The Last Sin

“Blasphemy against the Spirit is unpardonable not because it is the worst sin. It is unpardonable because it is the last sin.”

“For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.” (Matthew 24:38-39)

Most disputes about the meaning of the Scriptures are not due to a lack of trying when it comes to hermeneutics. They result from a lack of due process.

By this, I do not mean the process of interpretation, but rather the identification of the processes of God. He has a consistent way of doing things, and we must watch and learn.

A prime example is what we are supposed to make of Christ’s words concerning the unpardonable sin. Viewed in the context of Covenant architecture, it becomes apparent that blasphemy against the Spirit is unpardonable not because it is the worst sin. It is unpardonable because it is the last sin.

Firstly, the structure of Jesus’ words is “sacrificial.” In this case, we might think of it as an Ascension Offering, since the entire animal is consumed by God, who “comes down” in the holy fire to “see” what man has built. The Ethics of the Law are the heavens bowed down to the earth to sift and thresh and refine.

Some points worth noting concerning the structure:

• The passage divides neatly into a Forming, a Filling, and a Future. The word “blasphemy” is used in the Forming section. It means to misrepresent something, to bear false witness against it. The word “speak,” however, is used in the Filling section, and this has the connotation of laying something to rest, bringing the matter to a close, having the last word as a prophet—in this case, a false one.
• If this structure is overlaid upon the first-century history, it places those who cursed Christ at His crucifixion and yet repented after Peter’s sermon right at the center, at the “Pentecost” step. Their sin was not high-handed, since they realized what they had done once their “judicial” eyes were opened. They had been led astray by the Jewish rulers.
• Within the threefold Ethics section, the WILL NOTs correspond to altars, the Bronze Altar and the Golden Altar. The WILL BE corresponds to the Lampstand, Pentecost, the Spirit of God, yet here there is no mention of the Spirit. It seems that being outside of Christ means one is exposed to holy fire, but those who are in Christ have the Spirit and cannot say that Jesus is cursed (1 Corinthians 12:3). The forgiveness of all Israel at the crucifixion (Passover) would be limited to those who believed when judgment came a generation later (Atonement).

In the “Covenant-renewal” shape of this knife-sharp stanza of Jesus, there is no Atonement for sin (Step 6) and no Succession, no “Day 7,” no rest for the Land. Jesus is talking about the Jews in His day who, like their forefathers in the wilderness, would fail to enter into the promised inheritance of Israel. The blessings are missing from Step 6 because the end of old Israel was the expression of a self-maledictory oath.¹The self-maledictory nature of the oath explains the use of the conditional “if” in Greek in Hebrews 3:11; 4:3 and 4:5.

So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’ (Hebrews 3:11, NIV).

The fire of the Law (Steps 3-5) was intended to make the house clean for the fire of the Spirit, the Shekinah (Step 7). But if the Spirit was rejected, the house was left desolate. Instead of a pleasing savor—the pleasant smell of roasting meat on the altar below, or the smell of resurrection spices on the altar above—there was the “stink” of corruption (Amos 5:21).

In sacrificial terms, Christ ascended as High Priest, He sent the Spirit as holy fire to purify His people, and their apostolic witness “filled the house with smoke.” Those who rejected and murdered Christ were forgiven, but those who rejected the Spirit of Pentecost became a house filled with demons. Pure fire makes the Bride. Strange fire makes the harlot.

It was the same with Israel in the wilderness. She was forgiven for the sin with the golden calf, spiritual harlotry. But God said He would visit her again for this sin. It was not over. In the book of Numbers, the same sin was committed on a greater scale. The judgment at Sinai was a warning, so this later rebellion with pagan gods and pagan women was not a “wandering astray.” This was the last straw, the last sin, for old Israel, the generation which came out of Egypt. The nation was threshed and the husks were blown away.

Likewise, all the crimes in the last days of the Old Covenant were committed in a society saturated in the Scriptures and the witness of the prophets. This means the sin was “high-handed,” committed not merely by the leaders but also by the people in full knowledge of the Words of God. Blasphemy against the Spirit follows enlightenment. It is sin which is “epistemologically self-conscious,” that is, “open-eyed” rebellion.

But the person who does anything with a high hand, whether he is native or a sojourner, reviles the Lord, and that person shall be cut off from among his people. (Numbers 15:30)

The New Testament alludes to Exodus and Numbers to describe the sins of the Jewish leaders in the first century, but also to the days of Noah. The primeval history follows the same pattern. The sin of Cain was “covered” by a mark (Passover), but the Cainite line rejected the testimony of Enosh. Eventually, Enoch “ascended” as a kind of Firstfruits. Pentecost was the removal of the Spirit from earth, an initial Trumpets warning rather than a corporate execution. The last sin in that case was the rejection of the testimony of Noah, whose legal witness was their “last trumpet.”

FIRST WORLD		FIRST CENTURY
Adam’s creation, sin and redemption	TRANSCENDENCE Creation (Initiation – Sabbath)	The perfect life of Christ
Abel is slain. Cain is exiled.	HIERARCHY Division (Delegation – Passover)	The death and resurrection of Christ
Lamech’s kingdom. Sethite ministry. Enoch is taken.	ETHICS Ascension (Presentation – Firstfruits)	The ascension and enthronement of Christ
Violence and intermarriage.	Testing (Purification – Pentecost)	Kingdom comes. The harvest begins
Noah’s testimony. The ark is completed.	Maturity (Transformation – Trumpets)	Apostolic testimony. The Church is united.
Noah’s family is saved. The Land is submerged.	OATH/SANCTIONS Conquest (Vindication – Atonement)	The Church is delivered. Israel is conquered.
Noah’s rest and rule. A future guaranteed.	SUCCESSION Glorification (Representation – Booths)	The wedding supper. Heavenly government.

The original world was corrupted by Adam’s sin in the Sanctuary: theft from the Father and a curse on his children; Cain’s sin against the Son: the murder of a brother; and blasphemy against the Spirit, the holy matchmaker. The “consumption” of true Priesthood and true Prophecy by a godless kingdom meant that the work of all persons of the Trinity had been rejected. This is what brought about the end of the first world.

Likewise, throughout the empire, both the righteous and the wicked were ready for harvest, as Jesus said. The sins against the Father (the Herodian theft of Kingdom and the massacre of the innocents) and the Son (the murder of Christ, as Abel) would be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit who tries the hearts would result in the abandonment of the house, the desolation of the culture. When a nation stops its ears and rushes upon the saints, its end is nigh.

The rejection of the testimony of the Apostolic Church is what necessitated an epistle like the book of Hebrews. Since the Temple building continued (a false ark), this was a final warning for those who now doubted the words of Christ, who trust instead in the Temple to save them, and were considering apostasy. 

Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord… From the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day. Yet they did not listen to me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck. They did worse than their fathers. (Jeremiah 7:4; 26)

Hebrews 6:4-6 must be read in this context. The Jews who had been “enlightened” were now crucifying the Son of God once again through the murder of His prophets, beginning with Stephen. Their sin against Christ had been revealed to them by the Spirit as it had been through the preaching of Peter, but they refused to repent. They saw their faces in a glass but turned away. 

When God hardens people’s hearts, He does not do it from the inside. Since they rejected the indwelling of the Spirit, He hardened them through a return to external law, the faithful witness of the prophets (1 Samuel 6:6; Romans 9:14-18).²Church discipline is the same process in microcosm, a legal witness which will either soften the heart or harden it. Now deluded, they filled up their sins through the shedding of righteous blood and brought down vengeance. 

In the minds of the godless, the Scriptures and the Church are always condemned as the source of all our problems. The preacher is the one who “troubles Israel.”

Our culture is breaking free, as Israel did, that it might reach its full potential, a ripeness for judgment. As it was in the first century, infanticide is rife, Covenants are despised, and the words of men are hailed as the words of gods. As always, this is a blessing as well as a curse. The last sin is always the herald of a new beginning. By the Spirit of Christ, may our testimony be a pleasing savor.

This is an essay from Inquiétude: Essays for a People without Eyes.

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