Do I understand God’s kindness in forgiveness and His severity in judgment against unforgivable sin?

24 But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, "It is only by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons."  25 Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand. 26 If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand? 27 And if I drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your people drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. 28 But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. 29 “Or again, how can anyone enter a strong man's house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can rob his house. 30 “He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters. 31 And so I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.  32 Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.

INSIGHT:  There is not enough room here to go into the needed depth on this subject, so please see the further study links.  Many people have a hard time believing that God could forgive them because of the evil they did.  I know He can because at age 20, I willingly drove my girlfriend (who became my spouse) to an abortion clinic and gave my consent. In God’s eyes, we murdered innocent babies.  I deserve hell for things far less evil, but in His rich mercy, God forgave me of my grievous sins and ignorance.  By His amazing grace, I joined the ranks of other murderers who became ministers, like Moses, King David, and Paul.  (Paul consented to murders).  I have been forgiven much and therefore, I love Him very much (Luke 7:47).

Regarding the unforgiveable sin, blaspheming the Holy Spirit means to speak evil of, or attribute evil to the work of the Spirit.  The Pharisees accused Jesus of working and teaching, by the power of Satan.  The Pharisees were not sincerely “testing” the spirit of Jesus to see if was from God (1 Tim 4:1).  They hated Him and His teachings and they purposely acted maliciously towards Him.  Years ago, Benny Hinn said on camera that he wished he had a “Holy Spirit machine gun”, so he could blow away all those standing against his ministry.  When I measured his fruit and spoke out against him, I knew I was not blaspheming the Holy Spirit, but warning of the false Jesus and false spirit at work in him.  That was a risk of discernment I took by faith, feeling confident about which one of us was following the correct Jesus, or I too could have blasphemed the Holy Spirit.  No doubt many who have stood against me, believe they too are following the right Jesus, and I am not.  We need discernment, but we must be careful not to cross the line.

I believe many professing Christians have blasphemed the Holy Spirit working in me, committing the unforgiveable sin, attributing my teaching to demons and Satan.  Have some done this in a moment of fearful ignorance which God can forgive?  Perhaps, but shockingly I have never seen a single person in 14 years of ministry, out of hundreds, who attributed my teaching to demons, ever come back to repentance, or to apologize for that sin.  If God sees that as blasphemy of His Spirit in me, I do not believe they can repent, any more than the Pharisees could.  Jesus also said that if we reject his true servants, we are rejecting Him, and if we reject Him, we are rejecting the One whom sent Him!  Let us all fear God more!

God’s amazing mercy to us through Christ, should encourage the worst of sinners to come to Him, expecting full forgiveness, but we believers must also take warning from King Herod, Annanias and Saphira, and some in the Corinthian church, who all died of unforgiven sins not related to blasphemy of the Spirit. 

God cannot be mocked and any sin we willfully persist in long enough may very well become an unforgiveable sin for us, leading to our death.  I believe there is a line in each of our lives which we may cross and never come back from, the sin that finally leads to our death.  I have emails from people whose spouses suddenly died after abusing them one more time, or after returning to the pornography they had been previously set free from.  I will tell you my friend, none of us, myself included has yet to take the severity of God as seriously as we should.  May the mercy of God quicken our hearts and bring reverence to our spirits before Him.