6/6/10 Mark 3:22-30 Rejection of Forgiveness

22 And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, "He is possessed by Beelzebul! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons." 23 So Jesus called them over to him and began to speak to them in parables: "How can Satan drive out Satan? 24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. 26 And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come. 27 In fact, no one can enter a strong man's house without first tying him up. Then he can plunder the strong man's house. 28 Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven all their sins and all the blasphemies they utter. 29 But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven, but is guilty of an eternal sin." 30 He said this because they were saying, "He has an evil spirit." (Mark 3:22-30)

John Calvin abridged: The scribes prove themselves ungrateful to God by being unwilling for him to reign among them. It is not a light and ordinary offense, but an atrocious crime to knowingly and willingly pour contempt on the Spirit of God. Those who rebel against the Spirit cannot plead ignorance.  It is not the essence of the Spirit that is rejected as much as the grace of the Spirit.

(Elsheimer- Exaltation of the Cross)

Mark couches this passage between Jesus' own family members' rejection of Jesus.  The only unforgivable sin is calling good evil and evil good- or on a higher plane- calling God the devil and the devil God.  If people don't have enough moral and spiritual sense to do this basic thing- they are basically rejecting forgiveness.  How can you be forgiven without any sense of right/wrong good/evil, God and evil powers?  If you call Jesus evil, then why would you want to accept his forgiveness?  If you are forgiven and then you just go back to doing evil what sense is that forgiveness?  The blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is refusing to accept the forgiveness of God - because you are not just ignorant but you are adamantly against God.  There is a lot of that going on today- especially among bloggers.  It is like the secret evil of being against God has come out in aggressive writing against those who believe lately.  Such opposition is sad, wanting even insisting that others join them in hopelessness and helplessness and spiritual loneliness. 

Prayer: Today, Lord, may I forgive others as I have been forgiven.  Help me to stand in awe of your holiness instead of being adamantly opposed to it.