Expert: Rev. Frank Ricketts - 2/13/2006

Question
What is the unforgiveable sin ? Is it cussing out the holy spirit ?
Can a Christian commit the sin ? Im worried i may have commited it

Answer
First of all we have to understand what is the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost (Jesus) that cannot be forgiven.

Luke 12:10 states: And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven.

Matthew's Gospel adds, “It shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come” (Matthew 12:32). Mark's account says that Jesus spoke these words “because they said, He [Jesus] hath an unclean spirit” (Mark 3:30).
It is important to we understand first the application Jesus was making in His day to those who accused Him of doing His mighty miracles by demonic power (Mark 3:22), and then see how this applies to us today.
You will notice in Luke's account these words: “And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him.” The term “Son of man” as applied to Jesus here refers to His humanity, to what was born through human agency. It speaks of His body, which was the temple that Jesus said would be destroyed and which He would raise again in three days (John 2:19-21). The human tabernacle of Christ was blasphemed countless times, yet forgiveness was (and is) still extended.
Paul applied the terrible word “blasphemer” to himself (I Timothy 1:13). Undoubtedly it was because he had spoken evil of Jesus (Acts 9:4-5). Until he met Jesus on the road to Damascus he considered Jesus merely another human being, and so he spoke against the “Son of man,” but later he humbly confessed his former blasphemy and was forgiven “because I did it ignorantly in unbelief” (I Timothy 1:13).
The “Son of man” refers to the humanity of Christ as He walked on this earth “in the days of his flesh” (Hebrews 5:7). To whom or what then, does the title “Holy Ghost” refer? It cannot mean a divine person other than Jesus, for “in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9). Remember that Jesus spoke these words “because they said, He hath an unclean spirit” (Mark 3:30). Mark 3:22 shows that some religious leaders said this of Jesus when He was casting out demons. It was then that Jesus gave the dreadful warning against blaspheming the Holy Ghost (Mark 3:29).
What Jesus in that verse plainly said to those who accused Him of casting out devils by the power of Satan was this: You can speak against Me as a man, but when you speak against My divine nature, My deity, the power by which I cast the demons out, you are in danger of blaspheming against the Holy Ghost.
You see, the deity of Christ was the stumbling block to the Jewish leaders. They told Him, “ For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy ; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God” (John 10:33). Really, that accusation was not true. The truth was that Jesus, being God, made himself man.
The absolute deity of Christ was the point of contention then, just as it is today. To reject that, and to identify the Spirit of Christ with Satan, is to cut oneself off from God. Jesus said, “No man cometh unto the Father but by me” (John 14:6).

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