Luke 12:10 Commentary and Bible Study

Having given such a solemn warning in the previous verse – ‘he that denieth me before men shall be denied before the angels of God’ – some may immediately feel despair, because they know they have done this very thing. Can that sin be forgiven? Yes, says the Lord. There is no need for despair. Even high-handed blasphemy against the Son of man can be pardoned, and the one who has done this should bring his sin to God and confess it openly. But this should not make anyone careless about sin. There is a sin which cannot be forgiven: the blasphemy of the Spirit. In verse 1 of this chapter Christ has warned against the doctrine of the Pharisees. That first verse also links back to Luke 11. There in verse 15 we read of the blasphemous accusation of the Jews that Christ cast out devils by the power of Beelzebub, and of Christ’s answer to that charge. In Matthew 12:31-32 the warning about the blasphemy of the Spirit is given in connection with this same false charge coming from the Pharisees (Matthew 12:24). Christ is referring to sins such as these when he gives this strong warning here in Luke. Why is this sin not forgivable? Because this blasphemy is done knowingly, and is an act of resistance to the Spirit when he has begun to work in the heart and make clear the truth of the gospel in undeniable terms. As Christ showed them, the Pharisees had no excuse for making such a false charge. They had seen the demon cast out, and knew it was no longer occupying the man. They knew they could not do anything like this. Logic told them that it was utterly unreasonable to charge him with doing this by the power of Beelzebub, a charge that contradicted all right thinking, but they pushed that aside and held on to their vilification regardless. That was a very dangerous thing to do.The blasphemy of the Spirit is a sin against light, and it is treated so seriously by the Lord because it is so inexcusable. It is God’s direct communication to the soul, which bypasses all our misunderstandings. It will therefore receive the most severe judgment.