The concept of “blasphemy against the Spirit” is mentioned in Mark 3:22–30 and Matthew 12:22–32. Jesus has just performed a miracle. A demon-possessed man was brought to Jesus, and the Lord cast out the demon, healing the man of blindness and dumbness. Eyewitnesses to this exorcism began to wonder if Jesus really was the Messiah they had been waiting for. A group of Pharisees, hearing of the Messiah, quickly overrode any budding faith in the crowd: “This one alone drives out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons,” they said (Matthew 12:24).
Jesus refutes the Pharisees with some logical arguments as to why he doesn’t cast out demons in the power of Satan (Matthew 12:25–29). He then speaks of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit: “I tell you that every kind of sin and slander may be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, neither in this age nor in the age to come” (verses 31–32).
The term profanity can be generally defined as “defiant irreverence”. The term can be applied to sins such as cursing God or deliberately degrading things related to God. Blasphemy is also attributing some evil to God or denying him some good that we should attribute to him. This particular case of blasphemy, however, is called “the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit” in Matthew 12:31. The Pharisees, having witnessed irrefutable proof that Jesus was working miracles in the power of the Holy Spirit, claimed instead that the Lord was demon-possessed (Matthew 12:24). Notice in Mark 3:30 that Jesus is very specific about what the Pharisees did to commit blasphemy against the Holy Spirit: “He said this because they said, ‘He has an unclean spirit.'”
Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit has to do with accusing Jesus Christ of being possessed by demons instead of being filled with the Spirit. This particular type of profanity cannot be duplicated today. The Pharisees were in a unique moment in history: they had the Law and the Prophets, they had the Holy Spirit moving their hearts, they had the very Son of God standing before them, and they saw the miracles with their own eyes. He did. Never before in the history of the world (and never since) has so much divine light been granted to men; if anyone should have recognized Jesus for who he was, it was the Pharisees. However, they chose the challenge. They deliberately attributed the work of the Spirit to the devil, even though they knew the truth and had the proof. Jesus declared that his willful blindness was unforgivable. His blasphemy against the Holy Spirit was his final rejection of God’s grace. They had set their course, and God was going to let them sail unhindered to perdition.
Jesus told the crowd that the Pharisees’ blasphemy against the Holy Spirit “shall not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come” (Matthew 12:32). This is another way of saying that his sin would never be forgiven, ever. Not now, not in eternity. As Mark 3:29 says: “They are guilty of eternal sin.”
The immediate result of the Pharisees’ public rejection of Christ (and God’s rejection of them) is seen in the next chapter. Jesus, for the first time, “told them many things in parables” ( Matthew 13:3 ; cf. Mark 4:2 ). The disciples were puzzled by Jesus’ change in teaching method, and Jesus explained his use of parables .:: “For knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. . . . Although seeing, they do not see; though they hear, they neither hear nor understand” (Matthew 13:11, 13). Jesus began veiling the truth with parables and metaphors as a direct result of the Jewish leaders’ official denunciation of Him.
Once again, the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit cannot be repeated today, although some people try. Jesus Christ is not on earth—He is seated at the right hand of God. No one can personally witness Jesus perform a miracle and then attribute that power to Satan instead of the Spirit.
The unforgivable sin today is the state of continued unbelief. The Spirit actually convicts the unsaved world of sin, righteousness, and judgment ( John 16:8 ). To resist that conviction and willingly remain unrepentant is to “blaspheme” the Spirit. There is no forgiveness, neither in this age nor in the age to come, for a person who rejects the promptings of the Spirit to trust in Jesus Christ and then dies in unbelief. God’s love is evident: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). And the choice is clear: “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, because the wrath of God remains on him” (John 3:36).