Understanding Unbelief
Understanding belief and unbelief with a view to further spread of the Gospel
People Reject the Gospel
Paul’s work during that whole day was a setting forth (ἐκτίθημι), but with most earnest personal testifying (διά in the participle for earnestness) and with loving persuasion.
ἐκτίθημι ektíthēmi; fut. ekthḗsō, from ek (1537), out, and títhēmi (5087), to put. To expose, to place out as an infant (Acts 7:21). In the mid. ektíthemai, to set forth or expound, expose oneself, declare (Acts 11:4; 18:26; 28:23; Sept.: Job 36:15).
Paul testified about the whole rule of God’s grace, that rule which culminates in glory, in which he made Jesus both Prince and Savior (5:31), both Lord and Christ (4:36). It was the entire plan of salvation. The Jews had it in “the law of Moses and in the prophets.” This expression refers to the entire Old Testament which is so commonly called “Moses and the prophets.” It is here that Paul’s persuading of the Jews concerning Jesus comes in. He attempted to move them to accept what Moses and the prophets had foretold and what had been fulfilled so completely in Jesus, in his sacrificial death, in his glorious resurrection, and in his eternal exaltation.
All Unbelievers are Deaf and Blind
HARDNESS AND DULLNESS OF HEART The spiritual condition of persistent unresponsiveness to God and His Word, which can rise to the level of rejection and hostility. Apart from divinely granted repentance, this condition can harden to a permanent and unchanging state, leading to condemnation.
Hardness or dullness of heart is regularly expressed in a number of equivalent phrases, metaphors, and other figures of speech, including obduracy, blindness, deafness, moral insensitivity, foolishness, unbelief, stubbornness, stupidity, brutishness, deficiency in understanding, darkness, and stiffness of neck. According to the Bible, humans bear the responsibility for this condition because it demonstrates willful unbelief in the face of God’s clear message and works.
17 This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; 19 who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
Hardness of the heart comes up in the New Testament in connection with Jesus’ teaching on the parables, specifically, the parable of the Sower, which describes four different heart responses to the Word of God (Matt 13:14–15; Mark 4:12; Luke 8:10). The parable of the sower anticipates widespread failure to properly respond to God’s message, as demonstrated by the fact that three of the four “soils” (representing the heart) prove to be unresponsive and unfruitful.
The book of Revelation may describe a future time when people will stubbornly refuse to repent from their wickedness, including their many idolatries and despite the intense judgments poured out from heaven (Rev 9:20–21; 16:9, 11).
HARDNESS OF HEART The action or state of resistance to and rejection of the Word and will of God. Hardness of heart can be a refusal to hear the Word of God, or it can be a refusal to submit and obey the will of God. This rejection can include both the message delivered and the messenger who delivers it.
“Hardening” is a process whereby a person ceases to have a conscience about an evil action that is committed or a sinful attitude that is embodied, such as pride, godlessness, hatred, lust, etc. (Heb. 3:13; 1 Tim. 4:2). Sinful habits can produce or compound this hardened condition. Hardness of heart can eventually destroy one’s sense of sin, ruling out the possibility of repentance.
Some Do Believe
“And I will give you an heart of flesh.”
—Ezekiel 36:26
A heart of flesh is known by its tenderness concerning sin. To have indulged a foul imagination, or to have allowed a wild desire to tarry even for a moment, is quite enough to make a heart of flesh grieve before the Lord. The heart of stone calls a great iniquity nothing, but not so the heart of flesh.
“If to the right or left I stray,
That moment, Lord, reprove;
And let me weep my life away,
For having grieved thy love”
The heart of flesh is tender of God’s will. My Lord Will-be-will is a great blusterer, and it is hard to subject him to God’s will; but when the heart of flesh is given, the will quivers like an aspen leaf in every breath of heaven, and bows like an osier in every breeze of God’s Spirit. The natural will is cold, hard iron, which is not to be hammered into form, but the renewed will, like molten metal, is soon moulded by the hand of grace. In the fleshy heart there is a tenderness of the affections. The hard heart does not love the Redeemer, but the renewed heart burns with affection towards him. The hard heart is selfish and coldly demands, “Why should I weep for sin? Why should I love the Lord?” But the heart of flesh says; “Lord, thou knowest that I love thee; help me to love thee more!” Many are the privileges of this renewed heart; “’Tis here the Spirit dwells, ’tis here that Jesus rests.” It is fitted to receive every spiritual blessing, and every blessing comes to it. It is prepared to yield every heavenly fruit to the honour and praise of God, and therefore the Lord delights in it. A tender heart is the best defence against sin, and the best preparation for heaven. A renewed heart stands on its watchtower looking for the coming of the Lord Jesus. Have you this heart of flesh?
Paul did not completely give up on witnessing to the Jews of Corinth, as his relocating next door to the synagogue indicates. Paul’s Jewish opponents cannot have been very pleased about his choice of a new location in such close proximity to the synagogue. Nothing more is known of Titius Justus.
Those who perished in the siege were 1,100,000, besides vast numbers who were slain at other times and places; and nearly 100,000 more were taken and sold for slaves; and their nation has been dispersed in all countries for upwards of 1700 years, while their city has been trodden under foot of the Romans, Saracens, Mamalukes, Franks, and Turks, who possess it to this day. In 1948 Israel became a nation, and in 1967, after the “Six Day War,” once again possessed Jerusalem
What Paul is saying, then, here in verse 25, is that Israel’s partial hardening—the hardening of part of the people of Israel—will last until the full number of elect Gentiles has been gathered into God’s fold.
And when will that full number have been brought to salvation in Christ? Scripture is very clear on this point. It will be on the day of Christ’s glorious Return.
A lady told me once that she was so hard-hearted she couldn’t come to Christ.
“Well,” I said, “my good woman, it doesn’t say ‘all ye soft-hearted people come.’ Black hearts, vile hearts, hard hearts, soft hearts, all hearts come. Who can soften your hard heart but Himself?”
If you would be rid of a hard heart, that great enemy to the growth of the grace of fear, be much with Christ upon the cross in your meditations, for that is an excellent remedy against hardness of heart. A right sight of him, as he hanged there for your sins, will dissolve your heart into tears, and make it soft and tender.
JOHN BUNYAN