John 9:1-7 ESV
“As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.’ Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man's eyes with the mud and said to him, ‘Go, wash in the pool of Siloam’ (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.”
That God’s Works Might be Displayed
There was a belief at that time which viewed all such calamities
as someone being born blind as being the result of someone’s sins. And so that
is why the disciples asked this question of Jesus. But Jesus assured them that
this was not the result of anyone’s sins, but so that the works of God might be
displayed in him. And this reminds me of the story of Job, and how his friends
assumed that his suffering was a result of his sin, but it wasn’t.
Another factor that comes to mind here is that of the
sovereignty of God over our lives, and of Paul’s pleading with the Lord three
times to remove a thorn from his flesh, which appears it may have been his
physical blindness. But the Lord’s response to Paul was that God’s grace was
sufficient for him, for God’s power would be displayed in Paul’s physical weakness
(not sin), just as the works of God were displayed in the man born blind when
Jesus healed the man of his blindness, and in Job when his faith was being
tested.
And this reminds me, too, of what the Lord had me write on
last from Acts chapter 4. The rulers and the elders in the Temple of God, when
they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and they had perceived that they were
uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had
been with Jesus. Now, Jesus doesn’t call us because of our abilities, but
because of what he plans to do in and through our lives in the power of the
Holy Spirit within us.
So, to me, the message here is that God allows some people
to be born with physical anomalies. He allows others to be born with mental
deficiencies, which are also of a physical nature, and not emotional or
psychological. He allows others to go through tragedies in their lives, or to
be abused, or to be misunderstood and rejected by others. Or he allows them to
be lacking in formal education, or in wealth, or in acceptance by the populace,
etc.
And this is, I believe, so that if and when God does display
his work in them it will be quite apparent that the work is from God and not
from themselves. It will be apparent that they are speaking or teaching or
singing in the power of the Holy Spirit and not in their own strength and
wisdom. And this is why, I believe, that God sometimes chooses not to heal so
that he can display his work in us and show that he is the one doing it because
we aren’t able to.
We Must Work the Works of God
It is a popular belief in the market-driven institutional
church of today here in America that if we believe in Jesus that we are to do
no works. For they take some of Paul’s teachings out of context to say we are
to do nothing and that Jesus does it all. One of the big examples of this is
Ephesians 2:8-9 which states that we are saved by God’s grace through faith and
that this is not of ourselves, not of works lest anyone should boast.
But then they leave out the next verse, Ephesians 2:10,
which says, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good
works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” The difference
is that these are the works of God, but we still have to do them in his power
and strength. They also leave out a whole lot of verses that talk about the
works we are to do as followers of Jesus, including Titus 2:11-14 which says,
“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation
for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and
to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting
for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior
Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to
purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good
works.”
[Eph 2:8-10; 1 Co 15:58; 2 Co 9:8; Gal 5:6; Php 2:12-13; Col
1:9-14; 2 Thess 1:11-12; 2 Tim. 2:21; Tit 2:11-14; Jn 15:1-11; Tit 3:8; Jas
2:17; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-32; Lu 9:23-26; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Co
6:19-20; 2 Co 5:15; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Jn 14:15-24; etc.
etc.]
We are to repent of our sins, forsaking them, and we are to
follow Jesus Christ in obedience to his ways and to his commands (New
Covenant). We are to honor Christ as Lord of our lives and submit to his will
and purpose for our lives, and to go where he sends us, and to say whatever he
commands us to say. And we are to present ourselves to God as living
sacrifices, holy and pleasing to him, and we are to no longer be conformed to
the ways of this sinful world, but we are to be changed in heart and mind.
And we are to be spreading the good news of the gospel of
Jesus Christ (the whole counsel of God) to the people of this world, and we are
to be encouraging the body of Christ to maturity in Christ with the use of our
spiritual gifts given to us by the Spirit, and via the body parts that God made
us to be and called us to do, in his power and strength and wisdom. And we are
to be loving people with the love of God, and helping to meet some people’s legitimate
needs, and the list goes on and on.
And we are to be healing people, too, with our words, with
our actions, with kindness and thoughtfulness, and with the truth spoken in
love, etc. Sometimes the Lord will lead us to pray for healing of someone and
he or she will be healed miraculously. Or the healing he wants in their lives
is more in the way of them learning to trust the Lord with their circumstances
and to not let bitterness overtake them, etc. But we can be instruments of
healing in other people’s lives when we yield to Holy Spirit control.
But when we do the works of God which he prepared beforehand
that we should walk in them, and when we teach what Jesus taught and what his
NT apostles taught, in context, we will also be hated and persecuted as Jesus
was hated and persecuted, because there are going to be people, even within the
gatherings of the church, who are not going to like what we are doing and
saying. And they may be aggressive in going against us. But we must persevere
in being the light of Christ to the world, for time is short.
Fully
Ready!
An
Original Work / June 19, 2013
Based
off Acts 20-22, 26; Mt. 28:18-20; Ac. 1:8
Why are you weeping and breaking my heart?
I’m fully ready to suffer for Christ.
If I must die for the sake of His name,
I am convinced it will not be in vain.
Glory to God and to His Son Jesus,
Who has redeemed us; bought with His blood.
May I speak to you? Jesus came to me;
Asked of me, “Why do you persecute me?”
He said, “Now get up and stand on your feet.
Go, and you’ll be told all I have for you.
I have appointed you as a servant,
And as a witness; you have been sent.”
“Go into the world and preach the gospel.
Open the blind eyes. They will receive sight.
Turn them from darkness to the light of Christ;
From power of the evil one to God,
So they may receive forgiveness of sins,
And a place among those who’re in heav’n.”
No comments:
Post a Comment