(Chap. 9)
LAW and bondage to sin contrasted with the freedom given by the Son in the Father’s house is what comes into view in chapter 8. In chapter 9 the soul receiving sight is introduced already to the Son of God; but this is and must be outside of law and its administration. In the former chapter all was traced to its origin and result; here the course and explanation of all that occurs meanwhile are set forth.
How deep and clear an insight is here given us into the causes and reasons of the mysterious dealings of God in providence! A man born blind, was it because of sin in himself or in others? Nay, this is a thought formed in the mind which law governs, according to man’s responsibility, not the revelation of the mind of God. If the light is in the world the works of God who is it must be in grace and sovereign goodness, not law; and all the permitted ruin of the scene becomes an occasion for the revelation of Himself. But the night was coming quickly on, when bereft of light, the world would be left immediately to the due result of man’s ways and principles. Not man’s work then, but the judgment of it; meanwhile the works of God were done by the One He had sent in manhood.
But the divine character of these works is manifested in connection with obedience to the word of the Sent One—a faith that penetrates beyond the external things, perceiving the light although it was revealed in flesh. Jesus puts mud as ointment on the eyes of the blind man, and says to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam.” He obeys, washes, and comes seeing.
The Spirit of God gives the interpretation of the word Siloam, affording thus the key to the teaching of this chapter. It means “Sent,” and shows that light in us, the capacity to see spiritually, is received when faith connects the word with Jesus as the Sent One of the Father. Faith and obedience to the word are supposed in the case of the blind man, but no light until washed in the waters of Siloam. Then only could he see and believe in, so as to worship, the Son of God.
It is an important principle that light increases in the measure of faithfulness to what we already have. Blindly the man had believed and obeyed the word of Jesus, and received sight, knowing Him only as Source of the grace which had healed him. Called upon by the neighbors who knew him to give an account of the sign which had taken place in him, he attributes it solely to Jesus and His word. But Jesus had done this on the Sabbath, showing clearly that the law which required rest on that day, and its teachers, were precluded from any share in the honor of the work. It was then plainly the work of God, which law most certainly could not forbid, nor limit.
Morally blinded as the Pharisees were, they reasoned on the contrary that however good the work, the man who did it could not be of God, for he did not keep the Sabbath day. But he whose eyes were opened saw with God, and said, “He is a prophet.”
How soon the knowledge of Jesus sets an impassable gulf between the believer and the world! It is the distance between grace and law. But the breach rapidly widens. Left alone, deserted even by his parents for fear of the Jews, he is called to answer a second time. The glory of the work must be given to God, say they — for that it was divine and glorious could not be denied — “but we know that this man is sinful.”
The other gospels insist that it is right to do good on the Sabbath day, and that He, the Son of man, was Lord of the Sabbath, for the Sabbath was made for man. But in John it is a question of God’s work, and He is not bound by regulations which apply to man. Grace is superior to law. Faithful to the light already given him, the man who had been blind recognizes this, as the light increasingly bursts in upon his soul. He traces all to and from God. God does not hear sinners, but only those who fear Him. Never before had any man done such a divine work. He was certainly “of God.” Reasoning from pride and prejudice, the Pharisees concluded that He was sinful and His origin suspicious. The beggar argued from undeniable facts that He was no sinner, but of God.
The light of which this poor man became the vessel compels the Pharisees to appear in their true character — not as differing in opinion, but as in deadly opposition. Jesus had said that this man’s blindness was not occasioned by sin. The Pharisees assert that he was wholly born in sins, and they cast him out of the synagogue.
He is now outside the privileges of law and of religion for the earth, and the light had led him on to find in Jesus the Source of divine grace. As yet, however, he has known Jesus only in what he has received from Him. The light will now reveal what Jesus is in Himself. Finding him when cast out, Jesus says to him, “Dost thou believe on the Son of God?” “Who is He, Lord, that I may believe on Him?” he asks. Jesus replies, “Thou hast both seen Him, and He that speaks with thee is He.” And he said, “Lord, I believe;” and he worshipped Him.
Jesus had come into this world to be the light of it, so that those who were conscious of their spiritual blindness might see through grace; and, on the other hand, that those who, in their self-sufficiency, opposed law to grace and used its authority to assert themselves, might be at last exposed to its judgment and condemnation. If they were blind, the light had come, and sin would not be imputed to them. Pretending to see as teachers and administrators of the law, their sin was bound upon them by the principle of law itself.
This completes the characterizing conditions of Christian blessing, to be realized and enjoyed in the day of the Spirit’s presence, Jesus being glorified, viz., the power of life and testimony on earth; made free for the Father’s house, though not yet there; but already seeing by faith and having intercourse with the Son of God.