Unbelief and Rejection of the Gospel
Not the Cause of Condemnation
Zion's Advocate, Vol. 42, No. 7, July 1903.
"He that believeth not shall be damned," is quoted by Arminians as supposed proof of their idea that damnation is the result of unbelief. It is argued by them that the Saviour teaches by this declaration that those who hear the gospel preached and do not believe it will be damned for not believing it. They contend that the present tense of the verb "believe" and the future tense of the verb "shall be damned" shows the act of damning to be subsequent to the unbelief and consequently the direct result of it. Now to say that he that believeth not now shall be damned in the future does not imply that he is not already damned. The fact is the one who believes not the gospel when he hears it preached was in a lost and condemned state before he heard it, is condemned while he hears it, and will continue to be condemned forever unless that condemnation be removed. Believing and not believing, on the part of their hearers, were to be evidences to the disciples of saved and unsaved characters. They were sent out into the world to preach to the people, and this sign was given them by which they might know who in their audiences were the children of God and who were not. Those of their hearers who disbelieved the gospel they preached had not been born of God and consequently were in a condemned state.Paul says, "But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost." II. Corinthians 4:3. He does not express in this statement a doubt about its being hid, but merely reasons from a supposition laid down as a hypothesis. That is, he takes it for granted that the gospel is hid, regarding this as an indisputable fact, and draws the conclusion from this premise that it is hid to them that are lost. He shows by this plain process of reasoning that they are already lost, the gospel being hid to them proving that fact.
In further description of them he says, "In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." He thus reasons that their unbelief was not the cause of their blindness but the evidence of it, their blindness being the cause of their unbelief. In all cases where this cause was removed the persons believed, which was true of all who were ordained to eternal life (Acts 13:48) and were born of God (I. John 5:1).
Jesus said to the unbelieving Jews, "Ye believe not because ye are not of my sheep." This shows that the cause of the unbelief was that they were not his sheep. Again he said, "He that believeth on him is not condemned; but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." This is relied upon by Arminians with great confidence as proving that unbelief is the cause of condemnation. We want to examine it, therefore, with care. The Saviour declares, first, that the believer is not condemned. Now one of two things must be true; viz., believing liberates from condemnation and is the cause of being freed from it or it is the evidence of being freed from it. In John 5:24 it is recorded that Jesus said, "he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life." Three things are here declared of the believer: He has passed from death unto everlasting life, he hears the Saviour's word, and he shall never pass back into a condemned state. Nothing can be plainer than that his believing is the evidence of his having passed from death unto life. The state of death here mentioned is synonymous with the state of condemnation. Therefore believing is the evidence and not the cause of freedom from condemnation.
The Saviour also says in the text we are examining, "He that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." As believing is the evidence of having passed from condemnation, unbelief is the evidence of condemnation. The disciples were to know who were still in that state by their unbelief. Unbelief and rejection of the gospel, on the part of any who hear it proclaimed, is a sign of their lost and condemned state. We are to know they are condemned because they do not believe in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Says Jesus again, "This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." The coming of the light did not make their deeds to be evil, and could not have been the cause of their being evil. Their loving darkness rather than light was caused by their deeds being evil. Hence their love of darkness and rejection of the light was not the cause of their deeds being evil. Their evil deeds would have been evil and they would have been in as great darkness if the light had never come. To be in darkness and guilty of evil deeds is to be in a state of condemnation. The conclusion is that unbelief and rejection of the gospel is not the cause but the effect of condemnation. The sinner, while in a state of condemnation and death, must of necessity be in a state of unbelief, for he is wholly unable to understand and receive spiritual things. For this reason sinners can never be saved from condemnation and death by preaching the gospel to them. It takes the creating work of the Holy Spirit to deliver them and make them new creatures in Christ. Repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ grow out of the new life given to the regenerated soul, and obedience to the gospel requirements if the evidence of this repentance and faith.
Repentance is the gift of Jesus, who was exalted to give it, and faith is the fruit of the Spirit, and these graces spring from the divine life which is implanted in regeneration. The fruits of all this gracious work are drawn out and developed under the favorable environment of the gospel just as the living plant is made to grow and bear fruit by the refreshing rain and the heat of the sun. Those who hear the gospel preached and give no signs or evidences of these fruits are evidently dead in sin and condemnation. It is in this way that the living and dead are both manifested by the gospel.
J. R. D.
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