The student who confines his study to the verses indicated as forming the lesson, will lose a great deal, for some of the most striking features of the narrative are in the latter portion of the chapter. In our study, therefore, we shall proceed as though the entire chapter were included in the lesson.
The story is very simple, and easily learned. Jesus was passing by, and saw a man who had been blind from his birth. The disciples, full of the native childish curiosity that delights in the speculative rather than the practical, asked Him, "Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?" (John 9:2)
It was obvious enough to anybody who thought instead of wondered, that the man was not born blind in consequence of anything that he himself had done, and Jesus said that it was not because of any special sin on the part of his parents, but in order that the works of God should be made manifest in him.
Then adding that He must do the works of Him that sent Him while it was day, and that He was the Light of the world, He moistened some clay and anointed the eyes of the man with it, telling him to go and wash in the pool of Siloam; the man did as he was told, and came back seeing.
How many who read this narrative realize that it is the true account of something that actually happened? To most of us, as we read the story of the various miracles of Jesus, they are more stories, and, while we nominally believe them, the events recorded are so very far away from us, and so lost in the haze of the distance, that it is almost, if not quite the same to us, as though they never happened at all.
Our minds do not take hold of them as real occurrences, and we should be most surprised if we should see anything of the kind take place now. People do not expect miracles, and yet they are the ordinary working of God, and are being performed before our eyes every day.
That miracles, even such as the opening of the eyes of the blind, are the ordinary work of God, is shown by the words of Jesus, just before He opened the eyes of the blind man, and with reference to that event: "I must work the works of Him that sent me, while it is day." (John 9:4)
To open the eyes of the blind is one of the ordinary works of God, and He is constantly at it. This man was born blind. That is, his eyes remained after his birth in the same condition that they were before he was born.
Every child, as well as every other animal, has eyes before coming into the would as a separate being, yet it cannot see. Its eyes are closed. When it comes forth to the light, the same miracle is wrought on it that was wrought on this man, for whom it was not performed at the usual time.
In his case God had delayed the process, in order that people might see that the opening of peoples' eyes is the result of special action on His part, and not of chance, or what people call "nature." This is what the lesson teaches us, and if we learn it and remember it, we shall have something of great value. "In Him we live, and move, and have our being." (Acts 17:28)
There is no life and no living except in Him, and nobody can see except in and by Him, for He is light, and He is all the light that there is. Jesus is set forth as the revelation, the manifestation, of the Father: "No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him." (John 1:18)
And therefore He is "the Light of the world." (John 9:5)
He is the Word of life that was in the beginning, and was manifested unto us: "That which was from the beginning...the Word of life; ... which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us." (1 John 1:1-2)
And this life is the light of men: "In Him was life; and the life was the light of men." (John 1:4)
From the statement that Jesus is the light of the world, coupled with the fact that immediately after saying it, He demonstrated it by giving a blind man his sight, enabling him to see as other men, we learn that the light that greets our eyes every morning, and that shines in the sun and moon and stars, is nothing else than the light of the glory of God shining in the face of Jesus Christ.
If we do not recognize this truth, we are walking in the light as though we were in the midst of darkness; we are blind. God is everywhere, filling heaven and earth, and if we do not see Him, it is simply because we are blind. We have eyes, but, they are of no real use to us. "This then is the message which we have heard of Him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth; But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin." (1 John 1:5-7)
But whosoever lacks faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly-kindness, and love, "is blind, and cannot see afar off, and has forgotten that he was purged from his old sins." (2 Peter 1:9)
Compare the preceding verses. Whoever remains in sin is as blind as the man was of whom we are studying. Every heathen, that is, every one who does not recognize and worship the Lord, is as blind as the images of silver and gold in which he trusts. (See Psalm 115:2-8)
The change from sin to righteousness is a new birth, and is analogous to the first birth, by which we come into the world. When a child is born into the world, it is a new creature, yet so common is the occurrence, that few ever think of the mystery of it.
Nobody in the world can understand the mystery of life, the mystery of birth, but all believe in it; yet at the same time most people have no faith in the new birth, by which a man becomes a new creature.
Both births are accomplished by the same power, and one is really no more mysterious than the other; both are equally beyond the power of human comprehension. The same power that gives us our life in the first place, and that renews it day by day, has given unto us all things that pertain to life and godliness. "He gives to all life, and breath, and all things," (Acts 17:25)
And He gives all things, even all things that pertain to everlasting life and godliness, in the gift of life that is bestowed on all men. The free gift has come upon all; but few will acknowledge that they are blind, and so they never see.
Christ is anointed "to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind." (Luke 4:18)
And He does this work by the same power by which He upholds all things. The proof that a man can be born of God, and can be made free from sin, is found in the fact that we live, and see the light of day. "But," someone will say, "you are confusing the spiritual and the natural."
No; we are doing nothing of the kind. The perfectly natural, that is, the nature which is perfect, is spiritual. The exceeding great and precious promises of God are given unto us that by them we might be "partakers of the Divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." (2 Peter 1:4)
The Divine nature is spiritual, for God is Spirit, and the only real, perfect man is the man who has that nature. Having that nature, we discern spiritual things,--we see God. Without that nature, we see nothing, but are in reality dead.
The miracles of Jesus that are recorded, "that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you might have life through His name." (John 20:31)
But life through Christ means sight, and perfect sight means the ability to recognize God in everything. If as we read the Bible, its words were real to us,--if we did not read them as in a dream, --we should have the perfect life of the Lord; for His Word is Spirit and life.
Whoever studies this lesson and does not see that which he never saw before, who does not see and experience the life and light that are eternal, has studied to no profit. These things are not written merely in order that we may fill up a vacant hour, or that we may learn a few things merely as matters of history, but that we might have present, eternal life. "Are you really studying the lesson?"
To every man who becomes a real man in Christ Jesus, there comes a change as real and as great as that which came to the poor man of whom our lesson tells. People who have not had this experience think that they see as much as anybody, and they will not believe those who tell them of things not seen by the eyes of our body. Never having seen spiritual things, they do not believe that such things exist.
But when they accept Jesus, the light of the world, they can say, "One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see." (John 9:25)
We never become really conscious of our blindness until we see, and strange as it may seem, we cannot continue to see except as we remember and acknowledge that we are in ourselves blind. That is, we see only in the Lord.
The man who is spiritually blind, and therefore really blind, thinks that he sees as well as anybody else; but the man who in Christ receives his sight, knows that he sees, and no cross-questioning or brow-beating by skeptical philosophers can shake his testimony. "We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen." (John 3:11)
Do you believe? then you can see. Do not wait to see before you believe, for it is not true, as commonly asserted, that "seeing is believing;" on the contrary, believing is seeing.
But remember this, that as long as you say concerning any truth of God,--anything that is spoken of in the Bible,--"I cannot see it," you acknowledge yourself to be blind, and are therefore not competent to be a judge of anything spiritual. Such a one needs to be taught.
But he who has received from the Lord the eyesalve, and whose eyes have been anointed that he may see, needs not that any man should teach him. (1 John 2:20,27) That is to say, although we are all in need of more knowledge, and may learn from everybody and everything, when we have once received the light of the Lord, we are capable of discerning between truth and error, between right and wrong, and do not need to ask anybody whether or not that which we see is real. Such assurance as this is most blessed. "Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun." (Ecclesiastes 11:7)--Present Truth, August 9, 1900--International Sunday-school Lesson for August 19--John 9:1-17.