Systematic Theology For 13-year-olds Department

Our middle child, Jen, is a great one for putting off bedtime for as long as possible. We’ll tell her it’s time to head to bed, and she moans and complains for a few minutes, and finally goes upstairs. Fifteen minutes later, she’s finally in her pajamas and comes downstairs to give us a hug and kiss goodnight. Then she goes back upstairs. Five minutes later, she’s back downstairs getting some water. Five minutes after that, she’s back downstairs putting something in her backpack for school. Five minutes later, she’s back downstairs telling me that she has to be at school early tomorrow. Five minutes after that…. You get the idea. It wouldn’t bother us all that much, but she can be as grumpy as a badger when she doesn’t get enough rest.

They had the day off Monday for Martin Luther King Day, so she stayed up a bit later than usual Sunday night, and after a few of her usual trips up and down the stairs, she finally seemed to have settled down around 9:30. Five minutes later, she was back down again, with a question: “Dad? What’s the unforgivable sin?” It seems that she heard someone at church mentioning it.

“It’s a bit complicated to handle late at night; can we discuss it tomorrow?”

“OK.”

Paula helpfully chimed in with “If you’re worried that you might have committed it, don’t. You haven’t.” She seemed satisfied with that, and went back upstairs.

Five minutes later, she was back down looking for a bulb for her nightlight.

The “unforgivable sin” makes its appearance in Matthew 12:31-32, where Jesus says “And so I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. 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.” (See also Mark 3:29-30.)

In his Systematic Theology (there are several “systematic theologies” out there), Wayne Grudem gives a thorough discussion of a few different possible explanations of what Jesus is talking about here, explaining their strengths and weaknesses, but since I’m trying to explain this to a 13 year old, I don’t think I’ll settle for handing her the book and saying “Here. Look it up.”

Seems to me the best approach is to discuss what’s going on in the story here. Jesus has been actively ministering for some time now, preaching and teaching, and healing the sick and casting out demons. The Pharisees have had their eyes on this itinerant preacher for a while. The more they see, the more they dislike this carpenter’s son; his teaching puts theirs to shame, he tells the people “don’t be like the hypocrites” (meaning them). He hangs out with the wrong crowd and then has the nerve to tweak them for associating with “good” people by saying “It isn’t the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.” He tells people that their sins are forgiven, and then to demonstrate that he has the authority to forgive sins, he heals them. When they fast, Jesus and his disciples don’t fast. When they throw the law in his face, he quotes scriptures that throw it right back at them, making them look bad.

Most importantly, they have seen Jesus demonstrate his power and authority time and time again. They have seen the power of the Holy Spirit working through this man to teach with authority like nobody else, heal the sick, raise the dead and cast out demons. They have seen how the Holy Spirit gave this man the ability to see into the hearts and minds of the people around him, in fact, they have first-hand experience with Jesus seeing right through them.

And now they have seen Jesus cast a demon out of a man and restore his sight and speech. And their response is to say “It is only by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons.”

Jesus first confronts the irrationality of that assertion:

“Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand. If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand? And if I drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your people drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. 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.”

In other words, “That is just plain stupid, and you know it.”

He then goes a step further and addresses the spiritual condition that lead them to say what they did.

“He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters. And so It ell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. 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.”

In other words, “Go ahead and bad mouth me and my motivations, I don’t mind. But when the Holy Spirit gives you a clear demonstration of who I am and who sent me, one that even you thick-headed lot can clearly comprehend, and in your arrogance and hatred you deliberately choose to slander the Holy Spirit in an attempt to smear me, you have crossed the line.”

Grudem says it this way:

“The context indicates that Jesus is speaking about a sin that is not simply unbelief or rejection of Christ, but one that includes (1) a clear knowledge of who Christ is and of the power of the Holy Spirit working through him, (2) a willful rejection of the facts about Christ that his opponents knew to be true, and (3) slanderously attributing the work of the Holy Spirit in Christ to the power of Satan. In such a case the hardness of heart would be so great that any ordinary means of bringing a sinner to repentance would already have been rejected. Persuasion of the truth will not work, for these people have already known the truth and have willfully rejected it. Demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit to heal and bring life will not work, for they have seen it and rejected it. In this case it is not that the sin itself is so horrible that it could not be covered by Christ’s redemptive work, but rather that the sinner’s hardened heart puts him or her beyond the reach of God’s ordinary means of bringing forgiveness through repentance and trusting Christ for salvation. The sin is unpardonable because it cuts off the sinner from repentance and saving faith through belief in the truth."

It makes me think of Pharoah hardening his heart. But that's an essay for another day.

Comments

[mark]

I can go with this. It's as good an explanation as I've seen.

It comes down to what the Church calls "invincible ignorance", but I would add rejection to that. I would consider a militant atheist as such a blasphemer of the Holy Spirit. Or the nihilist who says "there is no truth".

The denial of reality itself, of truth, is a complete rejection of the Holy Spirit.

[Lars Walker]

Yes, that's pretty much the conclusion I came to in my own study. As a kid, I was always told that the sin against the Holy Spirit meant to resist His call until you became deaf to His voice. But it took a while to figure out the scriptural basis for that view.