By S. Leonard Tyler
The story of Jesus’ healing the blind man of John 9 offers us a great illustration of one who knows Jesus as the Son of God. After the healing, the miracle was so recognized that no one, who accepted the man as the one who was blind, could doubt for a minute the greatness of the miracle. This is true of all the miracles of our Lord and His apostles. Miracles were performed to prove that Jesus was indeed the Son of God and the apostles were men of God. If the miracles were rejected or doubted, where was the proof? Surely, a great miracle had been performed and even his neighbors inquire of him, “How were thine eyes opened?” (Jn.9:10) And he answered them, “A man that is called Jesus made clay, and anointed mine eyes, and said unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash: and I went and washed, and I received sight.”
They then took him to the Pharisees who also asked, how he received his sight? He told them the same story of how Jesus healed him. They questioned Jesus’ being of God and even branded the healed man as a hardened sinner but none could question the reality of the miracle. They rejected the facts because they refused to believe in Jesus Christ as God’s Son. They, as it were, stopped their ears, closed their eyes, their hearts waxed gross, and were hardened.
They sought out his parents and inquired of them, “Is this your son whom ye say was born blind?” They answered, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind.” They did not know by what means that he could see or would not admit it. The Pharisees returned to the healed man and re-examined him. They branded Jesus as a hard sinner. The healed man explained that God did not hear or answer sinner’s prayers. And stated, “Since the beginning of the world such a thing as opening the eyes of one born blind was never heard of. If this man had not come from God, he could have done nothing.” They refused to be taught by such a sinner as they classified the healed man of being. They cast him out.
Jesus came to him and asked him, “‘Do you believe in the Son of man?’ ‘Who is he, sir, that I may believe on him?’ Jesus replied, ‘It is he who is now speaking to you.’ ‘I do believe, Sir,’ said the man, and he prostrated himself at his feet.” The King James Version puts it, “And he worshiped him.” To know Jesus is to commit oneself to Him. Do you know Jesus to be worthy of your commitment for life?
One must believe in Jesus before he can accept Him and that faith comes by hearing God’s word (Rom. 10:17). But that is why the Bible is written and the word is to be preached to every creature, the whole creation, to produce faith in Jesus Christ as God’s Son and man’s Savior (John 20:30-31). The gospel is God’s power unto salvation (Rom. 1:16-17). Unless one believes the message of the gospel of Christ, he can not really believe in Jesus as the Son of God (Heb. 4:2). Faith in Jesus produces a continuous life of faith. It is the “obedience of faith,” a life of faith, that leads one to Christ and holds him in the way of the Lord (1 Cor. 5:7; Heb. 11:1,6; 12:1-2). If one loses his faith or turns from the Lord, he can expect nothing from the Lord (Heb. 3:12) but, on the other hand, if one is faithful to the Lord, he will be blessed forever (Heb. 10:38-39).
How can this work? One must hear God’s word and believe in Christ before he can obey the Lord (Heb. 11: 1,6). The Word of God is so powerful and revealing that is the substance, evidence, sustaining source, and power of our faith. It is God’s message of faith (Heb. 11:1; 4:2). God’s word is so powerful, convincing, overwhelming and life challenging, even so uplifting into immorality, eternal peace and joy in the hope of life after death (Jn. 5:28-29; Rev. 20:11-15). It is true.
To Know Jesus
To know Jesus is to love Him, His word and all that His word teaches. If one is compelled to believe that Jesus is God’s Son, the Savior of all men through the message of the word, surely, he will fall deeply in love with the truth, God’s word. If you love the Lord, will you not love His word and treasure its holy precepts above any message of man. David’s attitude toward the Lord was sustained by his attitude toward His word. He said, “For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven . . . . O how love I thy law! It is my- meditation all the day . . . . Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. . ., I hate vain thoughts: but thy law do I love” (Psa. 119:89, 97, 105, 113). Upon reading David’s attitude toward the word of Almighty God, no one will be shocked to hear his prayer, “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditations of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, 0 Lord my strength and my redeemer” (Psa. 19:14).
David’s attitude of love and respect for the word of the Lord was so deeply impressed upon his heart that he evaluates the man of God not as only refusing the ungodly ways and lives of the wicked but as one whose “delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night” (Psa. 1:2). His delight and meditation is in the word of the Lord. Why? He knew and understood his Lord; read Psalms 139 and you can well understand the last two verses: “Search me, 0 God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
Do you know the Lord in faith, in obedience and forgiveness (Rom. 5:1; 6:17-18; Col. 2:12; 3:1-4)? Then, surely, you love His word and delight in it. It will furnish the man of God unto every good work (2 Tim. 3:16-17).
The story is told of a young lady who read a book containing material in which she was interested. But having completed the reading she passed her opinion upon it as being very dry and thoroughly boring. Later in her life, she met a young man and fell in love with him. She soon learned that he was the author of the book which she had thrown aside as dry and boring. She searched out the book and reread it. This time her opinion was expressed, “This is the best written and most interesting book that I have ever read.” Why the difference? She knew and loved the author.
Is this our problem in creating an interest in reading and studying God’s word? Are we acquainted with and know the Book, The Bible, but have not come to know and love its author? Jesus said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (Jn. 14:15,15:10). 1 John 5:3, “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not grievous.” If keeping God’s commandments, instructions is hard, grievous, you have a problem. Search your own heart, “For out of it are the issues of life” (Prov. 4:23). “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh” (Matt. 12:34).
We recognize that it is only through the word of the Lord that we come to know, to understand, the Lord, but it is through acceptance of his truth that we come to believe, respect and love Him. John said, “We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us” (1 Jn. 4:6). “In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God” (1 Jn. 3:10).
We can show our love and advance in love for the Lord by standing and meditating more upon His word (1 Tim. 3:15;4:15-16; 2 Tim. 2:14-15; Heb. 5:14). This is not meditation by reaching out into the great transcendental, mystical space of God’s unknown. “The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law” (Deut. 29:29). Do you know Jesus to love Him and serve Him?
Guardian of Truth XXX: 24, pp. 739-740
December 18, 1986