We can make six definitive statements about the Holy Spirit relative to six misunderstandings people have regarding the unpardonable sin.
First, the sin against the Holy Spirit involves an inner resistance against God, not an outward expression against Him. Speaking against God outwardly does not prevent forgiveness and usually stems from a misunderstanding. For example, shallow critics habve occasionally stood in front of people and said, "Now, if there is a God, I give Him one minute to strike me dead." The minute passes and nothing happens, and so we are to conclude that God does not exist.
As a youngster I grew up living next door to a big-league baseball player. A storong man, he stood a wiry six foot two inches tall, with big hands. We used to box when I was about eight or nine years old. For some reason he would duck and squirm and groan as if he were really hurt, but I came away without any bruises feeling fine. After awhile I became convinced that I could beat him up. I was brash enoughone day to boast to a friend, "You know so and so, the pitcher for the New York Giants? I beat him up the other day."
Youngsters will believe a lot of things, but he wouldn't buy that. So I said, "come on over, and I will show you." We got out the gloves and boxed, and I gave him a pounding as I usually did. Finally I became disgusted that he wasn't putting on a good show. "look, if you can beat me up, beat me up! Hit me! Knock me out!"
"All right, I'll try," he said.
So I went to work again and nothing happened. Later I said to my friend, "See, I told you so."
What kind of a person would he have been had he hit me? Here I was, an eight year old squirt, fighting a mountain. It was no contest at all, yet in my arrogance I claimed that I could whip him. "Now come on, hit me if you think your big enough!" And yet what a shallow understanding I had of his bigness. People who make the same kind of accusation against God just don't know Him. Note the experience of those who spoke openly against Christ on the cross. Our Lord looked on them in pity and said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."
No, railing against God outwardly does not prevent foregiveness, but raging against Him inwardly does prevent forgiveness, because it constitutes a basic inner rebellion against spiritual impressions and stimuli for goodness. When we cut off His Source of influence, we flout the only opportunity that we have for moral living. Stifling the inner witness destroys our capacity for discriminating between right and wrong. In our moral anarchy we call light darkness and Christ's words of mercy the magic of Beelzebub. It is spirtitual suicide. The Spirit convinces "the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment" (John 16:8), but what hope remains for a man who not only denies eternal light but calls it midnight?
Ellen White wrote that "to speak against Christ, charging His work to Satanic agencies, and attributing the manifestations of the Spirit to fanaticism, is not of itself a damning sin, but the spirit that leads men to make these assertions places them in a position of stubborn resistance, where they cannot see spiritual light" (MS 30, 1890). The man who deliberately tampers with the inner light that illuminates every man (John 1:9) cuts off the only channel by which God can communicate with him. It is the deadly sin spoken of in 1 John 5:16,17 - alive on the outside, dead on the inside.
A six-year-old puzzled over a daffodil bud as her mother watched. Suddenly she lifted her serious eyes and inquired, "Mommy, why is it that when I try to open a flower it just dies, but if I wait and let God do it, it's so beautiful?"
The mother still pondering when the child answered her own question. "I know! It's because God always works from the inside."
Paul tells us in Romans 1:18,19 that 'the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God hath shewed it unto them." Thus the sin against the Holy Spirit is an inner resistance against God, not an outer expression against Him.
Second, the sin against the Holy Spirit is a sin of rejected pardon, not an unpardonable sin. No sin exists which God will not forgive. To claim the reality of an unpardonable sin denies the fullness of Christ's sacrifice and discredits the deepth of God's love. Furthermore, it directly contradicts the Biblical testimony. The psalmist sang, "For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee" (Psalm 86:5). And John declares that "him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out" (John 6:37). He assures us, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9).
No, the sin against the Holy Spirit is not one which is unforgivable but one which refuses forgiveness. The Lord cannot forgive it because the sinner has no desire to be forgiven. It is not God's unwillingness but the sinner's. No sin is unpardonable, but no sinner can receive pardon unless he repents. "Whatever the sin, if the soul repents and believes, the guilt is washed away in the blood of Christ; but he who rejects the work of the Holy Spirit is placing himself where repentance and faith cannot come to him" (DA 322). Not thatit isn't available, but he cannot receive it. The blasphemy against the Spirit remains unpardoned forever because it forever lacks a desire for repentance. Hebrews 6:4-6 speaks of such in whom "it is impossible . . . to renew them again unto repentance." This explains why God may pardon other blasphemies. They do not make repentance "impossible."
It is the specific function of the Spirit to produce repentance. Hence, to blaspheme His witness produces a state that forever bars Him and His work. The moment a man rejects the influence of the Holy Spirit in his life, at thatmoment he places himslef at a point where God's pardon cannot possibly reach him because he won't have anything to do with it. It is a problem with man, not God. God is not waiting to trip us up or catch us at some mistake. The sin against the Holy Spirit is a sin of rejected pardon, not an unpardonable sin.
Third, the sin against the Holy Spirit involves man leaving God, not the Lord rejecting man. God does not give up. "Through persistantly cherished evil, willfully disregarding the pleadings of divine love, the sinner loses the love for good, the desire for God, the very capacity to receive the light of heaven. The invitation of mercy is still full of love, the light is shining as brightly as when it first dawned upon his soul; but the voice falls on deaf ears, the light on blinded eyes.
"No soul is ever finally deserted of God, given up to his own ways, so long as there is any hope of his salvation.' Man turns from God, not God from him.' Our heavenly Father follows us with appeals and warnings and assurances of compassion, until further opportunies and privileges would be wholly in vain. The responsibility rests with the sinner. By resisting the Spirit of God today, he prepares the way for a second resistance of light when it comes with mightier power. Thus he passes on from one stage of resistance to another, until at last the light will fail to impress, and he will cease to respond in any measure to the Spirit of God" (MB 92,93).
