Chapter # 3 Paragraph # 5 Study # 4
December 10, 2019
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
(128)
1901 ASV
28 Verily I say unto you, All their sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and their blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme:
29 but whosoever shall blaspheme against the Holy Spirit hath never forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin:
30 because they said, He hath an unclean spirit.
- I. The Abrupt Change From "The Binding of The Strong Man" to "The Forgiveness of Sins".
- A. The "verily" makes this "announcement of doctrine" (lego humin; "I say to you") critical.
- B. The "announcement" concerns, at the most general level, "the forgiveness of all the sins of men".
- 1. In Mark's prior record to this point, "forgiveness" (the word used in the form of a verb) is used in four texts (1:18, 20, 31, and 34) whose only link to "forgiveness" is that they give us an idea of what the verb's technical meaning is: "to forsake" (1:18 and 20); "to leave" (1:31) and "to disallow/restrain" (1:34).
- 2. Additionally, Mark used the noun form of the word in 1:4 to record his summary of John's "forerunner" message: he preached "the baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins". This use is the sole other time in this Gospel that this noun is used...which seems significant since it is used to summarize the extremely important "forerunner's" message and then only referred to once more in the entire record.
- a. This use sets the stage for Jesus' solemn declaration in 3:29. The direct implication is that "even if there is 'repentance' in respect to the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, there will be no 'forgiveness' ". But, 4:12 strongly indicates that the "no forgiveness" is solidly tied to "no repentance"; not "no forgiveness even if they repent". Apparently "repentance" always leads to "forgiveness" so that if a person is to be kept from "forgiveness" he/she must be kept from "repentance". Once a person "crosses the line", divine hardening will guarantee that there will be no "repentance" (Revelation 9:20) though God does not really have to do anything to prevent "repentance" because "hardness" will do that without God's "help". Sin has a progressive, and destructive, nature respecting "repentance"; it builds a "wall" in the psyche to prevent the person from "returning" to a previous condition of "sinful", but "not yet beyond hope". This explains 1 Corinthians 11:32 which makes divine discipline an effective block to Sin's ability to "harden beyond any capacity to return".
- b. That the very next use of "forgiveness" in the form of a noun is our text (3:29) makes it clear that there is a certain type of sin that reveals the reality that Sin can push a person "across the line", or "over the edge" in terms of "depravity" and its progressive development in a human being.
- C. But, at the more specific level, it concerns "blasphemies" in respect to the general thesis.
- 1. Jesus deliberately puts "sins" and "blasphemies" together under the category of "those things of which men may be forgiven"; "sins" (most general term; used by Mark only twice -- 3:8 and 4:12 -- and never as a verb) and "blasphemies" (very specific concept; used by Mark as a noun in 2:7; 3:28; 7:22; and 14:64, and as a verb in 3:28, 29, and 15:29). "Sins" will only be "forgiven" if a person "sees with perception" and "hears with understanding" and responds in "repentance". "Blasphemies", likewise, can be "forgiven" if they do not go "too far". The "if" is the point of Jesus' declaration in this text: "the blasphemies" of men are "forgivable" unless they reach to the degree of severity in our text (eis--as far as--to pneuma): making God's Spirit "unclean" by declaring Jesus' "Source of Ability to cast out demons to be "Satan"; the ultimate "unclean spirit".
- 2. Why this "point"?
- a. The characterization of the Holy Spirit as Satan is a "lego" declaration: "official doctrine".
- b. Jesus, it seems, is making such a degree of blasphemy greater than anything men said or did to Him, or to the Father.
- c. This degree of wickedness signals the reality discussed below.
- D. Mark's "point" is that the "spoiling of the strong man's goods" by a stronger man, or the "taking of plunder from the defeated", is Jesus' deliverance of men, not only from demon possession, but also from the "wages of sin". The blasphemy of the Holy Spirit by the opposition is the "strong man's" ultimate goal, but the "Stronger Man" can "bind him" and bring his "plunder" (the souls of men) out from under his dominion. But, this only works if the "plunder" has not rotted to the point of no return: in other words, Jesus will not "plunder Satan's house" of those who have been perverted beyond repentance. And, the most dangerous process of Satan/Sin is that one which exalts man's "lust for the glory of men" over all other considerations. This was Satan's "original sin" and it condemned both him and all of the angelic host (that was sucked into his deception: Revelation 12:3-4) for all of eternity with no offer of redemption whatsoever. The reason for the lack of any provision for redemption for the angels is that their "level of depravity" at the point of buying into Lucifer's plan to take over God's throne was "immediately beyond any capacity for repentance". Sin is not a toy to play with. Its corrosive impact is eternally destructive if allowed to go beyond "the point of no return". Thus, "blasphemy" against the Holy Spirit is evidence that the blasphemer has been sealed in depravity without remedy.
