I’m ashamed of my sin. I know you and others say that God forgives, but I committed the sin willingly. Is that not blasphemy of the Holy Spirit that Jesus discussed?<\/p>\n\t
We need to get a good definition of what blasphemy is:<\/p>\n
There is a good definition of blasphemy in the Old Testament. “But the person who does anything defiantly, whether he is native or an alien, that one is blaspheming the LORD; and that person shall be cut off from among his people. Because he has despised the word of the LORD and has broken His commandment, that person shall be completely cut off; his guilt will be on him.<\/em>” (Numbers 15:30-31). Hence, we learn that God’s definition of blaspheme is acting in defiance of the Lord and His commandments. In others words, blaspheme is willfully sinning when you know full well that it is wrong. But the defiance involves a particular type of sin: slandering God’s reputation before other people. Thus, blasphemy is a willful attempt to ruin God’s reputation, even though you know what you are saying is wrong.<\/p>\n Korah and his followers illustrate this in Numbers 16. They knew that God made Moses the leader and Aaron his High Priest; yet they believed they had equal rights to talk with God as Moses did. Even when warned, they stubbornly persisted in asserting what they believed to be their rights. In doing so, they were claiming that God made a mistake in selecting Moses and Aaron and that they were better choices for the job. This is how people treat a god made up by men. It is not how you treat the Creator of the Universe who had displayed His power repeatedly in your sight. For their defiance of God, they died in a dramatic fashion.<\/p>\n “For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins<\/em>” (Hebrews 10:26). Draw your attention to the phrase “go on sinning.” Not all translations make this clear, but in Greek, it refers to continuing in willful sins. There is no forgiveness while a person remains in sin. This passage does not address the person who sinned but then turned from his sins.<\/p>\n The Bible does not call sins unforgivable or irremissible. There are only sins that are unforgiven because the person refuses to repent of his sins, like Esau. “See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled; that there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears<\/em>” (Hebrews 12:15-17). Esau wanted the benefits of living godly without leaving his sins and such cannot happen.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: I’m ashamed of my sin. I know you and others say that God forgives, but I committed the sin willingly. Is that not blasphemy of the Holy Spirit that Jesus discussed? Answer: We need to get a good definition of what blasphemy is: Smith Bible Dictionary: “in its technical English sense, signifies the speaking…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[180,863],"class_list":["post-45281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-blasphemy","tag-willful-sin"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8832,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-i-be-assured-god-will-forgive-me\/","url_meta":{"origin":45281,"position":0},"title":"How can I be assured God will forgive me?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 27, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am so tormented with the fear of the sin against the Holy Spirit. When I read the Scripture, it says \"blaspheme\" which is to \"speak.\" How can one change that to \"reject?\" How can I be assured that God will forgive me of any and every sin? I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":42142,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-repeating-a-false-doctrine-blasphemy\/","url_meta":{"origin":45281,"position":1},"title":"Is repeating a false doctrine blasphemy?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 17, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Dear Minister, When I was in college I took a Jewish mysticism course and the professor explained a theory about God to the class. The theory was basically that God had a very small portion of evil in Him and He despised that evil so He created humans and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":41417,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-the-blasphemy-of-the-holy-spirit\/","url_meta":{"origin":45281,"position":2},"title":"What is the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 29, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I don't understand this blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. I know it's not hating or cursing God. I know that in Bible we have examples like when Jesus healed a man and the Pharisees claimed that he use the devil's power. Still, 2000 years later, people still fear this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24987,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-warn-a-person-against-blaspheming-the-holy-spirit-if-he-wont-seek-forgiveness-anyway\/","url_meta":{"origin":45281,"position":3},"title":"Why warn a person against blaspheming the Holy Spirit if he won’t seek forgiveness anyway?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 18, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have read the stuff on\u00a0blasphemy on your site, but I don't read it in the Bible that it says a blasphemous person refuses to come to God. If that is true, why would the passages on blasphemy against the Spirit be in there? If a person won't seek\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49335,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/blasphemy\/","url_meta":{"origin":45281,"position":4},"title":"Blasphemy","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 23, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Matthew 12:22-37 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0What is blasphemy? \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A transliteration of a Greek word, blasphemia \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a01.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It is a compound word: hurt and speech \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It means to speak evil of someone or to slander someone \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a01.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Contained in it is the idea that a third party is involved \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a02.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49331,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-blasphemy-against-the-holy-spirit\/","url_meta":{"origin":45281,"position":5},"title":"What is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 19, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I was wondering what exactly is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit? Could you please help me with this? Answer: What Is Blasphemy? Blasphemy is a transliteration of a Greek word:\u00a0blasphemia. Literally, it combines the Greek words for hurt and speech. It means to speak evil of someone or to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45281\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}