What is blasphemy? Why is it sinful?
Matthew 9:2-7Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “Be encouraged, my child! Your sins are forgiven.” But some of the teachers of religious law said to themselves, “That’s blasphemy! Does he think he’s God?” Jesus knew what they were thinking, so he asked them, “Why do you have such evil thoughts in your hearts? Is it easier to say ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or ‘Stand up and walk’? So I will prove to you that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins.” Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and go home!” And the man jumped up and went home!
After Jesus said that he could heal spiritual as well as physical paralysis, those who doubted him charged him with blasphemy. He responded by proving that God had given him tremendous power to heal people’s bodies; why should his enemies doubt that he could forgive sins as well? In fact, those who refused to see God at work through Jesus were the ones guilty of blasphemy.
Matthew 26:64-65Jesus replied, . . . “In the future you will see the Son of Man seated in the place of power at God’s right hand and coming on the clouds of heaven.” Then the high priest tore his clothing to show his horror and said, “Blasphemy! Why do we need other witnesses? You have all heard his blasphemy.”
Anyone claiming to be God is speaking blasphemy unless that person is, in fact, God. The aim of Jesus’ trial was not to find out who he actually was, but to build the case for his execution. There are many today who doubt that Jesus ever claimed to be God. But passages like this one remind us that his audiences understood what he was claiming, and many rejected his claim.
Isaiah 44:11All who worship idols will be disgraced along with all these craftsmen—mere humans— who claim they can make a god.
Many people in Isaiah’s time approved the work of those who manufactured gods out of wood, stone, silver, and gold. Idolatry is a form of blasphemy, and these people’s blasphemy was no different from that of people today who glibly design gods to their liking. The gods that come from human imaginations cannot save us from the wrath of the God in whose image we are made.
Ezekiel 28:2In your great pride you claim, “I am a god! I sit on a divine throne in the heart of the sea.” But you are only a man and not a god, though you boast that you are a god.
When human beings claim to be God, or simply act as if they have displaced or replaced God, they have placed themselves under God’s judgment. Such boasting is blasphemy, and sooner or later God will bring it to account.
Daniel 11:36The king will do as he pleases, exalting himself and claiming to be greater than every god, even blaspheming the God of gods. He will succeed, but only until the time of wrath is completed.
Claiming to be God or claiming to be equal to God is blasphemy; we blaspheme God whenever we claim his glory for ourselves. Daniel learned that God sometimes uses the arrogance of blasphemers to carry out his wrath and justice in history, but they will seem to succeed only until God judges them, too.
Exodus 20:7You must not misuse the name of the Lord your God. The Lord will not let you go unpunished if you misuse his name.
Misusing God’s holy name is a form of blasphemy. While this third of the Ten Commandments is usually explained as a warning against using God’s name and titles lightly or disrespectfully, it may also refer to the arrogance of those who identify as God’s people but behave however they please. God’s name and character ought to be a continual source of awe for us.
Job 2:8-10Job scraped his skin with a piece of broken pottery as he sat among the ashes. His wife said to him, “Are you still trying to maintain your integrity? Curse God and die.” But Job replied, “You talk like a foolish woman. Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?” So in all this, Job said nothing wrong.
Cursing God is blasphemy, even when we are responding to what appear to be unfair or harsh circumstances. Job heard the foolish counsel of his distraught wife and responded wisely.
1 Peter 2:12Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors. Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will give honor to God when he judges the world.
We blaspheme God when we damage his reputation in the eyes of a watching world. If we claim to be the people of God, we are accountable for the ways we demonstrate by our actions and relationships what God is like and what he has done for us.
Exodus 5:2“Is that so?” retorted Pharaoh. “And who is the Lord? Why should I listen to him . . . ? I don’t know the Lord, and I will not let Israel go.”
Trivializing God and dismissing his commands are both forms of blasphemy. No truer words have been spoken than Pharaoh’s arrogant claim not to know the Lord. The statement was made by someone who could not imagine anyone greater than himself. For any creature to speak of his Creator with such arrogance is to invite painful correction, even if he happens to be Pharaoh.
Job 15:25They shake their fists at God, defying the Almighty.
While humans often blaspheme God simply to exalt themselves in the eyes of other people, this life-endangering sin can take on the form of direct confrontation by the creature against the Creator. Such defiance woefully fails to understand the proper attitude of a conscious creature before his or her Creator.
Deuteronomy 9:16“There below me I could see that you had sinned against the Lord your God. You had melted gold and made a calf idol for yourselves. How quickly you had turned away from the path the Lord had commanded you to follow!”
Worshiping man-made gods of metal or any other material constitutes blasphemy against God. Dismay and even anger are appropriate responses from a heart right with God at the sight of such blasphemous behavior. Moses witnessed this kind of blasphemy from the mountainside after having seen firsthand the glory of the living God; Jesus saw the same sight as he confronted money-worshippers who had turned God’s house into a shopping mall.
Leviticus 26:14-16If you do not listen to me or obey all these commands, and if you break my covenant . . . treating my regulations with contempt . . . I will punish you.
This passage includes several different actions that constitute blasphemy on the part of those who know they are dealing with God:
- failure to listen
- failure to obey the commands they have heard
- violating a relationship with God by rejecting his instructions
All of these are affronts to God that merit his punishment.
Nehemiah 9:26They were disobedient and rebelled against you. They turned their backs on your Law, they killed your prophets who warned them to return to you, and they committed terrible blasphemies.
History can show us how blasphemy unfolds. Note that Nehemiah could trace the steps of previous generations who had rejected God’s instructions, killed those God sent to call them to repentance, and inevitably devolved into further and further sins in an affront to God. History can tell us about what was done right; more often it warns us about what went wrong.
Leviticus 22:15“The priests must not let the Israelites defile the sacred offerings brought to the Lord.”
Irreverence in worship is a form of blasphemy. It was a priestly function to point out and even prevent the people from treating holy offerings disdainfully. The eventual fall of the people was partly due to the failure of the priests to do their God-ordained duty and uphold the sanctity of worship.
Daniel 7:25He will defy the Most High and oppress the holy people of the Most High. He will try to change their sacred festivals and laws.
Contempt for what is sacred and important to God is blasphemous. In biblical prophetic literature, times of intense apostasy point to the eventual climax of history: a showdown between the forces of evil and an all-powerful God. The outcome of that conflict is pre-ordained.
1 Thessalonians 4:8Anyone who refuses to live by these rules is not disobeying human teaching but is rejecting God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.
Treating God’s commands as if they reflected merely human thinking is a form of blasphemy. Those who recognize God’s rules reveal that the Holy Spirit is drawing them toward God’s ways; those who redefine God’s rules cast into doubt any claim they may make to be believers.
Luke 10:16[Jesus] said to the disciples, “Anyone who accepts your message is also accepting me. And anyone who rejects you is rejecting me. And anyone who rejects me is rejecting God, who sent me.”
Rejecting the gospel is blasphemy against God. There is a direct line between the gospel message, the truth of Christ’s identity, and God himself. Those who reject the gospel, then, have tragically rejected the opportunity for a healed relationship with God.
Matthew 13:57They were deeply offended and refused to believe in him. Then Jesus told them, “A prophet is honored everywhere except in his own hometown and among his own family.”
Familiarity with a messenger may explain why someone would reject a truthful message, but it doesn’t excuse the rejection. People who had known Jesus as a child assumed they could dismiss him rather than pay attention to what he was teaching and demonstrating about his identity. Their rejection of Jesus was, tragically, a blasphemous rejection of God himself.
Psalm 14:1Only fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.”
Rejecting God altogether is not only blasphemy but the height of foolishness—a deep unawareness of the most important truth that exists.
1 Samuel 2:10“Those who fight against the Lord will be shattered.”
Willful rebellion against God is blasphemy. Even if the revolution seems to succeed at the human level, it will end in judgment and crushing defeat.
