That You May Have Life: Addressing the Spiritual Reasons behind Unbelief

February 27, 2022 · by Daniel Pentimone · in Evangelism & Missions

Do you have valid reasons why you don’t believe in Jesus? Perhaps you think so, or perhaps you know someone who thinks so. The Bible teaches that, despite many surface reasons why someone doesn’t believe, the real problem is spiritual.

Foundations

The distinction between natural and moral inability is helpful as you consider your own abilities. Naturally, you are able to believe – you have the faculties and abilities to believe, if you are able to understand the Gospel. There is nothing that makes it physically impossible. You don’t have the natural ability to fly, or to breathe in water like a fish – because those things are physically impossible. But you do have the ability to believe.

At the same time, you are morally unable to repent. Your moral nature is entirely against repentance and submission to God. You can think of this in the same way that a kind, gentle woman would be unable to pick up an axe and murder her friend in cold blood. Physically there is nothing preventing her from doing so: morally, her personality and moral nature make it impossible for her to do so. Another example would be the moral inability of a cruel dictator to show mercy to his worst enemy. Even though there is nothing physically preventing him from doing so, yet he is morally incapable of that sort of kindness. The Bible teaches that, although we are all physically capable of believing in Jesus, our moral nature is so perverted that we are morally incapable of summoning up belief in Jesus, apart from God’s supernatural intervention of faith (Ephesians 2:4-8).

The command for every individual is to repent and believe. These are essentially two sides to the same coin. To do the one is, in a sense, to do the other. It is not hard what God commands: it is the simplest, easiest thing in the world: believe him.

At the same time, we can understand how impossible this is for the unbeliever. What if I told you to believe that aliens built the pyramids or to believe that the world is flat – unless you are already a believer, you are unlikely to believe. Try as hard as you wish, you can’t just ‘choose’ to believe that without some outside help. To believe is simultaneously the hardest thing, and the simplest thing in the world. And because your moral nature is hardened to God, you won’t believe the gospel apart from his working in your life – you are morally unable because of your sin nature.

God’s command, however, is not optional. It is still a command, and we are called to obey. When Jesus healed a man with a withered hand, he commanded him to stretch out his withered hand. Another time, Jesus commanded a crippled man to rise and walk. These men were not supposed to respond with ‘Jesus, I can’t do that.’ Instead, they were simply to obey. Their faith-filled response of obedience was marked by God’s miraculous provision of power to obey. Similarly, the unbeliever who doesn’t believe is still commanded to believe. A response of obedience to this apparently-impossible command will also be marked by God’s miraculous provision of power to obey.

The Reason You Don’t Believe

Scripture is clear as to why individuals will not come to Jesus:

“And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.” (John 3:19-21)

As you can see from these verses, Jesus assigns very ‘spiritual’ reasons as to why people will not come to him.

The problem is that we have such a serious spiritual problem – a problem that exists on an entirely different level than we often think on – that we don’t realize how dramatically it clouds and shifts our thinking.

The Bible is clear about this: fundamentally, disbelief springs from the profoundly serious spiritual condition that every human faces:

“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)

“They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.” (Ephesians 4:18)

But I have legitimate, intellectual reasons why I’m not believing!

Some people are going to be outraged because they feel that they have legitimate reasons why they don’t believe. How can Jesus dare to assign them with such sinister motives as being of the ‘darkness’ when they have honest motives to not believe?

Some of these motives might be:

“I don’t have enough evidence to follow Jesus”

“I’m not persuaded that Jesus was actually the Messiah”

“Jesus’ claims to be God aren’t persuasive”

Jesus addresses these sorts of assertions directly:

“So Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.” (John 7:16-17)

In essence, Jesus’ answer is that you do have enough evidence.

However, few people will actually take the time to look into the evidence. It’s no use claiming to want to do God’s will if you don’t take the time to study out the evidence. And what could be a more valuable use of your time? Even if it took you the rest of your life to study, in painstaking detail, Jesus’ claims – is there anything more pressing than preparing for eternity?

If you truly desire to do God’s will, from a pure heart, then you will recognize the reality of Jesus’ claims.

However, some very smart people did look into the claims of Jesus and still didn’t find evidence of Jesus’ claims. Jesus addresses this situation as well:

“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. I do not receive glory from people. But I know that you do not have the love of God within you. I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?” (John 5:39-44)

Here, Jesus is talking to the Jewish people – the people who were God’s ‘special’ people and who knew the Scripture very well. They fail to see the evidence – not because it isn’t there, but because they are blinded. This is because (1) they don’t have the love of God within them, and (2) they are focused on the wrong kind of glory (or, acclaim). Once again, this is a spiritual problem.

I Don’t Believe Because of Biblical Contradictions

Some people have reasons that, at first glance, seem to make belief impossible: they truly believe that the Bible has contradictions.

Interestingly, Jesus faced this exact problem in his day. Some Jews refused to believe him because they had heard that he was from Nazareth, but they knew, with certainty, that the Messiah was not supposed to come from that region:

“But some said, ‘Is the Christ to come from Galilee? Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?’” (John 7:41-42)

Jesus’ response to this is amazing: he never tries to correct these people. His response, to a group of people in a similar situation, is what we saw above:

In other words, if you truly want to know the truth, then you will search it out and find it.

Jesus actually was from the offspring of David, and he did come from Bethlehem. Those who raised this objection may seem ‘innocent,’ but the problem is that they weren’t interested enough in Jesus to even do the research. If they had done the research, they would have found that the apparent ‘contradiction’ was non-existent, and Jesus really did meet the qualifications for being the Messiah.

It’s the same way when it comes to people today. Many people might claim that the Bible is contradictory, or come up with other apparent discrepancies that let them ‘off the hook’ so they don’t have to believe.

But again, the answer is the same: those who genuinely want to know the truth will search it out – and find that it is true. (A great modern-day example is The Case for Christ, in which Lee Strobel set out to disprove the Bible – and became a believer when he saw all the evidence, and realized that the ‘contradictions’ didn’t exist).

I’m Dead in Sin, and I Can’t Believe!

And that only makes you more guilty. Moral inability doesn’t lessen your guilt – it only makes it worse. To claim moral inability is like a psychopath saying, ‘But it’s not my nature to be kind to people – I take joy in tormenting them!’ Does that make him a better person, or more innocent? No – it actually means that he is more rotten to the core because he is admitting that he is so completely overcome by evil.

In the same way, those who say, ‘I’m dead in sin’ aren’t lessening their guilt – they are only admitting how much more desperately evil they are. In fact, they are proclaiming how much more they need to be saved from their sin!

Of course you are dead in sin, and of course you can’t believe on your own. That’s the condition of man – unable to rescue himself from his sin. But that is never an excuse. Rather, that is the reason why you should believe on Jesus – because He is God’s answer, the solution to your inability. HE is the one who rescues from sin. So stop ‘trying’ whatever you are trying to do in your own strength, and just – believe. It’s so simple. Stop trusting in yourself. Stop putting your energy into what you can do, or even into the ‘trying.’ Just cease from your own works for self-righteousness. Just entrust yourself to Jesus, so that he can do everything for you, to make you right in the sight of God.

But God Doesn’t Love Me! / But I’m not Elect!

You truly cannot say that. It is only at the end of time when it will be clear who are the ‘sheep’ and who are the ‘goats’ – who is ‘known’ by the Father and who is not. When you enter eternity, you will know your eternal position – but until then, all that you know for sure is that God offers you salvation. It is yours for the taking. He abounds in love and mercy and grace.

Jesus words are for you. They are not only an encouragement, but also a command:

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

How can you possibly say that God doesn’t love you, when Jesus is urging you to do this? These are words of kindness and mercy. To claim that God ‘does not love you’ is to speak unkind words about God – to slander the kindest Being in existence. This means that you are only more guilty before him, and therefore, even more in need of his mercy. So stop slandering Him and accept his grace!

But My Sin Is Too Great!

Perhaps you think that you cannot come to God because you’ve committed a sin, or sins, that are so heinous, evil, and disgusting, that God won’t accept you. But that’s not possible. There is no such thing.

St. Paul said it this way:

“The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.” (1 Timothy 1:15-16)

Notice what Paul says: “sinners, of whom I am the foremost.” Paul is literally saying that he was the most notorious sinner.

Whether Paul was objectively the most sinful person in human history is not what is most important: Paul viewed himself as the most notorious, because he was actively engaged in killing Christians even while he studied the Bible and claimed to be an expert in who God is. He committed the most outrageous sins while having knowledge of God’s truth. This certainly means that his sin was far more outrageous than the sins of most people, who sin without knowledge of what God actually commands.

But, Paul says, “I received mercy for this reason.” What is the reason why Paul received mercy? “That in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.”

Paul is saying that he received mercy from Jesus so that others could look at him and take heart. If Jesus was willing to show mercy to Paul – a religious expert who specialized in killing Christians – then Jesus is willing to show mercy to anyone.

I’ve Committed the Unforgivable Sin

No, you have not. If you’ve committed the unforgivable sin, then you have seen an undeniable miracle, clearly performed by God, and, fully knowing that the miracle is from God, you have attributed it to the devil.

Such an action is unforgivable because it stems from a heart so hardened that it will never desire to turn to God. It refers to a heart so hardened that the truth no longer has any impression on it, and such an individual will never even wish to receive God’s mercy. So, if you have even a wish to receive God’s mercy, you haven’t committed this sin.

Don’t let the excuse of ‘committing the unforgivable sin’ keep you from pursuing grace. The devil wants you to commit that sin – but the next best thing, in his opinion, is that you would imagine that you committed it, so that you would consider yourself ineligible to receive God’s grace.

I’ve Tried to Believe, but I Can’t

This sounds like a dreadful situation. Let me encourage you with the words of Jesus:

“All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.” (John 6:37)

If you feel that you can’t believe, then go to Jesus again. He made this promise. At the end of the day, I’m going to believe him, rather than you. And you should also believe him, rather than trusting in yourself and your own sinful thinking. He isn’t going to break his word. So go to him again and remind him of what he said. I’m sure he will accept you.

I just know that I won’t be saved

Some people think that this is true. They may have even had supernatural experiences or sensations that indicated this to them. Let me be very clear: such thoughts, experiences, or sensations come from only one source, the devil. Remember, the devil wants (more than anything) to get you to believe that you are ineligible to receive God’s grace, and therefore to stop pursuing it.

But God’s Word is very clear:

“For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:12-130

Therefore, as long as there is life, there is hope. You must never believe that your window of salvation is closed on this earth.

I’ll Repent Later

Such a statement is a brazen act of disobedience to God. God says:

“Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” (2 Corinthians 6:2)

To say that you will repent ‘later’ is to assume that you will have a ‘later’ – to presume that God will continue to show you mercy while you continue to reject him.

It also assumes that you have the power to save yourself, or to cooperate with God so that you get saved on your own terms – when you want, at a time of your choosing. But God doesn’t work on human time frames. He tells us to call for mercy now, while it is being offered:

“Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” (Isaiah 55:6-7)