23. Behold, O man! how true it is, that none of those who refuse to follow Christ in their lives, by an unfeigned repentance, can ever get rid of the blindness of their hearts, and of everlasting darkness.
Chapter XXXVIII.
Showing That An Unchristian Life Leads To False Doctrine, Hardness Of Heart, And Blindness; Also, Treating Of The Eternal Election Of Grace.
Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.—John 12:35.
Since Christ, and faith in him are denied, and almost wholly extirpated by an ungodly life, what shall his doctrine profit us? For his doctrine, with the Word and Sacraments, is delivered to us for no other end, than that it be inwardly digested, and converted, as it were, into our very life and spirit. As from a good seed springs up good fruit, so from the Word and Sacraments should spring up within us the noble life of regeneration, or the new birth; the new, holy, and spiritual man; or, to speak all in one word, a true and real Christian. For he that is a Christian, must needs be born again of the Spirit, the Word, and the Sacraments, and believe and live in Christ, as in the primary principle of the life of grace. As certainly as a child is begotten by his father, so truly must the Christian be begotten of God and of Christ, through faith. James 1:18; 1 Peter 1:23; John 3:3, 5; Titus 3:5.
2. When, therefore, we do not resolve to strive against the depraved bent of our flesh, and to digest the doctrine of Christ into our life and nature; nay, when we contradict the Christian doctrine by an anti-Christian life, by irreligion and profaneness; is it not plain that we are not begotten of God, nor born of Christ? What will Christ's doctrine profit us, when we are sure that our life does not correspond with it at all? Will our vain boasts of the light of the Gospel do any good, when we evidently walk in darkness? It is on this account that the light deservedly retires from us, and the world begins to be overspread with darkness and false doctrines, with errors and with seducing spirits. And that we might beware of these, our blessed Saviour hath left us this warning: “While ye have the light, walk in the light, lest darkness come upon you” (John 12:35); that is, lest ye be led away into all kinds of errors and delusions, into blindness and hardness of heart, into darkness and prejudices, which indispose the mind for the very reception of the light of the Gospel. This was the case with Pharaoh, the Jews, and also of Julian the Apostate; who, being in the end convicted by the reproaches of his own conscience, exclaimed openly, and to his own confusion, that Christ both lived and reigned, and was both Lord and God; saying, “Thou hast overcome, O Galilean; thou hast overcome.” It would have been better for him to have said, “Lord, have mercy upon me!” But, alas! this was entirely out of his reach, in consequence of the hardness of his heart, contracted by an uninterrupted course of sinning, and by having rejected and despised the mercy of Christ.
3. This hardness of heart, is that [pg 130] terrible darkness which, in the end, overtakes all such as refuse to walk in the light whilst they have it. It is the just punishment inflicted on those that blaspheme the truth, as Pharaoh did, when he asked: “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice, to let Israel go? I know not the Lord.” Exodus 5:2. Therefore it was but just that he should the more grievously feel the overruling power of God, by being made an example to the whole world, and a lasting monument of the indignation of the Lord, and of the weakness of men who vainly presume to oppose him.
4. In like manner were the Jews of old struck with blindness and hardness of heart, when they refused to hearken to the voice of the Lord, having been warned by Moses long before, that this would certainly come to pass. “The Lord,” says he, “shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart.” Deut. 28:28. This actually did befall them, as may be seen, Isaiah, chap. 6:9-12. Whereby it is manifest, that such hardness of heart is the most righteous punishment of unbelief, of contempt of God, and the heavenly truth declared by him; according to the words of St. Paul: “With all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause, God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie.” 2 Thess. 2:10, 11. Whence it plainly appears, why God is used to strike men with such terrible blindness and hardness of heart; namely, because they “receive not the love of the truth.”