27 - Mark 3:28-29

’Verily I say unto you, All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme; but he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation.’ -Mark 3:28-29. The object of our Lord in this statement is not to lay down the law concerning the forgiveness of sins, but to declare an exception to that law.

We have abundant testimony in Scripture to the fact that God forgives the sins of those who, repenting, believe on Christ, the propitiation for our sins and for those of the whole world. Whosoever will may take of the water of life freely; his faith suffices; none shall be cast out. It being made so certain that no believing suppliant shall be rejected, we infer that the thing which hinders the forgiveness of those who sin against the Holy Ghost is something which hinders their coming to God with a contrite and believing heart.

One possessed with a devil, blind and dumb, had been brought to Jesus. Mere blindness is in itself a terrible calamity; to be without the godlike faculty of speech is to be but a fragment of humanity; how much greater the eclipse of mind, the extinction of the moral and rational powers; above all, when this is caused by the presence of an evil spirit, an unseen and deadly foe encamped in the very citadel of your being, and using what faculties are left to you for the purpose of warring against you! But imagine all these calamities in one, and what a fearful combination of miseries, what accumulated trophies of destruction! It is like a triumphal pillar made of the molten cannon won on many battle-fields. Satan seems to have been permitted to show how near to chaos he could bring the wonderful essence which God created in his own image. But the fiat of Jesus annihilates the manifold shackles in which Satan had bound his poor prisoner. He opens his eyes upon this beautiful earth, the blue of heaven, the clouds and the mountains; the portals of hearing are thrown open that the sounds of animated nature may enter in and submit their report; his understanding awakens; love, joy, and hope spring up in his heart; a harmony reveals itself between his being and the whole exterior creation; it lives to him and he to it. Not more wonderful was the Divine power which in the beginning formed man out of the dust of the earth. But it would seem that there is a depth of unbelief more profound and impenetrable than the deep dungeon from whence this poor demoniac had been delivered. The Pharisees witnessed the sublime deliverance. They did not dispute the reality of the miracle. Gladly would they have done so, but the facts were patent, stubborn, unshunnable. That the man had been an utter ruin, blind, deaf, possessed, could not be gainsaid; that he now saw, heard, and reasoned, was manifest to all; that this prodigious transformation had been wrought by the simple word of Jesus no one could deny. They fully conceded all this, and their testimony is available for the sceptic of this day. But they took their stand upon something that a modern sceptic would be the first to laugh to scorn. They said: "This fellow doth not cast out devils but by Beelzebub, the prince of the devils." Such was the explanation given by those who claimed to be the authorised interpreters of God’s word and providence, and who were looked up to by the people as really empowered to adjudicate in matters of religion. They said to the people: ’This Jesus is a vile impostor; professing to be of God and to be clothed with power from on high, he is an emissary from hell, a legate from the realm of darkness, and the power that accompanies him is the power of that arch-enemy of God and of all righteousness, Beelzebub. The work you have seen is Satanic; and this man Jesus is nothing but Satan in a human form, the incarnation of all wickedness seeking to beguile you into the idea that he is from God.’

Jesus, with infinite condescension, replies to these abominable charges. In his reply he says (Matthew 12:28), "I cast out devils by the Spirit of God." These words give us a clew to the meaning of those which we have placed at the head of this meditation.

He distinguishes between the Son of man and his works, and the Holy Ghost and his works. He might be viewed as a mere man, and there might be criticism of his conduct with reference to its blameworthiness or praiseworthiness. We know indeed that he was God manifest in the flesh; that in him was all the fulness of the Godhead bodily; that the Spirit of God was concerned in all that he did. But this was not, and could not be understood at the first. He came in the likeness of sinful flesh; it was gradually shown to men wherein he differed from sinful humanity; his purity, his moral perfection, his divinity came gradually to light. And just according to the fulness of the revelation was the responsibility of those who witnessed it. He teaches the Pharisees, and he teaches the men of our own time, that there is in and through him a manifestation of the Divine power and glory so bright and unequivocal, that whosoever shall sin grievously against his own convictions by attributing this manifestation to a spirit of evil, sins away his own hope. Such a man may be an unbeliever with regard to diabolic agency; no matter; he assigns to the work of Christ the basest origin with which he is acquainted. For we are plainly taught that man is absolutely dependent upon the Holy Spirit for salvation. Only this Divine Spirit can regenerate him, can inspire him with saving faith, can give him victory over sin. To blaspheme against the Holy Spirit is to refuse to know the Spirit in those acts by which He most signally reveals himself, and by means of which he is seeking to make an avenue to our heart. Before he enters the heart of the sinner, he displays his Divine and beneficent power in one way or another, but in a way well worthy to inspire the sinner with faith, and lead him to fling down the drawbridge that this glorious person may enter in. But where these bright and worthy tokens are shown to a man, and the only response is calumny, contempt, hostility, then the sinner breaks down as it were the bridge by which his Deliverer might have come to him. In order that those who are now alive may get the full benefit of the instruction contained in this passage, and be on their guard against the hope-destroying sin here spoken of, it is necessary for them to consider what special displays of the power and grace of the Holy Spirit have been made before their eyes, and give heed to the appeals thus made to their faith. There is a Holy Ghost; this world is the theater of his operations. Have you noticed his work? among your acquaintances are there those who were once ungodly, spiritually blind, religiously dumb, dead in trespasses and sins, who have been transformed into self-denying, humble, godly, loving followers of Jesus, fruitful branches in the true vine? If so, how have you treated this mighty operation of the Spirit of God, this appeal to your faith made by a Divine Spirit? Harden not your heart against the " Verily, verily" of him who is alone competent to pronounce concerning forgiveness, since it is only through him that forgiveness comes to any.