Looking back, as a believer, it’s hard to understand why more people don’t just believe the truth about our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Have you ever thought like this? I often do and I used to get really frustrated but the Truth, as Jesus promised, has set me free from my consternation, angst, and even my tendency in those moments to become angry. Have you ever felt like walking up to a loved one, shaking them by the shoulders, and saying, “Why won’t you listen to me and believe? Don’t you want to be at peace for all of eternity with me in Heaven?” I have. But, again, I submit to you that the truth has set me free!

So, why don’t unbelievers just believe already?!! An analogous question used throughout the Bible might be, why don’t blind people just see already? I mean, don’t they want to see all that God has created? Why is it that we can readily dismiss this latter question but struggle with the prior? Trying to force a blind person to see seems silly; yet, in our frustration with unbelievers who reject the Gospel, isn’t that what we are supposing we can do?

The issue with an unbeliever’s unbelief isn’t that they don’t want to believe; rather, it’s that they can’t believe in something they cannot see. You can’t really expect a blind person to arrive at a conviction regarding something imperceptible to them, can you?

The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
-Matthew 6:22-23

An unbeliever, as the Bible describes them, is totally blind to the light of Truth. They are so blind, in fact, that the darkness in them is perceived as light (that is all they’ve ever known).

The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
-1 Corinthians 2:14

An unbeliever is so blind that even when the light of truth is standing right in front of them (figuratively or literally, as in the case of unbelievers during Jesus’ time), they cannot comprehend it. This is the truth that will set you and me free whenever we get frustrated with unbelievers who reject the Gospel. Just remember that they are “not able to understand [the Gospel] because [it is] spiritually discerned” (v14).

What, then, are we to do as evangelists? This seems like a hopeless case! Is this not the same question Jesus’ disciples asked Him, “Then who can be saved” (Luke 18:26)? Jesus’ response has echoed down the corridors of time ever since, “But he said, ‘What is impossible with man is possible with God’” (Luke 18:27).

So, whenever we become frustrated with unbelievers, we must step back and remember Whose salvific plan this is, after all (hint: it’s not ours). We simply have a job to do, according to Jesus:

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
-Matthew 28:18-20

Our response to this so-called “Great Commission” is to be as Solomon advised:

The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.
-Ecclesiastes 12:13

We have a job to do and it’s not trying to open the eyes of the blind to see the light of truth – only God can accomplish the impossible. Giving sight to a blind man is a miracle, plain and simple. Shaking them in anger, whether figuratively or literally, accomplishes nothing, “for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God” (James 1:20).

Being angry towards unbelievers is like being angry that blind people can’t see. Unless God opens their eyes to the light of truth, an unbeliever will remain in darkness. It is folly, and infinitely frustrating, to exert human pressure on an unbeliever. The only wrath an unbeliever needs to understand is God’s, so inform them of that instead. That’s your duty as an ambassador for Christ, whose first recorded word in His public ministry was “Repent!” (Matthew 4:17).

Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God.

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake.

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.
-2 Corinthians 4:1-7

My friend, do not despair over your inability to reason with unbelievers. The only One with the power to open the eyes of the blind is God. We are simply messengers (evangelist is from the Greek word evangelistis, which means messenger, not savior). We have a simple duty to our Lord: give unbelievers the Gospel. If/when someone persists in rejecting the Gospel, do not drive yourself to anger by supposing they can see what you can. Instead, be at peace knowing that God is righteous in all of His choices.

The LORD opens the eyes of the blind.
-Psalm 146:8

Love in Christ,
​
Ed Collins