Calvinists recognize that Acts 16:14 refers to the removal of blinders that kept Lydia from believing in Christ. However, for Calvinists, this had nothing to do with Lydia’s being a God-fearing Gentile who was seeking it. It was just because God sovereignly chose her and called her.
John Stott comments:
That is, he opened her inner eyes to see and to believe in the Jesus Paul proclaimed. We note that, although the message was Paul’s, the saving initiative was God’s. Paul’s preaching was not effective in itself; the Lord worked through it. And the Lord’s work was not itself direct; he chose to work through Paul’s preaching (Acts, p. 263).
Likewise, concerning the Lord’s opening Lydia’s heart that she might respond to the things spoken by Paul, John MacArthur wrote: “This is the efficacious call…it was the work of the Lord in summoning her to believe. This is what Jesus taught in John 6:44, ‘No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him’” (The Doctrines of Grace, p. 182, emphasis his).
Calvin understood the opening of her heart to mean that “we can have or obtain nothing by the hearing of the word alone, without the grace of the Spirit” (Acts, p. 104). In other words, unless God opens the heart/mind, no one will believe the promise of life.
A similar verse is Luke 24:45: “And He opened [dianoigō] their [the Eleven’s, Luke 24:33] understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures [about His death and resurrection].” Luke 24:45 and Acts 16:14 are the only two uses of dianoigō in the NT.
Opening the heart is equivalent to opening the mind. Heart and mind occur interchangeably in the NT. In the case of Lydia, God opened her heart so that she might believe the promise of life. In the case of the Eleven, He opened their minds that they might believe in His death and resurrection (though they were already born again).
I agree with Calvin that no one comes to faith in Christ unless God opens his heart. However, anyone who is seeking God, as Lydia was, is one whose heart God will open at some point. The reason Lydia and other women were at the riverside was that there was no synagogue in Philippi. There weren’t enough Jewish men to have one. So, she went to the place of prayer. Luke tells us that she “worshiped God” (Acts 16:14). That is, she was a God-fearing Gentile, like Cornelius in Acts 10.
Did you know that God still opens minds today? We do not believe God’s Word on any subject unless He has opened our minds to the truth. That is why prayer and humility are crucial to interpreting God’s Word.
I’m glad the Lord opened my heart in September of 1972 while I was in college. I’m glad He has continued to open my mind to His truth repeatedly over the years. If we are open, He will continue to reveal His truth to us.
Keep grace in focus, and the Lord will keep opening your mind to His Word.
