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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
‘Whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.’
Mat_12:32
We have in the Bible four separate ‘sins against the Holy Ghost,’ laid out in a certain order and progression.
I. ‘Grieving.’—There is ‘grieving’ the Holy Ghost. This occurs when you allow something in your heart and life, which impedes and weakens the Spirit’s inward work. Then He is ‘grieved.’ A blessed word! which so shows you how He loves us—for no one is ever ‘grieved’ with us, who does not love us!
II. ‘Resisting.’—Next, in the downward course, comes ‘resisting’ the Holy Ghost. And that is when, with great resolution, you set yourself positively to act contrary to the known and declared will and precepts of the Spirit.
III. ‘Quenching.’—From this, it is an easy step to the other—to ‘quench’ Him; when, being vexed and annoyed at influences which restrain you, or by voices which condemn you within, you endeavour to put it out, as by water put on fire.
IV. The unpardonable sin.—But there is a fourth stage, when the mind, through a long course of sin, proceeds to such a violent dislike and abhorrence of the Spirit of God, that all infidel thoughts and horrid imaginations come into the mind. They are entertained; they are indulged; they become habitual. They begin to be spoken of more and more shamelessly with the lips. God is outraged and profaned. The mind is full of obscene and diabolical suggestions. It flings out contempt against the very truth which once it professed. The very being of the Holy Ghost is maligned. The man obstructs and withstands the Kingdom of Christ everywhere. He braves His power. He would crush, as far as he can, the name of Christ. And that is ‘the unpardonable sin.’ This ‘sin against the Holy Ghost’ is a general state of mind, induced by long and sinful resistance to the calls and convictions of God.
Why is that sin unpardonable? Could not the blood of Christ cleanse it? Could not the blood of Christ cleanse any sin? Yes,—to the penitent. But here lies the misery and the horror of that state, that it is a state that cannot repent. It cannot make one move towards God.
—
The Rev. C. J. Vaughan.
Illustration(1) The often misunderstood expression ‘it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world,’ etc., is a direct application of a Jewish phrase, in allusion to a Jewish error, and will not bear the inferences so often extorted from it.… Our Lord used the phrase to imply that ‘blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven; neither before death, nor, as you vainly dream, by means of death.’
(2) ‘This sin can never be pardoned because good itself has become the food and fuel of its wickedness. The sin is rather indomitable than unpardonable: it has become part of the sinner’s personality; it is incurable, an eternal sin. No penitent has ever yet been rejected for this guilt, for no penitent has ever been thus guilty. And this being so, here is the strongest possible encouragement for all who desire mercy.’