All through Scripture, blindness is used to represent the spiritual inability to see God's truth. As a man is physically blind, he cannot see God's visible revelation. That is he can't see the trees and the earth and the sky. But as a man is spiritually blind, he cannot see God's invisible revelation; love, truth, holiness, forgiveness, blessing, eternal life, grace, joy, peace, etc. As the blind eye cannot see light, so the blind spirit cannot see the light, the light of the world, Jesus Christ.
This is the theme of this unusually long story in chapter 9 of John's gospel.
Apostle Paul characterizes the whole scheme of salvation by making a comparison to blindness. In verse 3 of 2 Corinthians 4, Paul says, "If our gospel be hidden, it is hidden to them that are lost." .
Later on in verse 6, Paul says it is we Christians who have seen the light. God has commanded in us that light should shine out of darkness. But in the case of unbelievers, they are in darkness, their minds blinded by the God of this world to prevent the light of the gospel from shining unto them. And thus it is hidden to them. When salvation comes along, it opens the eyes of the soul or the spirit to understand light and to comprehend God's truth.
This is clearly illustrated by Paul when he was talking to Agrippa in the twenty-sixth chapter of Acts. He says this, "I came to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light." That was Paul's mission, to take spiritually blind people and give them spiritual sight. Now the scriptures teach us that it is only those who know and love Jesus Christ who have spiritual sight. There are a lot of people in the world who are religious and think they see. The Pharisees did. They were super religious. They thought they could see and comprehend every spiritual truth in existence. But, they were totally blind. Rather than people being in a religion and finding light, they veil themselves in darkness and we find it difficult to break through, we cannot--apart from God--commanding the light to shine out of that darkness. And we'll see how that works in a few minutes.
Light is the possession of God? God is..what?...light. And in Him there is no darkness at all. And the Apostle Paul carefully points this out, 1 Thessalonians 5, "But of the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write unto you." "For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night when they all say peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, there's travail upon a woman with child and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness that the day should overtake you as a thief, you are sons of light and sons of the day." You who know Christ, you are the sons of light.
And then the Apostle Paul also writing to the Colossians said this, "Giving thanks unto the Father who hath made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the Kingdom of His dear Son." The only people who know light are those who know Jesus Christ, for His is the kingdom of light.
So, the world is divided into two groups: those that are in darkness, the spiritually blind and those that have sight, the spiritually seeing. There are only two kinds of people. There's no half sight. This entire issue of blindness and the entire issue of sight is really what governs chapter 9 of John.
Jesus, back in chapter 8, confronted the Pharisees, He incensed them so much by His claims that they finally grabbed stones to stone Him. Jesus just vanished out of their sight. And on His way out of the temple He saw a blind beggar. The blind beggar didn't ask any favors, just sitting there blind begging. Jesus decided by sovereign divine initiative to heal the man and He did.
The man having been healed went to his neighbors to show them what had happened and to his home. They were astounded. They took him right away to the Pharisees and said, "Hey, what's going on here? How did this all happen?" And besides that, it happened on the Sabbath and that's a no, no. So they reported it to the Pharisees for a judgment on the part of the Pharisees to see what they could possibly bring to light in this particular case.
Well, the blind man finally was was questioned by the Pharisees. Then his parents were questioned. Then he was questioned again. And they refused to believe that Jesus had done it because the Pharisees had already concluded that Jesus was a sinner. How did they know that? They just decided it, they didn't have to be told. They knew everything. So they had decided that Jesus was not the Son of God, He was a fake and He couldn't have done this miracle. So they denied the testimony of the blind man and they kept harassing the blind man. The more they harassed him, the stronger his testimony became till finally they had deteriorated to the lowest levels of conflict. They started calling him names, cursing him. And then they picked him up bodily and threw him out of the building they were in and unsynagogued him. Which means they put him out of the life of Israel. They eliminated him. They wouldn't tolerate his testimony for Christ. They would not tolerate it because they said...they made a rule: if anybody said Christ is the Messiah, they're out of the synagogue...aposunagogos, unsynagogued. And they did it to him. His testimony was clear and concise and they rejected it and threw him out.
Verse 35 begins and Jesus found him. And that's where we pick up the narrative. Jesus has already healed his physical sight and now He's about to heal his spiritual blindness. He's about to give him spiritual sight. The passage divides into two parts - spiritual sight illustrated by the beggar and spiritual blindness illustrated by the Pharisees.
Spiritual blindness has four features: it receives judgment, refuses to admit its blindness, rejects the sight when it's offered and results in doom. We'll look at them one at a time.
In verse 39, Jesus says, “For judgment I am come into this world that they who see not might see and they who see might be made blind." This is almost an ironic statement and I want to add some words to give you the meaning of it. "For judgment I am come into this world," now listen, "That they who know they can't see might see and they that think they see might be confirmed in their blindness." You see this? Jesus came to give sight to those who knew they couldn't see. If a man won't recognize his blindness, Christ can't give him sight, is that right? Recognition of the problem is half the solution. And that was the Pharisees problem. They would not admit their blindness. Jesus says I came to give sight to those who know they need it and I came to those who think they see to let them know they're really blind and if need be to confirm them in their blindness. Those who most think they deserve God's grace are the least likely to experience it and those who least think they deserve God's grace are the most likely to experience it.
When Jesus sees this man worshiping at His feet and He compares the humble confiding heart of that beggar with the hostility and stubborn hatred of the Pharisees, He admits that that's the way it's going to be when He comes. When I come, there's going to be judgment...slash, right down the middle, this group will believe and see, this group will be obstinate and will not see and will be confirmed in their blindness.
John chapter 3 verse 17 says, "For God sent not His Son into the world to judge the world." Now wait a minute. Jesus said I came to judge and God says I didn't send Him to judge, what's the deal? Contradiction....no...Jesus didn't come to judge the world, He came to do what? Save the world, but the other side of the coin is this, by virtue of bringing salvation and by what men did with that salvation, judgment resulted. And what Jesus is saying in chapter 9 verse 39 is just this, having come to bring salvation instead of all men coming to salvation, it became judgment to those who refused it. Jesus didn't come into this world to judge men. You want to know something? If Jesus had wanted to judge men, He wouldn't have had to come into this world, would He? He could have stayed right where He was and judged them. He came to save them. But by virtue of some men rejecting Him, they brought judgment on themselves. That's chapter 3 to the next verse. "He that believeth on Him is not judged," or condemned, same word, "But he that believeth not is judged." Jesus says I didn't come to judge, but if you don't believe you'll be judged by your own unbelief.
Christ came to save men but by the very virtue of His coming to save, some men refuse it and consequently are judged. If a man doesn't see in Jesus something to desire, to trust, to put his faith in, he's condemned himself. If a man thinks that he knows it all and he doesn't recognize anything in Christ at all, he sees no purpose or rhyme or reason for Christ and denies His claims, that man has judged himself by his own willful blindness.
Second thing about spiritual blindness, it refuses to admit its blindness. "And some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these words and said unto Him, "Are we blind also?" Do you get the implication? "We...we, the super leaders of religious matters of Israel, we are not like the accursed rabble who don't know the law, you mean, we learned spiritual folks are blind? You don't mean that. We, the constituted, recognized guides of the people are blind?"
Jesus says, "Yes, you're blind." But the saddest case is to be blind and not know it. God can't do a thing with you if you don't know you're blind.
Third thing about blindness, verse 41. They reject sight even when it's offered. Of course they would reject it since they don't know they're blind. Jesus said unto them, 41, "If you were blind, you should have no sin." This is a tragic statement. They were so blind to sin and they didn't know it and Jesus says I can't help you...I cannot do a thing with you if you don't recognize your blindness.
So, spiritual blindness receives judgment, refuses to admit its blindness, rejects sight. Lastly, at the end of verse 41, spiritual blindness results in doom... "But now ye say we see," ever confident smug, what do you mean we're blind, we know it all, we see everything. Then this, "Therefore your sin remaineth." Earlier He said to them, "You shall die in your sins and where I go you'll never come."
I'll show you a verse that will shock you. Matthew 15 and this is the last verse and we'll close. Matthew 15 verse 12, "Then came His disciples and said unto Him, Knowest Thou that the Pharisees were offended after they heard this saying?" Lord, You are really offending the Pharisees. "But He answered and said, Every plant which My heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up, let them alone." The saddest words you'll ever read. Did you see that, verse 14? Tremendous shocking statement. Forget them, let them go. That's Jesus...loving, kind, saving, seeking Savior...let them alone.
What do You mean let them alone? Let them alone, they are blind willfully and now judicially. They're confirmed in their blindness, they've chosen it, they are kept in it...let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.
I don't know about you, but those three words "let them alone" are shocking words coming from Jesus Christ. But listen, my friend, that's how Christ treats willful, obstinate, stubborn unbelief. He'll just turn away and walk off, let them alone. Compare that with how He treats the eager heart of the blind man who says, "I want to know, please show me." Light was come into the world but men love darkness rather than light. And they went on in their blindness.
Let's take note of spiritual sight. There are four features of spiritual sight that I see in this passage.
First of all, spiritual sight rises in divine initiative, verse 35. Giving sight is God's work. Now look at verse 35. "Jesus heard that they had cast him out." Now how He heard it I don't know and I don't particularly care, it's enough to know that He heard. "And when He had found him," Jesus actually went after the man. That, my friends, is divine initiative. It does not say, "And when they cast him out he found Jesus." Jesus found him. Jesus went after him, sought him and found him and confronted him with a question: "Dost thou believe on the Son of God?"
Even that man's physical sight was purely an act of divine sovereign grace. He was blind sitting by the temple, begging. Jesus walked by, bent down, put clay in his eyes, said go wash and he saw and he never said a word and he never asked to be healed and he never ran after Jesus to find Him. Christ sought him out, healed him physically. Turned right around, sought him out, healed him spiritually. It was all divine initiative.
In Luke 19:10, Jesus says, "For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." John 15:16, Jesus said to His disciples, "You have not chosen Me, I have chosen you and ordained you." In Matthew 18:12, the Bible says, "For the Son of Man," the words of Jesus, "is come to save that which was lost. How think ye? If a man have an hundred sheep and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine and go to the mountains and seek the one which is gone astray?" All throughout the life of Christ, He is ever and always the seeking Savior. He is always seeking the lost. It is divine initiative that brings spiritual sight. And the miracle of the beggar's spiritual sight depended on a seeking Savior.
Remember back in chapter 5, the man 38 years lying by the pool and was impotent, having a disease for 38 years? Jesus healed him, said rise up, take up your bed and walk. He walked, he ran into the Pharisees...they said, "Wait a minute, you can't carry your bed on the Sabbath, drop your bed. Who told you to carry your bed?" They couldn't have cared less that he was healed, all they cared about was some of their ridiculous little traditional rules that they had on the Sabbath. Oh the pain of legalism.
A little while later the Bible says, "And Jesus found him in the temple." Jesus went after the man because He had only begun the work with the physical healing, He went to the temple and met him and talked to him about his soul. And He does the same thing right here. By divine initiative He healed the blind man. By divine initiative He sought him out. Jesus does the seeking, not you, not me. You can't begin to seek God until God has already sought you and revealed Himself to you. Then when you seek, you only seek to experience all that He has already sought and revealed to you. The physical miracle and the spiritual miracle were both divine initiative.
You see, in the physical sense, a blind man has no capacity to give himself sight. Spiritual sight depends on God's initiative and God's power offered in divine and sovereign grace. And it's interesting that no amount of light effects blindness. A blind man in a dark room is a blind man as well as a blind man in daylight. You can pour light into blind eyes and that's not the cure. All the light in the world doesn't make blind eyes see.
Pharisees illustrate that spiritually, don't they? Jesus gave them every bit of light they had, every bit of light He had. They saw everything from the external. They saw all His miracles, heard all His words, watched His person, had all the light He could give and they never saw anything. You see, the only thing that can cure blindness physically is not light, but the surgeon's scalpel or maybe some kind of a transplant and that, of course, would be another kind of operation or a miracle. And spiritually it is a miracle. The only thing that can change spiritual blindness is a miracle...a divine miracle. Man has no capacity. Paul says no man seeks after God, God does the seeking. So, spiritual sight then begins in divine initiative.
Well, Christ asked this man who has been healed of his physical blindness, "Dost thou believe on the Son of God?" Now he didn't really know who the Son of God was, and Christ doesn't really tell him now. He just says do you believe on Him? Do you believe on the Son of God? The man had shown boldness. He had shown courage. He was really a tough guy to tangle with. He had declared that his teacher was from God. He had declared that his teacher was a prophet. He had declared that Jesus was doing God's will and that He couldn't be from anywhere but God if He did the things He did. He really stood up for Christ and got thrown out of the church for doing so.
And now Jesus says, "Do you believe on the Son of God?" And right there Jesus is beginning to give him revelation. He's beginning to unfold full revelation of who He is. Although He doesn't give the final thing, He starts it. Christ sovereignly, divinely initiates spiritual sight. The man didn't say, "Who are You? Who is the Son of God?" Jesus says, "Do you believe?" Sight, spiritual sight, begins in divine initiative.
But we must respond. That's the balance of salvation. Look at it, verse 36. "He answered and said, Who is He, Lord, that I might believe on Him?" He's is so ready for salvation, it's just a matter of "Lord, what do I do now?"
Why did he have so much confidence in Jesus? Well, before he said He's a prophet, didn't he? He said He came from God. Add those two to the third one, He made me see, and you've got a good reason why he thought Jesus Christ could be trusted. He believed Him.
You contrast that kind of attitude with the Pharisees, see, who didn't want...they knew it all. Their kind of unbelief was willful. He wanted to believe. He just wanted to know in what to believe. See, there's different kinds of unbelief. There's that kind of unbelief that's hard, cold, dead, willing, ignorant unbelief. And then there's that kind of searching hungry unbelief that God meets every time. And so, he said, "Show me, where do I go?” And he trusts whatever Jesus says.
You know, his faith is the necessary complement to the sovereignty of God. Even though divine initiative brings spiritual sight, it is still true that you must respond by personal faith to Jesus Christ. In Romans 10:9 and 10, the Apostle Paul says that we must believe in our heart and confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth, with the mouth confession is made unto righteousness. That's the human side, see. That's the balance of salvation. It's all in the divine initiative but it demands a response from us, doesn't it?
The third thing about spiritual sight is it recognizes Christ. Verse 37 and the first part of 38, verse 37, "And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen Him," remember he just said who is it? Who is this Son of God? "You've seen Him and it is He that talketh with thee." And he said, "Lord, I believe." No hesitation. "Oh, Lord, how do I know? Oh, prove it, Lord. Oh my goodness, how can I be sure?" None of that. "Lord, I believe." All he wanted to do was know. He was so ready. The initiator of sight is Christ. The object of faith is Christ. So obviously, anybody who is going to come to Christ has to recognize Him. Anybody who is going to have spiritual sight must recognize Christ. Christ said, "I'm the one." He said, "That's right, You are, I believe." He recognized Christ right off.
You say, "Well, how did he do that? I mean, how could he just (snap) recognize Christ? I mean, how could he...right out of the blue...You're it, I know?" You know how? Divine miracle, that's right, divine miracle. Is salvation a divine miracle? You better believe it. Listen to this one. Jesus talking to the disciples in Matthew said, "Who do men say that I am?" They said, "Oh, some say You're Elijah, Jeremiah, one of the prophets." "Who do you say I am?" Peter answered, listen to what he said, "Thou art the Christ the Son of the living God," right? How did he know that? Jesus said, "Flesh and blood did not reveal that unto you but My Father which is in heaven." You know who you can recognize Jesus Christ? One way and one way alone, by divine miracle. You know how that blind man could say, "I believe"? God showed him that that was Christ. Removed every trace of doubt in his brain.
Listen, you come to Jesus Christ with that kind of faith and in no case will He cast you out. He'll reveal Himself to anyone who comes with honest eager faith.
And so He says, "You see Him," which is kind of a little thing thrown in there because the blind man hadn't seen all his life. He says, "You've seen Him and it's He that talks with you." Tremendous revelation. He is saying in effect, “I am the Son of God.” What a claim. Four times in John's gospel, 5:25, 9:37, 10:36, and 11:4, those four times Jesus says I'm the Son of God. And you better know that John put it down every time cause that's what John's trying to get across to us – Jesus Christ is God. He is the Son of God and the man who comes in honest faith recognizes that and receives spiritual sight.
And I love the fact that he says, "Lord, I believe." A poor beggar, poor beggar who saw nothing all his life clearly recognized the Son of God and a whole lot of religious leaders who thought they saw everything couldn't recognize their own Messiah. And the reason is spiritual sight is a gift from God given to willing faith, not to static determined ignorant willful unbelief.
So, spiritual sight rises in divine initiative, requires faith, recognizes Christ. Fourthly, spiritual sight results in worship. Just quick, verse 38, look at it, the end of the verse, "And he...what?...worshiped Him." Just fell on his knees, worshiped Him. Beautiful....spiritual sight, he just fell down and worshiped. What an interesting thing that is in comparison with verse 59 of chapter 8 where the Pharisees pick up stones to stone Him.
Beautiful climax to the history of the blind beggar. And isn't it a tremendous truth that what God begins, He completes? God started with that man and followed him around until He found him again and completed His work. He was sought by the Lord, he was given sight, he went and testified to his friends. Pharisees got him. They threw him out of their church. And Jesus found him and he fell at His feet and worshiped Him.
A veteran missionary came up to a pastor one day after he had delivered his sermon. The missionary introduced himself and said, "I was a medical missionary for many years in India. And I served in a region where there was progressive blindness. People were born with healthy vision, but there was something in that area that caused people to lose their sight as they matured."
But this missionary had developed a process which would arrest progressive blindness. So people came to him, and he performed his operation. They would leave realizing that they had been spared a life of blindness because of this missionary.
He said that they never said, "Thank you," because that phrase was not in their dialect. Instead, they spoke a word that meant, "I will tell your name." Wherever they went, they would tell the name of the missionary who had cured their blindness. They had received something so wonderful that they eagerly proclaimed it.
My prayer for you is that you realize that have you received something so wonderful that you can't help but proclaim the name of Him who gave it. AMEN
