John 9:39-41 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. Some of the most significant of Christ's teachings are put in the form of a verbal contradiction: "He that findeth his life shaft lose it," etc.; "Whosoever hath not from him shall be taken," etc. But the impressiveness of the truth taught is all the greater from being couched in terms that would nonplus a mere verbal critic. It is so with regard to ver. 39 and the text. I. THE SENSE OF SIN CONDUCTS TO HOLINESS upon the general principle of supply and demand. This law holds good — 1. In our earthly affairs. If one nation requires grain from abroad, another will sow and reap to meet the requisition. If our country requires fabrics it cannot well produce, another will toil to furnish them. From year to year the wants of mankind are thus met. 2. In the operations of Providence. God's good. ness is over all His works. He opens His hand and satisfies the desire of every living thing. Famines are the exception and not the rule. Seedtime and harvest fail not from century to century, and there is no surplus to be wanted. 3. In the kingdom of grace. If God is ready to feed the ravens, He is more ready to supply the spiritual wants of His sinful creatures. He takes more pleasure in filling the hungry soul than the hungry mouth. "If ye, being evil," etc. If there were only a demand for heavenly food as importunate as there is for earthly, the supply would be at once forthcoming in infinite abundance. For no sinful creature can know his religious necessities without crying out for a supply. Can a man hunger without begging food? No more can a conscious sinner without crying, "Create in me a clean heart," etc. And the promises are more explicit in respect to heavenly blessings. You may beg God to restore you to health, to give you a competence, and He may not see fit to grant your prayer. But if you say, "God be merciful to me, a sinner," you will certainly obtain an answer, for this will not injure you as the other may; and God has expressly said that it is always His will that man should seek mercy, and always His delight to grant it. Come, then, for all things are now ready (1 John 5:14, 15). II. THE CONCEIT OF HOLINESS LEADS TO SIN. We are met at the very outset with the fact that a conceit is in its own nature sin. It is self-deception. The disposition of the Pharisee to say, "We see," is an insuperable obstacle to every gracious affection. Christianity is a religion for the poor in spirit. Conceit opposes this, and puffs up a man with pride and fills him with sin. 1. Religion is a matter of the understanding, and consists in a true knowledge of Divine things. Self-flattery is fatal to all spiritual discernment(1) It prevents a true knowledge of one's own heart. The Pharisee who said, "God, I thank Thee," etc., was utterly ignorant of his own heart, and impervious to any light that might fall upon it. (2) It precluded all true knowledge of God. Humility is necessary to spiritual discernment. God repulses a proud intellect, and shuts Himself up from all haughty scrutiny. "To this man will I look," etc. 2. Religion is a matter of the affections, and the injurious influence of a conceit of holiness in these is even more apparent. Nothing is more deadening to emotion than pride. If you would extinguish all religious sensibility within yourself, become a Pharisee.Conclusion: 1. The practical lesson is the necessity of obtaining a sense of sin. So long as we think or say that we "see" we are out of all saving relations to the gospel. The foundation of true science is willingness to be ignorant, and so it is in religion. The instant a vacuum is produced the air will rush into it, and the instant any soul becomes emptied of its conceit of holiness, and becomes an aching void, and reaches out after something purer and better, it is filled with what it wants. 2. As an encouragement to this we may depend on the aid of the Holy Spirit. (Prof. Shedd.) Parallel Verses KJV: 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. |
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