So for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.” He answered, “Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”
- John 9:24-26 ESV
You can picture the scene. There is a man who, moments earlier was blind, standing before a crowd of men with scowls on their faces who though seeing do not see and yet hearing do not hear. The listen with great irritation to the man describe his healing by one he calls a prophet sent from God. Finally, when they can no longer stand his supposed insolence, one of the men cries out “Give glory to God! We know that this man (referring to Jesus) is a sinner!” The claim is that since Jesus is a sinner, there is no way that he could have healed anyone. Obviously this man, who was blind from birth, was lying about something. Obviously, there was some trick or illusion that they were simply not able to see. The Pharisees demanded that this man give glory to God by telling the truth, and that is exactly what he did even though it wasn’t the truth the Pharisees wanted to hear.
Rather than folding under the pressure, this man claimed that Jesus of Nazareth had healed him. He claimed that a great sign was performed in Israel unlike any sign that was ever done by any other prophet. While many miraculous things occurred in the Old Testament, no one was ever given sight who had been born blind. Ever. This made Jesus healing of this man something of particular interest. It was something that would catch everyone’s attention. It was something to take note of, something to remember.
It’s also interesting to note that this man wasn’t just asked to confess before a hostile audience, he was facing excommunication from the Jewish nation for teaching that Jesus was something other than a prophet of Satan. The Pharisees wanted this man to give glory to God by renouncing the miracle that had occurred and joining them in declaring the Son of God as an imposture and false teacher. Rather than doing so, he boldly declared that Christ healed him and, later would confess Jesus Christ as the son of the living God.
We live in a world where we are constantly called upon to deny Jesus Christ as the Lord of Lord, King of Kings – the very Son of God. We are constantly confronted with people who want Christians to deny the lordship of the savior. We must be like that blind man from so many years ago; in the face of our hostile audience we must stand firm and give glory to God in all that we do, say and believe.
The purpose of this blog is to do just that: in all things, in all ways giving glory to God. Through study, prayer and interesting tidbits of information, through posts and comments, let us all do everything we can to glorify the God who has created the heavens and the earth and redeemed mankind from sin and death.
