Hi cgrfstr1, you wrote:Paidion, How are we to understand this if Jesus is Holy Spirit?
Luke 12: 10 And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who mblasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.
I understand it as follows:
There is a sense in which the Holy Spirit is "another advocate" (see John 14:16). That fact does not imply that the Spirit is a third divine Individual or Person, but is rather the extension of the Person of Jesus (and the Person of the Father). The Father dwells particularly in heaven with the Son seated at his right hand (Mark 16:19) and sometimes standing at his right hand (Acts 7:55,56). So the extension of the Persons of the Father and the Son is different from the Persons of the Father and the Son as they are in heaven.
As I see it, when Paul wrote that the Lord [Jesus] is the Spirit, He was saying that Jesus and the Spirit are the same divine Person. In the same verse, Paul referred to "the spirit of the Lord [Jesus], that is the presence of Jesus here on earth, in the hearts of his people, even though He dwells in heaven in a special way.
In the words of our Lord that you quoted above, I think He is saying that if one spoke against Him while he remained a human being here on earth, he could be forgiven. But to blaspheme the blessed presence of the Father and of the Son (the Spirit) who indwells and works through his people will not be forgiven.
In Matthew's account of this same incident, the Pharisees, when they heard that Jesus was casting out demons, said:
“It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons.” (Matthew 12:24)
In response to this, Jesus said in part:
Now if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. (Matthew 12:27,28)
Since Jesus cast out demons through the spirit of God his Father, then the Pharisees, by claiming that He was casting them out through Beelzebul, were blaspheming the spirit of God. That's when Jesus said:
Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come. (Matthew 12:31,32)
So Jesus was emphasizing what a serious matter it is to attribute the work of the spirit of God to demons. It is blasphemy against the spirit of God, and thus against God Himself.
The following passage may also help us to understand that for us disciples of Christ there are two divine Persons:
For us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. (1 Corinthians 8:6)
Notice that Paul didn't include a third divine Person in this statement.