2 Cor 4:4a - Whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe...

2 Corinthians 4:4a "Whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe"

What is the context of this passage, who is Paul referring to, what caused their blindness, when did their blindness occur and most importantly, how is their blindness removed?

What is the context of this passage?
In chapter 3, Paul is primarily focused on setting up a contrast between the ministry of death which comes by the law and is temporary in purpose (passing away vs 3:11, 13) with that of the ministry of the Spirit which comes when one turns to Christ (has faith in) and is eternal in purpose.

Who is Paul referring to?
Those who have come to know the law and therefore experienced the ministry of death (vs 3:7, 3:14-15).  Those who have tried to live up to the demands of the law and have failed.   In short, Paul is referring to everyone who has ever lived for we know that he says in Romans 3:19, “Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.”

What caused their blindness?
Their own unbelief, as is stated in the subject verse – those "who do not believe” (2 Cor 4:4).  We already know that Paul is talking to those who know the Word, including those who have lived in both OT and NT times.  This eliminates the category of people who do not believe because they are yet unaware of the Word or who the Lord is.  It is instead referring to those who do know of the Lord and yet, do not believe in Him. 

What has caused their blindness?  The same thing that has caused all of man’s blindness for all time, the desire to be good, to be like God.  Man (true for Adam also), in the hearing of the law, becomes focused on the law instead of the Law Giver.  Upon experiencing the very death warned of by the Law Giver, (when the boundaries of the law are transgressed) man becomes enslaved, looking inward to try and find the means to cover shame and work his own good apart from the Lord.   A cycle of pride and shame ensues trying to meet a standard that only our Creator is capable of.  Pride in temporarily meeting the demands of the law and shame in failing to do so.  A “try harder” or “look at me” inwardly focused blindness develops.  In summary, the knowledge of the law triggered their blindness.    

When did their blindness occur?
After coming to know the law, “in the reading of the Old Testament” vs 3:14 and also implied in vs 3:7 when Moses presented the law at Mount Sinai.  Note that this was not a condition of spiritual blindness from birth but rather a condition that all of humanity experiences when they encounter the ministry of death – the law.   Paul says in Romans 7:9, I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.

How is their blindness overcome?
Simply stated, “when one turns to the Lord”.  We see this in the prior chapter when Paul says "But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away." 2 Cor 3:14-16.

A turning that will only occur when His Goodness has been demonstrated against a broad backdrop of our own failed attempts at trying to meet the demands of the law.  When we know by experience His goodness and trust alone in it.  Blindness is overcome when a man has come to the end of self (or pride) and humbly submits himself to the Lord.  When as Paul says, “when one turns to the Lord.   

As a side note, are we instead to trust by complete blind faith?  No, or we might trust in something that is inherently evil.  Instead, we come to know the Father’s goodness by our own experience of transgressing His law, thereby giving us a known Goodness to place our faith in.      

   

Conclusion
The laws purpose is to reveal self apart from God, to give by experience, the knowledge of good and evil, to contrast His loving goodness with our failed attempts of the same.  It is not until we have wrestled with the law and come to the end of ourselves that we are truly humbled and place our hopes and faith in the One who gave the law.

We see this relationship between law and faith taught also in the third chapter of Galatians.  "But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor." vs 23-25

I think this is best illustrated in a parent’s giving of a “law” to their child.  Say for example that a father is cooking in the kitchen and his two-year-old daughter is in there with him.  The father, aware of dangers that the child is not, says, “do not touch the stove or it will burn you”.  The child, unaware of this particular goodness and love of the father, becomes focused on what was previously unknown to her (a blindness of the father so to speak and instead an inward self-focus on the command and object of the command – the stove).  Out of curiosity, she wants personal understanding as to what the father is talking about and eventually touches the stove.  It is in the experience of getting burned – feeling the pain, that for the first time, brings about an understanding of the fathers loving goodness.  A loving goodness that perhaps could not have been understood apart from being burned.  In this way, the child learns over time, command after command, consequence after consequence of the father’s goodness.  Eventually the child has a decision to make; either to trust in the demonstrated life and goodness that is found when she lives within the commands of the father (ministry of the Spirit) or she can continue to test the father’s law and commands and live in the death of those consequences (ministry of death).  In summary, the child’s own blindness of the father’s goodness will be removed, when she, by her own experience, turns from her own ways and rests instead by faith in the father. 

In this sense, man brings about his own blindness when he comes into the presence of the law.  By experiencing the death that it promises, he, by his own faculties, will need to turn to the Lord, the very source of his life and goodness.

Once we’ve tasted and KNOWN His goodness, may we trust in the Lord with all our heart, leaning not on our own understanding but in all our ways, acknowledging Him, that He shall direct our paths.  In this is life!  Oh Lord, may I rest in and trust as the Psalmist has declared.  Amen!