Archive for August 27th, 2009

Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit

Thursday, August 27th, 2009 | Author:

There are 3 passages that we have to consider. We will briefly look at the first two and then concentrate on the passage in Mark.

Matthew 12:31-32

Reference to the strong man’s house (Isaiah 49). The issue is about authority. Jesus comes with a sign that can only be interpreted as God acting among the people. Acknowledging this sign is a clear separation between those who understand who Jesus is and who He represents. To reject the implied authority is to reject the One who sent Him. As Jesus says, “If you are not with me, you are against me.”

Luke 12:10

The expression in Luke reminds us of many OT passages. Leviticus 24:11-23, Numbers 11:17 and 27:18, Numbers 15:30-31, Deuteronomy 34:9, Psalm 106:32-33.

The first thing we need to understand is what is blaspheme.

The Hebrew word that parallels the Greek for blasphemy is ne’asa. It signifies the action or attitude where the former recipient of favorable disposition and/or service is consciously viewed and/or treated with disdain. Consider the following synonymous parallels: mārâ “to rebel against authority” (Ps 107:11); ˒ābâ “to be unwilling and disinclined toward obedience” (Prov 1:30); śānē˒ “to hate” (Prov 5:12), not believing in the Lord (Num 14:1), to forsake God (˓āzab, Isa 1:4), mā˒as “to reject,” Isa 5:24, ḥārap “to say sharp things, reproach, scorn” (Ps 74:10).

Notice that it is not about swearing. It is actions, attitudes and words.

But God does forgive our disobedient actions, our sinful attitudes and our vile speech. So, what’s different about this particular sin?

Now we can look at the passage in Mark.

Mark 3:29

First notice the formula expression of this verse (Truly, truly – amen lego humin). What does that tell us? This is the first time that this formula is used in Mark.

This expression establishes authority. That is the real issue at stake in this passage. The authority of God manifest in His saving grace

We must understand the issue of authority before we can answer the next critical question: Who is the one who blasphemes in this verse?

We must look at the context

The passage begins in verse 20

What is the story? The scribes contend that Jesus casts out demons through the power of Satan. Why do they say this?

Jesus replies that if this were the case, Satan would already be defeated.

Then Jesus alludes to the lesson of the strong man and the strong man’s house.

Where does this metaphor come from?

Consider Isaiah 63:10: This is the only passage in all the OT that speaks of grieving God’s Holy Spirit. Here the Hebrew word is atsav, usually translated as sorrow and emotional agony. The same word is used in Genesis 3 to describe the results of the Fall. Here it is a Hebrew verb tense that indicates an active cause. In other words, what these people did had a direct effect on the Spirit of God. Their actions caused something to happen.

What is happening in this passage in Isaiah?

First, it’s a passage about the messianic Servant. Consider the context:

The One who comes to save, garments of red, alone, life blood sprinkled on His clothing, producing salvation by His own arm.

He is filled with lovingkindness and mercy. He appeals to His own people. He heals their affliction and redeems them.

But they rebel against Him. They grieve His Holy Spirit. As a result, He becomes their enemy rather than their savior.

Notice that the description of the messianic savior here echoes the character of God in Exodus 34:6. The character of God is merciful, except note the consequences of rejection of that mercy in Exodus 23:21. Notice that here God says He is sending a representative who carries the authority of His name. Rebellion against God’s representative leads to the impossibility of forgiveness. Why? Because this rebellion denies the authority of God by insulting His name. To deny the authority of the messenger is to deny the authority of the One who sent him.

When Jesus alludes to these OT passages, he shifts the question to one of authority. Just as there were rebellious members of Israel in the first exodus, now there are rebellious members of Israel in the second exodus. Jesus is the second Moses. He is sent in the name of the Father to bring rescue and redemption. But there are those among His own people who deny His authority by suggesting that His power is demonic. In the first exodus, God did not forgive the rebellion of the Israelites. The entire generation died in the wilderness.

Isaiah 63:17 fills in the picture. God hardened their hearts (note the Hebrew verb here)

There are three possibilities for understanding the Greek verb poroo as a Hebrew translation. We can see all three in the description of Pharaoh’s response to God. They are all translated “hardened” in English, but that only means that we don’t understand the nuances – and the nuances make a big difference. The first possible word is hazak. Although it is translated “hardened” in verses like Exodus 4:21, that translation doesn’t really communicate what is happening because hazak normally means “to strengthen” and is most often applied to the idea of “power” (as in “a mighty hand”). When this word is applied to Pharaoh, it means that Pharaoh is unyielding. God simply allows Pharaoh’s natural resistance to be strengthened so that Pharaoh does not relent. The second word is kaved. It means “to make weighty or heavy,” implying either honor or dullness (Exodus 9:7). God allowed Pharaoh’s heart to become dull, that is, to move in the direction of the natural man who does not discern the things of the Spirit, simply by withdrawing common grace. We can see the connection between hazak and kaved. Both involve God allowing the rebellious soul to act without spiritual intervention.

Then there is the third Hebrew word, the one that Jesus probably used. It is qashah. You will find it in Exodus 7:3. It means to become obstinate, resistant or stubborn. You’ll find it in Jeremiah 7:26. Why is it likely that Jesus used this word instead of the others? Because this is the word the prophet uses to describe the condition of disobedient Israel. It is the word for not paying attention to the power and majesty of God. It is applied to the children of Israel in the wilderness and prior to the Captivity. It is about a nation that didn’t listen to those who were sent to from God (see Jeremiah 7:23). When Jesus uses this word, the culpability falls directly on His audience. They resist what God displays.

As a result of this rebellion, they are put to death.

It is possible to reject Jesus as the Messiah during His earthly ministry. Jesus comments on this possibility in the Luke passage. But grieving the Spirit is more than rejecting the demonstration of Jesus as the Messiah while He is on the earth. Grieving the Spirit is the consistent and deliberate resistance to the power of God to save through His anointed One. In other words, while men may reject the Messiah during the time that Jesus brings the message of God’s grace and still be forgiven for that sin, anyone who continues to resist the Spirit excludes himself from the grace of God, with the result that he cannot be forgiven and becomes God’s enemy. To ultimately reject the Messiah by refusing repentance means that forgiveness is not available and can never be available. There is no other means by which we must be saved.

There is a parallel in Jeremiah 5:12 – a denial of the fact that God is the God of authority. The result is utter destruction. To suggest that Jesus’ authority is from Satan is to lie against God. The result will be destruction, just as the prophet said.

Furthermore, Jesus as the messiah is the final revelation of God’s mercy. To insult His authority is to reject the last hope of redemption. There is no other coming rescue, and therefore, no other possibility of forgiveness.

So, there is more here than simply to cut oneself off from future forgiveness by rejecting God chosen One. As Isaiah shows, this rejection turns God from one who provides redemption to one who brings vengeance. This makes God my enemy.

So, who is the one who blasphemes? Jesus points to the religious leaders (the scribes) who should have known the authority of God in the messenger but who denied that authority. For them, there is no forgiveness. God becomes their enemy.

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Pattern Recognition

Thursday, August 27th, 2009 | Author:

and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:2

Conformed – Let’s go to visit the blacksmith. Of course, today you might have to travel a long way to find one. Most of the operations of a blacksmith have been given to machines. But we all know what a blacksmith does. He takes metal and shapes it into something useable. He heats, bends and pounds on the metal until he produces a sword, a plow or a horseshoe. That takes real effort and a lot of beating. And that’s what Paul has in mind with the Greek word suschematizo. Literally, it means to shape according to a pattern. It is “to fashion with.” The verb implies a schematic. This is constructing by blueprint.

Paul instructs us not to be shaped with the pattern of this age. But we wont’ be able to identify the pattern without adopting Paul’s worldview. Why didn’t Paul spell out the pattern to avoid? Why isn’t the next verse something like this: “Don’t smoke, drink or go to wild parties?” Why did Paul feel confident that his readers would know what he meant without mentioning the details?

The answer is built into the culture of the early church. When I became a Messianic believer in the first century, I entered into the commonwealth of Israel. As James points out in Acts 15, I heard Moses taught every week. My culture was the culture of Torah. The people of my congregation were practicing Torah. I prayed, learned and lived Torah. And Torah was radically different from the patterns of behavior in the surrounding world. My conversion brought me in touch with an entirely different way of living, a way that challenged my previous patterns at home, at work and at worship. Paul doesn’t have to spell it out because the ways of the “new” man were an obvious part of the community.

But things changed. The “church” adopted a Greek worldview. In the process, it moved from a Torah-oriented culture of radical difference to a culture that embraced, accommodated and, in some cases, even promoted patterns that would have been considered anathema in previous centuries. That syncretization is still going on today. Now we are so far removed from the culture of Torah that we no longer know the difference between the patterns of this age and God’s point of view. Because the “church” has adopted the world’s ways a little at a time over nineteen centuries, we have moved away from God’s worldview in incremental steps. We are like the proverbial frog in the heated pot. Since the change is only one degree at a time, we don’t notice the difference until it kills us.

You can get your cold slap in the face by reading Deuteronomy seriously. Any reading shows us the dramatic contrast between Paul’s view of godly patterns and our view of syncretism. It is impossible to read the exhortations in the New Testament for godly living if we remove those exhortations from the culture of Torah. That is why the church today has nothing really radical to say to the world. The church is the world, wrapped in God-language. It is not radically different. It does not compete with the culture of the world. It does not offer a completely different way of life. No wonder we are so confused and impotent. We can’t be transformed because we are trying to tweak the world’s blueprints instead of throwing them in the trash.

So, what can we do? Well, we can start by changing what we are able to change, right now. We can stop trying to accommodate to the world’s timetable, expectations and attitudes. We can start with one step from Deuteronomy today, and add another tomorrow. We can be willing to be different. The patterns of this age are no friends to the righteous no matter how well they have been shaped to fit the pew.

Topical Index: syncretism, suschematizo, fashion, conform, Romans 12:2, worldview

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