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Mat_12:31. Διὰ τοῦτο ] refers back to all that has been said since Mat_12:25 : On this account—because, in bringing such an accusation against me, Mat_12:24, you have as my enemies (Mat_12:30) resisted the most undoubted evidence of the contrary (Mat_12:25 ff.),—on this account I must tell you, and so on.
ἁμαρτ . κ . βλασφ .] Genus and species: every sin and (in particular) blaspheming (of sacred things, as of the Messiah Himself, Mat_12:32).
ἡ τοῦ πν . βλασφ .] Blaspheming of the Spirit (Mar_3:29; Luk_12:10) is the sin in question, and of which that allegation on the part of the Pharisees, Mat_12:24, is an instance, so that it is probably too much to say, as though the new birth must be presumed, that it can only occur in the case of a Christian,—a view which was held by Huther, Quenstedt, and others. As, then, in the present instance the Pharisees had hardened themselves against an unmistakeable revelation of the Spirit of God, as seen in the life and works of Jesus, had in fact taken up an attitude of avowed hostility to this Spirit; so much so that they spoke of His agency as that of the devil: so in general the βλασφημία τοῦ πνεύματος may be defined to be the sin which a man commits when he rejects the undoubted revelation of the Holy Spirit, and that not merely with a contemptuous moral indifference (Gurlitt; see, on the other hand, Müller, Lehre v. d. Sünde, II. p. 598, ed. 5), but with the evil will struggling to shut out the light of that revelation; and even goes the length of expressing in hostile language his deliberate and conscious opposition to this divine principle, thereby avowing his adherence to his anti-spiritual confession. This sin is not forgiven, because in the utterly hardened condition which it presupposes, and in which it appears as the extreme point of sinful development, the receptivity for the influences of the Holy Spirit is lost, and nothing remains but conscious and avowed hatred toward this holy agency. In the case of the Christian, every conscious sin, and in particular all immoral speech, is also sin against the Holy Spirit (Eph_4:30); but what is meant by blaspheming the Spirit in the passage before us, is to go to the utmost extremity in apostasy from Christ and πρὸς θάνατον (1Jn_5:16, and Huther’s note). See Grashoff in the Stud. u. Krit. 1833, p. 935 ff.; Gurlitt, ibid. 1834, p. 599 ff.; Tholuck, ibid. 1836, p. 401 ff.; Schaf, d. Sünde wider d. heil. G. 1841; Jul. Müller, l.c.; Alex, ab Oettingen, de pecc. in Sp. s. 1856, where the older literature may also be found, and where the different views are criticised.[444] For the way in which the blaspheming against the Spirit is supposed to coincide, as far as the Christian is concerned, with the falling away mentioned in Heb_6:4-6, see Delitzsch On the Hebrews, p. 231 ff.; Lünemann, p. 205 ff.
οὐκ ἀφεθήσεται ] should not have its meaning twisted by supplying “as a rule,” or such like; nor, with Grotius, is οὐκ to be taken comparatively (more heinous than all other sins). The simple impossibility of forgiveness is just to be sought in the man’s own state of heart, which has become one of extreme hostility to God.
[444] At p. 87, Oettingen defines the sin thus: “Impoenitentia perpetua atque incredulitas usque ad finem, quae ex rebellante et obstinatissima repudiatione testimonii Sp. s. evangelio sese manifestantis et in hominum cordibus operantis profecta blasphemando in Sp. s. per verbum et facinus in lucem prodit.”