I confess to often let myself be caught up in the pursuit of the wisdom and knowledge of God. I ask questions, dive headlong into controversial issues, and am often guilty of letting my speech outweigh my thoughts.
I love to learn, but when everything else is tossed aside, there is but one thing I know which outshines all the rest. And that is that I was spiritually blind, but now I see. Jesus Christ made a change within me. Everything else I know or don’t know about Him is secondary to the fact that He was not only able to save me, but He did save me.
Nearly 2,000 years ago a man testified to the Pharisees that, “Whether He is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I do know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see” (John 9:25, NASB) and just a few verses later, “If this man were not from God, He could do nothing” (v.32).
What did that man know about Christ? We’re not told He knew anything about Him. Jesus and His disciples passed the man one day, and the disciples questioned the man’s circumstances, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he should be born blind?” (v.2). The man says nothing at all, but here’s Christ when He says, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was in order that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of Him who sent Me, as long as it is day; night is coming, when no man can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world” (vv.3-5).
Still no word comes from the blind man as Christ spits on the ground, reaches down and grabs some of the moist clay, and applies it to the blind man’s eyes.
Imagine being a blind man and having a group of strangers stop by you and start questioning your circumstances. Then imagine one of them, called “Rabbi” by the others, smearing some mud across your eyes! What kind of impression would this leave on the blind man?
Jesus tells him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (v.7), and the man does so. And immediately he receives his sight.
This man becomes a disciple of Christ (vv.27-28). Before he ever learns of the sinlessness of Christ, before he ever had heard of the Virgin Birth, the eternal pre-existence, the Hypostatic Union, or even that Jesus was the Son of God… he was Christ’s disciple. He may not of known much by our often towering standards, but he knew enough. “Whereas I was blind, now I see.”
It wasn’t until after the Pharisees had rejected the man did Christ return to him (v.35), and it was then that the revelation that He was the Son of Man was given to the man (v.37). And finally we are told of the man’s faith (v.38). It came after his life was changed, after he had become a disciple, after he had already been sharing what Christ had done for him with others. Isn’t that something? Christ says that He came to make the blind see and to make the seeing blind (v.39). This was accomplished for the man before he professed his faith. The Pharisees, who confessed to be able to see (v.41) were shown to be blind when they could not understand Christ’s teaching (10:6,20).
“Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost but now am found
Was blind but now I see”
It really is that simple.
Amen.