Reflections
Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. (Heb 3:12)
True ignorance is an inability to believe because I have not been given light. I cannot see because I was born blind. For this I am NOT to blame.
Unbelief, on the other hand, is not the inability to believe. It is the refusal to believe. Unbelief is the result of having received light, but of loving darkness rather than light – because it satisfies something in my heart. We might say that unbelief happens once I receive light, but close my eyes. My darkness is therefore self-created. I am not blind. I have simply shut out the light.
God’s will never changes – He wants all men to be saved and to come into the knowledge of the Truth. He wants all men to see. Thus, it is always possible once God brings light to embrace the Truth. (I Tim. 2:5) Also, if I have been truly ignorant, I can embrace the light when God brings it. And if I have been guilty of unbelief, I can always repent and open my eyes to the light God has given. The sin is when I won’t.
Christians are capable of unbelief – not in the sense of losing salvation – but along the lines of our inheritance. It is possible to stop short of God’s purpose and forfeit some of what He has freely given us in Christ. God has better intentions for us — He brings light to set us free in Christ.
1 Timothy 2:5
5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;