“How Can A Dead Heart Be ‘Hardened’?”

Rev. Ronald Hanko

[Source: Covenant Reformed News, vol. 4, nos. 23-25]

Q. “Scripture speaks of the hearts of unbelieving men being ‘hardened.’ How can a dead heart of stone be hardened? Doesn’t the fact that the hearts of the unregenerate can be ‘hardened’ pose a problem for total depravity?”

This question, of course, has to do with the doctrine of Total Depravity … The unbeliever is indeed, “dead in trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1) and has a heart of stone (Ezek. 11:19). He can, therefore, do nothing good (Ps. 14:1) and cannot please God (Heb. 11:6). He is totally wicked.

This, however, raises the question whether he can become even more wicked, as the hardening of his heart would seem to imply. God’s giving him over to a reprobate mind (Rom. 1:28—the same thing as hardening), would also seem to imply that he can, after all, become worse than he is.

Some would explain this by denying total depravity, or by weakening that teaching of Scripture. They say, for example, that the ungodly man is not as bad as he might be, that he does not commit every sin, that he is totally depraved, but not absolutely depraved, i.e., that total depravity means that all men are wicked in every part of their existence and life, but not completely wicked in any part (every apple in the basket is partially rotten, but none of them completely rotten).

All this, we believe, is simply a denial of Total Depravity, which we take to mean (1) every man, (2) in every part, and (3) in every part completely—his heart, mind, soul, body, will, affections, etc.—are all completely bad, and in all of them he is completely estranged from God. Total means “total” and it is playing with words to say that it means something else.

But there is clarification needed here. Is the unbeliever, then, as bad as he might be? Yes! He is. By nature, he is totally given over to sin and without any good in him. Psalm 14:1-3 is very clear.

But every wicked man does not commit every sin, does he? No, he does not, but that is no evidence of something good in him. It is just that in the providence of God he does not have the means or opportunity to commit every sin. Nevertheless, his heart is full of every sin (Matt. 15:19) and he is able and willing to commit every sin.

God does restrain the wickedness of the wicked. He does that by His providence. That we do not deny. It is clearly shown in the examples of Balaam and the builders of the tower of Babel.

But that restraint of their wickedness has no grace in it and does not lessen the wickedness of the ungodly. It is a matter of providence, exercised through fear of punishment, fear of men, lack of opportunity, and lack of means (most do not have the money or other means to indulge themselves in every sin). Those restraining providences of God, then, are like a muzzle on a rabid dog. They prevent him from biting but do not change his vicious nature.

This restraint of wickedness, exercised not only on the wicked, but even upon Satan (Rev. 20:1-3) is one of the means God uses to exercise His sovereignty in history and to direct the course of history to His own ends.

But that leaves the question we started with partly unanswered. If man is so bad, how can he be hardened in sin or given over to a reprobate mind? Can he be worse than he already is? If not, then how is a person hardened?

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This hardening, we believe, involves several things.

(1) It means, first of all, that the testimony of a person’s conscience is more and more silenced. The Word of God in I Tim. 4:2 speaks of those whose consciences are seared with a hot iron—like the hardened, scarred, unfeeling flesh left by a bad burn.

When this happens, a person finds it easier and easier to indulge in every kind of wickedness. The inclination to and desire for all wickedness is always present, but to some extent the conscience checks the actual performance of evil. Even this check is taken away, however, as a person gives himself over to evil.

We should note here that the existence of a conscience in man is not some evidence of good in him. It is there simply because God will not leave him without a witness even in his own heart. In fact, [it is] because he still has a conscience and is able to know the difference between good and evil, that he is completely without excuse before God.

(2) Secondly, therefore, this hardening involves the actual doing of more and more and worse sin. Of this, Scripture speaks in Romans 1, in terms of God’s giving men over to uncleanness, to vile affections and to a reprobate mind. The result, according to Romans 1:28, is that they do those things that are not convenient (offensive, perverted).  I Timothy 4:1 also speaks of their giving heed to seducing spirits and to doctrines of devils.

Again, we should understand that depravity is a matter of the heart, and that the wicked are thoroughly corrupt and depraved in heart (Jer. 17:9). This does not mean, however, as we have shown, that every man commits every sin. Nevertheless, as punishment for man’s wickedness, God more and more removes the things that restrain his wickedness and the wickedness of society in general, so that both he and his society develop and increase in wickedness.

In other words, hardening does not involve his nature becoming more wicked, but rather that his totally depraved nature more and more manifests itself in his words and deeds. In this way the wicked “fill up” their iniquity and become ready for the judgment of God (Gen. 16:15; Matt. 23:32).

(3) Third, this hardening involves a person becoming more and more firmly set against all reproof, correction, and chastisement either from men or from God. A good example of this is Nabal (I Sam. 24), whose physical heart God turned to stone to match the spiritual heart of stone that he already had. In his hardness, he was “such a son of Belial, that a man could not speak to him.”

This aspect of hardening is more often evident in those who have come under the preaching of the gospel and perhaps even made some superficial response, but who have gone back to their old unbelieving and wicked ways. They are, as result, almost impossible to reach or speak to about spiritual things.

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So this hardening does not contradict the doctrine of Total Depravity. It involves a removal of the various means by which God restrains sin, the giving over a person to more and worse sinful deeds, resulting in his increased resistance to admonishments and punishments.

We wish to conclude this study by showing from Scripture that this hardening is both a sovereign work of God and at the same time something in which the person himself is involved and for which he is responsible. For this, we turn to the example of Pharaoh in Exodus.

The hardening of Pharaoh’s heart is mentioned 20 times in Exodus 4-14 (4:21; 7:3, 13, 14, 22; 8:15, 19, 32; 9:7, 12, 34, 35; 10:1, 20, 27; 11:10; 13:15; 14:4, 8, 17).  Ten times this hardening is ascribed to God, four times it is ascribed to Pharaoh himself, and six times it is simply mentioned without the author of it being mentioned.

[Isaiah 6:9-10 and its quotations in the New Testament are similar. There, the work of hardening is ascribed variously to God (Jn. 12:39-40), the preacher (Is. 6:9-10; Mk. 4:12), and the people themselves (Matt. 13:14-15; Acts 28:26-27)].

What can we learn, then, from the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart?

(1) God is the primary author of this hardening. It simply is not true that the emphasis is on Pharaoh’s work of hardening his own heart rather than on God’s hardening his heart. God’s work is mentioned ten times, Pharaoh’s only four.

(2) Nor is it true that Pharaoh first hardened his own heart and that only then did God harden his heart. This hardening is not God’s response to man’s wickedness but a sovereign act of God. God first speaks of hardening Pharaoh’s heart in chapter 4:21, but Pharaoh’s hardening of his own heart is not mentioned until chapter 8:15.

(3) Likewise, it is clear from these verses that God’s sovereignty over the wicked can in no wise be described simply in terms of God’s permitting sin. For this reason, Romans 9:17 speaks of God’s raising Pharaoh up (in his wickedness) in order to show His power in Pharaoh. In fact, the word “harden” in Exodus emphasizes the fact that God strengthened Pharaoh in his rebellion against God and confirmed him in his wicked purposes.

(4) What is more, Romans 9:18 makes it clear that this happened according to God’s will and purpose, that is, it was always God’s purpose to condemn and destroy Pharaoh.

(5) At the same time, all this did not happen against Pharaoh’s will. He not only hardened his own heart but hardened it in the face of every warning and judgment and even in spite of the good counsel of his own wise men (Ex. 8:19).

(6) Thus, in the power and wisdom of God, God’s work and Pharaoh’s concur in such a way that God remains absolutely sovereign, while Pharaoh is still at fault (Rom. 9:17ff). God’s purpose and will are sovereignly fulfilled but fulfilled in such a way that wicked Pharaoh remains fully accountable before God and worthy of God’s wrath and judgment.

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The Covenant Reformed News is a free monthly periodical dealing with biblical and theological subjects. First published in 1992, over 400 issues have been produced and sent to people in all the 6 continents of the world. (The News is also distributed by various churches in the US, Canada, the Philippines and the Republic of Ireland, plus Hungarian translations go out each month by e-mail.)

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