IT is always a good thing for our souls to get right back to the foundation truths of Christianity, and to be there often, so that we never lose sight of them. For in the complexities and turmoil of everyday life there is no small danger of a soul that has for the moment lost sight of these foundations, being bewildered, and almost led to doubt the reality and joy of salvation.
We get in this Ninth Chapter of John's Gospel a beautiful example of the way in which the Holy Spirit can use even a 'simple and untaught believer to confound and bring to naught the ablest forces of the enemy of souls.
We see a man "blind from his birth." (Joh. 9:1.) He was therefore past all human aid. Under. God's blessing it has been known that, one who has lost his sight may have it restored, but in this case there never was sight; there was nothing to restore.
What a striking picture of the natural man!
Far off from God by sin and wicked works, without one spark of life toward God, there is nothing man could ever do could bring him back to God. If he is to be saved, there must be an interposition of God in sovereign grace. God must provide the way for a sinner to return to Himself.
And, blessed be His Name, He has done it! “For God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Rom. 5:88But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8).) There is now through His grace a free way of access for every one, who, like this blind man, feels and knows his need, and simply trusts the. Saviour to fill it.
We do not find any questions asked or difficulties raised by this poor man. No, indeed, he was too earnest, too eager to be freed from his life-long infirmity. And when a soul is brought into the presence of God, and sees its utter lost and ruined state, there can be but one cry from that soul, even the cry that was wrung from that Philippian jailer, "What must I do to be saved?" Nothing had any weight with him then but his soul's deep need of salvation.
Well, to proceed with our chapter. This poor man goes as directed by the Lord. And with what result?
“And came seeing." (Joh. 9:7.)
What other result should we expect? What other result is possible? It is the sure result of faith in Him that blessing must follow. And it is just the same today. Faith that lays hold of the precious words of the Lord (John 3:16; 5:2116For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)
21For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. (John 5:21), etc.) can rejoice in the possession of a full, free and present salvation from all the dire results of sin and sins; can rejoice in the possession of a son's place with the Father, and can sing,
“The sinner who believes is free;
Can say, The Saviour died for me';
Can point to the atoning blood,
And say, 'This made my peace with God.'”
Happy place! happy people who can say this! Even though it brings reproach, as we get brought out lower down in our chapter, nothing can destroy the link that is formed between the soul and the One to Whom we owe everything, the One Who has died for us, and is coming again to take us to be with Himself, to be with Him, and like Him forever. What a place, what a portion for those who deserved nothing but banishment forever from the presence of a sin-hating God! Ah,! but though He hates sin with a perfect hatred, He loves the sinner, and at such infinite cost to Himself has provided a way of escape. How sad to reflect that man, in his foolish pride and self-will, rejects even such a salvation!
And it is not long before we see man's will at work in this chapter, just as we see it today. Here indeed it is religious man; but man is about the same whether professedly religious (apart from Christ) or outwardly opposed to God. In both cases the enemy has free course in the heart of man, and uses it for his own evil purposes towards the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ in this world. Hatred to the Lord is manifested by hatred to His people. We see here recorded the fact that for anyone to confess Christ was to be cast out of the synagogue, to be cut off from that which was dear to the Jewish heart, but which had no place; no room, for Jesus in it. So today, the soul that seeks to own the Lord Jesus fully in this world will find that the world has long ago cast out the Lord, and will reject all real testimony to His name.
Instead of the Pharisees rejoicing in the grace of God in healing this poor man, they but seek to make it a pretext for condemning the Lord Himself; and because the happy recipient of this grace does not join them in this nefarious scheme, they join him in their minds with the Lord (happy place to be!) and cast him out too. But it is interesting to note how he meets their arguments and insinuations. Not by counter argument; had he done so he would soon have been vanquished, for with them lay the weight of human learning and skill in disputation. But the Christian position is not one to be defended by argument and logic though we are told always to be ready to give ar answer for the hope that is in us (that every true Christian will delight to do); but one who would seek to engage us in argument as to the truth of God's precious word, and as to the certainty of salvation, will be found to be no honest enquirer, but like these Pharisees, only seeking to use superior command of language and debate for the downfall of the unwary Christian who will fight on this carnal ground like David in Saul's armor. No, we may depend upon it that Satan can bring to his aid very great powers of argument, such as will put us in some very awkward places if we try to meet it with the same weapons. But, as we have said, this is not the Christian ground.
We get a beautiful picture of the Christian attitude here. We see a simple new believer (for such he surely is) attacked by the greatest masters of learning of that day as to the Person of his Saviour; the enemy's favorite point of attack still. What could be more calculated to unsettle and trouble him than to have these men, whom he has looked up to all his life, disputing with him as to the character of the One who saved him.
But how lovely to see the simplicity he shows! He could not explain himself very well, could not refute altogether (as no doubt he would have liked to), the subtle propositions of his opponents, but he stuck to this word: "One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see." They could not take that from him, for he had actual physical proof; he was assured of positive possession.
And as he points out to them (Joh. 9:30-33), he could see that this One who had performed so much for him was of God; and having these two points clear was enough for him.
With positive knowledge on these essential points he was defended on points still obscure to him. So it should be with us. We know and are sure from God's precious Word, expressed in the simplest language possible, that we have eternal life through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We know that we are thus eternally secure; and assured of this knowledge we are in a position impregnable to the enemy of our souls. When someone, for instance, asks us questions that we feel unable to answer, and we seem to be placed in an untenable position, we can always fall back upon the support, "One thing I know, that whereas I was lost and undone, now I am eternally saved," and this argument puts us in a place above all the enemy can say. For just as this poor man had something in this, knowledge that his opponents had not, so we may say that these agents of Satan who come to us with what the Word calls "foolish and unlearned questions" have not this assurance, and thus being outside of the blessings that are found in Jesus, they know not what they are talking about, inasmuch as this foundation truth is hid from them.
We may be, alas! we often are, found without the knowledge of God's counsels that it is our privilege to have through His revelation of them in His word. If so, we are undoubtedly weak, and in no position to sustain a combat with the foe; but faith to lay hold of these elementary truths will carry us through: "Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked " (Eph. 6:1616Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. (Ephesians 6:16)); and how sharp and how fiery they are we soon learn when that shield of faith is not in exercise!
Perhaps the world will call us narrow-minded. Very well,
"If to confess our Lord be shame,
Oh then would we be viler still.”
The Christian can afford that the world should think thus of him, can afford to be thought little of, because he knows what lies at the end of his journey; it has been revealed to him through the grace of God. The Apostle Paul, who knew something more of rejection by this world than, most of us (the result of a closer walk with God),, could say, "Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung that I may win Christ, and be found in Him (Phil. 3:8, 98Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, 9And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: (Philippians 3:8‑9).) And, apart from the glorious end of the path, who would compare the joy of communion with Him, walking with Him, living with Him, with the fleeting pleasures of the world? Think of the martyrs of the middle ages, who though, they had not the joyful expectation of the Lord's coming ever present to their souls as we may have, yet went triumphantly to' rack and stake sooner than deny the Lord that bought them, even as we read in Acts 5:4141And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. (Acts 5:41), "Rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name.”
But we have the sure and certain hope of His corning, and know our sins are forgiven. Why should we not be glad, even though the world thinks us narrow-minded and foolish? Alas! for this world when it awakes to the awful fact that those so long rejected were right after all, when, from the whole world as from one throat goes up the awful cry, "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved." (Jer. 8:2020The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved. (Jeremiah 8:20).) Terrible indeed then to reflect upon the offers of mercy that have been slighted, the tender yearnings of grace to ruined man which he has madly spurned, only to awake to the true state of things in the lake of fire, as it has been said, "with a good memory but a bad conscience." (Rev. 20:10, 1510And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. (Revelation 20:10)
15And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:15).) And yet, awful as it is, it is the portion of all who neglect or reject God's terms to this world. Such loving offers as He had made to such implacable enemies, one wonders how it is possible for even one to stay outside, how it is that every one does not fall at His feet, and say with Thomas, "My Lord and my God." (John 20:2828And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. (John 20:28).) Thrice happy they who take this low place, and thus are eligible to be the recipients of all that God in His grace is offering (Rom. 8:2222For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. (Romans 8:22)).
Now mark the result on these proud hearts of the simple application of the truth by this simple child of God. It is not to be expected that hearts so hardened in rejection of Christ, so far form God, should be touched by this simple avowal of the Person of Christ (so far as this man had learned it). At the same time the truth was so manifest that it must have effect upon them, and it does. Anger flares up in them at what they are pleased to consider this man's presumption, and they exclaim, "Thou wast altogether born in sins, and Most thou teach us? And they cast him out.”
Yes, this man knew he was born in sins, and so were they, and did not know it. The difference now was that he trusted the One who could put those sins away, while the proud Pharisee refused Him. So they cast him out. They had long ago rejected and east out the Lord, so that it was, and is, but a natural sequence that, they cast out those who are the Lord's. But what joy is now about to dawn on that man's soul t He found more outside than ever he would have done in the synagogue, "Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and when He had found him,, He said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? He answered and said, Who is He, Lord, that I might believe on Him? Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen Him, and it is He that talketh with thee. And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped Him" (Joh. 9:35-38.)
He could never have had Jesus in the synagogue. There was no room for Him there; no, not in the very place where God's name was outwardly owned where they carried on the ritual that God had appointed, but which had now become only dead forms, which the Lord Jesus had come to abolish; that place formerly the place of the Divine presence, now only a name, had no room for the Light of the World, the One who was the Image of the invisible God. (Col. 1:1515Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: (Colossians 1:15).) The Lord Jesus knew all about the conflict this. man had with the Pharisees, but, He did not come-to him then. He knew the straits of difficulty he-was put to in argument with them, but He does, not interfere. No, the Lord could not come in while the man was inside that which had cast Him out, and if the enemy sifts and tries the believer in that place, it is that he may see his place outside.
Is there an "outside" to-ay? Yes, there is an "outside" still, just as there ever will be till the Lord reigns in righteousness over this earth. We read in Heb. 13:1313Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. (Hebrews 13:13), "Let us therefore go forth unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach," and in Rev. 3:2020Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. (Revelation 3:20), in the address to Laodicea (sad, solemn picture of all professing Christendom, that vast system set up by man to which he has attached the Lord's name, to-day), "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock." There again the Lord is outside, in this case seeking admission into the individual heart.
Yes, if we want to experience the fullness of the joy of being one with Him, we must be shut up to Him alone. No system of man's can come between the real communion of the soul and the Lord; and if we want to taste the joy of it we must go forth unto Him outside the world and all that it stands for as a vast system of man devised to do without God. Who can deny that this is the avowed purpose of man to-day, to make this earth a pleasant place to dwell in apart from Christ? What folly, what madness, when it is in Him alone that the craving of man's soul can find its need really met. The world can give nothing. It has nothing.
We need only read that address to Laodicea (above quoted) to see where the world has got to. It is, mark, the religious world, that composed of all the various churches and denominations of men that is spoken of here, and if such scathing words are addressed to the mere professor, what shall be said to the open scorner, of whom one finds more and 'more in these "last and closing days"? Is not the world saying to-day more than ever, "I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing"? And never were more true of it the solemn words of the Lord, "And knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." What a place for the true believer in Jesus to be found in; to be mixed with that which hates the name of his blessed Saviour, and, as we too often see it, very much at home there! Well, such a believer will of course be saved, will spend eternity with Jesus, but will have to be snatched' out of the place of man's preparing like. Lot was snatched out of Sodom (he had never any business there); everything being lost but life itself.
May the Lord give us to be more and more simple, as this dear man was; to be humble, and in the place He would have us be, with Himself the alone object of the worship of our hearts down here ("and he worshipped Him"),so that when that trumpet sounds, and when that blessed Saviour, the very same One, comes in the clouds to call us to be with Him, we may be ready, and waiting and willing to go, and then
“When left this scene of faith and strife,
The flesh and sense deceive no more,
When we shall see the Prince of life,
And all His works of grace explore
"To hear his voice, to see his face
And know the glories of His grace.”
I once saw on a tombstone a little verse which struck me:—
“Millions of years my wondering soul
Shall o'er my Saviour's beauties rove.”
It was not about the sinner, or even about the salvation; it was the beauties of Christ Himself.