The Baptist Defence
Hear ye my defence (Acts 22:1)
First Baptist Church - Harrison, Ohio December, 2009
John 9:41 Jesus said unto them, If
ye were blind, ye should have no sin:
but now ye say, We see; therefore your
sin remaineth.
SEEING AND NOT SEEING
Jesus, in verse 39, says that he
came into the world for judgment,
but this is not for final judgment but
a judgment of seeing or not seeing.
Jesus did not say “that they
which are blind might see,” but
“that they which see not might see.”
There is a difference in these two
things. The blind are those who
have no capacity to see anything,
but those who see not are those who
have some sight but not their full
sight. Jesus came to give a perspec-
tive sight to his disciples, that they
may see eternal things, which are
by nature “not seen” (2 Cor. 4:18).
Every human being has a re-
sponsible nature before a holy God
if he can literally see and mentally
comprehend what God has done in
his creation, but this is not enough
knowledge to bring him into the
perfect light of God’s revealed
knowledge to his disciples.
Some people see with their eyes
and see by their understanding
(mind) that God exists, but they do
not see Jesus Christ as the One
whom God sent to the earth to die
for sins and the necessity of that
transaction.
The Pharisees in our text are
concerned that Jesus is making
claim that they are blind. Now,
they are not speaking of physical
blindness but of mental blindness.
They were very educated people,
and they would be offended to think
that someone would accuse them of
having less than perfect knowledge
of God and his law, but Jesus con-
fronts them with the piercing truth
of their condition. His statement to
them becomes important to us, also.
Jesus said, If ye were blind, ye
should have no sin. That is, if they
were mentally blind and had no rea-
soning about themselves and could
not think mentally an