Hardening in LUMEN: Love That Lets the Will Set
By Dr. Peter A. Kerr
One of the most persistent objections to a non-coercive God is the biblical language of hardening. If God hardens hearts, does this not imply manipulation, override, or domination? No—it points to exactly the opposite.
A God who overrides human will would not need to harden hearts—He would simply change a person’s heart for them. A God who never forces the will can use hardening just as He uses softening or encouraging. Nowhere does the Bible say God forces human will—it is in fact Satan who wants to force, and possess, and coerce through fear (Luke 8:29; Hebrews 2:14–15). The God of the Bible loves, and love involves respecting the person and will of the other (1 Corinthians 13:4–7).
Hardening is not a violation of freedom but its tragic confirmation. It is not evidence against holy-love but one of the ways holy-love remains faithful to both offender and victim when freedom has been persistently misused. Hardening does not describe God turning against a person. It describes God honoring the trajectory a person has chosen (Romans 1:24–28).
Holiness Does Not Force Softness
God is holy-love (Isaiah 6:3; 1 John 4:8). Because holiness is plenitude rather than scarcity, God never acts from fear, rivalry, or control. Coercion would contradict God’s nature, since coercion destroys the very freedom love requires (Galatians 5:1). In fact, coercion of another’s will always entails a need in the one who is coercing—a need to get their way, be secure, or realize some gain. God never has need and so it is analytically impossible for Him to coerce (Acts 17:24–25).
God always invites, illumines, warns, convicts, restrains, and calls (Isaiah 1:18; John 1:9; John 16:8; 2 Thessalonians 2:6–7). Yet God does not override. When Scripture speaks of hardening, it is never God injecting evil into a will or forcing resistance into a receptive heart (James 1:13–14). It is God allowing a will that has persistently resisted holy-love to become what it is choosing to become. Hardening is judgment by permission, not by manipulation. God punishes the evil heart by allowing it to continue on its trajectory unchecked by the Spirit’s restraining force (Romans 1:24; Hosea 4:17).
The Analogy of Clay and Wax
God’s nature is unchanging (Malachi 3:6). It is the heart of people that changes. Hardening is best understood through the analogy of wax and clay. When struck by light, wax softens but clay hardens (Jeremiah 18:1–6). Clay does not harden because the sun hates it, but because of what it is and how it responds to the conditions it is placed in. The sun simply shines (Psalm 84:11).
In the same way, God’s holy-love is constant. The light never changes (James 1:17). What changes is the posture of the will. A heart that remains open is softened, clarified, and healed (Ezekiel 36:26). A heart that repeatedly resists truth, rejects correction, and absorbs love inward rather than reflecting it outward begins to set in its ways (Hebrews 3:7–13).
Hardening is the soul curing in the posture it has freely chosen. God does not harden hearts by force. God hardens by allowing the nature of the heart to mature to its chosen form (Exodus 8:15, 32; 9:34).
Why God Allows Hardening
Hardening exists because God loves both the offender and the victim (Psalm 72:4; Proverbs 14:31). If God were to allow a prolonged trajectory of evil in order to give that person more time to repent, two injustices would occur. First, the victim’s prayers would go unheeded and they would continue to suffer harm (Habakkuk 1:2–4). Second, offenders would continue to perpetrate harm for a longer period of time, deepening their own distortion, damaging their own soul, and accruing greater guilt while becoming increasingly less capable of repentance (Matthew 23:32; Romans 2:5). Holy-love refuses these outcomes.
By allowing a hardened will to reach resolution more quickly, God limits the spread of harm to the victims and prevents further self-corruption and condemnation. Hardening is therefore not cruelty but restraint and love to both the offender and the victim (Psalm 97:10). It is love drawing a boundary where continued permission would itself become evil. Hardening shortens the reach and period of destruction (Genesis 6:3, 5–7).
Hardening as Exposure of Evil
Hardening also serves truth. As long as a will remains undecided, cloaked in self-justification and partial obedience, its posture is ambiguous. Hardening brings disclosure. It reveals what the person actually loves (John 3:19–21). In this sense, the evil inherent in the action should become more salient, and the evil-doer therefore has a better chance to see their wrong-doing and repent (Luke 15:16–17).
In Scripture, hardened hearts become unmistakable. Pharaoh’s resistance becomes overt (Exodus 7:13; 9:12; 10:1). Israel’s refusal becomes explicit (Isaiah 6:9–10). Religious leaders’ opposition to Jesus becomes undeniable (John 12:37–40). This exposure is itself merciful, because it prevents evil from hiding behind delay, pretense, or confusion. Light reveals. Hardening is revelation, not fabrication (Ephesians 5:13).
Non-Coercion Preserved
Nothing about hardening requires God to override freedom. In fact, hardening presupposes freedom (Deuteronomy 30:19). A will cannot be hardened unless it has first resisted. God never closes a heart that is open (Jeremiah 29:13). Hardening only occurs where repeated refusal has already closed the will from within (Zechariah 7:11–12). God does not force the door shut. God stops holding it open against the will’s persistent push (Revelation 3:20). Grace is resistible not because it is weak, but because it is love (Acts 7:51).
Here again is a mercy. If a person has repeatedly rejected the Spirit’s restraining voice, to continue speaking to that person just makes them more guilty (Luke 12:47–48). Letting them reach their full resolution is the kinder path that ultimately builds up less punishment for them (Romans 9:22).
Hardening and Christ
All divine action must resemble Christ (John 14:9; Hebrews 1:3). Jesus never coerces belief. He allows rejection (John 6:66). He withdraws when resisted (Matthew 13:58). He speaks in parables when hearts grow dull (Matthew 13:10–15). He warns that some eyes will not see and some ears will not hear—not because God desires blindness, but because light rejected produces blindness (John 9:39–41).
Even at the cross, Jesus does not force repentance. He reveals truth fully and allows hearts to respond (Luke 23:34). Some are softened (Luke 23:40–43). Others are sealed in hostility (Luke 23:18–21). Hardening is cruciform judgment: truth revealed, freedom honored, consequences permitted (John 12:31–32).
Hardening Is Not Final While Repentance Remains Possible
Hardening does not mean God has stopped loving, calling, or waiting altogether (Ezekiel 33:11). It is a judgement that means the person has diminishing clarity to repent, but the option to repent persists until a person’s last breath (Matthew 23:37). As long as repentance remains possible, mercy remains available. Scripture repeatedly insists hardened hearts may yet be softened if they turn (2 Chronicles 30:8; Romans 11:23).
Hardening describes a trajectory, not an irrevocable decree. It is severe mercy, not final condemnation. Judgement takes place when the will is fully fixed, the heart fully hard, and so repentance no longer an option (Hebrews 6:4–6). At that point the will is no longer forming but formed (Revelation 22:11).
Why Hardening Is Necessary for a God Who Loves
Hardening protects victims, limits evil, honors the freedom of the offender while also honoring the prayers of the victim, reveals truth, and prevents greater injustice (Psalm 37:9–10; Romans 13:3–4). God does not harden because He lacks love. God allows hardening because He refuses to love only one party in a moral conflict. In a world of real freedom, holy-love must sometimes allow the will to set (Ecclesiastes 3:1–3).
Hardening, then, is not evidence against a non-coercive God. It is one of the clearest signs God will not violate the dignity of the creature—even when that dignity is tragically misused. The same light that softens wax hardens clay (2 Corinthians 2:15–16). The light never changes. The will decides what it becomes. At death, we are the summation of our free choices (Galatians 6:7–8).
Supporting Scripture (in NASB)
Luke 8:29 For He had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For it had seized him many times; and he was bound with chains and shackles and kept under guard, and yet he would break his bonds and be driven by the demon into the desert.
Hebrews 2:14–15 Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.
1 Corinthians 13:4–7 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Romans 1:24–28 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper.
Isaiah 6:3 And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.”
1 John 4:8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
Galatians 5:1 It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.
Acts 17:24–25 The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things.
Isaiah 1:18 “Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the LORD, “Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool.”
John 1:9 There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.
John 16:8 And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.
2 Thessalonians 2:6–7 And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way.
James 1:13–14 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.
Romans 1:24 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. (Note: This is a repeated reference to part of Romans 1:24–28, appearing again here.)
Hosea 4:17 Ephraim is joined to idols; Let him alone.
Malachi 3:6 “For I, the LORD, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.”
Jeremiah 18:1–6 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, “Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will announce My words to you.” Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something on the wheel. But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make. Then the word of the LORD came to me saying, “Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does?” declares the LORD. “Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.”
Psalm 84:11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield; The LORD gives grace and glory; No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.
James 1:17 Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.
Ezekiel 36:26 Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
Hebrews 3:7–13 Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, “TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME, AS IN THE DAY OF TRIAL IN THE WILDERNESS, WHERE YOUR FATHERS TRIED Me, BY TESTING Me, AND SAW MY WORKS FOR FORTY YEARS. THEREFORE I WAS ANGRY WITH THIS GENERATION, AND SAID, ‘THEY ALWAYS GO ASTRAY IN THEIR HEART, AND THEY DID NOT KNOW MY WAYS’; AS I SWORE IN MY WRATH, ‘THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST.’” Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
Exodus 8:15 But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and did not listen to them, as the LORD had said.
Exodus 8:32 But Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also, and he did not let the people go.
Exodus 9:34 When Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned again and hardened his heart, he and his servants.
Psalm 72:4 May he vindicate the afflicted of the people, Save the children of the needy And crush the oppressor.
Proverbs 14:31 He who oppresses the poor taunts his Maker, But he who is gracious to the needy honors Him.
Habakkuk 1:2–4 How long, O LORD, will I call for help, And You will not hear? I cry out to You, “Violence!” Yet You do not save. Why do You make me see iniquity And cause me to look on wickedness? Yes, destruction and violence are before me; Strife exists and contention arises. Therefore the law is ignored And justice is never upheld. For the wicked surround the righteous; Therefore justice comes forth perverted.
Matthew 23:32 Fill up, then, the measure of the guilt of your fathers.
Romans 2:5 But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.
Psalm 97:10 Hate evil, you who love the LORD, Who preserves the souls of His godly ones; He delivers them from the hand of the wicked.
Genesis 6:3 Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.”
Genesis 6:5–7 Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. The LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.”
John 3:19–21 This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.
Luke 15:16–17 And he would have gladly filled his stomach with the pods which the swine were eating, and no one was giving anything to him. But when he came to his senses, he said, “How many of my father’s hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying here with hunger!”
Exodus 7:13 Yet Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he did not listen to them, as the LORD had said.
Exodus 9:12 And the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not listen to them, just as the LORD had spoken to Moses.
Exodus 10:1 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may perform these signs of Mine among them.”
Isaiah 6:9–10 He said, “Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on listening, but do not perceive; Keep on looking, but do not understand.’ Render the hearts of this people insensitive, Their ears dull, And their eyes dim, Otherwise they might see with their eyes, Hear with their ears, Understand with their hearts, And return and be healed.”
John 12:37–40 But though He had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him. This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet which he spoke: “LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT? AND TO WHOM HAS THE ARM OF THE LORD BEEN REVEALED?” For this reason they could not believe, for Isaiah said again, “HE HAS BLINDED THEIR EYES AND HE HARDENED THEIR HEART, SO THAT THEY WOULD NOT SEE WITH THEIR EYES AND PERCEIVE WITH THEIR HEART, AND BE CONVERTED AND I HEAL THEM.”
Ephesians 5:13 But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light.
Deuteronomy 30:19 I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants.
Jeremiah 29:13 You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.
Zechariah 7:11–12 But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears from hearing. They made their hearts like flint so that they could not hear the law and the words which the LORD of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets; therefore great wrath came from the LORD of hosts.
Revelation 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.
Acts 7:51 “You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did.”
Luke 12:47–48 And that slave who knew his master’s will and did not get ready or act in accord with his will, will receive many lashes, but the one who did not know it, and committed deeds worthy of a flogging, will receive but few. From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more.
Romans 9:22 What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?
John 14:9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?”
Hebrews 1:3 And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
John 6:66 As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore.
Matthew 13:58 And He did not do many miracles there because of their unbelief.
Matthew 13:10–15 And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” Jesus answered them, “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him. Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. In their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, ‘YOU WILL KEEP ON HEARING, BUT WILL NOT UNDERSTAND; YOU WILL KEEP ON SEEING, BUT WILL NOT PERCEIVE; FOR THE HEART OF THIS PEOPLE HAS BECOME DULL, WITH THEIR EARS THEY SCARCELY HEAR, AND THEY HAVE CLOSED THEIR EYES, OTHERWISE THEY WOULD SEE WITH THEIR EYES, HEAR WITH THEIR EARS, AND UNDERSTAND WITH THEIR HEART AND RETURN, AND I WOULD HEAL THEM.’
John 9:39–41 And Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind.” Those of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these things and said to Him, “We are not blind too, are we?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.
Luke 23:34 But Jesus was saying, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” And they cast lots, dividing up His garments among themselves.
Luke 23:40–43 But the other answered, and rebuking him said, “Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” And he was saying, “Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!” And He said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.”
Luke 23:18–21 But they cried out all together, saying, “Away with this man, and release for us Barabbas!” (He was one who had been thrown into prison for an insurrection made in the city, and for murder.) Pilate, wanting to release Jesus, addressed them again, but they kept on calling out, saying, “Crucify, crucify Him!”
John 12:31–32 Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.
Ezekiel 33:11 Say to them, “As I live!” declares the Lord GOD, “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways! Why then will you die, O house of Israel?”
Matthew 23:37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling.
2 Chronicles 30:8 Do not now be stiff-necked as your fathers were, but yield to the LORD and enter His sanctuary which He has consecrated forever, and serve the LORD your God, that His burning anger may turn away from you.
Romans 11:23 And they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.
Hebrews 6:4–6 For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.
Revelation 22:11 Let the one who does wrong, still do wrong; and the one who is filthy, still be filthy; and let the one who is righteous, still practice righteousness; and the one who is holy, still keep himself holy.
Psalm 37:9–10 For evildoers will be cut off, But those who wait for the LORD, they will inherit the land. Yet a little while and the wicked man will be no more; And you will look carefully for his place and he will not be there.
Romans 13:3–4 For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same; for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil.
Ecclesiastes 3:1–3 There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven— A time to give birth and a time to die; A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted. A time to kill and a time to heal; A time to tear down and a time to build up.
2 Corinthians 2:15–16 For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. And who is adequate for these things?
Galatians 6:7–8 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
