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revelation and enjoy the privileges of the gospel ministry are far more guilty, Matt. 10:15; Luke
12:47,48; 23:34; John 19:11; Acts 17:30; Rom. 1:32; 2:12; I Tim. 1:13,15,16.
3. THE UNPARDONABLE SIN.
Several passages of Scripture speak of a sin that cannot be
forgiven, after which a change of heart is impossible, and for which it is not necessary to pray. It
is generally known as the sin or blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. The Saviour speaks of it
explicitly in Matt. 12:31,32 and parallel passages; and it is generally thought that Heb. 6:4-6;
10:26,27, and John 5:16 also refer to this sin.
a. Unwarranted opinions respecting this sin.
There has been quite a variety of opinions
respecting the nature of the unpardonable sin. (1) Jerome and Chrysostom thought of it as a sin
that could be committed only during Christ’s sojourn on earth, and held that it was committed
by those who were convinced in their hearts that Christ performed His miracles by the power of
the Holy Spirit, but in spite of their conviction refused to recognize these miracles as such and
ascribed them to the operation of Satan. However, this limitation is entirely unwarranted, as
the passages in Hebrews and I John would seem to prove. (2) Augustine, the Melanchtonian
dogmaticians of the Lutheran Church, and a few Scottish theologians (Guthrie, Chalmers)
conceived of it as consisting in impoenitentia finalis, that is, impenitence persisted in to the
end. A related view is that expressed by some in our own day, that it consists in continued
unbelief, a refusal up to the very end to accept Jesus Christ by faith. But on this supposition it
would follow that every one who died in a state of impenitence and unbelief had committed
this sin, while according to Scripture it must be something of a very specific nature. (3) In
connection with their denial of the perseverance of the saints, later Lutheran theologians
taught that only regenerate persons could commit this sin, and sought support for this view in
Heb. 6:4-6. But this is an un-Scriptural position, and the Canons of Dort reject, among others,
also the error of those who teach that the regenerate can commit the sin against the Holy
Spirit.
b. The Reformed conception of this sin.
The name “sin against the Holy Spirit” is too general,
for there are also sins against the Holy Spirit that are pardonable, Eph. 4:30. The Bible speaks
more specifically of a “speaking against the Holy Spirit,” Matt. 12:32; Mark 3:29; Luke 12:10. It
is evidently a sin committed during the present life, which makes conversion and pardon
impossible. The sin consists in the conscious, malicious, and willful rejection and slandering,
against evidence and conviction, of the testimony of the Holy Spirit respecting the grace of God
in Christ, attributing it out of hatred and enmity to the prince of darkness. It presupposes,
objectively, a revelation of the grace of God in Christ, and a powerful operation of the Holy
Spirit; and, subjectively, an illumination and intellectual conviction so strong and powerful as to
make an honest denial of the truth impossible. And then the sin itself consists, not in doubting