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The Gospel of John, The Period of Conflict - The Clash of Belief and Unbelief, Continuing discourse after the feast, The Man Blind from his Birth, Part XXIII, John 9:6-10 - Lesson 70
John 9:6,7, When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.
I believe that the blind beggar is a representative of any one of us.
The Father arranged this meeting of Jesus Christ and the blind man for our edification and our learning of his grace.
It has spiritual lessons for all ages.
It accurately depicts what happens today to a sinner saved by the grace of God.
If you are saved it depicts your spiritual history.
The man, found outside the temple, represents the sinner alienated from God.
He was blind and unable to see the Savior coming to him.
He was blind from birth, so too is the sinner, estranged from the womb.
As Psalm 58:3, says The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.
He was totally helpless, beyond the aid of man, and hopeless unless God intervened.
He was simply a beggar, unable to purchase a remedy for his blindness and completely dependant upon charity.
He made no appeal to Jesus Christ for help.
Such is the condition of the sinner before the grace of God begins to do its work.
And last the philosophizing and reasoning of the disciples shows the inability of man to help the sinner to see light.
So by his word he shows that we too are blind.
This passage shows that Jesus Christ is the one that looks for sinners, that he is the one that heals,
This passage tells us that some who suffer, may suffer that God's power and grace is revealed in him.
It shows the imperative nature of God's grace.
Jesus is light as long as he is in the world and:
He must work the works of the Father, the works of grace, for that is God's nature.
This passage tells us wash in the water of his word and apply it to ourselves and we will then have light, for he is the light.
As we are told in: Psa 119:130, The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.
John 9:8, The neighbors therefore, and they which before had seen him that he was blind, said, Is not this he that sat and begged?
This blind man had been well known in his neighborhood.
His breadth of activity had been very limited because of his blindness.
The people of the neighborhood were used to seeing him often in his place of begging.
But today Jesus had come into their neighborhood and changed things.
Light cannot be hidden.
In this passage John tells us that his neighbors notice something different about the blind beggar.
Light has done its work and darkness has been dispelled.
The man who was blind is blind no more, the man who had begged begs on more.
There is a difference in a life that is touched by Jesus Christ.
A work of grace produces something that neighbors see.
A work of grace turns a person into a useful person, a person whose eyes are opened to truth.
John 9:9,10, Some said, This is he: others said, He is like him: but he said, I am he. Therefore said they unto him, How were thine eyes opened?
What a typical picture of those regenerated by God!
Some saw the man as he had been but now there was something different about what they saw.
Two natures now where there had been only one before.
The old man is there to occupy his body of death, but the new man has taken up residence to prepare this man for eternal life with God.
Some recognized the one they had known before his eyes were opened; others saw a different person.
God does not destroy you when you are born again, he regenerates you.
He makes you, not somebody else, but he makes you new!
This is the miracle of the new birth.
To make something that is corrupt, incorrupt.
So we see a work of grace put to the test.
A testimony is called for in the life of the man born blind.
How were your eyes opened, the neighbors ask?
So, very quickly, the new soul in Christ is given an opportunity to bear witness of Jesus Christ.
To confess that Jesus is the reason that is eyes were opened. |