Text: 2 Corinthians 3:12-18

Question: Why the spiritual hardness & spiritual blindness of some people? 

Context: 2 Corinthians is one of the clearest examples of spiritual warfare in the entire Bible. Chapter 3-4 specifically deal with why some people respond to truth with humility and repentance vs. why others hate truth and respond to it via hostility and rejection. Of those who are hostile to truth, Paul says “their minds were hardened” (2 Cor 3:14) and in v. 15, he says “a veil lies over their hearts” (2 Cor 3:15). Specifically, he is addressing unsaved Jews overtly here in this passage, those who’ve been given formidable evidence that Christ is the Messiah, but still approved and even demanded His murder. There’s a hardening of their hearts and minds that is God’s means of judgment for their impenitence. 

But we see this pattern extrapolated to all who suppress truth and harden themselves against the truth. And it all comes down to a dirty 3-letter word the world hates but remains true nonetheless: sin.   

Encouragement & Application: It is not that there’s a paucity of evidence for the Christian faith; it’s that the world system, drunk on lies and moral rebellion, does not want the truth. Just like infamous atheist Richard Dawkins revealed this week, he wants to remain a ‘cultural Christian’ but reject the Christ who undergirds it all. He sees what’s coming, and he fears it, and well he should. He wants the fruit Christianity brings, but he thinks he can reject the root that is Christ. He cannot. No culture can. It will be Christ or chaos. It will be truth vs. the Lie. It will be the Lion of Judah or the roaring lion of Satan who comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. And what Paul is explaining to us in 2 Corinthians 3-4 is spiritual warfare. He lays out the reality of it and explains the consequences and characteristics of human sin but also the glorious forgiveness and restoration of redemption for all who will come in repentance and faith to the Christ of God.