John 9:25, “He answered and said, Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.”
What a beautiful passage of Scripture! This man had been blind from birth.
Jesus spat on the ground, made some clay, and anointed the man's eyes,
giving him sight for the first time in his life...
John 9:1-7, “And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. 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.”
Can you imagine the joy that filled this man's soul as he saw for the first time? What a beautiful true story!
Just like that blind man, we we're all born blind spiritually. The Holy Scriptures shine the light of the Gospel into the dark world. 2nd Corinthians 4:6, “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” John 3:19, “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” I love something that Pastor Harry Ironside said...
“Great truths that are stumbling blocks to the natural man are nevertheless the very foundations upon which the confidence of the spiritual man is built.” —Harry Ironside (1876-1951)
The preaching of the Gospel makes no sense to the man who refuses to believe. ...
1st Corinthians 1:18-21, “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.”
God is so wonderful. I BELIEVE that Jesus is the Son of God, and if I go to Hell someday it will be Jesus' fault, because I am trusting Him completely for my salvation. I trust God that He will keep His promise “TO SAVE THEM THAT BELIEVE” (1st Corinthians 1:21b). I have never worried for one second that Jesus might not be the Savior, or that He might let me down. Romans 10:11, “For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.” Some Bible students interpret this Bible passage errantly, thinking it means that a believer won't be ashamed to publicly confess Jesus; but we know that this is the wrong interpretation, because the apostle Peter was ashamed of Jesus, even cursing His name and denying knowing the Lord.
Also, we read in John 12:42b-43 that “among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue: For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.” Clearly, a person CAN be saved, but not publicly confess the name of Jesus. In fact, you can even deny knowing Him, as did Peter. We are saved by BELIEVING the Gospel—nothing less and nothing more. Salvation is solely a matter of believing in the heart. Romans 10:9-10, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” The latter part of this verse is commonly added to the Gospel, which is bad exegesis of the Holy Scriptures, because we are taught in hundreds of other Bible passages simply to “BELIEVE” with no mention of confessing with our mouth to be saved; therefore, it is very wrong and unscholarly to base a doctrine upon one particular passage of Scripture. For example:
John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
John 6:47, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.”
John 11:25-26, “Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?”
The Lord makes these amazing statements in the Gospel of John...
John 9:39-41, “And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind. And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also? Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.”
Wow! The Lord said He came into the world, not only so that the blind could see, but so they that see might be made blind. What does that mean? I'll tell you. It means that those sinners who are self-righteous, who are too proud to submit to God's righteousness through faith alone in Jesus Christ as their Savior, think they can already see; therefore, they cannot be saved until they become blind. They are ignorant of God's righteousness, going about to establish THEIR OWN righteousness. Romans 10:3-4, “For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” What saith the Scripture? Isaiah 64:6, “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” This Bible verse refutes the heresy of Lordship Salvation.
“If all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, then why would you use those rags to prove that you're saved?” —a beautiful quote from Pastor Ralph “Yankee” Arnold, from the timeless MP3 sermon, “How Do I Know God Really Loves Me? - Part 2” | Part 1
One of my favorite Bible verses is Philippians 3:9, “And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:” We are saved by HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS. Matthew 6:33, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” We are saved by God's imputed righteousness, which is credited to us BY FAITH.
Jesus said that He came to open the eyes of the blind. That means He came to SAVE THE LOST who desire to be saved. Luke 19:10, “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” The Lord said He came into the world for JUDGMENT. I believe that means we are forced to make a CHOICE to either receive or reject Christ as our personal Savior. John 3:18, “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
The man with no hope is better off than the man with a false hope, because the man with no hope is still searching for answers. I feel sorry for Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, Seventh-Day Adventists, Roman Catholics, the Church of England, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Church of Christ and all the other pseudo-Christian cults, because they think they can see, which means THEY ARE BLIND!!! All of those aforementioned religious groups are NOT born-again Christians, because they pervert the Gospel of free grace with a works-based plan of salvation (which is really damnation). ANOTHER GOSPEL cannot produce the new birth in Christ Jesus, that is, to be regenerated by the Holy Spirit of God. Satan's greatest weapon is to con people into living the Christian life without ever being born-again.
I once was blind, but at 13 I began to see, when the Lord Jesus Christ miraculously opened my eyes. I trusted Jesus as my personal Savior. “Yea, Yea, And Nay, Nay” (a wonderful MP3 sermon by Pastor Jack Hyles; Everything that is difficult about salvation is God's part!). Religion wants to fit us with glasses, but the Lord wants to open our eyes!
