“Their minds are full of darkness; they wander far from the life God gives because they have closed their minds and hardened their hearts against him” .(Ephesians 4:18).
It is a tragedy for a person to have blinded eyes but infinitely worse to have a blinded heart. No one ever willfully chooses to be sightless, but spiritual blindness is a product of the human will.
After Christ had given sight to the man born blind, the Pharisees still refused to believe, so Jesus said to them:
“For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind....If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth” (John 9:39, 41).
Like these ancient intellectuals, it often seems that modern intellectuals are incurably blind. They profess to teach science and philosophy of the highest complexity, but their understanding is darkened, and their hearts are blinded when it comes to the saving gospel of Jesus Christ. As Paul says:
“If the Good News we preach is hidden behind a veil, it is hidden only from people who are perishing. Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God” (2 Corinthians 4:3-4).
Even very religious people, people who believe in God as Creator, may blind themselves when confronted with the truth that the Creator must also become their Savior.
“But the people’s minds were hardened, and to this day whenever the old covenant is being read, the same veil covers their minds so they cannot understand the truth. And this veil can be removed only by believing in Christ. Yes, even today when they read Moses’ writings, their hearts are covered with that veil, and they do not understand” (2 Corinthians 3:14-15).
Nevertheless, Christ came as “the light,” and when anyone will simply in faith:
“but whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away” (2 Corinthians 3:16),
and the gospel will:
“shine unto them” (2 Corinthians 4:4).
(Days of Praise)