Tuesday 10 Apr 2018

April 10: John 9:35-41

Key Verse: John 9:41
Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.

Devotion:
This is one of those passages where non-believers may well try to say how the bible contradicts itself. Here we have Jesus saying He comes to judge the world, and in John 3:17 He says that He does not come to judge the world but to save it. But as soon as you read the context in which the words are said, then it all becomes clear. In John 3 Christ is telling us of the love of God and His will was to come to save the world by giving us a way out of our sins. Here He expresses how He must allow us to see our sins and to be able to henceforth stay clear of them. Christ being the final judge!

If we continue to look at things around us, we will continue to be tempted by those things. Satan is the one who thinks he controls the majority simply because people are more willing to give in to temptations than to find out the truth. We are surrounded by such people all of our lives and must learn to deal with it. Christ expresses this as being made spiritually blind so we no longer see the sinful ways. Yes, they will still be there, but we have the choice to not go there; giving us “selective eyesight” in a similar way as we have “selective hearing” when we don’t want to hear something!

But first, we start out by being blind to the gospel. We cannot get to grips with verses such as John 3:17 and John 9:39 simply because the plain English does not seem to agree. But when we have a bit of patience and read a few verses around those verses, God (through the Holy Spirit) will allow us to see the truth for what it is. We do not have to be masters of language to figure things out – I certainly did not do too well in my English throughout my schooling; but we can still have spiritual discernment given to us by the Holy Spirit – when we listen!

Too many people close off their minds, eyes and ears to everything religious just because they can. It allows them to continue living a life of sin without them feeling bad about what they are doing. Let God guide you! He is seeking you to take away your blindness.

Points to Ponder:
Do you ever think your parents contradict themselves?

How can God contradict Himself if He cannot lie?