The Unpardonable Sin - revisited

Matthew 12: 23,24 NKJV
And all the multitudes were amazed and said, “Could this be the Son of David?”
Now when the Pharisees heard it they said, “This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.”

Why did the Master Yeshua say in Matthew 12: 31, 32 that all sins and blasphemies, including speaking against the Son of Man himself, can be forgiven but "whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.".

For many years as a Trinitarian believer, this verse used to puzzle me. If the Messiah is God-the-Son and if the Holy Spirit is God-the-Spirit, why would speaking against one "person" of the Triune Godhead be forgiveable while doing so against another person in the very same Godhead be unpardonable? Is it possible that God-the-Spirit is somehow more "unblasphemable" than God-the-Son?

Little did I know how wrong I was to believe that our Only True God was a "Triune Godhead".

Last week, four years after I had awakened to the truth that God our Father is the one and only true God,
I revisited this account in Matthew 12: 22-32, along with parallel passages in Mark 3:22-30 and that of a similar account giving the background to the accusation involving Beelzebub in Luke 11: 14-15.

The Master Yeshua had cast out a demon from a mute but was accused by both scribes and Pharisees that he had done this by the power of the King of Demons.

Why was this accusation tantamount to blasphemy against the Holy Spirit? The answer is found in Matthew's account:

Matthew 12: 27,28 NKJV
And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.

I am reminded that the Master Yeshua, after his baptism by John the Baptist, he saw the Holy Spirit descending like a dove upon him. Yes, he was FILLED with the Holy Spirit. On that day the voice of God was heard, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased" (Matt.3: 16,17)

From that day, our Master became, "a Man ATTESTED by God . . . by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst" the Apostle Peter later declared to his audience in Jerusalem in Acts chapter 2. Likewise, Peter also declared to the household of Cornelius at Caesarea in Acts 10:38 about "how God ANOINTED Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him."

Yes, our Master Yeshua of Nazareth is the Anointed One - the Son of Man who was filled with the Holy Spirit. When he healed the demon possessed mute person in Luke 11:14, it was the Holy Spirit of God within him that performed the wonderful work. Indeed, by such miracles, signs and wonders God had attested that Yeshua was His beloved Son.

In other words, God was with him.

As such, when the scribes from Jerusalem (Mark 3:22) and the Pharisees (Matt 12:24) accused the Master of using Beelzebub to cast out demons, it was tantamount to blaspheming against the very presence of God Himself. It was a blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.

Mark 3:30 puts it in a nutshell,

because they said, “He has an unclean spirit.”.

Set your mind on things that are above

Matthew 16: 23 NKJV
But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”

The words of our Master Yeshua in this well-known verse struck me during one of my morning devotions a few days ago. I have never before noticed the reason why our Master rebuked the Apostle Peter with in such harsh terms.

"Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me",

the King James Version says.

Why is Peter called "Satan" by the Master in this account? In what way is he an offence to Yeshua the Anointed One? It was just a while ago that he was called "Blessed" by the Master Yeshua for identifying correctly that Yeshua is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. It was also a while ago that the Master had told him in verses 18 and 19,

"And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."

How then did Peter suddenly become an offence to the Anointed One?

The answer lies in the second part of verse 23, "you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men", the Master Yeshua says.

Peter couldn't accept the sudden revelation from the Master Yeshua that He must soon suffer at the hands of His enemies and be killed by them in Jerusalem and then to be raised by God on the third day. The thought of seeing his Master captured, ill-treated and killed by His Master's adversaries, also the adversaries of all the disciples, is unimaginable.

Such an eventuality dashes the hope of Peter seeing His Master lead his disciples, along with many more of his fellow countrymen, to victory over the enemies and to become their new ruler. Peter was concerned with an earthly mission, an earthly accomplishment and an earthly success. He instinctively, perhaps even impulsively, pulled his Master aside and started to rebuke his Master in verse 22,

“Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!”

Perhaps Peter wasn't paying enough attention to His Master's words. He had apparently not noticed the last statement of the Master Yeshua, that He would be raised from death on the third day. Well, after all, this had never happened to anyone before. It didn't make sense to Peter.

It was this very last statement of the Master Yeshua that made the difference between being mindful of the things of God versus the things of men. Had Peter been mindful of the eternal Kingdom of God, then he would have welcomed the revelation of this marvellous plan of God: that His Anointed One, the Messiah who is to be the everlasting King over Israel, would first have to die and then to BE RAISED on the third day - to rule eternally over all nations.

Today, I am reminded of the words in Colossians 3:2, "Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are upon the earth.".  Have we also fallen into the same error like Peter did in Matthew 16:23?

The things of God. That, is what Peter should have been mindful of.

Repent and be baptized . . .

One of the Apostolic teachings that have impressed me very much recently is that of Repentance and Baptism in the Name of Yeshua (Iesous) the Anointed One.

Acts 2:38
"Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost."

The Apostles had always taught repentance and baptism.

The call to repent and to be washed in the waters of baptism is an ancient Jewish practice called respectively "teshuva and mikveh" in Hebrew. I'm persuaded that when Peter told the crowd in Jerusalem to "Repent and be baptized" that Pentecost (Shavuot) day, his audience was not surprised by anything new. It was just a call to "teshuva and mikveh".

In Jewish teaching, baptism is effective only if one sets his heart on becoming pure. It is highly likely that Peter's call to repentance and baptism was made in the same context too. The only big difference was the mikveh was to be performed by calling upon the Name of the Messiah - Yeshua.

The following is an excerpt from "The Dynamics of Teshuva" in the book "Deep Calling Unto Deep" published by Kehot Publication Society, 770 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, NY 11213, authored by Dr. J. Immanuel Schochet, Professor of Philosophy at Humber College, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

"Just as sin is rooted in man's will and mind, so must teshuvah be rooted in man's will and mind. . . .He who sets his heart on becoming purified (from ritual defilement) becomes pure as soon as he has immersed himself (in the waters of a mikveh), though nothing new has befallen his body. So, too, it is with one who sets his heart on cleansing himself from the impurities that beset man's soul - namely, wrongful thoughts and false convictions: as soon as he consents in his heart to withdraw from those counsels and brings his soul into the waters of reason, he is pure."

The Dynamics of Teshuva

The Promise that is for you, for your children and for all afar

I read Acts chapter 2 this morning before starting work, and noticed the significance of the "promise of the Holy Spirit", as explained by the Apostle Peter:

(1) Our Lord Jesus the Messiah has received this promised Spirit from God the Father, and has poured out this Spirit on that Pentecost day:

Acts 2:33 ESV
Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.

(2) This promise is also for everyone who Repents and is Baptized in the Name of Jesus the Messiah, to their children and to all who are far away:

Acts 2: 38, 39
“Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”

I am also reminded of the words of our Master in Luke 11:13

"If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?"

Let us ask our Father in Heaven for this gift.