How Does God Accomplish Reprobation?

February 9, 2025 Preacher: John Bell Series: Sunday School: Soteriology

God Hardens Hearts, Blinds Eyes, and Deafens Ears

  • God Hardened Pharaoh, and He Hardens Whomever He Wills
  • God Hardened, Blinded, and Deafened Non-elect Israelites
  • God Hardens, Deafens, and Blinds Certain Sinners

How Does God Harden?

  • God Hardens by Withholding Grace
  • God Hardens through Sinful People
  • God Hardens with the Truth

Is That Fair?

It is crucial to remember two truths:

  1. God is the supreme Creator, and we are his creatures.
  2. When God hardens, blinds, and deafens an individual by withholding grace, that person is not innocent but already guilty

How Can God Ordain Sin but Not Be Guilty of Sin?

 Table 1: Ultimate, Proximate, and Efficient Causes

Type of Cause

 

Example 1:
Census

 

Example 2:
Death of Christ

 

The ultimate cause ordains or ensures an action.

God: “The Lord …incited David” to “number Israel and Judah” (2 Sam. 24:1).

God: Jesus was “delivered up according to the definite [predetermined (NASB, NET)] plan and foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23). The people did “whatever [God’s] hand and [God’s] plan had predestined to take place” (4:28).

A proximate cause influences an action.

Satan: “Satan … incited David to number Israel” (1 Chron. 21:1).

Jews: Jews incited Jesus’s death by demanding that Pilate crucify Jesus (see Mark 15:13–14).

An efficient cause directly performs an action.

David: King David commanded Joab to number the people (2 Sam.

 24:2; 1 Chron. 21:2). “I have sinned greatly in what I have done” (2 Sam. 24:10).

Gentiles: “The hands of lawless men” (Acts 2:23) and “the Gentiles” (4:27) carried out Jesus’s crucifixion. Specifically, “Pontius Pilate” (4:27) ordered it, and the Roman soldiers performed it.

More in Sunday School: Soteriology

March 16, 2025

A Biblical Understanding of Conversion (& Evangelism)

March 9, 2025

Regeneration

March 2, 2025

The Gospel Call and Effective Calling