New Thoughts (08/26/09-09/05/09)
I have a few observations to pursue that are not directly connected to this final part of John 9, before I turn to the text at hand. The first of these concerns a passage that the NASB includes amongst the parallels for verse 35, particularly associating it with the matter of having been put out. There, 3Jn 1 is indicated as bearing on the subject, but that letter opens with nothing more than the indication that the elder (presumably John) writes to Gaius, one he loves in truth. What has this to do with being put out?
The only explanation I could come up with was that Gaius was perhaps supposed to be the blind man’s name according to some tradition or other, but there is nothing to suggest that. As it turns out, the answer is far more prosaic. A quick look at my hard-copy of the NASB shows that there was a typo in the reference. It was supposed to be 3Jn 10, which talks about how Diotrephes, who has set himself against the true brethren, forbids those he oversees to so much as receive the brethren, throwing them out of the church if he learns they have done so. Fine. That’s a clear connection to the present passage. Mystery solved.
The second item I wanted to touch on concerns John 5:27, which also appears as a parallel verse. In that verse, Jesus says that the Father gave the Son the authority to execute judgment, and then He assigns a reason to this. He says authority was given to the Son because He is the Son of Man. So, Who is this Son Jesus is talking about? He has been clearly identified, back in John 5:25, as being the Son of God. Now, one immediate point we can take from this is that the Son of God is the Son of Man, and this was quite clearly Jesus’ understanding and claim. So, then, whenever He has referred to Himself as the Son of Man, it has been with this understanding.
The point that really captured my attention, though, is that the authority wasn’t given to Him simply because He was the Son of God. It was given to Him because He is the Son of Man. Isn’t that stunning? It would seem clear that as Son of God, and therefore very God of very God, He already had all authority, for He and the Father are One. Yet, He says this is not the case, at least so far as it applied to His earthly mission.
This may be the key to understanding the point He is making; that it is limited to that earthly mission. If I bring this into conjunction with Paul’s teaching that He had emptied Himself in His coming, this begins to make more sense. Look at that passage. He existed in the form of God, [but] did not consider His equality with God a thing He must cling to. Rather, He emptied Himself, becoming as it were a bond-servant, made entirely in the likeness of men. Finding Himself in the flesh of man, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient even to the point of death on a cross. It is for this cause that God highly exalted Him above every other name (Php 2:6-9).
In other words, in submitting to the plan of Incarnation, He willingly set aside every prerogative of being God. He did not cease to be God in doing so, but He chose to pursue His purposes as a man, not a God. He came, after all, as the new Adam, the new federal representative of mankind. Succeed or fail, He must do so as man, not as God, else his representation is rendered meaningless. So, He set aside His rights as God and set about earning the authority that was bestowed upon Him later by the Father. He was given the authority because He had shown Himself faithful to the purposes of God in the Father. He had proven Himself the Son of Man, the sound federal representative of all mankind, and having proven Himself, authority was entrusted to Him.
This may raise the thought in us that He could have failed in His mission. He could have fallen to temptation as did Adam before Him. I suppose we cannot completely rule out that possibility, and yet, I would simultaneously hold that while it might barely have been possible, it was assuredly not probable. God’s plans are not subject to failure, even when they involve fallible man. He is greater. Surely, if it is so with man in general, it is more certainly so with this One Who while man was yet God, if God under self-imposed restrictions.
This same understanding might help us when we come upon matters like Jesus’ profession that He was not authorized to choose who would sit at His right and His left in heaven. If He is God of God, then of course He chooses, for God is One. But, if He speaks from His temporal position, having divested Himself of the rights of the Godhead, this is acceptable. Likewise, the matter of His not being privy to the timetables of heaven. Of course, He was privy. They were His timetables. But, by His own arrangement, that channel of communication was rendered unavailable, and His authority to reconnect it was set aside until this mission was completed.
In many ways, His earthly mission was something like that of the CIA operative I’ve been reading about in this fiction I picked up on vacation. He is operating under cover, deep inside enemy territory, and He must be careful of any communications back to the home office, for there may be bugs. The communications might be traced, and the mission thereby compromised. Obviously, any parallel here is very thin, but the image comes to mind as a way of partly understanding the limits He imposed on Himself. The operative has not renounced his citizenship by undertaking his mission. But, if there is catastrophic failure in that mission, he may not enjoy the full protections due a citizen. His superiors may find it serves the nation’s interests better to deny any connection with the operative and let him suffer the consequences. But, he remains a citizen in earnest even so.
Of course, with Jesus, the issue has more to do with maintaining God as Just. As I noted, had He resorted to His power as God to fulfill His mission, His mission would have been a failure. To abide by the will of God as one being God is of no value. It is about as meaningful as me following my own will. Barring outside interference what else would I do but follow my own will? Arguably, even in the face of such interference, I follow my own will, for I must will myself to accept such interference at some level. There is no merit, then, in doing what I choose to do. But, doing what God chooses to do, when I am but a man? In this there is great merit, and this is exactly what Jesus has done. He is Son of Man. He is man, and He is man in the fullest. He is man as no other before or since has been man. He is man as man was intended to be, wholly human yet wholly in God’s will; wholly human and wholly reflecting God in his own image. That is what earned Him the authority to execute judgment. He had proven God just in proving Himself just, and having done so, earned the right to stand as judge, for He has given proof that He shall judge justly.
Seeing this, I must stop and give You praise, my Lord. Apart from Your accomplishments here, as a man of the flesh, I should be quite without hope in this life. You have shown us, Jesus, what we are truly capable of becoming. You have shown us that it is indeed possible. Forgive me, Lord, if I have made Your being God even while in the flesh an excuse for my own shortcomings. I see now that what You accomplished, You accomplished as Man. I see now that You did not avail Yourself of those things which were Yours by right as God, but achieved Your victory over sin and death as a man!
Does this give me hope of perfection in this lifetime? I think not, for surely I remain wholly dependent upon Your accomplishment. Surely, if I could obtain to that perfection, there would have been no cause for You to come to this world and suffer as You did, and I cannot bear to think that You would have acted so capriciously as that. Yet, in Your victory, and in realizing Your victory came to a Man, I find cause to strive the more with sin in my own life. How I do this in complete dependence upon You, and yet do not become passive and complacent in the effort is something of a mystery to me. Yet, I know this is how it must be.
Here and now, though, I just feel this need to praise Your great accomplishment. How it has eluded me this long, I cannot say, but the very idea that You did what You did under such a handicap just makes me love You all the more! It gives me that much more cause to worship, to be awed by what You have accomplished. And, you have done this for me! You gained nothing for Yourself by this, for You already stood in possession of all things, being Creator of all things. You would have been completely in Your rights to simply write us off as a failed experiment, and start over again. Yet, You cared. You loved. You could not bear the thought of Your creatures being destroyed for their weakness, and seeing that we are incapable of being as we ought, You came to be as we ought, that we might have the benefit of Your efforts. Holy is Your name, indeed, my God! Great are Your ways beyond my capacity. I can but bow before You in gratitude that You should stoop down so that I might someday rise to You.
Now I feel ready to turn to the passage before us. To begin, I will look at a concept which is both central to the passage and central to the whole matter of faith. That is the matter of belief. Jesus asks the blind man if he believes in the Son of Man. The blind man recognizes that he cannot believe in somebody he doesn’t yet know with certainty. No doubt he had his suspicions that Jesus was speaking of Himself, but he will not profess belief until he knows.
This demonstrates the fallacy of that which is often spoken of as blind faith. Faith, true faith, is never blind. It is founded upon belief, and belief in its turn is founded upon evidence, or at the very least, sound argumentation. Of course, it is quite possible to have a firm belief in something that turns out to be purest nonsense. But, belief always has a reason to believe. The very basis of the term speaks of being persuaded as to the truth of a matter, being convinced by the arguments put forth in support of what is believed. In the case at hand, that argument lies with the senses. It is not an argument of clever words, not an emotional response to a particularly charismatic orator. It is the evidence of the senses. Notice that it is to the senses that Jesus appeals: You have seen Him and now you are hearing Him speak to you. Were you to reach out your hand, you would be touching Him.
The importance of that hearing part shouldn’t be missed. Recall that in that first encounter, the man could not have seen Jesus, for he was still blind. As he walked off to the Pool of Siloam, we presume that still, he was blind. So, prior to this encounter, he really hadn’t seen this Jesus. Apart from hearing, he has no cause to connect this man with that One who healed him. Hearing is, in this case, the fundamental argument for belief. He had heard that One who spoke about the reason for his blindness, and had heard that One give him the instructions which, by obeying them, made his healing complete. The voice he knew. The face he did not. Only now is he able to establish a connection between sight and sound, and the impact of that connection is immediate: “Lord, I believe!”
You see, sitting there day after day outside the Temple, he has heard much of the discussion about this Jesus. He has heard the things people were saying about Him, heard about what He has supposedly done. Then came that day when he heard somebody talking about his condition, and then doing something about it. Now, seeing the Man, his understanding was being made complete. All the pieces were coming together. What he had heard of this Man doing, he had experienced himself. What he experienced himself lent credence to the idea that this was indeed the Messiah, the Son of Man and yes, the Son of God. His belief was not something that just popped into his head out of nowhere. It was arrived at by considering the evidence, and finding the evidence convincing.
Yes, we may never lose sight of the Holy Spirit’s hand in this. Of course, He must provide the faith, plant that seed of acceptance within. Until God moves to open our spiritual eyes, no amount of evidence will suffice to convince us. That is the situation we are shown over and over again with the religious authorities we see in the Gospels. That is the situation we face over and over again as we seek to bring the Gospel to the culture of our own time. Our culture has, by and large, determined to keep its eyes closed to the truth. People in our day, quite frankly, don’t even accept truth as a concept. They are too fully satisfied with opinion to be bothered with truth. Would that we as a people would wake up out of that particular nightmare! We are governed by politicians who prefer narrative to fact, taught by teachers who prefer a good story to real history. We are trained to believe in nothing, and when we are faced with that which claims the exclusive right to define truth, we find the very concept offensive. We are being trained and conditioned to find such claims offensive. In that training, we are being trained to ignore the evidence that God would bring to our attention. We are, as Jesus says here, made blind.
But, faith is never blind. Faith is the most reasonable of responses when once the senses are allowed to present their evidence unhindered. For, the evidence of our senses must surely convince us that there is a God, and God is willing and perfectly able to present the evidence necessary to make His claim to being God clear to those who are willing to accept and acknowledge what they see and hear and experience.
The degree of belief demonstrated by this man is seen in the fact that he no sooner confesses a belief in the Son of Man than he bows down in true worship before Him. In other words, he has not simply believed that Jesus is a healer or exorcist of some sort. He has not simply believed that He is a prophet, for no prophet, however sound, has deserved that worship, nor would he accept it if he be truly a prophet. He has not even stopped at believing this One is the Messiah, for even that belief, as we have seen, falls far short of accepting that the Man is God. No! He has believed in that miraculous degree that Peter believed: “You are the Son of the living God” (Mt 16:16). And, just as it was true for Peter, so it is true for this man, and for every one of us who has come to believe: “Flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven” (Mt 16:17). It is never without evidence, but evidence – the flesh and blood – is not sufficient in itself. It requires the spiritual healing of the Father preceding belief, else belief shall never come, however profound and irrefutable the evidence.
Turning briefly to the matter of having been put out, it is not entirely clear that when the Pharisees ‘put him out’ they had truly placed him under the ban. Back when this man’s parents were testifying, we were told that they feared to speak all they could because of the threat of the ban. The leadership had “already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue” (Jn 9:22). There, the term John uses is very specific. In fact, the whole phrase ‘put out of the synagogue’ translates one word. On the other hand, when it comes to the actions those Pharisees took regarding the man himself, we only read that they “put him out”. Here, the translation is considering two words: exebalon exoo. Does this, then, mean that they were simply showing him the door, so that they could return to their private deliberations, or does it indicate that he was actually placed under the threatened ban?
Given the nature of his response to their questions, which clearly raised their hackles, and given that Jesus both heard about their actions, and found cause in it to come seek this man out, I think we may conclude that indeed, they did put him under the ban. Had they simply shown him the door, I’m not sure that would be so newsworthy that Jesus would have been hearing it on the streets. It’s not impossible that He would have been told of the events anyway, but it’s hardly necessitated by such a thing. Surely, that Council had told many a witness to leave in their day. It’s just not interesting, if that’s all that happened.
Neither, if that was the whole of it, is there reason in that action for Jesus to take it as cause to go find the man. That cause and effect relationship is clearly indicated by verse 35. Jesus heard what had happened to him, and therefore went and found him. Look, if it was a simple matter of concluding the contract of faith, He could have simply followed the man to the pool and spoken to him then and there. If this present scene were only about concluding that contract, there would be no need to mention that Jesus had heard about him being put out. We could simply learn that Jesus decided to look the man up and then ask him about belief. But, the reason for the searching and finding is placed squarely on this matter of the man having been put out.
Suppose this really is a reference to the ban. Suddenly, the action Jesus has taken has a whole new significance, alongside that of sealing this man’s salvation. He has heard about the ban. After all, the ban is only effective if the people have heard about it. For, a major facet of the ban is that all fellowship is cut off from that one who is banned. That certainly explains why news of it had come to Jesus. He was being called upon to do His part, as was every other good Jew. But, how does He respond? Does He obey the leadership and cut off fellowship from this one He had healed? No. He rejects that ban outright, and makes a point of seeking the man out. He shall not go without fellowship. Indeed, he shall have the best fellowship given to man, fellowship with his Creator! Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they cast insults at you and persecute you on account of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great (Mt 5:10-12)! That which Jesus taught is exactly what this man is now experiencing. His reward in heaven is already great in that he shall be there. That he stood up to the browbeating of the leadership, preferring Truth to security has increased that reward. May we, then, be equally devoted to upholding the Truth of heaven, even though we be threatened with death or worse!
If belief is the key concept in this passage, then verse 38 is certainly the key verse. Indeed, it is the key to the entire story of the blind man. I make particular note of this because the NET indicates that there is some debate as to the legitimacy of the last half of that verse. Interestingly, it is the only translation that suggests there is any debate. It is highly unusual that such translations as the NASB and the NKJV would fail to at least put a footnote in to note the matter.
The point of contention raised by the NET centers on the fact that the man worshiped Jesus. This, it is posited, comes a bit early in the career of Jesus as we have it related to us by John. It is, after all, that form of worship which is rightly understood as reserved to God alone. No right-thinking Jew would offer such worship to any being less than God, and no right-thinking being other than God would accept it. Consider Paul’s reaction when they acclaimed him as if he were a god. Consider the fate of Herod, when he did not reject similar acclamations in regard to his own person. To accept the earnest offer of worship on one’s own behalf, to set oneself as god above God, is a deadly sin, to be sure! So, the NET, while not rejecting the passage out of hand, does put it in the “we’re not sure about this” brackets.
However, I have to say that without that simple statement of, “And he worshiped Him,” the whole story falls flat. It becomes just one more healing among many, and the fact that John has spent such an inordinate amount of time on it makes little sense. The whole point of this passage, though, is that the physical opening of this man’s eyes is representative of the spiritual activity taking place within him, the spiritual activity that is being offered to all of Israel. It is a living demonstration of John’s later salutation, “may you prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers” (3Jn 2). Indeed, one wonders if maybe this very event led to that understanding. May the physical reflect the spiritual, may you live out a manifestation of what is already the state of your inner being.
Let me say immediately that this is not an endorsement of that fleshly, materialistic sort of stuff we see happening today. It is not a demand that health and wealth must follow the believer, that any lack in those areas must surely reflect a spiritual problem. After all, have we not just had Jesus teaching us that there is no necessary connection? Yet, it is a blessing to the believer when their outward condition can be such a clear manifestation of the inward. We know, as well, that many have the outward condition whose inward state is far from righteous. Again, we dare not suppose any connection as being necessary by the way of things. Yet, it is good and pleasant when we can experience it in that fashion.
Even so, if the plan and purpose of my God requires that I walk in lack, as the world measures it, then may I do so with assurance, knowing that He who sets my path provides my needs.
This man has not put any conditions on his belief. What has come his way has come as a gift from God, from Jesus. He asked nothing of Jesus and he received it all. Jesus asks of him nothing that He hasn’t already given. The belief this man professes is a belief sown and watered by God Himself. The worship that comes from that seed is but the natural fruit of what has been planted, a return to the Gardener on His investment in this vineyard.
He worships Jesus. His eyes, his spiritual eyes, are fully open and aware. He sees not just a healer, not just a Messiah such as the people had come to expect. He sees far more than some warrior king that might restore Israel’s glory. He sees the whole picture. Truly, this Son of Man as He calls Himself is the Son of God. He sees as Peter saw, and for the same reason: God in heaven has revealed this to him. God in heaven has opened his mind’s eye to see the full reality of the kingdom around him. So, he worships.
He worships, and Jesus does not reject that worship. Again, measure this act against Paul. Measure this act against the angels. The man is either wholly reprobate, or at least mad, or He is God. Surely, He demonstrates by His acceptance of this as His due that He understands Himself to be God. Were one to come to our attention who behaved with such a self-conception, we should surely count him mad, and to be pitied. This is the only other explanation we can have for this Jesus. He is either mad or He is God. His resurrection, as the apostles make clear, settles the question for us. Mad men do not rise from death by their madness.
Listen! That confession of belief, and the proof that his belief extends beyond understanding Jesus to be a prophet or anything less than God Incarnate comes as the revelation of the purpose of the whole series of events that has led up to this point. The entire chapter has been recorded to bring us to this confession, and that we might appreciate the full power of this confession. The man worshiped. Point one: He recognized Jesus as God. Jesus did not reject it. Point two: Jesus recognized Himself as God. The Pharisees there on the scene did not take up stones immediately to destroy this evil from their midst. Point three: The Pharisees recognized Him as God.
That last point is the one most likely to elude our attention. But, consider: The Pharisees were earlier prepared to stone Him for simply saying, “before Abraham was, I AM” (Jn 8:58). Now, He is not simply making outrageous claims, He is accepting worship such as only God can be counted worthy of. This proud people who would not bow to Caesar, do you really think they would tolerate such behavior from one of their own? It’s unthinkable! If they did not agree with the assessment the blind man had made, they would have, at a minimum, been wrestling Jesus to the ground to stand him before the Counsel that they might condemn Him.
But, you see, these are Pharisees “who were with Him”. Their actions serve to clarify what might be ambiguous in the English. They were not with Him as mere innocent bystanders who happened to be there when He found the blind man again. Were they of the same mindset as those who had just put this man under the ban, the bare fact that Jesus was associating with him would have been enough to set them off, let alone this accepting of worship! No, they are with Jesus. They may not be His intimates just yet, but they are of His company. They are listening, and listening, they are coming to belief. They just haven’t come all the way, yet. They have a lot of past training to shed before they can fully accept the Gospel as it is offered.
In this light, the closing statement of this chapter, which ought rightfully remain connected to the beginning of the next, is particularly jarring. Here are these men who are, by their willingness to associate with Jesus, putting themselves at risk of censure by their peers, and even at risk of being put under the same ban as this blind man. Yet, they are indeed here with Jesus. Publicly. Still, their training makes it very difficult for them to accept that they have as deep a need for Him as this blind man did. “You’re not saying we are blind, too, are You? I mean, look! We’re here with You, aren’t we? We’re not taking up stones over what we just witnessed are we? Surely, then, we are seeing clearly”
Perhaps it’s the implication that they had been seeing clearly all along, that they continued to see as they had always done. Perhaps it’s that, while they may be clear as to who Jesus is, they are not clear as to their own condition. I suspect it’s the latter. Yes, they acknowledge that Jesus is God Incarnate, if only by their inaction. But, they do not yet recognize themselves as sinners in need of what Jesus has come to offer. They are still convinced that their works are going to suffice. They still think themselves righteous in God’s sight as they are in their own. That is the blindness that persists. That is the thing Jesus must correct in them if they are to be saved.
Well, isn’t that my story! How well I recall the day my wife to be first told me I needed to repent and be saved. My reaction? What else? “Why? I’m a good man, aren’t I? If I’m not, why are you here with me?” I was still blind, and still guilty of my sins, because I didn’t really accept that I had sins. I was no worse than anybody else, and better than many. And, therein lay my problem. My standard was not God, but man. Therein lies the problem of the Pharisees and their approach to heaven: Their standards were not God’s, but their own.
Now, it shall be a while before I have finished with all that Jesus is about to say, and we shall not see the response of these men until He has finished speaking. But, let me look forward to that point very briefly from this remove. “There arose a division among the Jews because of these words” (Jn 10:19). ‘These words’ includes what He has just said to these men concerning their continuing debt of sin. And ‘the Jews’ surely includes those Pharisees whose question prompted Jesus’ message. Some, it would seem, found their eyes opened more fully to this Son of Man. Others, allowed the weeds of pride to choke off what had been planted in them previously. We are not given to know the final state of any of these listening, any more than we are given to truly know the final state of any man apart from ourselves. But, it is chilling none the less, to consider the risk inherent in our response to this Jesus. When He rebukes, shall we learn from it or make it grounds to reject Him?
I will come back to that thought. But, before I do, I want to look at that last verse just a bit more. In the NASB, the translation is simply, “Since you say, ‘We see’”. The NCV, however, offers a translation that provides more insight into the particulars of syntax: “Since you keep saying you see”. It is actually the matter of seeing that bears the continuous sense, but this gives us a good view of their mindset. They keep saying they’ve got it down. Yet, by their question, they are revealing that they still don’t see anything in themselves that needs correction, nothing to repent of. It is that lack of repentance that is at issue, and it is that lack of repentance that leaves them under the full penalty of their sin.
Listen, Christian! We are not immune to this mindset. Far from it! We are forever putting ourselves at risk, thinking that our confession of faith in Christ has put us beyond all retribution. Oh, have no fear! Your salvation is assured. He Who began the work truly is faithful to complete it. Yet, we have the clear admonition of Scripture to contend with. If we confess our sins and if we turn away from them, then He is faithful to forgive us (1Jn 1:9). If not, the clear implication is that we have made ourselves such as say we see when we don’t, and so the burden of our sins remains.
There is a degree of mystery in this, that we are assured and yet we are at risk. This is well, for it keeps us earnest in our pursuit of God. We have seen too often what becomes of those who take assurance and stretch beyond the breaking point. Therein lies the error of the whole, “once saved, always saved” problem. Truth twisted beyond recognition. So, what should give us the confidence to keep trying in spite of our failings becomes an excuse not to bother trying at all. If I’m saved beyond doubt, why worry about sinning any more? I’ll just do what I want! But, that mindset reveals an utter disregard for Jesus. Indeed, that mindset makes clear that the first part of the supposed equation was never satisfied to begin with! There was no “once saved” where such a belief resides, and therefore, the dependent clause of, “always saved” does not apply. If we truly see, we must needs see that we shall always have sufficient cause to repent in this life. We shall find, as Martin Luther did, a constant litany of sins to confess and repent of.
Oh, there is such sweet release in knowing that the confession of these sins is assured of a positive response from our God! This is what he had found wanting in the religion of his youth. All that confession, and no reprieve! No salve for the conscience. But, comes the realization that even the power to confess and the eyes to see the need to confess are gifts from a loving God; comes the realization that He who led us to confess is faithful to forgive! Oh! Then sings my soul! There is indeed hope! There is indeed assurance! My hope, my assurance is founded on nothing less than Jesus’ love and His righteousness! It’s not about me, it’s about Him! It’s not up to me, praise God, else I remain as doomed to eternal punishment as ever I was! It’s up to that One Who has placed Himself as my Advocate, my Redeemer, my Shepherd Who keeps me safe even from myself! What blessed assurance that truly is!
Beware, then, Christian, of thinking you see! Our eyes are ever clouded, our vision ever dim and obscured. Our hearts continue to be deceptive beyond measure. We must constantly seek out the revealing, searching insight of God that we may know our need for confession and for repentance. We must not allow ourselves to become so wise in our own view that we stand ready in our thinking to correct God Himself.
[08/30/09] In preparing for this study, I had reached the conclusion that verse 41 was teaching that sin lies in knowing the wrongness of your actions. However, while that may be a valid bit of doctrine, I think I missed what Jesus was getting at. As to the doctrinal point, let me be clearer. Sin lies in knowingly violating the Law God has set forth for our lives. The testimony of Scripture is that we all do know. Whether we’ve had the training or not, we know right from wrong. It is inherent in our being to know this. Therefore, we are without excuse.
When Jesus speaks of this matter of sin remaining because they think they see, however, it is not the knowing about sin that is in sight. It’s knowing about one’s need for help. The blind man knows his blindness and knows it is beyond his power to do anything to change that condition. He knows he is in need. The one who sees, though, thinks himself healthy, doing fine. Therefore, he does not know his need and will not avail himself of the answer to that need.
I am put in mind of the old Charlie Peacock song about the drowning man. “You don’t ask a drowning man if he needs to be saved.” No, you throw him that life preserver! Assuming a certain amount of self-control remains in that man, he will take hold of the life preserver. Throw that life preserver at a triathlete, however, or an Olympic swimmer, and he’s more likely to take offense than to take hold! He doesn’t see the need and not seeing the need, he’s going to be offended that you suggest there is a need. It’s like that reaction I had: What? I’m a good man! What do I need this Jesus for? And so, my sin remained.
Let me stress the point that these Pharisees Jesus is addressing are those who are giving Him a hearing. They have some level of recognition. They would seem to even accept that He is the Son of God, in that they have not become violent at the sight of Him accepting worship. Can we go so far as to say the believe in Him? I think maybe we can. But, just like us, they come to faith with a lot of baggage. There’s a whole raft of preconceptions that have to be dealt with yet. That Jesus tells them their sin remains at present is no prophetic pronouncement that they shall die in their sins. It is a statement of current conditions. What the future brings lies in some degree with them. Will they accept the rebuke and make the necessary change? Will they come to recognize that all the thousand rules of righteousness that they had been taught as good Pharisees will avail them nothing? Can they come to the understanding that all our righteousness is yet as filthy rags in the eyes of a perfectly holy God? Can they come to recognize their need? If they can, then they will take that final step.
You see, it’s not enough to believe Jesus is. It’s not even enough to believe He is the Son of God. There is that other step required, of believing that we are totally without hope apart from Him intervening on our behalf. That’s the final step of salvific faith. Too many of us have been brought into the Church without ever really understanding the need. Even one who doesn’t see anything he needs to be saved from can find some comfort in the Church and in the God of the Church as He is presented. He’s love! He’s a provider! How nice. He’s accepting. He takes us all as we are. Well, who doesn’t want acceptance? And it’s such a nice group to have as social contacts. Why, it’s almost like family here. Boy! We kind of miss that in the pace of adult life, don’t we? But, none of this necessarily brings us to recognizing that we need a Savior. We may come to believe this Jesus we read about in the Bible is Who He says He is, so far as we take it. Sure. He’s the Son of God. I can accept that. Sure, and His teachings as to how we should live life are a fine model to follow. Would that we did! But, hey! I’m a good man. I’ve never killed anybody, never committed any particularly grievous sins. If He’s willing to take me as I am, I guess I can’t be that bad, eh? And so, we go along thinking we still see.
This is what Jesus is countering. You don’t see. You still haven’t got it. You still think you could get into heaven on your own merit, and it just isn’t so. The best you’ve managed is some temporary offset. It’s like this whole carbon credit scam that’s been cooked up. You haven’t changed. Your habitual crimes are still there. You just try to atone for it a bit by doing some good over on this other front. It’s like trying to atone for manslaughter by planting an awful lot of trees. Planting those trees was nice and all, but it does nothing about the other issue. Likewise those works that seek to add merit to our account. They don’t do anything to address the original issue of sin. It’s good to do good! By all means, we ought to get as much practice as we can in that. But, all the good we do will not erase the burden of debt our sins have incurred. It’s going to take the infinite value of the price Jesus paid to erase the infinite debt our sins have earned.
Even for those of us who know better, it is very easy to fall back into this mode of religion that becomes centered on our own efforts. Every time the church falls into a dependence on programs, we are slipping towards that mode. Every time we come to think that we have to do this or that the church is depending on us to do that lest it all fall to ashes, we are slipping towards that mode. It’s comfortable there! It’s very comfortable when we delude ourselves into thinking that all the good things we are doing must surely be building up our street cred with the King. He’s bound to be proud of us. Just look at what we’re doing for Him! Look at us!
That’s where it leads: look at us! We forget our purpose, because we’re too busy doing, doing, doing. We lose sight of, “turn your eyes upon Jesus,” and begin to operate in the, “keep your eyes on me, kid” mode. My dear friend and brother will refer to it as performance religion. And, it is this sort of thing that has made the word ‘religion’ to have something of a bad taste in our mouths. Religion, though, is not bad. Religiosity that is out of order is bad. For ourselves, there is nothing inherently wrong with doing on behalf of the church and the kingdom the church represents. There is a huge problem with doing it for the wrong reasons. We don’t gain merit by our doing. We don’t erase the least little bit of our debt of sin by our doing. The only proper reason to be doing anything is for the love of this God Who has stooped down and done the one and only thing that could eliminate our debt to Himself! He has done it! He has finished it! Don’t ever forget that. He left nothing undone that needed doing.
When we find ourselves thinking we’ve really done something for God, really thinking we’ve got something to show when we get to heaven, it’s time to look out. It’s time to remember that nothing we do in this life will ever remove our absolute dependence on the work of Jesus. If ever we could attain to a degree of righteousness that removed that dependence, then that dependence was never there at all, and all of Christian faith is a sham to which we should never have submitted. That we did would then be a sin in itself, which in turn disproves any righteousness we thought we had arrive at, doesn’t it? No, our dependence on the righteousness of the Christ, upon the atonement found in His death and nowhere else, is total and permanent so long as life continues. He is Life! In Him we live. In Him we have being. How much greater a dependence could we expect?
Don’t become wise in your own thinking. Oh! There’s a word I need to heed for myself! How easy to begin thinking that I’ve got it all figured out. How easy to come to the point of deciding I’ve got this whole business of doctrine and theology all sorted out, and nothing remains to be corrected in my views. Unteachable. The one who has rendered himself unteachable is indeed a fool, but a fool that knows not his own foolishness. Look at the comment God makes on such people: “That man who is wise in his own estimation? Why! There’s more hope for a fool than there is for him” (Pr 26:12). The fool is yet capable of receiving correction. There’s a chance. Somebody or something might yet snap him out of his foolishness. But, that fool who thinks he is wise? He will no longer hear anybody. He will accept no theories but his own. It matters not what proofs you lay before him. Thinking he sees, he has become absolutely blind.
There is a fine line, then, between standing on sound doctrine and standing on pride. It’s easy to step across that line without recognizing it, for pride arises from that deceptively evil heart within us. However confident we may be in our current understanding of this God we serve, may we never grow so confident that we refuse to hear Him when He says, “no, son, you’ve got that bit wrong. Here, let me show you.”
This is, then, one of two lessons we can take from the Pharisees we meet at the close of this chapter: Never place yourself beyond God’s correction. However long and deep your study of God may become, however firm your convictions, don’t let firmness become stubbornness. These men demonstrate the way that we ought to follow. That may seem out of character, given the depiction we generally see of the Pharisees in Scripture. But, in this case, they are showing us the way. When God corrects, abide. Hear Him out, and hear Him out with careful ears. Do not take the path of easy offense. Do not reject out of hand. Wait for understanding. If we are patient and willing to listen, He is willing to explain, and He will surely explain in terms we can lay hold of.
Had He not been willing to stoop down and make Himself understood on our level in the first place, we would have no concept of Him at all. But, He has repeatedly shown Himself willing to do just that: meet us on our level, right where we are at, and explain it to us in our own terms. Oh! What power there is in allowing God to bring correction! It is critical to our own well being that we invite Him to do so, and that we accept it when He does. It is also of great advantage in maintaining the harmony of the body when we allow Him to do that same work in our brothers and sisters.
How much grief would be removed from the church if we would learn that simple lesson! When there is a conflict between how I think His house should run and how others think it should be run; when I have my doubts about the way leadership is steering things; when I have issues with the beliefs of my brother: in all these cases, the power of prayerful submission of that disagreement to God’s ministration will serve far better than confrontation. Oh, there may be times when such confrontation is made necessary. There may be those moments when God calls upon us to stand up and speak out His answer. But, they are rare. They are rare because they are such a threat to the harmony of His house.
Listen! If we find ourselves in one of these points of conflict, and we yet recognize that the one we are in disagreement with is one who seeks to live by the power of God as much as we do ourselves, then surely we can trust God to speak to that one, or to us. Surely, if this is the case, then we must believe God is willing, able and pretty much certain to correct whichever of us is in the wrong! Oh, but let us not pray those vindictive prayers of, “God! Show my brother the error of his ways. Make him see that I am right!” What if I am wrong? Would I really want God to make my brother join me in my error? No! The reasonable prayer in such conflict is simply, “Lord, bring correction. Whichever of us may need correcting, I trust You to correct as only You can.” That way lies healing. That way lies the joyous realization, when the time comes, that unity has been restored and not one person was hurt in the process. This is what God can do when we stop trying to take matters into our own hands.
Let me also say that if you are in such conflict with your leadership, and you don’t believe they are leaders who are led by God, you had best be questioning your own judgment! If you don’t think your leaders follow God, what are you doing under their leadership? If you do believe that they are led by God, then why don’t you trust God to lead them instead of trying to do it yourself? Listen up! Yes, there are those very rare occasions when God may indeed decide to use your vocal cords to deliver His message to those leaders. But, be very certain that it is truly one of those occasions before you let your mouth get the better of you. Remain mindful of James’ concern for the believer. “The tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity, set among our members as that which defiles the whole body” (Jas 3:6). Don’t let your tongue be that defiler! When you would speak God’s correction, be mindful that you take upon yourself the role of the prophet as it was understood in the Old Testament! Taking on the role, you take on the responsibility as well. Take your desire to correct that seriously! If placing yourself under the death penalty should your words prove not to be His words does not dissuade you from speaking your peace – if you are that certain that you speak truly – then maybe you should speak. If not, then hold your peace and let God be God.
If you are on the receiving end of such a rebuke, even if it is delivered through the lips of another and not by direct communication from our Father in heaven, then abide. Hear it out. Reject that immediate urge to rise up against the rebuke. Reject the flesh! The flesh will never be pleased to hear the word of rebuke. But, then, the word of rebuke is ever against the flesh, is it not? No, but you let that spirit man rise up! You let your soul hear the truth of what is said, weigh it by the judgment of your spirit in concert with the Holy Spirit. Hear His say on the matter and then decide how you ought to respond. These Pharisees waited to hear, and having waited, some of them changed for the better. Some of them learned the futility of the practices they had been taught and came to the point where they could receive the one thing that could truly prepare them for a home in heaven: the redeeming power of Jesus the Christ, Son of Man and Son of God.
As I have spent more and more time in study, more years in pursuing a better understanding of the Truth of God, I have all the more cause to come to it prayerfully. It becomes easier to become so steadfast in my beliefs as to become hidebound, unteachable, and trapped in my own errors. There are, after all, those errors one would rather hold onto than let go of. We are comfortable with what we think we know, and would prefer to continue on in our misconceptions than to have to deal with the change required by shedding them.
So, it is all that much more necessary that I come to these times of study prayerfully. As the years pile up on each other, I must resolve myself to ask constantly:
God, if there are any misconceptions in what I have thought I know about You, open my eyes! For all that I think I see, I remain a blind man. For all that I think I have grasped, I am yet ignorant before You. Teach me. Correct me. Oh, I need not ask if there be any wicked way in me, I’m fully aware that there are. This but reminds me that I still need You, and always will. Oh, how it offends the senses to know that sin remains, yet how powerless I feel before that remainder!
Holy King of kings, I don’t understand that. Honestly, I don’t. You came as the Son of Man, showing us that man could indeed abide by Your Law, and yet Your Law came to show us the utter impossibility of doing it in our own strength. My dependence on You, Son of God, is absolute. No amount of progress I might make in this life shall ever change that, and yet, You challenge me to try. I really don’t know how to do this, Lord. How do I remain so wholly and utterly dependent on You and yet find it in myself to work out my own salvation? How do I contend with sin when I know it is not in me to resist? It’s only in You. I can only throw myself on Your mercy, beg for Your strength to protect me.
Oh, Great Shepherd, Door of my fold, keep me. This is my only hope. Keep me. And I know You are able, and I know You shall surely do so. For, You have never lost a one nor ever shall! Yet, were it possible, I would ask that You take every last urge to sin from this body even today. If not that, my God and King, at least let me see progress. Let me know Your hand more actively upon me today. Reignite the fire, my Lord, for I grow chill.
Open my eyes once more, lest I fall into thinking I see.
