and clearest witness God provides. It is to reject the divine revealer Himself. There is no further court of appeal.
Jesus adds that this sin will not be forgiven, "either in this age or in the age to come." In the context of redemptive history, "this age" referred to the Judaic age, the era of the old covenant that was passing away. "The age to come" is the new covenant age, the Christian aeon, which was fully inaugurated with the destruction of the Temple in A.D. 70. Jesus is saying that for this kind of settled, final rebellion, there is no forgiveness available under the old system, and there is none available in the new kingdom He is establishing. It is a final verdict.
A Word of Pastoral Caution
Now, this is a hard teaching, and it has caused a great deal of pastoral anxiety over the centuries. Many tender-hearted Christians have been tormented by the fear that they have somehow, perhaps in a moment of anger or doubt, committed this unforgivable sin. So let me be as clear as I possibly can be. If you are worried that you have committed the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, you have not. The very fact that you are concerned about it, that you desire forgiveness, that your conscience is troubled, is the clearest possible evidence that the Holy Spirit is still at work in you.
The person who has committed this sin is not sitting in church worried about his soul. He is not wrestling with guilt. He is settled. He is hardened. He is at peace with his rebellion. His conscience is cauterized. He hates the light and loves the darkness and is no longer troubled by it. He is the man who can watch the grace of God transform a life and sneer that it is nothing but religious brainwashing. He is the man who sees genuine revival and calls it emotional manipulation orchestrated by the devil.
So do not be afraid. This passage is not a trap for the sensitive conscience. It is a solemn warning to the proud and hardened heart. It is a rock-bottom reality check. It tells us that our choices have eternal consequences and that there is a point of no return. But it also, by its very nature, magnifies the glorious, all-encompassing grace of God available for every other sin. For all who are not with Christ, there is judgment. But for all who are, for all who gather with Him, for all who see His work and call it good, there is a forgiveness so wide it covers everything. Your only task is to flee to Him, to get on His side of the line, and to rest in the glorious pardon He purchased with His own blood.