John Chapter 9 Jesus doing the works of God
This is the 6th
sign which points to Jesus as the Son of God.
As before, no one but God could do this miracle. It is absolutely not in the gift of man to
create sight in a man who was born blind; this miracle proclaims unequivocally
that Jesus is God.
Verses 1-7 Giving sight to the blind
Occupation.
Jesus is fully involved in the work of God-v1-2
“And as Jesus passed by He saw a
man which was blind from his birth”.
The words “Jesus” and “his” are in italics, and have been supplied by
the translators-they are not in the original texts. So
the verse reads “And passing by He saw a man which was blind from birth.” This links the opening verse of this chapter
to the last verse of the previous chapter.
He was surrounded by a mob who wanted to stone Him, these being the
rejecters among the rulers of Israel. He
quickly went through their midst and passed them by-8v59…as He passed, He
stopped beside the blind man…9v1. He
removes Himself from those who wanted to kill him and stopped to attend a man who
needed Him. “Passing by” is a phrase
that is much used in scripture, reminding us that the opportunities to get
right with God are fleeting.
·
Matt. 9v9 Jesus
passed forth
·
Matt. 9v27Jesus
departed
·
Matt. 20v30 Two
blind men… heard that Jesus passed by.
·
Luke 18v37 And they
told him that Jesus of Nazareth passeth by
·
1st Cor.
7v31 The fashion of this world passeth by
This world, this
life, with all its opportunities, is passing by and we are all heading on the
journey to the other side. Our attitude to Jesus determines our eternal destiny.
He passed by the spiritual rulers who knew not they were blinded by their own religion.
At
the same time He stopped to heal a man who knew he was blind. He will go on to speak of the fleeting
opportunities for service, but first we consider the importance of the meaning
of blindness.
“He saw a man
blind from birth…” This is the
condition of the entire human race. In
chapter five, He healed a man paralysed for 38 years, representing the nation
of Israel in their departure from God. Now,
He takes it further and applies it to the whole of humanity. Spiritual blindness is the sad reality marking
every man, woman, and child born into this world. All
these physical conditions that Jesus healed are representative of a wider
spiritual condition before God. We are
thinking, here, not of a man who became blind, but a man who was born blind. Scripture makes it clear that this is the
condition of the human race.
Psalm 51v5- “Behold,
I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me.”
Psalm 58v3- “The
wicked are estranged from the womb. They go astray as soon as they be born speaking
lies.”
Ecclesiastes 7v20- “There
is not a just man up on the earth that doeth good and sinneth not.”
2nd Corinthians 4v4-
“In whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of them that believe not.”
Ephesians 4v18- “Having
the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, through the
ignorance that is in them.”
There are many who
think they can see things spiritual-such as the scribes and Pharisees, but
Jesus said they were blind. God’s word
declares that, as we were born, we are blind to the truth of God, and this is
our condition from birth. Like this poor
man, we all need to receive our sight.
Back in Genesis 3v5, Satan claimed that God was withholding something
good from them, and that by opposing His will their eyes would be opened. In fact all it did was subject humanity to spiritual
blindness. Christ came to reverse this
trend, as predicted in Isaiah 35v5, 42v7, and Luke 4v18. Christ revealed Himself to Paul, as He
commissioned him to preach the good news to the world-Acts 26v17-18, “Delivering
thee from the people (Israel), and from the Gentiles (all other nations of the
world) to whom I now send thee; to open their eyes, and to turn them from
darkness to light…”. All humanity is
blind including the chosen nation, and in Christ alone their eyes can be opened,
else remain blinded forever.
No comments:
Post a Comment