22 A poor demon-afflicted wretch, both blind and deaf, was set down before him. Jesus healed him, gave him his sight and hearing.
23 The people who saw it were impressed - "This has to be the Son of David!"
24 But the Pharisees, when they heard the report, were cynical. "Black magic," they said. "Some devil trick he's pulled from his sleeve."
25 Jesus confronted their slander. "A judge who gives opposite verdicts on the same person cancels himself out; a family that's in a constant squabble disintegrates;
26 if Satan banishes Satan, is there any Satan left?
27 If you're slinging devil mud at me, calling me a devil kicking out devils, doesn't the same mud stick to your own exorcists?
28 "But if it's by God's power that I am sending the evil spirits packing, then God's kingdom is here for sure.
29 How in the world do you think it's possible in broad daylight to enter the house of an awake, able-bodied man and walk off with his possessions unless you tie him up first? Tie him up, though, and you can clean him out.
30 "This is war, and there is no neutral ground. If you're not on my side, you're the enemy; if you're not helping, you're making things worse.
31 "There's nothing done or said that can't be forgiven. But if you deliberately persist in your slanders against God's Spirit, you are repudiating the very One who forgives.
32 If you reject the Son of Man out of some misunderstanding, the Holy Spirit can forgive you, but when you reject the Holy Spirit, you're sawing off the branch on which you're sitting, severing by your own perversity all connection with the One who forgives.
At first, it may not seem like that passage has a lot to do with this poster—
A man had been miraculously healed! The people were in awe and began using their research skills to evaluate if this was God, but the Pharisees were willfully blind, unwilling to face the possibility that Jesus was who he said that he was. Like the dog in the poster, they choose to reject what was right in front of them.
There are countless nuggets of revelation in Jesus' response, but the one that connects closely to the Runaway Bride is this:
• One of the indications that a person is willfully blind is that their conclusion does not make sense.
Or to say it another way:
• Nonsensical explanations are indicative of willful blindness.
Jesus calls them out on this. Their accusation made no sense. It is illogical that Satan would cast out Satan. In the same way, KatieLyn's explanation that Joe would grow to hate her made no sense. It is totally nonsensical that the man God was using to answer her prayers would not be capable of loving her completely. Both the Pharisees and KatieLyn were proposing ridiculous explanations for the evidence. In fact, this time, Jesus did not even have to quote the Torah to show where they were missing it—the Pharisees were not even reaching the lower standard of human logic.
Jesus continues to speak. And it gets a lot more serious. KatieLyn's rejection of Joe was also a rejection of God's plan for her life. She rejected the plan of the One who is able to save and forgive. That matches verse 31: "There's nothing done or said that can't be forgiven. But if you deliberately persist in your slanders against God's Spirit, you are repudiating the very One who forgives."
Here is how that same 31st verse was translated for the Berean Literal Bible: Because of this I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men; but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.
Deliberate persistence. On purpose and ongoing. Every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people. Joe forgave KatieLyn within a matter of weeks. She can be forgiven for how she mistreated Joe by trusting in the work of Jesus. But has she blasphemed the Spirit? Jesus said blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.
Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is a settled rejection to the Spirit’s witness to Jesus Christ. It is unrepentant willful blindness to the Spirit’s witness to Jesus. It’s not so much a point of “no forgiveness” as it is a point of “no repentance." ~ Author unknownThat is one of the best definitions I have seen. Not so much no forgiveness, but no repentance. There is an old rule of thumb that says, "if you are concerned that you may have blasphemed the Holy Spirit, then you haven't" This is because a heart that is soft enough to be concerned about that possibility is not deliberately and persistently hard toward the Holy Spirit.
Prior to, throughout, and even after the engagement period, we had many evidences from the Holy Spirit that marriage to each other was Jesus' plan for their lives. The Holy Spirit witness was so powerful that neither Joe nor I could doubt it. Joe knows that KatieLyn had that witness at the time he proposed. Now she is in a settled rejection of it.
Has KatieLyn blasphemed the Spirit? No. Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is a settled rejection to the Spirit’s witness to Jesus Christ, not to another person. Has she blasphemed the plan that the Holy Spirit revealed to her? Probably. As recently as last month we came across an indicator that she has not yet repented of rejecting the Lord's revealed plan for her life. I started writing about it, but I've left it as a draft. As I said, it was an indicator, not solid proof. So at this point, I think the Lord showed me something to pray about, not to write about.
The Lesson
The lesson this time is cautionary, not declarative. I am not pronouncing that KatieLyn's heart is one way or another—I don't know. But Jesus taught that such hard-heartedness was rebellion against God, and being in rebellion against Him is a very dangerous place. And not just because there will come a judgment day, although there is that; but it is dangerous because when one's relationship with the Lord includes unrepentant rebellion, one is more likely to compound the original error.
meme credit: https://ifunny.co/
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