September 4

Spiritual Blindness

Now as Jesus was passing by, He saw a man blind from birth, — John 9:1 BSB

The blind man in the story represents all of us in our natural state. He had never been able to see, just as we are born in a state of sin. No matter how sweet or innocent a child may seem, the Bible teaches that no one is born into God’s kingdom; we all must be born again.

This man’s blindness shut him off from a world of beauty. There were green fields, flowers, blue skies, sunshine, and stars, but he couldn’t see any of it. Similarly, there’s a whole spiritual world around the unregenerate — God’s love, promises, and the joys of salvation — but they can’t see it.

There’s a story about a woman who, while looking at one of Turner’s paintings of nature, told the artist, “I can’t see in nature what you put in your pictures.” Turner quietly replied, “Don’t you wish you could?” People who don’t know Christ may scoff at the joy Christians find in faith and hope. The only answer we can give is, “Don’t you wish you could?” It takes an artist’s eye to see the beauty in nature, and it takes the eye of faith to see the glory of God’s kingdom.

Like this blind man, sinners are in a condition that is incurable on their own. Only Christ can remove spiritual blindness. As Jesus said, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”