Deuteronomy 31:1-29; Luke 12:8-12; Psalms 78:40-55; Proverbs 19:6-7
NT: “And I say to you, anyone who acknowledges me before others, the Son of Man will also acknowledge him before the angels of God, but whoever denies me before others will be denied before the angels of God. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. Whenever they bring you before synagogues and rulers and authorities, don’t worry about how you should defend yourselves or what you should say. For the Holy Spirit will teach you at that very hour what must be said.” (Luke 12:8-12 CSB)
The word translated here as ‘acknowledge’ is the same word that is usually translated as ‘confess’ – homologeo in Greek. It literally means same words. At it’s most basic meaning, Jesus is saying if you agree with the things that I have said, declare the things that I have said, live by the things that I have said, and don’t reject the things that I have said; then I will relay what you have done in heaven on your behalf. Something that I know for certain: Jesus will never lie on our behalf. So if we reject Jesus and do not follow His example, and the Father asks Jesus if we belong to Him, He is going to tell the truth – He is going to say that we never placed our faith in Him, and that we are not, and were never connected. As far as the unforgivable sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit, I must confess that I don’t understand that fully. Thankfully, that is not a judgement that I or any of us have to make. That is a judgement reserved for God to make… But I will say this: Paul spoke about the fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, etc.) and that there is no law against the altogether good that is evident when the Spirit is at work. Even godless heathens, whose hearts have not been completely hardened, can recognize goodness in the midst of all the evil and darkness in the world. For someone to willingly and knowingly attribute the works of the Spirit to the evil one, they would have to be completely ensconced in their own selfish and demonically inspired agenda, their will would have to completely reject God’s word, will, and ways; and their heart would have to be hardened into unpliable stone. The good news in all of this is that if we acknowledge the Lord, we are His. He defends us and vouches for us in heaven, He ever intercedes for us before the Father, and He sends us the Holy Spirit to help us remain faithful and glorify Him on the earth.
Jamie Hicks 