What does it mean that the god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers (2 Corinthians 4:4)?

In verse 3 we have the general statement, that if the gospel be hid (veiled) it is veiled in them that are lost; verse 4 gives the action by which the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, is intercepted, hindered from reaching the hearts of the unsaved: "the god of this world" (age) steps in and blinds the minds (the thoughts) of them that believe not. It should be especially noticed that the word is not "world" but "age." Two scriptures will aid in its interpretation. In Rom. 12 we read, "Be not conformed to this age;" and in 1 Cor. 2:8 we have "the princes of this age." The first of these would mean that we are not to be moulded by the influences of the moment through which we are passing, whether literary, scientific, philosophic, political, or social — the sum, in fact, of all the influences that go to form, at any time, the life of men as men; and the princes of the age are the world's, or the nation's, leaders, who, wise, as men speak, in their own generation, are utterly blind as to the things of God. When therefore we read that the god of this age blinds men's minds, we understand that he effects this by bringing in thoughts, whether through this world's teachers, or through their books, which are opposed to the truth of the gospel. A popular book, for example, which ignores sin, and consequently the atonement, while professedly dealing with spiritual things, would be one of his most successful instrumentalities for darkening the minds of unbelievers

In verse 3 we have the general statement, that if the gospel be hid (veiled) it is veiled in them that are lost; verse 4 gives the action by which the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, is intercepted, hindered from reaching the hearts of the unsaved: "the god of this world" (age) steps in and blinds the minds (the thoughts) of them that believe not. It should be especially noticed that the word is not "world" but "age." Two scriptures will aid in its interpretation. In Rom. 12 we read, "Be not conformed to this age;" and in 1 Cor. 2:8 we have "the princes of this age." The first of these would mean that we are not to be moulded by the influences of the moment through which we are passing, whether literary, scientific, philosophic, political, or social - the sum, in fact, of all the influences that go to form, at any time, the life of men as men; and the princes of the age are the world's, or the nation's, leaders, who, wise, as men speak, in their own generation, are utterly blind as to the things of God. When therefore we read that the god of this age blinds men's minds, we understand that he effects this by bringing in thoughts, whether through this world's teachers, or through their books, which are opposed to the truth of the gospel. A popular book, for example, which ignores sin, and consequently the atonement, while professedly dealing with spiritual things, would be one of his most successful instrumentalities for darkening the minds of unbelievers

Their gospel did not involve secretive mysteries: it was clearly, plainly declared. If hidden at all, it was so only to those who are lost, whose minds are blinded to clearly published facts. It is Satan, the god of this world, who so blinds them, not that he is able to do it without their being willing: he uses such bait as the attractions of this world, with its present gain and pleasure, and the glitter of such passing vanities blinds men's minds to the infinitely greater gain and pleasure in Christ. Men will easily reject facts in favour of fantasy that attracts their feelings for the time. "The gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God" has no radiance for them: they simply "believe not."

Observe here that the gospel is not designated as that "of the grace of God," but "of the glory of Christ." It is the same gospel, but it is not here its gracious benefits toward man emphasized, but its revelation of God's glory in the face of Christ. This is good news indeed. His glory is supreme, and far more important than our blessing. It is not so much here the question of Christ being in glory, but of the glory that is in Christ. He is "the image (the full representation) of God."

However, even when the Gospel is preached as it should be preached there are found those who do not believe; and the explanation is that the devil has blinded their eyes. The sun in the heavens has not been eclipsed, but a very dark blind has been dropped over the window of their little room. The light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ shines, but it does not shine into them. The god of this age will use anything, no matter what, so long as it blots out the Gospel: not usually material things, but rather speculative notions and teachings of men. During the past three-quarters of a century he has very effectually blinded multitudes by the revival of a favourite speculation of the pagan world before Christ — evolution. The light of the gospel of the glory of Christ does not penetrate where the evolutionary blind has been securely dropped. The blinded soul may entertain miserable notions of man as the image of a monkey — or some other elementary creature — or of a monkey as the image of man. He cannot in the nature of things know Christ as "the Image of God," though he may talk about a Christ of his own imagination. There are many imaginary Christs: Christ, as men wish He had been. There is only one real Christ, the image of God; Christ as He was and is, the Christ of the Bible.

Christ Jesus was the great theme of the Apostle's preaching, and he emphasized His position as Lord. He kept himself out of sight as a mere bondman of others. Preaching Him as Lord, he of course presented Him in His present glory at the right hand of God; and so he could speak of his message as, "the glad tidings of the glory of the Christ" (ver. 4. N. Tr.). Elsewhere He speaks of preaching, "the gospel of the grace of God" (Acts 20:24). There are not two gospels, of course. The one Gospel of God has both the grace of God and the glory of Christ amongst its outstanding features, and so either may be presented as characterizing it. Here the glory of Christ is the prominent feature as befits the context, for he had been speaking of the passing glory of the Old Covenant which once shone in the face of Moses. We can declare that the glory of God now shines, and will for ever shine, in the face of Jesus Christ.

Verse 3. "But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost." In an earlier chapter he has distributed the hearers of the gospel under the two designations of "the saved," and "them that perish" (ante, page 55). And now that he has declared so distinctly the universal aspect and bearing of the ministry of grace, he accounts, in this and the following verse, for the solemn fact of its rejection by the world. Truth is manifested to the consciences of both Jew and Gentile, and yet the gospel — or good message of God — is hid from the majority of them that hear. It was found that but few hearkened diligently to what was equally addressed to all, and that even when conscience was pricked, the heart too often still remained unmoved, or at least unconquered, by the open and fervent pleadings of the Spirit of grace. So long as God kept silence, men had seemed eager in their search for truth; but now that He was sending forth His embassy of peace, and revealing wisdom in its rich perfection in the person of His Christ, the tidings, though inaugurated by ostensive signs and tokens of the omnipotent goodness of Him who sent them, fell flat upon the general ear. Was, then, this result to be attributed solely to the perverseness, of nature, or was there besides some positive and decisive antagonistic power at work? The apostle deals plainly with this question in the present passage, first by reiterating the solemn declaration previously made, that the rejectors of the gospel are "the lost," and then exposing clearly to our view the agency of that "power of darkness" by means of which the light of God is debarred an entrance into the human soul.

Verse 4. "In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not," etc. The title here given to Satan is the boldest and fullest admission of his existing power over man that the Scriptures contain. By the Just One he had been styled the "prince of this world" (John 14:30), when He prepared to yield Himself into his hands, that the Scriptures might be fulfilled Having first proved Himself the alone effective denier of the devil's right and power over men, by fulfilling His course as the gracious Healer of them that were oppressed by him, He thus — because Israel would none of Him — transfers judicially His own just title to the stranger, whose lying voice they followed rather than His own. And now that the full gospel of saving grace is proclaimed among men by the commandment of the everlasting God, the invisible opposer of the truth is recognized by the Spirit as the god also of this world. The point of distinction is as clear as it is solemn. By rejecting the Man approved of God, the world showed itself ready to receive His rival. (John 5:43; 2 Thess. 2:9). By refusing Him who now speaks to men from heaven by His Son, the "crooked and perverse generation" of the present age of grace give evidence, by their aversion from the way of life, that their minds are governed by another god. For he to whom men yield their wills is entitled to be called their god. The only true God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, calls now on all men to repent and turn to Him. The father of lies, on the other hand, dissuades men from welcoming the glad tidings of salvation, by flattering them in their own imaginations. Like Israel, the Gentiles also have a blinded mind, and although in them the spirit of unbelief is fostered by other means, it is in both essentially the same natural hatred of the light of God. (John 3:20; Rom. 1:30).

Satan is fitly called the god of the present age, because what began with rejected mercy will end in the temporary enthronement of iniquity in the place ordained eternally for Christ. From the first men mocked the Holy Ghost (Acts 2:13), and the close of God's patience with their hard thoughts and speeches against His truth will be the consenting homage of the nations to the beast, to whom the dragon gives his power and his seat — a seat offered in vain to Jesus by the tempter, and conferred on his willing dupe by the destroyer (Luke 4:5, sq.; Rev. 13:2, sq.). As to the methods of this blinding, they are as various as the lusts of men on which he practises, but self-trust, in some form, is universally the source of that unbelief which disallows the glory of the Saviour. And this is made very manifest by the apostle's language in this verse, in which the aim of the god of this world is said to be the intercepting and diverting from the hearts of men "the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God."

Alas! there is a subtle and energetic adversary of God and man; there are men who have not faith but passions and lusts, which expose them to his influence in blinding them to the truth. And such are all by nature since sin ruined mankind, till grace work repentance to acknowledgment of the truth. But men who are feeble in owning the power of the Spirit are apt to be slow to perceive Satan's workings; and controversial zeal increases this unscriptural bias. Hence we see that the fathers in general, early and late, Greek and Latin, misapplied this simple and weighty statement of scripture, and denied the devil to be meant here, construing it as God blinding the minds of the unbelievers of this age! (See Cranmer's Cat. Patr. Gr. v., 373, 374, Oxon. 1844; Iren. Haer. iv. 392; Tert. advers. Marc. 11; Aug. c. adv. Leg. iii., vii. 29.) Hilary, in his zeal against the Arians, and among the Greeks, Chrysostom, would not allow Satan to be called god of this age, lest it might tell against the deity of Christ; and so OEcumenius and Theodoret, etc., down to Theophylact; as others, like Origen, against other early heretics, Marcionites, Manicheans, etc. It is instructive as a plain proof of patristic shallowness, where they agreed, as they rarely did, on an interpretation. They failed to distinguish between "God" used absolutely, and "god" with a distinct and restricted qualification. And as the Lord, in view of His own rejection unto death, spoke of the devil as the prince of this world (John 12; 14), so the apostle here designates him, with striking propriety, as "god of this age." During the new age, when the Lord takes the sovereignty of the world (Rev. 11), it will not be so; he will be bound, and thereby kept from his old deceits. Now he takes advantage of all truth to dishonour God and destroy men, his wretched slaves, who, in doing their own will, serve him effectually. Thus are they blinded, that the illumination of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not shine forth.

Here also it is well to notice that "the glorious gospel," as in the Authorised Version, is not only inadequate, but incorrect. For "the glory" is definitely of Christ exalted to God's right hand, in virtue of not His person only but redemption, that we who now believe might see Him, and have our place in Him, there. What enlightenment can compare with this? It is part of what the apostle calls "my" and "our gospel." Christ was, and is, God's image, alone fully representing Him; but the gospel, as Paul preached it, was not of His descent and life here only, nor of His death and resurrection, but of His glory in heaven also. Hence the appropriateness of the language, with which the reader may contrast the vague platitudes of the Cat. Patr. v. 374, 375.

(Vv. 3, 4). Seeing that the Apostle's life was consistent with his preaching, and that the gospel that he preached was a full uncorrupted presentation of the Word of God, he can say, "If also our gospel is veiled it is veiled in those that are lost." With Paul there was no veil — nothing to obscure the testimony — either in the preaching or the preacher. He gave out the truth as purely as he had received it. If under such ministry the gospel was rejected it was because there was a veil of unbelief on the hearts of the hearers. Satan, the god of this world, used the unbelief of man to blind their minds against the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ. For such the result was fatal, it left them in their lost condition. As one has said, "It is not simply that Satan obscures it to them, but it is their own unbelief which brings them under the power of Satan."

Paul comes now to the ministration of it. He says "we faint not." We are right out in the light. But then there is another thing, and that is - he explains how he gives out the word of God as purely as he took it in; he did not handle it deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commended himself "to every man's conscience in the sight of God." The consequence is, there is no veil, and not only no veil on the face of Jesus Christ, but Paul put no veil on by want of faithfulness on his part; so that really, if any were lost, it was not through any fault of Paul's. The veil, if any, would be one on their own hearts. "If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost in whom the god of this world hath blinded the eyes of them that believe not." "Are lost" is characteristic. It has nothing to do with time at all; it is "the ones that perish." There is no veil on the glory, and if my gospel comes out in all its glory, the devil has put a veil on the hearts of them that believe not. This would be true now if the gospel was preached as clearly and powerfully as Paul did.

And another thing also was gained. Things were brought to an issue in the case of those who did not receive his message. The word, "hid" which occurs twice in verse 3, is really, "veiled;" the same word (in a slightly different form) as occurs several times in the latter part of chapter 2. "If also our gospel is veiled, it is veiled in those that are lost." (N. Tr.). There was no veil on the Gospel, for Paul declared it in its purity and its clarity: but there was a veil upon the hearts and minds of the perishing who did not believe; a veil that had been dropped in their minds by the god of this world. Had Paul preached the word only partially, or in deceitful fashion the issue would not have been so clear.

Returning to Paul's ministry, he says, "If our Gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost." The light of the Gospel which brings to us the knowledge of God also exposes the lost condition of those who know not the Gospel; and if it is hidden from men, it is because Satan has blinded them; they are under his influence. But the Gospel has been sent to men "to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God" (Acts 26:18).

We have been speaking about the glory of the Lord: now the Apostle brings before us the glory of Christ, Who is the image of God. The Gospel of God's grace tells of the divine resources to meet the need of the sinner, but the Gospel of the glory of Christ sets before us the last Adam, Who is the image of God. The first man was made in God's image to represent Him on earth; but Christ is the perfect representation of God in heavenly glory. What God is, in His disposition towards men in righteous grace, is seen in the glory of Christ. But all that Man is for God, not only in relation to earthly things, but also in relation to what is heavenly, is displayed to the eye of faith in the glory of Christ. (The Son as the image of the invisible God, in Colossians 1:15 is somewhat different from what is brought out here. There we see God, Who dwells in unapproachable light, coming forth in the Person of the Son; seen as only He can be seen, in the Son of His love). In the preaching of the Gospel, Paul called upon men to acknowledge the Lordship of Christ: it was Christ he preached, not himself. True servants of the Lord serve the saints for Jesus' sake.