John uses the verb “believe” 98 times in the Gospel, stressing the importance of this theme in his Gospel. Also, John made it clear that believing in Christ is not all there is to Christianity. To believe in Jesus is to believe that He is the Christ, the Son of God and in order to experience the richness of the life we have in Him our faith must be active and strengthened.
John uses a number of terms to convey the depth and activity of faith: believing is like eating, drinking, seeing, hearing, abiding, coming, entering, receiving, and obeying. If we had this type of relationship with God the Father it would continually transform our lives.
As we know, a person can profess to be a Christian and yet be under the impression that they don’t need to actually follow Jesus as a disciple.
But when a person truly has an encounter with Jesus and surrenders their life to Him, he or she will never be the same.
John 9:1-12
1 As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth. 2 “Rabbi,” his disciples asked him, “why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?”
3 “It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. “This happened so the power of God could be seen in him. 4 We must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the one who sent us. The night is coming, and then no one can work.
5 But while I am here in the world, I am the light of the world.” 6 Then he spit on the ground, made mud with the saliva, and spread the mud over the blind man’s eyes. 7 He told him, “Go wash yourself in the pool of Siloam” (Siloam means “sent”). So the man went and washed and came back seeing! 8 His neighbors and others who knew him as a blind beggar asked each other, “Isn’t this the man who used to sit and beg?”
9 Some said he was, and others said, “No, he just looks like him!” But the beggar kept saying, “Yes, I am the same one!” 10 They asked, “Who healed you? What happened?”
11 He told them, “The man they call Jesus made mud and spread it over my eyes and told me, ‘Go to the pool of Siloam and wash yourself.’ So I went and washed, and now I can see!” 12 “Where is he now?” they asked. “I don’t know,” he replied (John 9:1-12 NLT).
What we see in this passage and later in John 9 is:
Work of Grace (brings light)
Response to Grace (gives sight)
Result of Grace (reveals hearts)
At that time the Jews “regarded every calamity as a punishment for some sin” (Temple, 1:154). It is true that the Fall is the cause for all of the problems and evils in this world and in some cases sin can be the direct cause for sickness.
But the question the disciples were asking was: Is God punishing this blind man’s parents for some previously committed sin or did he sin in the womb? They were not interested in helping the man, but in finding the cause for his condition.
But Jesus was not linking this man’s blindness to a particular sin he had committed nor to anything his parents had done.
“He said this happened, “so that the works of God might be displayed in him.” ”
Work of Grace
Jesus said
We must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the one who sent us. The night is coming, and then no one can work. But while I am here in the world, I am the light of the world” (John 9:4-5).
Jesus wanted everyone to see what the grace of God can and will do in the life of this man to give hope to anyone who lives in spiritual darkness.
“ It was God’s amazing grace that would change this man’s life forever. ”
After this, Jesus tells His disciples that while He is in the world, He is the light of the world, He does something quite unusual in vv. 6-7. He takes dirt and mixes it with His spit and puts it on the blind man's eyes and tells him to wash off at the pool of Siloam.
First of all, why would you mix dirt with saliva and put it on a blind man’s eyes? No one is quite sure, but interestingly enough in the ancient world saliva was viewed as containing the life force of the person and so conveying their power to others (Strauss, Mark L. (2010). The expositor's Bible commentary: Mark. Zondervan Academic. Kindle Edition).
Jesus was making His claim of absolute authority. So what did this blind man do? He got up and walked all the way across town to the pool of Siloam with mud on his eyes. Why did Jesus pick the pool of Siloam of all places to send this man to wash?
We know from John chapters 7 and 8, it was the time of year that the Jews were celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles, the reason Jesus and the disciples were in Jerusalem that week. Bible historians and scholars tell us that each year during the Feast of Tabernacles water was drawn from the pool of Siloam, mixed with wine, and poured out on the altar to sanctify the temple.
This ceremony was to remind the Jewish people about the water that God provided for the children of Israel during their exodus from Egypt as they journeyed through the desert for 40 years.
Response to Grace
Now that his sight was restored, the one who used to sit at the street corner and beg suddenly experienced a new and wonderful world.
The blind man’s response to grace was amazement! The people’s response to grace was one of confusion, they did not know what to make of this miracle. So they brought him to the Pharisees to get some perspective.
When the Pharisees heard about the miracle of the blind man’s healing their response was anger. They refused to believe Jesus was from God because He healed a beggar, a blind man, a sinner and on the Sabbath of all days.
Yet some of the Pharisees wondered how an ordinary sinner could do such miraculous signs. And so they began their interrogation - who did this to you? How did he do it? What is your opinion of him? The former blind man said, “I think He must be a prophet.”
The Pharisees were incredulous after their interview so they cornered the man’s parents and began drilling them - “Is this your son? Was he really blind? How is it that he sees now? But the parents, who were afraid of getting kicked out of the synagogue, wouldn’t give them a straight answer and directed them back to their son who finally asked them,
““Why do you want to know all of this, are you interested in following him too?” ”
You can imagine how this statement got things stirred up putting the Pharisees on the defensive so they hurled insults at him and made accusations against Jesus implying He was of the devil. After this, the Pharisees threw the man out of the synagogue for good.
Jesus went looking for the man and when He found Him.
He asked, “Do you believe in the Son of Man? The man answered, “Who is he, sir? I want to believe in him.”“You have seen him,” Jesus said, “and he is speaking to you!” “Yes, Lord, I believe!” the man said. And he worshiped Jesus.
Then Jesus told him, “I entered this world to render judgment—to give sight to the blind and to show those who think they see that they are blind.”
Some Pharisees who were standing nearby heard him and asked, “Are you saying we’re blind?” “If you were blind, you wouldn’t be guilty,” Jesus replied. “But you remain guilty because you claim you can see (John 9:35-41).
Jesus healed this man of his physical blindness.
And the more the man learned about Jesus the more His spiritual eyes and understanding were opened.
He went from perceiving Jesus as just a man, then a prophet and man of God.
And when he finally met Jesus face to face He saw Him for who He was - the Messiah. His response to grace not only brought healing and sight for the first time in this man’s life, it led him to the decision to personally place his faith in the Son of Man.
In that moment He was washed with the living waters and went from being physically and spiritually blind to seeing for the first time and perceiving the Truth. He exclaimed, Yes, Lord, I believe! In that moment, when he understood who Jesus really was His response to God’s grace was worship.
The Result of Grace
Jesus said He came to give sight to the blind, and to show those who think they see, the reality and consequence of their blindness. The Pharisees were blinded by their own self-righteousness and refusal to see their guilt and their need for salvation. They did not think they needed the light of the Messiah in their darkened lives nor the cleansing, living water for salvation and genuine transformation. This group of people knowingly and deliberately rejected the revelation of God’s grace. Rom 1:19 and their hearts became darkened.
John begins this story with physical blindness not being associated with sin but ends with the spiritual blindness of the Pharisees which was caused by sin.
Satan is a supernatural being with the power to deceive the whole world. He blinds the mind through lies and pride because he is the father of all lies and the prince of darkness. Jesus told the Pharisees in the previous chapter, John 8, that they couldn’t understand what He was saying because they were the children of their father the devil, and love to do the evil things he does.
Likewise, if we as Christians continually reject the light and truth of Scriptures, we will also become blind - blinded by our fears and failures or else by our successes and striving to be on top at the expense of those around us - both self-rejection and self-exaltation are rooted in pride - both are self-absorption.
Whether we are a Christian or non-Christian, there are so many things that have the power to deceive us from seeing our true spiritual state and our need for Christ that we need a gracious, miraculous intervention from God to see it. It’s impossible unless the Spirit of God opens our understanding to comprehend who Christ is and what He has done on our behalf.
This is the reason Jesus came to this earth - to bring light into our darkness and to bring us the hope of salvation.
He did this for every human being, whether illustrious and distinguished or men of no mark - He came for all people because we all were born spiritually blind and destitute. Jesus said:
"I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).
Just as Satan has the power to deceive and destroy, Jesus has the power to heal and transform our lives forever.
Once we decide to follow Jesus, Christian life is not analogous to an adventure, it is a quest - there is no turning back. When we are finished with the quest God has called us to never be the same. The work of grace brings light and our response to grace gives sight, and the results of grace is a transformed life.
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