"He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them." (John 12:40 KJV)
"My dear brothers and sisters, if someone among you wanders away from the truth and is brought back, you can be sure that whoever brings the sinner back will save that person from death and bring about the forgiveness of many sins." (James 5:19-20 NLT)
Let's just say, those that are lost and have no desire to know God, although their heart might be hardened and they are unable to see the truth, they are not totally forsaken and rejected by God. God will not just quit giving them an opportunity to say yes to His free offer; as long as they have breath in their lungs, they are still able to receive salvation!
Believe it or not, this has much more to do with God's children! Yes, those of us that have already been saved, we have more responsibility to the Way, then those that do not know which way that they are going! In other words, His children cannot just do what they want, and get away with it; He will make our lives very unpleasant and uncomfortable.
As I shared before, the choices we make in our lives have consequences; although God can do many good things with the bad choices we might make, that does not mean bad things cannot come upon us, as there are circumstances that arise from our mistakes.
In James' closing words, that are shown above, he is encouraging us to be good brothers and sisters, as in, to actually care about each other, as if we really do love each other as brothers and sisters should! In other words, if you have a brother or sister that has wandered from the faith, then it is beneficial for you, as well as to them, that you try and restore them back into fellowship.
Those that have lost their way, are not lost, they are unable to see the path that they have chosen, because their hearts are hardened to their own peril, feeling torn away from fellowship with God. That is the not the way it happens, that is the way it ends up. There is no quick and easy way that we fall from grace; it is something we work and fight to do, until God finally lets us see what we shouldn't have done.
Having seen the experience for myself, I can assure you, it takes more than just confession to feel any relief. But, for the sake of time, let me leap into the reason that I believe James is sharing this, and why we should pay attention to what he said. When you can lead someone back to the Lord, you are going to experience being liberated from many of your own failures and sins.
That might not be easy to understand, until you actually have it happen. We all have sins that are stamped upon our hearts, most of which we don't even think about, or even know are there. But sin isn't always something that we do, it is also something that we fail to do; those are sins that cut the deepest into our hearts...
"Dear children, let's not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our own actions. Our actions will show that we belong to the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before God. Even if we feel guilty, God is greater than our feelings, and he knows everything." (1 John 3:18-20 NLT)
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