John 9:39

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DISCRIMINATING EFFECTS OF THE GOSPEL

John 9:39. Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they who see might be made blind.

THE miracles of our blessed Lord were, as is well known, testimonies from God to his divine mission. But they were also intended as emblems of that spiritual work which he was sent to accomplish. In the former view, he appealed to them for the conviction of John the Baptist, and of those who had been sent by John to inquire respecting his Messiahship: “Go, and shew John those things which ye do hear and see: the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up: and blessed is he who shall not be offended in me [Note: Matthew 11:4.].” In the latter view, he refers to them in the passage before us. He had healed a man who was born blind. This having been done on the Sabbath-day, his obstinate and unbelieving enemies imputed it to him as a crime, rather than as any proof of his Messiahship: but the man who was healed, knowing that “no man could do such miracles unless God were with him,” believed in Jesus, and confessed him openly as the Saviour of the world. From the division thus caused, our Lord took occasion to declare, in reference to the souls of men, the intent, and certain effect, of his advent: “For judgment am I come into this world; that they who see not, might see; and that they who see, might be made blind.”

The true import of this passage will not be seen by a superficial observer. It needs much consideration: but it will amply repay all the labour which we can bestow in the investigation of it.
To assist you in apprehending it aright, I will shew,

I. The need there was of Christ for the developing and disclosing the characters of men—

The judgment which was universally formed of men’s characters was extremely erroneous—
[Men had no other test, whereby to try the human character, than that of moral virtue. If a person had such a respect for the Supreme Being as to be observant of external duties towards him, and such a disposition towards his fellow-creatures as prompted him to acts of benevolence towards them, he was approved, and regarded as a pattern of all that was good. Hence it was that the Scribes and Pharisees were held in such high esteem. Humility, as a grace, was not inquired after; nor indeed was it at all necessary to the discharge of those offices which alone were deemed obligatory in the service of God. On the contrary, the fulfilment of religious duties was considered as a just ground for self-admiration and self-applause. Such men, indeed, as David, who were inspired of God, had the same ideas of it as we have: but, as among the Greeks and Romans, so also amongst the Jews themselves, it was rather reckoned as a mean and base feeling, than as the summit of human excellence. Nor, if it had entered into the composition of virtue in their minds, were there any means of discovering its existence. The submission of human wisdom to that which is divine was not called for to any great extent: nor was a renunciation of a man’s own righteousness demanded, in order to his acceptance through a righteousness provided for him by God. General obedience to acknowledged laws constituted the chief excellence of every man; and beyond that nothing was looked for, in order to secure the approbation of God. But all this was erroneous: yea, in relation to it all, it may be said, that “that which was highly esteemed amongst men was an abomination in the sight of God [Note: Luke 16:15.].”]

Hence arose a necessity for our blessed Lord to come into the world—
[Doubtless, the first ground of his advent was to make reconciliation for the sins of men, and to work out a righteousness for them by his own obedience unto death. But subordinate to this was the purpose specified in our text: “For judgment came I into this world.” To understand this expression aright, we must call to mind the office of a Judge. He inquires into the particular facts which are brought before him, and determines the characters of men according to those facts. Now, what an earthly judge does in reference to overt acts, that the Lord Jesus Christ does in reference to secret dispositions. He brings with him a revelation calculated to elicit the dispositions of the heart, and to shew what men really are in the sight of God. Hence, at the time when his parents brought him to the temple, to do for him after the custom of the law, it was said concerning him, “This child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel, and for a sign that shall be spoken against, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed [Note: Luke 2:34.].”]

But I will proceed to mark more distinctly,

II.

The suitableness of his appearance to produce that discovery—

The whole of his appearance, from the first to the latest hour of his existence upon earth, was calculated to offend the pride of man—

[See him at his birth. Behold him born in the family of a poor carpenter; and laid in a manger, because there was no better accommodation for his mother, under circumstances which, it might have been supposed, would have called forth sympathy and liberality from ten thousand bosoms. Is this the Son of God? Impossible: it can never be, that Almighty God should suffer him to come into the world under circumstances of such unparalleled degradation.

See him, too, in his life. Behold him still so poor, as not to have a place where to lay his head: a few poor fishermen for his followers; and an object of scorn and derision to all the higher parts of the community. Were I to give a just description of him, I could not do it in more appropriate terms than in those of prophecy itself: “He shall be as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness: and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him: he was despised, and we esteemed him not [Note: Isaiah 53:2.].” Yet this is the person who offers himself to me as the Saviour of the world!

See him, finally, in his death. This completes the scene. He is sentenced to death, both by the men of his own nation and by the Roman governor; and, by universal consent, is executed as a malefactor; a murderer being preferred before him, as a fitter object of mercy than he. And is He to save me, when he did not save himself? Is He to deliver me from the wrath of God, who himself fell under the wrath of man? I wonder not that such an idea was a ground of offence; for throughout the whole there was an apparent inconsistency with all his own professions, and an absolute contrariety to all the expectations that were formed concerning him. Is this the person that came from God, and “made himself equal with God,” and through whom alone any child of man can come to God, or find acceptance with him? Unenlightened reason discards at once such pretensions as these, and rejects them utterly as irrational and absurd. And this is exactly what the prophet has foretold: “He, the Lord Jesus, shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem: and many among them shall stumble and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken [Note: Isaiah 8:14.].”]

On the other hand, he gave sufficient evidence of his Messiahship to convince any humble inquirer—
[The testimony borne to him by angels at his birth, the descent of the Holy Ghost upon him at his baptism, the numberless miracles wrought by him in his life, the wonders attendant on his death, his resurrection from the dead, his ascension to heaven, his sending of the Holy Ghost on his Disciples, and all the miracles wrought by them in his name, these were evidences which an humble mind could not withstand. Besides, to those who felt their need of a Saviour, there was every thing which was suited to their necessities. A mere man would not have sufficed for them: they needed a Saviour who was God as well as man: they needed an atonement of infinite value; a righteousness fully adequate to all the demands of God’s holy law, and capable of being imputed to them for their acceptance before God. They needed not only the sacrifice of Christ on earth, but also his intercession in heaven; yea, and his all-powerful agency, too, as the Head of vital influence to his Church and people: in a word, they needed precisely such a Saviour as he had represented himself to be: and, though the whole relating to him was involved in mystery which they could not comprehend, they saw in it nothing but what was honourable to the character of God, and nothing but what was conducive to the happiness of man. Hence they were content to receive the Lord Jesus as their Saviour, and to found all their hopes of happiness on him alone.

Thus in him was found precisely such a test as the world needed: and]
The use of this test was seen in,

III.

The actual effect of his advent—

Mark the effect of his advent:

1. Whilst he himself was on earth—

[This discrimination of character was seen from the first moment that he entered on his ministry. Never did more gracious words proceed from the lips of man, than those which were uttered by him in his first public discourse at Nazareth; insomuch, that “all who heard them bare him witness, and wondered [Note: Luke 4:18.]:” yet, upon his reminding them of two events in their history, the sending of the Prophet Elijah to be supported by a Sidonian (a heathen), and not an Israelitish widow; and the healing of a leprosy, by the Prophet Elisha, in the person of Naaman, a Syrian, and not of any of the lepers that were in Israel; they were instantly fired with such indignation and wrath, that “they thrust him out of the city, and led him to the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong,” and destroy him [Note: Luke 4:25.]. Now, what was there in his discourse to produce so instantaneous a change? The Jews considered themselves as exclusively the objects of God’s regard; and they could not endure the thought that he should have mercy in reserve for the Gentiles: and the suggestion of this was in their minds an evil worthy of death. Again: when our blessed Lord wrought miracles in confirmation of his word, many, instead of yielding to conviction, took occasion, from the very works which they could not but acknowledge to be miraculous, to accuse him of a confederacy with the devil: and, in the very passage before us, they made his restoring a man to sight on the Sabbath-day a ground rather of accusation against him, as a sinner, than of acknowledging him to be, what he really was, the true Messiah. And to his latest hour they evinced the same spirit, calling out for a sentence of death against him; when his very Judge declared him innocent, and not a person upon earth could be found to convict him of the slightest sin. Nor was it the mere populace who thus persecuted him: they were only instruments in the hands of their superiors: it was the act of the Scribes and Pharisees, and of all who presided in their nation, whether in the Ecclesiastical or Civil department: and this shewed how, by his ministry, their hypocrisy was detected: and that, in the midst of all their pretended piety, they were decided enemies to God in their hearts.]

2. In the whole of the apostolic age—

[The preaching of his name was productive of the very same effect as his personal ministry had produced. It was universally “to the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness [Note: 1 Corinthians 1:23.].” If we except the instance of the Saviour himself, there never existed, from the foundation of the world, such a contest as that which was maintained by the Apostle Paul; he doing every thing that man could do, and suffering every thing that man could suffer, for the salvation of a perishing world; and they, whether Jews or Gentiles, uniformly and universally seeking his destruction. The same treatment was shewn to all the Apostles, and to all the followers of Christ, in proportion as they, by their activity and zeal, drew the attention of those to whom they ministered; insomuch that, with the exception of John, not one of the Apostles was suffered to die a natural death.

On the other hand, there were many to whom the mystery of the Gospel was “the wisdom of God and the power of God [Note: 1 Corinthians 1:24.].” In all its provisions they beheld an excellency and glory: and they found, by experience, that it was “the power of God to the salvation of their souls [Note: Romans 1:16.].” And who were they that thus displayed its energy? Were they the great, the wise, the moral? No: “ye see your calling,” says St. Paul, “how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world, to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are; that no flesh should glory in his presence [Note: 1 Corinthians 1:26.]:” so fully did the Gospel answer the end predicted by the prophet; “Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed [Note: Isaiah 6:9.].”]

3. At the present hour—

[No where is Christ faithfully preached, but “a division” is made among the people: and in all the families where his truth prevails, “a sword” is introduced, even amongst the nearest and dearest relatives [Note: Matthew 10:34 and Luke 12:51.]. No caution in the preacher will suffice to abate the enmity of the heart against God. Only let Christ be exalted, and some will call the preacher an enthusiast and deceiver, whilst others will “regard him as an angel of God, or even as Christ Jesus himself [Note: Galatians 4:14.].” The very same word is still, as in the days of old, “a savour of life to the salvation of some, and a savour of death to the condemnation of others [Note: 2 Corinthians 2:16.].” And so far are the admired characters of the world from being most favourable to the truth, that even “publicans and harlots enter into heaven before them:” so true is it still, as in the days of old, that “the last are first, and the first last.”]

And now let me address myself,
1.

To those who are unconscious of their own blindness—

[This was the state of the Pharisees, to whom our Lord addressed the words of my text. Perceiving that he had in his mind a reference to them, they confidently and indignantly asked, “Are we blind also?” But our blessed Lord told them that their conceit only tended to enhance and aggravate their guilt. If they had, indeed, never been favoured with means of instruction, they would have had the less to answer for: but, in proportion as they supposed themselves already informed, they shewed their impiety in rejecting him [Note: ver. 40, 41.]. Now this is the very caution which I would give to you: The more confident you are that you are already in possession of the truth, the more you make it manifest that “Satan hath blinded your eyes:” for to make you reject Christ, is the work in which that subtle adversary is incessantly engaged [Note: 2 Corinthians 4:4; 2 Corinthians 4:6.]. O! learn this humiliating truth, that you “are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked;” and you will then have no difficulty in discovering the excellency of Christ, who offers to you “gold tried in the fire, that you may be rich; and eye-salve, that you may see; and raiment, that you may be clothed, and that the shame of your nakedness may not appear [Note: Revelation 3:18.].” Only resemble the man who was willing and desirous to believe, and Christ will soon make himself known to you, in all his excellency, and in all his glory [Note: ver. 35–38.]

To those who are willing to be taught of God—
[The docility of a little child is one of the choicest gifts that can possibly be bestowed upon you. It is a certain prelude to divine instruction, and the best preparative for all the blessings of the Gospel. You need not be discouraged at the thought of your own weakness: for “what God has hid from the wise and prudent, it is his delight to reveal to babes [Note: Matthew 11:25.].” “The wise he will leave to be taken in their own craftiness [Note: Isaiah 29:14. with 1 Cor. 19, 20.]:” but the more you are “a fool” in your own estimation, the more certainly and effectually shall you be made truly wise [Note: 1 Corinthians 3:18.]. The Holy Spirit is promised to you, as “a Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ [Note: Ephesians 1:17.]:” and though the Gospel must ever remain to you an unfathomable mystery, you shall have such an insight into it as no unenlightened man can have [Note: Matthew 13:11.], and by means of it be “guided safely into the way of peace.”]