Matthew 12

Tommy M said...

What does it mean when it says sinning against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven?

Jennings Response: The explanation for the "unforgivable" sin is found in Hebrews 4-6:

⁴It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, ⁵who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, ⁶if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.

Anyone who has truly experienced the Holy Spirit and turned their back on him is equivalent to crucifying Jesus again! This idea in Matthew comes not long after Jesus has talked about us being better than John the Baptist because we get to live after Jesus and not before. We live in a new era where the Kingdom of Heaven has come but is not fully fulfilled. We will talk more about this when we get to eschatology (study of the end times) in Revelation...

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In Chapter 12 we see Jesus being attacked on several occasions by the Pharisees. Once again we see this theme of Jesus desiring "mercy, not sacrifice" The sacrificial system and laws had become legalistic. Jesus pushed for us to understand the heart of the laws and commands. Even today we find ourselves holding on to rules instead of doing as Jesus did and looking for heart change.

Verses 1-14- The Sabbath was a day that work was not allowed. In I Opinions 3:2 we find that the whole point of the Sabbath was for rest and worship, but the Pharisees were condemning Jesus disciples for legalistic reasons. In fact in a way the Pharisees were abusing Scripture to win a fight/debate that they were having with Jesus. They were probably not as much concerned that Jesus be "fixed" but that Jesus be proven wrong. There intention was not love but to destroy him. The complete opposite is true when we see Jesus use Scripture. What I love about Jesus is how he answers a question with another question. He was amazing at making all around him think! Doing good was more important than the work issue.