Chapter XXV: Sin Against the Holy Spirit, § 107.
CHAPTER XXV: ON THE SIN AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT
§ 107. Finally, even though all other sins are forgivable, Christ establishes one as unforgivable, namely, the sin against the Holy Spirit. Concerning this, Augustine says (Sermon 11 de verb. Dom.): “God wants to exercise us with the difficulty of the question concerning this sin, because in all of Holy Scriptures there is perhaps found no question greater nor more difficult.” But he himself claimed that the sin against the Holy Spirit is the “persevering hardness of an impenitent heart, a hardness which cannot be removed in anyone while he is in this life.” (See Letter 50 ad Bonifac.; De corrept. et grat., ch. 11; De vera et falsa poenit., ch. 4.)
Athanasius writes (q. 71, vol. 2, p. 296): “God did not say, ‘He who blasphemes and repents will not be forgiven,’ but ‘He who blasphemes’ [Matt. 12:31], that is, the person who remains in blasphemy, because there is no unforgiven sin in God’s presence among those who repent in a devout and worthy manner.”
Gregory (on Psalm 51): “Who is it who sins against the Holy Spirit, except he who does not believe in the remission of sins? For the remission of sins is the work of the Holy Spirit.”
Lombard (Sent., bk. 2, dist. 43, letter A):
Some say that it is the sin of despair or of obstinacy. Obstinacy is the stubbornness of a mind hardened in badness by which a person becomes impenitent. Despair is that by which someone completely disbelieves in the goodness of God, thinking that his own badness exceeds the greatness of divine goodness. Both of these are said to be against the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit is the love of the Father and of the Son and the goodness by which They love each other and us, which is so great that it has no end.
Letter B:
Some say that all obstinacy and all despair are the sin against the Holy Spirit. Others say that only that is called the sin against the Holy Spirit which is accompanied by impenitence.
Letter C:
There is also another categorization of this sin, namely, when someone, after the acknowledgment of God through the grace of Christ, attacks the brotherhood and is driven by the heat of envy against the very grace by which he was reconciled to God.
Letter D:
According to Ambrose, if anyone is deceived by the form of his human body and perceives some point about the flesh of Christ more negligently than is proper, he is at fault. Yet he is not excluded from pardon. But if anyone rejects the eternal dignity, majesty, and power of the Holy Spirit and thinks that devils are exorcised not in the Holy Spirit but in Beelzebub—an exhortation of pardon cannot exist where there is a fullness of sacrilege.
Thomas ([ST,] 2.2., q. 14, art. 1): “The ancient doctors Athanasius, Hilary, Ambrose, Jerome, and Chrysostom say that the sin against the Holy Spirit is” when something literally blasphemous is said against the Holy Spirit, whether “Holy Spirit” is taken as an essential name or as a personal name.
Augustine says that it is final impenitence. Others say that the sin against the Holy Spirit is that which comes forth from a certain badness, for goodness is appropriated by the Holy Spirit, etc. The Scholastics commonly defined six types of this sin: (1) despair, (2) presumption, (3) attacking acknowledged truth, (4) envy of brotherly love, (5) impenitence, (6) obstinacy. (See the commentators on Sent., 2, dist. 43).
From Scripture.
§ 108. In order that we may be able to penetrate to the true and proper designation of this sin, a careful examination of the statements of Scripture which speak about it must be made. Matt. 12:31–32: “Every sin and blasphemy will be remitted to people. But blasphemy against the Spirit is not forgiven, and whoever says a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.”
Mark 3:[28–30]: “ ‘Amen I say unto you, all sins will be forgiven the sons of men and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit does not have forgiveness forever, but is guilty of an eternal sin’—for they had said, ‘He has an unclean spirit.’”
Luke 12:10: “Everyone who speaks against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.”
Heb. 6:4–6: “For it is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and who have become partakers of the Holy Spirit and have tasted the good Word of God and the power of the ages to come, and have fallen away, to be renewed unto repentance, since they crucify again the Son of God on their own account and hold Him up to contempt.”
Heb. 10:26–27 and 29: “For if we sin deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrible prospect of judgment,” etc. “How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the person who has spurned the Son of God and profaned the blood of the testament by which he was sanctified and outraged the Spirit of grace?”
1 John 5:16: “If anyone sees his brother committing a sin that is not unto death, let him ask, and God will give him life for those whose sin is not unto death. There is sin which is unto death; I do not say that one is to pray for that.”
The words of Christ in the evangelists were directed against the Pharisees who, contrary to the testimony of their conscience, were saying that the miracles of Christ were being performed through Beelzebub. The passage in Hebrews 6 is variously explained. Some take “impossible” to mean “difficult.” Some understand the text to be referring to penance after this life. Out of the word “enlightened” some want to make it out to be about the renewal through Baptism. In the end, the way to this explanation does not lie open. Rather, the passage is most suitably understood as a reference to the sin against the Holy Spirit, as the accurate descriptions of the subject show. While some distinguish the sin unto death about which 1 John 5:16 speaks from the sin against the Holy Spirit, it is more correctly understood as this sin.
What it is.
§ 109. If the words and circumstances of these passages are carefully considered, it will be discovered that the sin against the Holy Spirit is the deliberate rejection of the truth of the Gospel which had been accepted and which was approved in conscience, which rejection is conjoined with a stubborn attack upon it and voluntary blasphemy. For it must be observed that this kind of sin is rebuked by Christ in the Pharisees, who were constrained by the very force of the declared truth, were refuted in conscience by its brilliance, and yet kept raging against it with malicious wickedness, with the result that they were unashamed to ascribe the doctrine and miracles to Satan himself.
The Epistle to the Hebrews describes those who sin against the Holy Spirit in this way: those who have first been illumined, who have even tasted the heavenly gift and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, who have also tasted the good Word of God and the powers of the world to come [Heb. 6:4–5], and who nonetheless afterward lapse, and thus on their own account again crucify the Son of God and hold Him up in contempt (for all these pertain to the description of the subject in that place) [Heb. 6:6]. Also they despise the Son of God with their willing apostasy, esteem as unclean the blood of the testament in which they were sanctified, and bring reproach upon the Spirit of grace [Heb. 10:29].
This sin is called the sin against the Holy Spirit (1) not with respect to the Person—for in this way he who sins against the Father and the Son also sins against the Holy Spirit, because there is one divinity, equal glory, and coeternal majesty of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—but with regard to the ministry of the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 3:8), which is the Gospel; and with regard to the office of the Holy Spirit, which is to illumine; and with regard to the testimony which the Holy Spirit gives to our spirit (Rom. 8:16). In this sense, also blaspheming the Spirit (Matt. 12:[31]), blasphemy against the Spirit (Mark 3:[29]), and reproach brought upon the Spirit of grace (Heb. 10:[29]) are called sins against the Holy Spirit. Therefore they alone commit this sin who with voluntary malice reject the acknowledged truth about which they have been convinced in conscience and attack that truth with blasphemy. From this it is concluded that those who take this sin to mean any voluntary sin or even any rejection of truth are extending this sin far too broadly and are providing an occasion to despair.
(2) This sin is called “unforgivable.” With too weak an understanding, some take it for that sin which is forgiven with difficulty, because Christ declares very vehemently that it is not remitted in this age nor in the coming age, that is, in eternity [cf. Matt. 12:32]. And the Epistle to the Hebrews says that it is completely impossible for such people to be renewed. It is also too weak when some take “unforgivable” to mean that which has no excuse as far as people are concerned, for Christ is discussing here not the excuse for sin but its forgiveness. The sin is also said to be unforgivable because it directly assails the very means of salvation, that is, the ministry of the Holy Spirit, and also because it is conjoined with extreme hardening of the heart and final impenitence. For this reason, some say, not absurdly, that this word denotes “what happens” [τὸ γινόμενoν] rather than “what is possible” [τὸ δυνατόν], because the tenor of the words of Christ clearly proves this, and thus, while the unforgivable quality of this sin continues to stand (as I say), nonetheless it remains true and certain that grace abounds more than sin (Rom. 5:20).
(3) In the same sense it is called a sin unto death not only because it is a mortal sin but also because a person is held bound by it with the bonds of eternal death in such a way that he cannot be freed from it.
(4) A fourth reason follows from this, namely, that prayer must not be made for such a sin [1 John 5:16], for mourning should not be made for those who are clearly sinning unforgivably against the Holy Spirit, nor should vain prayers be made to [that same] Spirit. But Augustine (Retract., bk. 1, and Sermon 11 de verb. Dom.) most correctly teaches: “Why, then, is there a warning against praying for such a sin if judgment concerning this sin cannot be made except from the standpoint of afterward [a posteriori], that is, from final impenitence or after the judgment of God has been declared through death?”
Jerome (Adv. Jovin., bk. 2) interprets the statement of John like an objection, as if the plea for pardon which is made is [already] decided, as in Jer. 7:16: “Do not pray for that people,” that is, you will be praying in vain.
Ambrose (De poenit., bk. 1, ch. 9) seeks a solution in the pronoun “someone.” I do not say that prayer should be made for someone, that is, anyone of the common crowd, because a sin of this type needs a perfect intercessor. It is certain that in the early church the gift of “discerning spirits” (1 Cor. 12:10) flourished, a gift which does not flourish in that way today. Thus it is quite prudent and particularly congruent with Christian charity, which “hopes all things” (1 Cor. 13:[7]), that all people include even persecutors and blaspheming apostates in their prayers (1 Tim. 2:1).