Spiritual Blindness

Hi people, how are you doing? Hope all is well. Sometime back I was listening to my Audio Bible and this piece of scripture struck me.

John 9:40-41

40 Some Pharisees who were there with him heard him say this and asked him, “Surely you don’t mean that we are blind, too?”

41 Jesus answered, “If you were blind, then you would not be guilty; but since you claim that you can see, this means that you are still guilty.”

Note: The blind in verse 41 refers to spiritual blindness of not being able the truth in Jesus. The Pharisees were members of an ancient Jewish sect that emphasized strict interpretation and observance of the Law of Moses.

Do you know what scripture came to my mind when I read this? Check this out.

Genesis 2:15-17

15 Then the Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and guard it. 16 He said to him, “You may eat the fruit of any tree in the garden, 17 except the tree that gives knowledge of what is good and what is bad

You must not eat the fruit of that tree; if you do, you will die the same day.”

Genesis 3:6-7

6 The woman saw how beautiful the tree was and how good its fruit would be to eat, and she thought how wonderful it would be to become wise. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, and he also ate it. 7 As soon as they had eaten it, they were given understanding and realized that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and covered themselves.

It is important to note that the reason God told Adam that he would die if he ate the fruit of knowledge of what is bad and good is because he would then stand condemned under his own judgment because of disobedience. This is the reason why Adam and Eve hid themselves after eating the fruit.

There is something very similar in Genesis 3:7 & John 9:41. When Adam and Eve were blind to knowledge of right and wrong they were not guilty. The Pharisees being a people who emphasized the Law upon the common people, claimed to know right from wrong, they were a people who were still guilty because they claimed to be able to see.

Romans 5:13

There was sin in the world before the Law was given; but where there is no law, no account is kept of sins.

In a similar way the Pharisees were hiding from God by rejecting Jesus, seeking always to trap Him.

Matthew 16:1

Some Pharisees and Sadducees who came to Jesus wanted to trap him, so they asked him to perform a miracle for them, to show that God approved of him.

Mark 10:2

Some Pharisees came to him and tried to trap him. “Tell us,” they asked, “does our Law allow a man to divorce his wife?”

There is something I’ve learned in my life and that is don’t only learn a lesson when you come across something bitter, rather learn a lesson even when others taste the bitterness of life’s experiences. Learn also from other people’s experiences. The Pharisees were sprinting towards death by rejecting Jesus. It is important for you to know that it is by grace and not merit that people are saved (going to heaven).

Ephesians 2:4-5

4 But God’s mercy is so abundant, and his love for us is so great, 5 that while we were spiritually dead in our disobedience he brought us to life with Christ. It is by God’s grace that you have been saved.

If you are going to heaven it is only because of the trust you have in Jesus. The Law of Moses opened the eyes of what was sin, so came condemnation & death but the grace that God showed us in Jesus increased much more as sin increased.

Romans 7:7

Shall we say, then, that the Law itself is sinful? Of course not! But it was the Law that made me know what sin is. If the Law had not said, “Do not desire what belongs to someone else,” I would not have known such a desire.

1 Corinthians 15:56

Death gets its power to hurt from sin, and sin gets its power from the Law.

To conclude,

Romans 5:20-21

20 Law was introduced in order to increase wrongdoing; but where sin increased, God’s grace increased much more. 21 So then, just as sin ruled by means of death, so also God’s grace rules by means of righteousness, leading us to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.