What does Luke 12:10 mean?
God's Word—the Bible—is truth. Every verse is truth. But we must read and understand each verse in context. Scripture is true in what it intends to teach—not everything we might prefer it be taken to mean. Jesus is teaching His disciples to have courage when they are called to defend their faith in Him. They should not fear religious or civil leaders who may kill them for their beliefs; they should fear the God who will judge those who deny Him (Luke 12:4–5). Those who acknowledge that Jesus is God and the Son of God and rely on Him for the forgiveness of their sins—details that we now know but were not yet revealed at the time of this passage—Jesus will claim as His own and keep safe. He will even forgive those who publicly deny Him if they confess that sin (1 John 1:9). But He will not forgive those who blaspheme the Holy Spirit.This is a well-known, troublesome concept, although it's usually addressed in Matthew 12:22–32 or Mark 3:22–30. In the context of those passages, Jesus has expelled a demon. Scribes—lawyers of the Pharisees—have come down from Jerusalem to investigate Jesus' ministry. These investigators are already prejudiced against Him. They decide that Jesus has driven out the demon through the power of Satan, an accusation that Jesus proves is ridiculous. Mark is clear that Jesus' blasphemy charge against the scribes is specifically because "they were saying, 'He has an unclean spirit'" (Mark 3:30), that is, they are attributing the power by which Jesus had authority over the demon to Satan, not the Holy Spirit. Luke also records this event but doesn't include the part about blasphemy (Luke 11:14–23).
The event recorded here may have occurred in a different time and context than the other incident. Jesus is talking about the disciples affirming their faith in Jesus. The Holy Spirit will give them the words to say (Luke 12:12). If their accusers reject the power of the Holy Spirit in the disciples' affirmation, they will not be forgiven. The affirmation is that Jesus is the Messiah who has come to save them.
This blasphemy is not a one-time act; the priests conspired to have Jesus killed, but after the apostles started the church in Jerusalem, several priests came to faith in Christ (Acts 6:7). So, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is continual rejection of the gospel message as witnessed by the Holy Spirit. Certainly, people who reject the gospel—that Jesus has come to take their sins—will not be saved. That is the nature of the gospel.
Abusive spiritual leaders often twist this meaning by combining it with 1 Chronicles 16:22 which says, "Touch not my anointed ones, do my prophets no harm!" These leaders use these passages to shut down biblical criticism about their ministries. They claim they are "God's anointed," and that their decisions are beyond reproach. They also claim that if their ministry is large, that is the Holy Spirit's work and to deny the Spirit's work is to blaspheme Him. That is not what the passage is saying. The work of the Holy Spirit in this passage is giving Christ-followers the power to defend their acknowledgement of Jesus' identity and work. If someone denies the Holy Spirit's message, they deny Christ. That means rejection of the gospel, not a particular religious leader's ministry.
Critics of Christianity love to point out that the Trinity is not found in Scripture. What they mean is that the term "Trinity" is not found in Scripture. The word was coined by the second-century theologian Tertullian as the early church worked to explain and unpack their faith. That doesn't mean there is no evidence for the triune God in Scripture. Luke 12:8–10 is one of several passages that mentions all three Persons: "God" the Father, Jesus the "Son of Man," and the Holy Spirit.
