Being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance which is in them, because of the hardness of their heart….
— Ephesians 4:18
I will also give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take away the heart of stone out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.
— Ezekiel 36:26
People who are not born again are often hard towards the things of God. This means that their heart is stone, because their spirit is dead. For example, non-Christians sometimes say, “Where is God? If you can’t show me God, then I will never believe in Him.” This is nonsensical. We don’t need to see everything in order for it to exist. No one can say, “Show me the air. If you can’t show me the air, then I don’t believe it exists.” We can’t see the air, but if we stop breathing we will die. It is foolish to say, “I will only believe that air exists if you can prove it to me.” Yet people say this about God. “If you can prove to me there is God, then I will believe in Him.” If we hear this we should reply, “I don’t have to show you God. If you just call on the Lord’s name, then you will have Him. If you don’t call on the Lord you are dead already. You may be alive as a human being, but your spirit is dead to God. Because your spirit is dead, your heart is as hard as stone. That is why you question God’s existence.”
Adapted from Born Again, page 17.
Tomorrow: “A New Spirit”