Lucas 12

Lucas 12

Lenski - this sin cannot be pardoned because it shuts out the very possibility of repentance. Other sins and other blasphemies do not render repentance impossible. It is the Spirit who works repentance, and to blaspheme him bars out him and his work. The point to be noted, however, is that, as far as the symptom of blasphemy is concerned, this need not name the Spirit in its vicious utterance, it may name only Jesus and yet be against the Spirit.We are unable to judge which blasphemer has gone too far and placed himself beyond remission already in this life; all we can say is that he who fears that he has committed this sin by that very fear furnishes evidence that he has not done so. This sin cannot be committed inadvertently or unconsciously. Its commission is possible only where the Spirit has come upon a man through the Word and has been recognized as God's Spirit with his divine grace and power to save. When a man deliberately answers him with blasphemy he puts himself forever beyond the Spirit's reach, into the unalterable condition of the devils and of the damned in hell. This sin thus constitutes his character indelebilis. (See context in The Interpretation of St. Luke's Gospel 12-24)