Atoning Death
“but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin” Mark 3:29 NASB
Never – Yeshua seems to employ a rabbinic idea in this warning. As we discovered, it could be translated, “but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit does not have forgiveness but is guilty of sin in this age.” The translation of ouk (“never”) amplifies the Greek usual meaning (“not”), and if the passage is rabbinic, the amplification doesn’t seem warranted. The rabbis taught that defaming God’s name was a sin that lasted until death. Why wouldn’t Yeshua employ the same rabbinic idea? If we blaspheme the Holy Spirit, the guilt of that sin stays with us until we die. Repentance, confession and death provide atonement.
All of this begs the question, “What does it mean to blaspheme against the Holy Spirit?” Does it mean that there is something I can speak that will result in no forgiveness in this age? Or is it something that I do, some act that condemns me for the rest of my life? To what may it be compared?
In a small village, one of the members of the synagogue disliked the rabbi. He started a rumor defaming the rabbi’s reputation. He encouraged the rumor by spreading gossip in the village. After awhile people in the village believed that what this man said was actually true and the rabbi’s reputation was severely damaged. One day the man was convicted of his lie. He went to the rabbi and confessed that he was the one who perpetrated the rumor. He asked what he could do to atone for his action. The rabbi told him to go home, open the window, tear apart a feather pillow and let the feathers fly to the wind. Then come back to the rabbi. The man thought that this seemed unusual but easily done, so he followed the rabbi’s instructions. The next day he returned to the rabbi. “I have done as you asked,” he said. “Does this atone for my lie?” “Just one more thing and atonement will be yours,” said the rabbi. “Now go and collect all the feathers.”
If I insult the name of God, if I cast aspersions on His reputation and His works so that His name is diminished in the eyes of the world, I will be a feather collector for the rest of my life. In the Hebraic world where public reputation is a matter of personal honor, causing God’s name to be harmed is a sin impossible to undo. To blaspheme the Holy Spirit is to mock God with wicked speech or human arrogance. Interestingly, the TDNT suggests, “For Christians blasphemy includes doubting the claim of Jesus or deriding him.”[1] If blasphemy is doubt, then we are all in trouble. That shifts the context to cognition rather than action. It seems unlikely that Yeshua would agree. Blasphemy is attitude and action that results in loss of glory and reputation. It is spreading the feathers. And it takes more than a lifetime to undo.
Topical Index: blasphemy, never, ouk, Mark 3:29
[1] Kittel, G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W. (1985). Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (107). Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans. Vol. 1, pp. 621-625.
“To blaspheme the Holy Spirit is to mock God with wicked speech or human arrogance.” I wonder why Yeshua didn’t just say “he who blasphemes against God or the Father” instead of “against the Holy Spirit”. Was it because of the context in which the scribes accused Him of doing the things He did through the spirit of Beelzebub rather than through God’s Spirit? If so, He is pointing to the work God is doing through Him, on earth, among them, and the fact that they should recognize the source of His power and actions. So, in light of our discussions on the “Trinity”, Yeshua is not referring to a third person of the “Godhead” but to the work of God in and through His life and possibly and hopefully in and through our lives today. I don’t know if I make myself clear…I’m processing…
but you are on the right track. Blasphemy against the ruach hakodesh is essentially mocking God’s handiwork and presence in life. It is to deny God’s activity as revealed in men and creation. It is not to speak against a “person.” Even the early church fathers did not think of the “Holy Spirit” as a person. It took a few centuries for the Church to develop that.
I have a couple questions.
First, there have been some tremendous mockers of God who have gone on to gather those feathers in a mighty way on this earth. They include some people in the Bible, too. To go to the trouble to mock someone often means that that person is so troubled with the mocked one that they just cannot leave them alone; they pick at them to get a reaction; they go our of their way to make a hard time for them, but they are watching, watching. And so many of them, convicted by the righteousness of the mocked one, go on to make good friends – even good lovers. And also mighty men and women of God. These people, in fact, could be described as extremely cold folks, yes, but definitely NOT lukewarm! In that context, indifference seems to be put forward as the condition that is the hardest to pull back from. (Don’t get me wrong: I believe that if the Word says that there is a sin that is outside the Atonement, then I am sure there is. Hardening of the heart can occur in more than one way, I am pretty sure. I am just questioning our understanding of what that sin is. Need more clarification!) Does not it seem that there is plenty of reaction room for redemption for them? Did not Saul the Persecutor at first essentially credit the mighty work of God in those early believers to another source? (In this context, what exactly was he so angry about, anyway?)
Secondly, I want to make sure I am hearing right; I understand that my death does not redeem me from even one slight little sin, ever. There is nothing I can do, not even dying, that can do that, because I am not a blemish-free sacrifice. So I would take the statement that this serious sin, this most serious of all sins, also cannot be atoned by my death. Surely you must mean something else? If my confession of sin does not, in fact, get sin removed from my life COMPLETELY, at least as the action from my end, anyway, I am pretty sure that I, at least, am in one big heap trouble! I mean, if so, then are we back to penance stuff, as well as a whole bunch of other ‘qualifiers’ that can be set up as human/church noses that we poor sinners and blasphemers get to go through? Slippery slope alert! Help!
It seems to me that this is not an issue of NO ATONEMENT EVER. The rabbinic literature simply says that this particular sin cannot be atoned for except for death. The death of the perpetrator atones for the sin. The issue is only about not finding atonement IN THIS LIFETIME. Now, if Yeshua is referring to this rabbinic idea, then we must deal with the problem that there might be some sin(s) that require the death of the sinner for atonement. This is really not different from a Torah perspective than other capital crimes.
One of our problems is that inherited Christian idea that confession and forgiveness cover EVERYTHING! This substitutionary atonement theology wasn’t developed until the Reformation. Even the early Church fathers did not see atonement in this fashion. Are we to suppose that Yeshua, who was a part of the rabbinic culture of Israel in the first century, saw atonement differently than the illumination of the concept in the Tanakh?
So the word ‘atonement’ is not necessarily limited to ultimate, eternal forgiveness, if you will, which is basically vicarious justice imputed to the sinner by the merits of another – what Yeshua did for me that can keep me from permanent annihilation. What I think I hear you saying is that there is a component of justice that is temporal, and that is required of me. But is not the object of the temporal justice theme in the curses of Deut. 28 related, even then, to repentance? The curses were designed to lead to repentance. When Israel repented, which they did time and again, their captivity was restored. I know that there are temporal consequences to choices that DO NOT GO AWAY just because someone is sorry. Those baleful results continue to play out over time, as a lesson to others that this particular decision was not worth it. Now that does not mean that eventually, when the wound is finally clean and blue and free from infection that the years the locusts ate are not restored. Those years are promised. But the locusts are first. Are we talking about locusts? About lessons? About the opportunity to make good on what we messed up?
The Unveiling
~ But the Advocate-The Helper-The Comforter-The Ruach HaKodesh- The Holy Spirit-The Breath of God-The Paraklētos- The Paraclete- (One called alongside) whom the Father will send in My Name, (He) will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you ~ (John 14.26)
~ Then I saw Heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The One sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems, and He has a Name written that no one knows but Himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the Name by which He is called is The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following Him on white horses. From His mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On His robe and on His thigh He has a Name written, King of kings and LORD of lords.
~ I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me, (the One) whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only Son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn ~
~ Beloved, do not believe all spirits, but be distinguishing between the spirits whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. The Spirit of God is known by this: every spirit who confesses that Yeshua The Messiah has come in the flesh is from God. And no spirit that does not confess that Yeshua has come in the flesh is from God, but this is from that false messiah, him whom you have heard that he will come, and already he is in the world. You are from God, children, and you have conquered them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. And these are from the world, therefore they speak from the world and the world listens to them. But we are from God and he who knows God listens to us and he who is not from God does not listen to us; by this we perceive The Spirit of Truth and the spirit of deception.
Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God, because God is love, and everyone who does not love does not know God. In this the love of God is known to us: for God sent His only Son to the world so that it shall live by him. In this is love: it was not that we loved God, but He has loved us, and He sent us His Son, the atonement for the sake of our sins. Beloved, if God loves us in this way, we are indebted also to love one another. No person has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is fulfilled in us. In this we know that we abide in Him and He abides in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. And we see and do testify that The Father hath sent His Son, The Savior for the world ~
~ And everyone who confesses Yeshua, that He is The Son of God, God dwells in him and he dwells in God. And we believe and we know the love that God has for us, for God is love, and everyone who dwells in love dwells in God. By this, love is fulfilled with us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as He is, so also are we, in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear is by suspicion, but he who fears is not grown up in love. Therefore we shall love God because He first loved us. But if a man will say, “I love God”, and he hates his brother, he is lying; for he who does not love his brother who is visible, how is it possible for him to love God who is invisible? And we have received this commandment from Him: “Everyone who loves God shall love his brother also” ~