The context of Jesus’ teaching about eternal sin makes
it clear as to what it is:
And the teachers of the law who came down from
Jesus taught that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is
directly related to saying that the Lord had an evil spirit by which he was
driving out demons. Hence, a link seems to exist between eternal sin and insulting
the Spirit of grace in Hebrews 10:29.
Hebrews 10
26If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge
of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is
left, 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that
will consume the enemies of God. 28Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died
without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29How much more
severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of
God under foot, who has treated as an
unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?
This could possibly explain why the ones referred to in
Hebrews 6:6 could not ever be renewed unto salvation, that is, they committed
eternal sin.
Heb. 6:4-9 reads:
For in the case of those who have
once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made
partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the
powers of the age to come, and then have fallen
away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God,
and put Him to open shame. (NASB).
The word
for fallen away is a stronger word then the word used to describe the Peter and
the disciples falling away upon Christ’s arrest. Peter was renewed to repentance. The people mentioned in this case presented
by the writer of Hebrews will never be renewed to repentance. They must have done something worse than
Peter and the other 10 who returned.
What was it? Verse 9 tells us
that the “crucified to themselves the Son of God”. How did this case (or group) of people
re-crucify Christ? My theory is
presented below.
Verse 9
tells us that whatever they did put Him to “open shame”, so it was not
secret. What did they do/are doing that
they cannot be forgiven of? Is it the
same unforgivable sin mentioned here?
1 John 5
16If anyone sees his brother commit
a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life. I
refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that he should
pray about that. 17All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to
death.
These
clues are mentioned:
Clue number one speaks
of sin of rejecting Torah. This is
different than failing to keep Torah. It
is one thing to sin and then admit that you have sinned. It is another thing to sin and then not even
admit that you are sinning. This type of
sin is mentioned by John in a way that is easy for Gentiles to understand:
1 John 1:8
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the
truth is not in us.
(Whole Chapter: 1 John 1 In context: 1 John 1:7-9)
But the truth of the
matter is revealed more in the Jewish culture through the prophet:
(Isa 5:20-24
NIV) Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put
darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet
for bitter. {21} Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in
their own sight. {22} Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and
champions at mixing drinks, {23} who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny
justice to the innocent. {24} Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw and
as dry grass sinks down in the flames, so their roots will decay and their
flowers blow away like dust; for they have rejected
the law of the LORD Almighty and spurned
the word of the Holy One of Israel.
In other
words, their attitude may have been something like the following:
So I
believe that this case of people “spurned the word”. They will obviously not be forgiven if they
continue in this sin of blasphemy. How
could they be? They would not call it
sin. Why would they ask for forgiveness
of something that they do not consider sin?
God defines sin this way:
(1 John 3:4 KJV)
Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
I have
transgressed the law today. But I have
not committed blasphemy against the Spirit of Grace, or the Holy Spirit. I have not insulted the Spirit of Grace by
telling Him that I do not need him.
Instead of telling him that I did not sin and that I do not need him, I
do the opposite. I might say,
“Jesus,
Thank you for paying for my sins in
my place on the cross. I’m sorry for
hurting you. Help me do your will,
instead of sinning against you.”
I may
not have kept the law, but I acknowledged my failure—this is a type of
obedience. I did not reject the
law. Neither did I abhor God’s
decrees.
Leviticus 26:43
For the land will be deserted by
them and will enjoy its sabbaths while it lies desolate without them. They will pay for their sins because they rejected my laws and abhorred
my decrees.
The only
way I could pay for my sins would be by burning them off in hell.
Romans
6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal
life in[
(Whole Chapter: Romans
6 In context: Romans
6:22-24
But this
would not pay off my sin debt, because I am not blameless. Therefore, I would only burn in hell
forever. I would rather confess my sin
so that Jesus pays for it. Then I can be
forgiven, cleansed, and empowered to do his will.
There is
a big difference between abhorring his
decrees and:
2
Corinthians 9:8
And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things
at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.
(Whole Chapter: 2
Corinthians 9 In context: 2
Corinthians 9:7-9)
1
Corinthians 15:10
But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was
not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them–yet not I, but
the grace of God that was with me.
(Whole Chapter: 1
Corinthians 15 In context: 1
Corinthians 15:9-11)
Rejecting
God’s definition of sin (the law) is an insult to the spirit of grace.
Jonah
2:8
"Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that
could be theirs.
(Whole Chapter: Jonah
2 In context: Jonah
2:7-9
Those
who resist his grace in this way cannot be saved:
Ephesians
2:5
made us alive with Christ even
when we were dead in
transgressions–it is by grace
you have been saved.
(Whole Chapter: Ephesians
2 In context: Ephesians
2:4-6)
Jesus was
condemned by the Jewish rulers to be crucified based upon the false charge of
blasphemy.
Lev.
24
A
Blasphemer Stoned
10 Now the son of an Israelite
mother and an Egyptian father went out among the Israelites, and a fight broke
out in the camp between him and an Israelite. 11 The son of the Israelite woman
blasphemed the Name with a curse; so they brought him to Moses. (His mother's
name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri the Danite.) 12 They put him in
custody until the will of the LORD should be made clear to them.
13 Then the LORD said to Moses: 14
"Take the blasphemer outside the camp. All those who heard him are to lay
their hands on his head, and the entire assembly is to stone him. 15 Say to the
Israelites: 'If anyone curses his God, he will be held responsible; 16 anyone
who blasphemes the name of the LORD must be put to death. The entire assembly
must stone him. Whether an alien or native-born, when he blasphemes the Name,
he must be put to death.
How is the term blasphemy defined by usage in the bible?
BLASPHEMY is a transliteration of a Greek word meaning
literally “to speak harm.” In the biblical context, blasphemy is an attitude of
disrespect that finds expression in an act directed against the character of
God.
Old Testament Blasphemy draws its Christian definition through the
background of the Old Testament. It is significant that blasphemy reflects
improper action with regard to the use of God’s name. God revealed His
character and invited personal relationship through the revelation of His name.
Therefore, the use of God’s name gave the Israelites the opportunity of
personal participation with the very nature of God.
Leviticus 24:14-16 guides the Hebrew
definition of blasphemy. The offense is designated as a capital crime, and the
offender is to be stoned by the community. Blasphemy involves the actual
pronunciation of the name of God along with an attitude of disrespect. Under
the influence of this interpretation, the personal name of God (Yahweh) was
withdrawn from ordinary speech and the title of Adonai (Lord) was used in its
place.
The enemies of
New Testament The New Testament broadens the concept of blasphemy
to include actions against Christ and the church as the body of Christ. Jesus
was regarded by the Jewish leaders as a blasphemer Himself (Mark 2:7). When
tried by the Sanhedrin, Jesus not only claimed messianic dignity, but further
claimed the supreme exalted status (Luke 22:69). Such a claim, according to the
Sanhedrin, fit the charge of blasphemy and, therefore, deserved death (Matt.
26:65; Mark 14:64). However, according to the New Testament perspective, the
real blasphemers were those who denied the messianic claims of Jesus and
rejected His unity with the Father (Mark
The unity of Christ and the church is
recognized in the fact that persecutions against Christians are labeled as
blasphemous acts (1 Tim.
The sin of blasphemy is a sin that can be
forgiven. However, there is a sin of blasphemy
against the Holy Spirit that cannot be forgiven (Matt.
Jerry M. Henry
Mr. Henry’s underlined definition of the blasphemy of the
Holy Spirit includes the idea of “rejecting the law”.
It is a desperate condition that is
beyond the situation of forgiveness because one is not able to recognize and repent of sin.
The law is the God’s instrument that we
should use to recognize our sin.
This recognition is impossible for those who reject it. Those who reject the law reject Christ, who
is the fulfillment of it.
Furthermore, they reject his blood
sacrifice for sin—because sin is defined by the moral law. In this way, they re-crucify Christ.
By denying
God’s definition of sin in the law, they consider his blood an unholy
thing. They have their own definition of
sin; their own law. They do not study or obey God’s moral law.
They may not even bother to ask Him to forgive them of their
transgressions of it (their sins). Then
they figure that they are somehow still “saved” by the blood of Jesus. This is “treating as an unholy thing the
blood of the covenant”.
Many who
misunderstand biblical grace in this way view grace as a license for
immorality.
Jude 1
3Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the
salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith
that was once for all entrusted to the saints. 4For certain men
whose condemnation was written about[1]
long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license
for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.
Jude
then corrects this false gospel of cheap grace
by citing an example of the Lord remaining faithful to his covenant. Although He initially saved His people, he
later destroyed the unbelieving.
5Though you already know all this, I
want to remind you that the Lord[2]
delivered his people out of
Jude then goes on to
cite other examples of apostasy; angels who spurned God’s grace and were sent
to gloomy dungeons. In judging
grace-rejecters, God is remaining faithful to His covenant by fulfilling it’s
terms. For an explanation of this, you
can read a brief document defining God’s grace.
How do you help someone
who has rejected God’s law? What if you
have? You can be saved by accepting and obeying
God’s commands through the Gospel: The choice is yours. The people described above are knowingly and
willfully refusing to do this. This document explains how to
handle this situation.
Footnotes:
http://www.evangelicaloutreach.org/hebrews.htm
Return to thisGospel.com's home page.