In truth, the prophet Isaiah had shown long before that this was no new thing. There are two senses in which that is true. He had never met anyone who could do the kind of things Jesus did; and he began by thinking of Jesus as supreme among men. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. I think that Jesus answered their question, period. Well, if he was born blind and if he sinned, it meant that he had to sin some time before he was born.At this time in the history of the Jews, the rabbis had also adopted from Plato the idea that people preexisted as spirits and were waiting for bodies. John Piper Jun 4, 2011. Besides the washing with blood, that with water is essential, and this doubly. In every way Christ was the only possible means of their entering into this blessedness. So, he began his, "A man who is named Jesus." Those who see are those who see from the viewpoint of themselves. He told them that they would be put out of the synagogues ( John 16:2). The beggar has passed from a Some called themselves teachers and thought they possessed religious insight, but in fact they were spiritually blind. That they which see not might see.The force of these words lies in the fact that the phrases, they which see not and they which see, are to be interpreted as from their own point of viewThat they which think they see not might really see; and that they which think they see might really be made blind.. The law that responsibility is the other side of privilege is written into life. There could be some excuse for those who were blind through ignorance, but there could be only condemnation for those who claimed to have knowledge but deliberately rejected the plain evidence before them ( John 9:39-41 ). These people blind themselves by rejecting Christ. Might be made blind - Such would be the effect of his preaching. The question is, "Who did sin, the man or the parents that he was born blind?" Jesus was not interested in discussing theoretical questions just to satisfy peoples curiosity. The account of His healing of a blind man follows. "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby." that G2443 not G3361 see G991 (G5723) see G991 (G5725) and G253 Origen Against Celsus Book VII ." And, indeed, human reason considers nothing to be more unreasonable than to say, that they who see are made blind by the light of the world. "The man they call Jesus made clay," he said, "and smeared it on my eyes, and said to me: 'Go to the Pool of Siloam and wash.' So I went and washed, and sight came to me." In any collection of the world's greatest literature his parables would have to be listed. The synagogue authorities had a powerful weapon, the weapon of excommunication, whereby a man was shut off from the congregation of God's people. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber." So he went away and washed, and he came able to see. The psalmist says: "If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened." opposite clause corporeal blindness can have no place; for though If ever any man had the right to be called a prophet, Jesus has. [Note: Carson, The Gospel . Now that it has been clearly demonstrated that the Jews were That when the disciples asked, "Who did sin, this man was born blind?" The blind see: Jesus came to give sight to the spiritually blind (9:35-38). This the translators did in order to try to give us an understanding. _And Jesus said_, _For judgment I came into the He was about to pass, though Lord of all, into the presence of God His Father in heaven, but would manifest Himself the servant of them all, even to the washing of their feet soiled in walking here below. How blessedly grace operates in, and judges of, a hopeless case! So, whatever might be the word of Jesus, it would be heeded, and thus the heart and life be formed in obedience. Now notice the progressive revelation of Jesus is to this man. The effect was immediate and complete. It is a strange idea, and it may seem to us almost fantastic; but at its heart lies the idea of a sin-infected universe. immediately out of what has preceded. It is about Jesus?light sent from the Father. illuminations, as this man did, might see what they are by These people blind themselves by rejecting Christ. diametrically opposite effects. He is seen as the suffering Son of man, who takes the place of humiliation, instead of the kingdom which they wanted to force on Him. Next, the Holy Ghost is promised. They manifest no holy hatred of the evil, and certainly feel no pity for the sinner. "He that. While the Lord, then, intimates to them that it had a mystical meaning, not apparent on the face of it, nothing could be more obvious than the love or the humility of Christ. For hypocrites do not so obstinately resist God before Christ shines; but as soon as the light is brought near them, then do they, in open war, and as it were, with unfurled banner, (279) rise up against God. The Lord admits the plea. Such is the true sense of the verse. The mans parents confirmed that he had been born blind, but they would not talk about the healing because of their fear of the Jewish leaders (John 9:18-23). He was, for the sheep, against all adversaries; and so was the Father. Or here = The Communicator's Commentary. The man answered: "It is an astonishing thing that you do not know where he comes from, when he opened my eyes. Even when a man cannot understand with his intellect, he can still feel with his heart. This is applicable to nations and people, that the Gentiles, who had long been destitute of the light of divine revelation, might see it; and the Jews, who had long enjoyed it, might have the things of their peace hid from their eyes, Hosea 1:10; Hosea 2:23. His neighbors would have shunned him out of fear . improbably (if Jesus heard that they had cast him out: and when he had found him, he We know that God spoke unto Moses: but as for this fellow; we don't even know from whence he's coming. He had entered in by the door, according to every requisition of the Scriptures. Why this place, of all others, should have been selected, will be no difficulty to those who feel with me; but, on the contrary, in my judgment, it refutes the "desperate resource" (as it is even allowed to be, strange to say, by those who adopt it), that the evangelist may have in this solitary case incorporated a portion of the current oral tradition into his narrative, which was afterwards variously corrected from the gospel to the Hebrews, or other traditional sources, and from different diction put in at the end ofLuke 21:1-38; Luke 21:1-38, or elsewhere. The Pharisees were so venomously embittered against Jesus that they were prepared to do what ecclesiastics at their worst have sometimes done--to use ecclesiastical procedure to further their own ends. . This, I say, in all its parts, is the contrast of every hope, even of the brightest Jewish expectations. How is it that he can see? They were in the unrelieved darkness of the world, they judged after the flesh. And when he have 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 ( John 9:5-6 ). He was born at the measured time, in the due place, from the sworn stock, and of the defined mother, according to the written word. Man, the Jew especially, settles down in resolute unbelief and deadly hostility; but, on the other hand, the indefeasible security of the sheep, the objects of grace, only comes out with so much the greater clearness and decision. Loyalty always brings revelation; it is to the man who is true to him that Jesus most fully reveals himself. Adam lived, and was endued with the true light of understanding, while he lost that divine blessing by desiring to see more than was allowed him. This divides the chapter. Christ said (chap. Seest thou a wise man in his own conceit? And see what confidence He looks for, what affections superior to self! The remainder of John's Gospel deals with the themes introduced here: the identity of the Word, life, light, regeneration, grace, truth, and the revelation of God the Father in Jesus the Son. The terror of such a situation was that a Jew would regard it as shutting him out, not only from the synagogue but from God. This is a beautiful difference, and of great practical value, being bound up with the measure of our attentiveness of heart. The reason lay deeper than what his parents deserved, or the foresight of what he would do amiss. It ought to be observed, that the blindness which is here mentioned, does not proceed so much from Christ as from the fault of men. The voice of the law spoke to their ears of a Christ continuing for ever; but a Son of man humbled, dying, lifted up! "You were born in sins." They hoped, no doubt, it might be an insuperable difficulty to Him. In fact, you could not wear shoes on the Sabbath day were the soles were fastened with nails, because that constituted bearing a burden if the soles were fastened with nails, that's a little bit too heavy. Your sin remains.". This is the truth of them, as of Him. THE MAN BORN BLIND It was not so with Jesus. water has a sweet taste. The Christian's duty is to fill the time he has--and no man knows how much that will be--with the service of God and of his fellow-men. The Syriac version reads, "for the judgment of this world I am come"; and with which agrees the Ethiopic version, "for the judgment of the world I am come into the world"; and the Arabic and Persic versions still more expressly, "to judge this world", or "the world, am I come"; which seems contrary to what Christ elsewhere says, John 3:17. But if received, it is not merely that I have the truth, so to speak, as an expression of His mind, but of Himself of His person. (VerseJohn 10:17; John 10:17) That is to say, besides laying down His life for the sheep, He laid down His life to prove His perfect confidence in His Father. Commentary, explanation and study verse by verse. "You must have done something horrible, man. for Luke 21:1-38) seems much in its favour. before the mother has uttered a word. Obviously in the eyes of such a law to make clay was to work and so to break the Sabbath. None whatever. Their hope was to ensnare Christ, and to leave Him only a choice of difficulties: either a useless repetition of the law of Moses, or open opposition to the law. krima, cf. His words penetrated to the heart. harden the clay; see ( Isaiah 6:9 ) . To particular sons. Away back in the days of Ezra we read of a decree that whosoever did not obey the command of the authorities "his property should be forfeited and he himself banned from the congregation" ( Ezra 10:8). It was then understood that Jesus had a mission on earth to work the works of God. It would exasperate them, and their pride and opposition to him would confirm them more and more in their erroneous views. In short, since Christ is, by his own nature, the light of the world, (John 8:12,) it is an accidental result, that some are made blind by his coming. Tr., xxxiii. The sense of the flow of the text is that Jesus was not shaken or disturbed by the almost deadly confrontation with the religious leaders that just happened. as He knew the Father, and was known of the Father. His dwelling with them is in contrast with any temporary blessing; and besides, He would be in them the expression of an intimacy which nothing human can fully illustrate. 2) for a place suited to His glory, intrinsic and relational, as well as conferred; but alone with this (blessed to say), to give His own a part with Him in that heavenly glory (instead of His reigning over Israel here below). And she said, "I know that when the Messiah comes He's gonna teach us all things." Pliny, the famous Roman collector of what was then called scientific information, has a whole chapter on the use of spittle. 12:47 refers to the _object_ of His coming. For the going of each to his home is in evident connection with, and contra-distinction to, the going of Jesus to the mount of Olives. Jesus separates believers from unbelievers in the world. The fault finding of they said. this fountain is supplied by conduits from the Gihon, and that the When Jesus met a blind man, his disciples asked him which was the most likely cause of the mans blindness (John 9:1-2). Might see - Might discern the path of truth, of duty, and of salvation, John 10:9. These, then, are the two great truths of the chapter: their future portion with Christ in the Father's house; and, meanwhile, the permanent stay of the Holy Ghost with the disciples, and this, too, as indwelling on the footing of life in Christ risen. 17 Then they turned again to the blind man, 'What have you to say about him? We'll send you an email with steps on how to reset your password. But the argument does show us that the idea of prenatal sin was known. things, and to be guides of the blind, such as the Scribes and And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? (b) But there is another sense in which the man's suffering shows what God can do. They had fully heard now who He was, and therefore must He be ignominiously cast out. It is a tremendous thing about Jesus that the more we know him the greater he becomes. John 9: EXPOSITION Gospel, thus subdivided: The Work (1) among _Jews_, (2) among And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. But this is not all; for grace with Christ freely gives, not salvation alone, but all things. And what is not the joy and power where such willing subjection to Christ pervades the soul, and all is in the communion of the Father and the Son? from his birth. "If any man hear my words, and believe not. Probably this was not immediately after his discourse with the man, but he took the next opportunity that offered itself to address the Pharisees. To him that enters by Christ there is salvation, there is liberty, there is food. ( John 9:2 ). Nay, brethren, your eyes are at fault; it is a ray of light from Christ, and shines just where it should. These people trust in themselves, not in what God has to say. Jesus said, "Neither the man nor his parents.". This connects, as I apprehend, the tenth chapter with the foregoing, and is in contrast with the eighth. (judgement), a word nowhere else in John, is the result WORLD ; and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst." He says, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand." They suspected that Jesus might be referring to them when He spoke of the spiritually blind ( John 9:39 ). Very different is the burden of the prophets. They answered him, We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free? With deft and revealing touches John causes the people involved to live before us. The darkness was thus rendered only more visible in consequence of the light. The Healed Man Questioned. 9:39-41 Christ came into the world to give sight to those who were spiritually blind. If this man was not from God, he could not have done anything." "We know that this man is a sinner." Ezekiel says of the disobedient people: "Though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them" ( Ezekiel 8:18). Therefore, instead of saying, Thy sins are forgiven, He asks, "Woman, where are those thine accusers? blind_. Eternal life is unknown and unenjoyed. Even the proprieties of nature were never so made good as when the Lord manifested grace on the earth. What weight had the Pharisees with his conscience? Spittle was held to be very effective in averting the evil eye. here mentioned. 1 John 5:4-5: For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. Next, the idea of many distinct and independent texts (as distinguished from abundance of various readings) seems an evident exaggeration. "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.". For now, by the new eyes which the Lord had given him, he could discern their vain pretensions, and their hostility against Jesus so much the worse, because coupled with "Give God the praise." Lazarus comes forth at the word of Christ. 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