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From the Pastors at Joy

Men Born Blind

I recently spent some time preparing a message from John 9. This is the (true) story of Jesus healing the man who was born blind from birth. What an amazing account! It is clear from the context of the passage that this was not simply the healing of a blind man, but also another revelation of the spiritual blindness of the Pharisees. The chapter concludes with Jesus healing the spiritual blindness of the man born blind and indicting the Pharisees because they think they can “see” on their own. Rereading this account reminded me of how thankful I am that God shined into my heart so that I could have the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 4:6)! I was blind and now I see, by the grace of God alone.

Contrary to this, I have heard many pastors and other folks who want to stress that human beings are all free moral agents, because God does not want to force our love. They point out that this (forcing love) would make people like robots, who have no ability to choose not to love God. So we are all able to choose, we are completely free. I have no problem with saying that people make their own choices and are held accountable to their own choices. But to say that we are all free moral agents who can choose to follow God or not on our own – well, I have a problem with that. There is a word that is missing from that statement: dead. We are dead free moral agents. We make choices alright, choices to reject God, to hate Him, to turn our backs on Him, to love this world. And Scripture says that we are DEAD in sin. Dead people do not choose life. Dead people do not choose Christ. We, along with all people, are dead and without hope of living.  As spiritually blind from birth as that man was physically blind.  The free choice of mankind is the path to death. 

Dead people need to be raised from the dead! Blind people need to be made to see!  And praise God, through His Son Jesus Christ the dead are raised and the blind are given eyes to see! Those who live and walk in darkness are made alive, not by being free moral agents, but by God shining His glorious and irresistible light into our dark hearts! When we see Him with Spirit-enlightened eyes, we become alive – alive like we never have been before. We see the horror of our sin, repent and trust Jesus Christ for new life here and now, and eternal life to come. We see the greatness of the God who we have rejected all this time, and worship Him! We walk in His light and live by His grace and power. Living for the first time, we become a light in a dark world. And we see with light filled eyes what we have been saved from, causing our love to grow day by day in spite of this life’s trials.

So does that make us robots? Here is what I know: without God shining light in dark and dead hearts, we are without hope. And when God does shine light into our hearts, we are saved and filled with joy inexpressible. We need a work of God to make us able to love Him. But in loving him, we find real joy for the first time. If this makes us robots, then let’s pray that all who we know would become robots too!

“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” -Ephesians 2:1-10