<p>12:31&nbsp;<em>Therefore I say to you: Every sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven to men</em>- His simple claim that God can forgive men all sins was radical (see the parallel Mk. 3:28)- for the Rabbis had a whole list of unforgivable sins, like murder, apostasy, contempt for the Law, etc. But the Lord went further. His many words of judgment weren&rsquo;t directed to the murderers and whores and Sabbath breakers; they were instead directed against those who condemned those people, considering themselves righteous. He calls those who appeared so righteous a &lsquo;generation of vipers&rsquo;. The publican, not the Pharisee, finds God&rsquo;s acceptance, according to Jesus. And again, the Lord is making a telling point- because Rabbis held that repentance for publicans was almost impossible, because it was impossible for them to know exactly all the people they&rsquo;d cheated. Very clearly, the Lord&rsquo;s message was radical. He was out to form a holy people from whores and gamblers, no-good boys and conmen. And moreover, He was out to show that what God especially judges and hates are the things that humanity doesn&rsquo;t think twice about: hypocrisy, self-righteousness, judgmentalism, exclusion of others&hellip; See on 10:29.</p>
<p><em>But the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit shall not be forgiven</em>- The exposition offered above suggests that people were forced to a choice. Jesus of Nazareth had access to superhuman power, far more than anyone had ever had. Which power was it, within the framework of their dualistic view of the cosmos- of Satan or God? Was He God's supreme agent on earth- or Satan's? There was no middle ground. All had to choose. The miracles were good. Therefore, it was Satan who had been bound. Jesus was therefore of God. To insist He was from Satan was to wilfully refuse to believe the evidence God had placed before them. There was no forgiveness for this choice- whilst it continued. If anyone wanted to repent and accept that Jesus was of God, to gather with Him, to be with Him rather than against Him- then that was always possible. Note that there is no statement that&nbsp;<em>repentance</em>&nbsp;is impossible, rather that&nbsp;<em>forgiveness</em>&nbsp;is impossible whilst a person is in the position of so strongly rejecting Christ as God's Son. For those who did accept Christ as of God rather than of Satan, then &quot;all manner of sin&quot; could be forgiven them, including even at times speaking against Him personally (:32). From one viewpoint, the only way we cannot be saved is to wilfully refuse to participate in the new covenant. The Lord laboured the point that the &quot;unforgivable sin&quot; was to &quot;blaspheme the Holy Spirit&quot; (Mk. 3:28-30; Mt. 12:31-37; Lk. 12:10). But it's been demonstrated that this is a reference to Jewish writings and traditions such as Jubilees 15:33 &quot;where not circumcising one's child is unforgivable, because it is a declaration that one does not belong to the covenant people&quot;.</p>