In his letter to the Ephesians, the apostle Paul explained precisely why non-Christians remain in unbelief:
This I say therefore, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding [perhaps a reference to Satan’s blinding], excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality, for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness (Eph. 4:17-19, emphasis added).
Paul said that the unsaved are excluded from the life of God because of “the ignorance that is in them.” But why are they ignorant? Why has their “understanding been darkened”? The answer is, “because of the hardness of their hearts.” They have become “callous.” That is the root and primary reason why people remain unsaved.[1] They bear the blame themselves. Satan only supplies the lies they want to believe.
Jesus’ parable of the sower and the soils illustrates this concept perfectly:
The sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some fell beside the road; and it was trampled under foot, and the birds of the air ate it up….Now the parable is this: the seed is the word of God. And those beside the road are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their heart, so that they may not believe and be saved (Luke 8:5, 11-12).
Notice that the seed, which represents the gospel, fell beside the road and was trampled. It couldn’t penetrate the hard soil where people frequently walked. Thus it was easy for birds, which represent the devil, to steal the seeds.
The point of the entire parable is to compare the condition of people’s hearts (and their receptivity to God’s Word) with various types of soil. Jesus was explaining why some people believe and why others do not: It all depends upon them.
How does Satan figure into the picture? He is only able to steal the Word from those with hardened hearts. The birds in the parable were only a secondary cause as to why the seeds did not germinate. The primary problem was with the soil; in fact, it was the soil’s hardness that made it possible for the birds to get the seeds.
The same thing is true with the gospel. The real problem is with the hardened hearts of free moral agents. When people reject the gospel, they make a choice to remain blinded. They would prefer to believe lies rather than the truth. As Jesus put it, “The light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil” (John 3:19, emphasis added).
The Bible does not lead us to believe that people are sincere, good-hearted folks, who would surely believe the gospel if Satan would only stop blinding them. On the contrary, the Bible paints a very dim picture of human character, and God will hold every individual responsible for his sinful choices. Sitting on His throne of judgment, God will not accept anyone’s excuse that “the devil made me do it.”
[1] Paul’s description of unbelievers in Romans 1:18-32 also supports this same concept.
