a) Resisting the Holy Ghost.
Acts 7:51-"Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost." Here the picture is
that of the Holy Spirit attacking the citadel of the soul of man,
who violently resists the gracious attempts of the Spirit to win
him. In spite of the plainest arguments, and the most incontestable
facts this man wilfully rejects the evidence and refuses to
accept the Christ so convincingly presented. Thus is the Holy Ghost
resisted. (See Acts 6:10.) That this is a true picture of resistance
to the Holy Spirit is clearly seen from Stephen's recital of the
facts in Acts 7:51-57.
b) Insulting, or Doing Despite unto the Holy Spirit.
Heb. 10:29 (cf. Luke 18:32). It is the work of the Spirit to present
the atoning work of Christ to the sinner as the ground of his
pardon. When the sinner refuses to believe or accept the testimony
of the Spirit, he thereby insults the Spirit by esteeming the whole
work of Christ as a deception and a lie, or accounts the death of
Christ as the death of an ordinary or common man, and not as God's
provision for the sinner.
c) Blaspheming the Holy Spirit.
Matt. 12:31,32. This seems to be the most grievous sin of all,
for the Master asserts that there is no forgiveness for this sin.
Sins against the Son of Man may be forgiven because it was easily
possible, by reason of His humble birth, lowly parentage, etc., to
question the claims He put forth to deity. But when, after Pentecost,
the Holy Spirit came, and presented to every man's conscience
evidence sufficient to prove the truth of these claims, the man who
then refused to yield to Christ's claims was guilty of resisting,
insulting, and that amounts to blaspheming the testimony of the
whole Godhead, of which the Spirit is the executive.