The Man Born Blind (12)

These words are spoken by the healed man of John 9. We have seen the wonder unfolding in the life of this man who was born blind. The Pharisees have pressed his parents; they have said, “He is of age; ask him” and so he has to speak. Previously he has testified that Christ is a prophet, but it did not suffice the self-righteous Pharisees. Now they tell him, “Give God the praise”—that is a statement to bring across that they are petitioning to be upright. They pressure him to be upright in his confession because the Lord knows the heart. This is a petition which these Pharisees are using for the wrong person. In true conversion the Lord will make persons upright. They do not lie; they speak the truth. God’s children are always asking for uprightness. Notice here that it must be given. They do not have it of themselves, but it becomes clear that it is given in the hour when they have need of it. Psalm 15 says, “He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not.” For this man the uprightness as fruit of his true conversion will eventually cast him out of the synagogue. God’s children must suffer for His name’s sake. Woe to the nonupright souls, those who are never concerned as was David who asked to be made true within. They soon will stand before the all-knowing God!

“We know that this Man is a sinner” (John 9:24b). The Pharisees have first said, “Give God the praise”; they thought they could use that to their advantage. However, the petition for uprightness cannot be used to twist truth, although that is what they are trying to do here. They state what they know. Here comes a difference because of sovereign grace. They think to know according to their judgment and hardness of heart that the Lord Jesus is a sinner. They think this against better knowledge, and now they want to use this moment to make the man born blind stumble in his pure confession that Christ is a prophet.

The enmity against the true work of the Lord is great, my dear reader. It must suffer numerous attacks in countless ways because the devil hates the work of the Lord. However, the uprightness, as we said, was a gift! Therefore, this man will not stumble; no, the truth will set him free. The enemies think to use the doctrines of Scripture to their advantage to snare the true work of the Lord, but they will not prosper. Notice here a great comfort for the afflicted and often snared people of the Lord. How Satan can be busy to snare them by bringing all kinds of falsehood into their mind. He can use a text and twist it to condemn them; he can use parts of sermons to hinder their liberty. See his operation with the Lord Jesus in Matthew 4, but notice that it is a tactic that will be uncovered because of what God will give, at His time, to His assaulted people. Assaulted one: “Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.”

This Man is a sinner. That cuts deeply in the heart of the man who was healed. This is a testimony so far from the truth which he experienced that in his given uprightness and faithfulness he cannot stay silent. His Prophet is declared to be a sinner! The instruments of darkness try to cut this man so deeply that first his parents leave him to himself, and now the Pharisees cut deeper by calling the Man who delivered him a sinner. Do you know what that works in the life of the upright? Pain! How they are pained when their Deliverer is slandered, how they are pained when the truth is mocked. How they are pained when the way of deliverance through Christ Jesus is not believed but denied, even with evident powers of it being the only true way.

He must speak. What must he say? Christ is hidden for him as we read, “Then said they unto him, Where is he? He said, I know not” (John 9:12). Do you now see the wonder of receiving the gift to speak at the right time in uprightness? This man is going to tell who he was and who he now is—that incomprehensible wonder! Dear reader, do you know of that? Do you have a change in your life because of the power of Christ in your regeneration by the Holy Spirit? Then you had to leave sin and the world. Then you became a sinner who had to confess your sins to the Lord. All who are regenerated will with shame have to confess who they were; some will have a heavier load with that than others, but they all may see it as Paul who spoke in 1 Corinthians 6:11: “And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”

This man may testify who he was, but, by grace, he may also testify who he has become— “now I see.” That is the sovereign difference. He now has strife like he never had before, but that is because he was made to see by the power of God through Christ Jesus. Troubled souls, your strife is because of the wonder; your strife is because of a divine change, but your life is because of Another! Therefore, in the strife you will not perish; He will take notice of His afflicted people. This man will be cast out because of the truth, but Christ will hear it and that will serve to the purpose to see Him in His person. So Christ will always deliver His people to reveal more of Himself. Child of the Lord, everything we have, due to the life we have received of God’s work, we will have to lose to see Him—blessed strife—blessed life! Then the Holy Spirit will use ways to uncover you to the point that you know only one thing. That one thing is also the whole reason of the strife, and that one thing will serve to eternal preservation through Christ so that His afflicted never will go lost.

Dear unconverted reader, this man was by the wayside begging; he received grace sovereignly. Open your Bibles, bow your knees, and use the means of grace with that begging of Psalter 290, “The grace Thou showest to Thy saints, that grace reveal to me.”

(To be continued)

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