Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of John 9:25
He answered and said, Whether he be a sinner [or no,] I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.
25. He answered ] Better, Therefore he answered. He will not commit himself, but keeps to the incontrovertible facts of the case.
whereas I was blind ] Literally, being a blind man, but the Greek participle may be either present or imperfect; either ‘being by nature a blind man’ or ‘being formerly blind.’ In Joh 3:13 and Joh 19:38 we have the same participle, and a similar doubt as to whether it is present or imperfect: so also in Joh 9:8.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not – The man had just said that he believed Jesus to be a prophet, Joh 9:17. By his saying that he did not know whether he was a sinner may be meant that though he might be a prophet, yet that he might not be perfect; or that it did not become him, being an obscure and unlearned man, to attempt to determine that question. What follows shows that he did not believe that he was a sinner, and these words were probably spoken in irony to deride the Pharisees. They were perverse and full of cavils, and were determined not to believe. The man reminded them that the question was not whether Jesus was a sinner; that, though that might be, yet it did not settle the other question about opening his eyes, which was the chief point of the inquiry.
One thing I know … – About this he could have no doubt. He disregarded, therefore, their cavils. We may learn, also, here:
- That this declaration may be made by every converted sinner. He may not be able to meet the cavils of others. He may not be able to tell how he was converted. It is enough if he can say, I was a sinner, but now love God; I was in darkness, but have now been brought to the light of truth.
- We should not be ashamed of the fact that we are made to see by the Son of God. No cavil or derision of men should deter us from such an avowal.
- Sinners are perpetually shifting the real point of inquiry. They do not inquire into the facts. They assume that a thing cannot be true, and then argue as if that was a conceded point. The proper way in religion is first to inquire into the facts, and then account for them as we can.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Joh 9:25
One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.
Truly did Christ say, I came not to send peace on the earth. Little did the man dream of the stir the miracle would make. So our blessings often get us into trouble, and become tests of character. The man here was tested as to whether he would stand by the truth. Let us not imagine that we can travel through life unchallenged. All the circumstances here are of a deeply interesting character.
1. Look at the parents. Sometimes you will find character transmitted with marvellous accuracy. Like parents, like children. Occasionally children degenerate from the type of their parents, and in others are a manifest improvement. This seems to have been the case with this young man. His parents were timid. This fear of man always brings a snare. What multitudes there are who dare not tell the truth or do the right for fear of the Gentiles, or the Church, society, or clique. There is no hope for them but in that perfect love which casteth out fear.
2. Look at the Pharisees. They heard enough, surely, for conviction, but they were afraid of the conclusion, and hence sought to terrify the parents and extract a contradiction from the young man. Then they reviled him. Men must have keen eyes who can detect in these men any of that instinctive love of truth which is vaunted as the glorious attribute of humanity. Men love darkness, etc., is the testimony alike of Scripture and experience. Men are much more anxious to have the truth on their side than to be on the side of truth. The mind does not turn to the truth as the flower turns to the sun. No one is very sanguine of dislodging men from a theology which screens them in their sins, or in separating them from an iniquitous traffic in which they are gaining wealth; and the more truth you put before them, the more they will hate both you and it.
3. Note, as in the case of the young man, that experimental evidence of religion is marked by
I. ITS CERTAINTY. One thing I know.
1. It is too common to imagine that the term knowledge ought to be restricted to science, and is too strong to be introduced into the realm of religion, where we can only expect strong probability. But it would be strange if the greatest and most essential realities were the most doubtful.
Men think of religion as something shadowy and impalpable. They can understand what can be placed on a table and seen and fingered, but to talk of strong and weak faith, high and low hopes, knowing whom you have believed, etc., as fanaticism.
2. It must be acknowledged that religious assurance does not rest on precisely the same grounds as in other relations. From the fact that religion involves the exercise of the moral faculties, its evidence must not be such as to overbear irresistibly these moral conditions. A religion that should make its evidence glare upon us like the sun would be no religion at all. If religion be the willing service of the soul, the soul must be left free in its exercise. To leave no room for doubt would be to reduce religion to the low level of material things. God is not as visible as His universe; but those who are willing to see Him come at length to believe in Him as firmly as in the universe, and just as they say every house is built by some man, whether they have seen him or not, so they exclaim, He that built all things is God.
3. With this exclamation we affirm that the evidence which God has supplied to give the soul religious assurance is as abundant as any that He has given us on any matter. There is in the Word of God, and may be in our life, enough evidence to make our salvation the most assured thing in the universe. Other evidences are of great value. When men are showing the actual rooting of Christianity in the soil of history, it is for us to welcome their efforts. But this sort of evidence must be inaccessible to many. To the poor the gospel is preached, and this preaching was meant to be its own light and proof, so that men should say, One thing I know, etc.
4. When one carries his evidence within him he is thrice armed. Not that every strong feeling indicates faith. We may have a fanatical joy, and be the dupes of sentimentalisms and early prejudices. But where we can distinctly recognize that we are not what we once were; that God, who was scarcely at the circumference of our life, is now its centre; that Christ, who was once a root out of a dry ground, is not the altogether lovely, etc., this is evidence that can withstand the assaults of men and devils.
II. ITS MODESTY. One thing. He strictly stated the facts as he knew them. What is required of a witness is to testify what he knows, and no more. His thoughts and speculations will compromise his evidence and render it worthless. Had the man reasoned with the learned Pharisees they would have worsted him. He did not philosophize about the mode of his cure, because he knew nothing about it. And so with spiritual illumination. We can form no philosophy of salvation. It transcends our reason. It is accomplished in different ways, as in the case of Lydia and the jailor. Sometimes men know the time and instrumentality; sometimes they do not. The main thing is, Am I saved? Are these doctrines you cannot comprehend? Do men puzzle you with the mysteries of the Trinity, the origin of evil, Providence, prophecy? Oppose to them the one thing you know.
1. One thing. It might seem a scanty knowledge, but it is with knowledge, as other things, its value is determined by what constitutes its object matter. You might possess a thousand jewels, but one Kohinoor would outweigh them all.
2. One thing, but what a thing–the one thing needful. (E. Mellor, D. D.)
The blind mans creed
1. A whole chapter is taken up with this poor man. This is unusual. Though an author be inspired, we can tell what he enjoys. An evangelist, as well as a Gibbon, betrays his interest and his sympathies.
2. In some unusual way the blind man was wrought into the plan of Christs ministry. He had been born blind, and remained so that when Jesus passed by he might be ready to be healed by Him. All lives and events are wrought into that scheme.
3. The blind man was the first confessor. He was the sort of person that our Lord found it pleasant to do something for. He was ready to do what he could for himself, and what he could not do the Lord would do for him. Unlike Naaman, willingness was one characteristic of him, sturdiness was another. He spoke his mind at the risk of excommunication. His thoughts were distinct, and therefore his utterances were so. Crisp thinking makes crisp speaking. Let us look at his creed.
I. IT WAS SHORT. A creed with one article. Soon it enlarged, but it all developed out of this one thing, etc. It is no matter whether a creed be long or short, provided a man believes it as this man believes his. What would a Christian be capable of if he so believed the Apostles Creed? If a creed is believed, the longer it is the better; otherwise the shorter the better. Creed is like stature, it has to be reached by the individual, by slow growth from a small beginning. The vitality of a seed will determine how much will come out of it. Every fire begins with a spark. Some of us are trying to believe too much; not more than is true, or more than we ought, but more than we have at present inward strength for. We may extinguish a fire by putting on too much fuel.
II. IT WAS FOUNDED IN EXPERIENCE. I know I see. You notice how close the connection between the creed and the confessor. His creed was not separable from himself. It was wrought in him, and so was one he could not forget. Whenever the sun shone or a star twinkled, he would feel his creed over again. We might be perplexed to tell what we believe if we had it not in print to refer to; but experience can dispense with type. We used to hear a good deal about experiencing religion: is the expression going because the thing is going? Christ works a work in me and I feel it. That is experiencing religion, although the feeling may be differently marked in different people. Even the truths of God to become my true creed have got to be reproduced in the soil of my own thinking and feeling. Faith is languid because experience is languid. The creed of our confessor began in one article, but it did not end there. Soon we hear him saying he believed that Christ was the Son of God. Our creeds have got to come out of our experience of God, and not out of our Prayer Book. That is a poor tree that looks and measures as it did a year ago. He is a poor believer who believes exactly as he did a year ago.
III. IT WAS PERSONAL AND PECULIAR. Two living Christians cannot believe alike any more than two trees can grow alike. Two posts may. Two men only think alike, as they think not at all, but leave it to a third party to do it in their stead. Excessive doctrinal quietness implies lethargy. It is only dead men who never turn over. In nothing does a man need to be loyal to his individuality as in his religion. This is what makes the Bible so rich. The inspired writers did not throw away their peculiarities. Each mans experience will be characteristic, and so, then, must his creed be that grows out of it. A mans proper creed is the name we give to his individuality, when inspired by the Holy Ghost. Is it not a splendid tribute to Jesus that we can each of us come to Him with our peculiarity and find exactly that in Him which will meet and satisfy it? There is only one Christ, but He is like the sun, which shines on all objects and gives to each what helps it to be at its best. No two alike, the sea not the forest, etc., but each finding in the sun that which helps it to be itself perfectly. The poor man obtains from Him just what he needs, and the rich man, the Fijian, and the Greek, etc.
IV. IT DID NOT EMBARRASS ITSELF WITH MATTER FOREIGN TO THE MAIN POINT. Whether He be a sinner or no, I know not. The point with him was that he could see, not how he could see. Sight does not consist in understanding how we see, nor health in understanding the organs of the body, nor salvation in knowing how we are saved. The physician can cure an ignorant man as readily as a scholar, because his medicine does not depend on the intelligence of the patient; so Christ can be the physician of all, because salvation consists just simply in being saved. (C. H.Parkhurst, D. D.)
Experimental evidence
There is a man who is enjoying his food. He seems healthy and strong. He says he is so. You assure him, however, that his mode of life is wholly wrong. You have been reading some learned work on dietetics, and, full of theoretic wisdom, and you warn him that he is not observing the due proportions of nitrogen and carbon and the other elements, and that, according to your principles, he ought to be out of health and ready to perish. With what calmness he listens to your serious homily, and smiles as he finishes his repast! He is but an ignorant man, knows nothing about the high-sounding names you have used to denote the chemical constituents of food, tells you that whether he is eating according to learned books or not he knows not, but one thing he knows, that what he does eat agrees with him, strengthens him, and enables him to do his work; and so he lets learned men and books talk on. A friend has been sick, and is now recovering. You ask him what medicine he has been taking, and on learning it you are astonished. On hearing who his physician is, you venture a doubt as to his qualifications, whereon the valetudinarian says, Well, I know nothing about the properties of medicine, or the technical qualifications of the physician; but one thing I know, that every dose of the medicine has been to me like life from the dead. This was the spirit of the reply of the healed man. (E. Mellor, D. D.)
We know
One cannot but notice how constantly the phrase we know occurs. The parents of the man used it thrice. The Pharisees have it on their lips in their first interview with him–We know that this man is a sinner. He answers, declining to affirm anything about the character of the Man Jesus, because he, for his part, knows not, but standing firmly by the solid reality which he knows in a very solid fashion, that his eyes have been opened. So we have the first encounter between knowledge which is ignorant and ignorance that knows, to the manifest victory of the latter. Again, in the second round, they try to overbear the cool sarcasm with their vehement assertion of knowledge that God spake to Moses, but by the admission that even their knowledge did not reach to the determination of the question of the origin of Jesus mission, lay themselves open to the sudden trust of keen-eyed, honest humilitys sharp rapier-like retort. Herein is a marvellous thing, that you know-alls, whose business it is to know where a professed miracle-worker comes from, know not from whence He is, and yet He hath opened mine eyes. Now we know (to use your own words) that God heareth not sinners, but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth His will, him He heareth. Then observe how, on both sides, a process is going on. The man is getting more and more light at each step. He begins with A Man which is called Jesus. Then he gets to a prophet, then he comes to a worshipper of God, and one that does His will. Then he comes to If this man were not of God, in some very special sense, He can do nothing. These are his own reflections, the working out of the impression made by the fact on an honest mind, and because he had so used the light which he had, therefore Jesus gives him more, and finds him with the question, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? Then the man who had shown himself so strong in his own convictions, so independent, and hard to cajole or coerce, shows himself now all docile and submissive, and ready to accept whatever Jesus says–Lord, who is He, that I might believe on Him? That was not credulity. He already knew enough of Christ to know that he ought to trust Him. And to his docility there is given the full revelation; and he hears the words which Pharisees and unrighteous men were not worthy to hear: Thou hast both seen Him–with these eyes to which I have given sight–and it is He that talketh with thee. Then intellectual conviction, moral reliance, and the utter prostration and devotion of the whole man bow him at Christs feet. Lord, I believe; and he worshipped Him. There is the story of the progress of an honest, ignorant soul that knew itself blind, into the illumination of perfect vision. And as He went upwards, so steadily and tragically, downwards went the others. For they had light, and they would not look at it; and it blasted and blinded them. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
The power of a fact
This man, who is released from his native blindness by Christ, is one of the strongest characters which the Gospels paint for us about the person of our Lord. Follow him through the chapter, and through all its various situations and discussions, and you feel that he is the man of the most real manhood among them all–disciples, neighbours, parents, and Pharisees. Wherein does his great strength lie? What is it that makes him so real and firm a man? It is, I believe, the consciousness of a fact, a great fact, in his lifes history. One thing I know, he says, that whereas I was blind, now I see. That is the great, wonderful event which has happened to me, which fills all my consciousness, before which everything else is little, which influences and colours everything, and the remembrance of which rules me. In every knot of men which clusters around him, with their little wondering questions of curiosity or malice, he simply tells his one great fact. We can hardly think of him as the former beggar. He is too imperious for a beggar now.
1. See how this man first appears after his cure by Christ. The neighbours and his former acquaintance gather around him, and begin to question as to his identity: Is not this he that sat and begged? Some said, Yes, this is he. Others, He is like him. But he said, I am he. There is the first effect of the coming of this great fact into his life, to make him honest in regard to self. It is as if he had said, Here is a great event that has happened to me, unprecedented and marvellous. I am its subject. Such an attention has been bestowed upon me and my wants and my condition as I never heard of, as shows that I am the object of care to a Divine mind and power. A new value has been given to my nature. I have a new, stronger sense of self. Yes, I am he. I was blind, and now I see. I will not leave you to dispute my identity. That is the first great value of the consciousness of a fact in ones life history, the new honest view of self and its value. Oh, my friends, the system which teaches us to know ourselves the best is that which brings the greatest fact into our history–the gospel and its fact. And yet multitudes of us go through life, while all about us, above us, and beneath us point to us, Is not this one for whom Christ died? Is not this one of those wonderful saved human natures? and we practically deny ourselves, because our consciousness is so dead.
2. Go on in the chapter to the next appearance of this man who knows one thing–the critical event of life. See how concentrated it makes him! They ask him, Where is He, your healer? He says, I know not. All I know is this. To know one great fact and to be full of it makes him unwilling to guess a conjecture about other things. He either knows or he knows not. He has learnt what true knowledge is. We should save much stumbling and sorrow in life if we would not so often build the air castles of conjecture and live in them as though their walls were of the solid masonry of real knowledge. The disaster is most serious in the spiritual sphere, when one does not know where to say, I know, and where I know not, when religion is only a broad field of conjecture. Many are anxious concerning such unessentials as the origin of evil, predestination, spiritualism, the exact nature of the future life, etc.; forgetful that, the one fact of practical religion–mans salvation and purification by Christ–being known, you may for the present safely say, I know not, to other items which cannot be yet known in the same personal way.
3. The chapter goes on to furnish another instance of the strengthening value of this one possession of the healed man. It makes him a messenger, a continual repeater of his wonderful story, as often as he can relate it. Any man, however ignorant and humble, is listened to if he have a genuine event of life to tell. Facts never grow old. This man, the relater of a fact, represents Christianity. Christianity has gone on from age to age, from circle to circle, giving its simple, solid, eventful message–human redemption and enlightenment by Christ.
4. But, still again, as this man so full of his story tells it, the Pharisee says to him, Give God the glory. Do not ascribe it to this Man. He is a sinner. They endeavour to hush his statement by a command, Do not say, He (Jesus) opened mine eyes. That is to say, these men were striving to do what has been a very usual human infatuation–to legislate against events, by simple authority, as when the old Saxon king sat by the waters edge and with his kingly decree forbad the sea to come nearer or its tide to rise higher. These men did not appreciate the firmness of a fact. They did not know that commands were merely pebbles that rebounded shattered from its rocky undisturbed surface. All men fall into this error–good men legislating against an evil fact, evil men legislating against a good fact. To bid it be different is nothing at all. This is another value of the blind mans possession. He was instantly above all mere commands, all mere human assertion of power. This is the value of Christianity always–its exaltation of a man above earthly power. The world, by its persecution or force and might, says, Deny Christ. But if you conceive of Christ and His gospel as the worlds great fact, if His influence is an event in your own life, you will be able to answer, How can I deny a fact? I should only stultify myself to do that. One thing I know, I was blind, and now I see. That will last after your command has been forgotten. There is no fear, no servility in this man, who is armed with his great conscious fact of life, beggar as he had been of old. The Pharisees cast him out. Ay, and the worse for them. They east out the only man resting on solid truth, and remained upon their fictions.
5. Once more, as this man goes out into the outer cold solitariness of excommunication, yet happy and warm in the garment of the consciousness of that wonderful miracle, Christ meets him, and says, Now you must believe on Me, for you have seen Me. Think how it must have sounded, how the warm heart must have been doubly grateful for that word seen. Yes I see at last, I see, I who was blind. It is as if Christ were echoing his own thoughts, his own one piece of all-absorbing knowledge. Now, that piece of knowledge must lead to belief. Fact must lead to faith. A fact merely means a thing done, and there must be a doer, greater in his invisibility than the great thing itself in its visibility. That is the faith of Christianity; it rests on real events, on actual things done. It does not ask faith with no basis. But it furnishes the greatest event of history as a foundation, an event happening to us and yet not through our means; and any man full of that great event will say, I will and must believe in its doer. Just as the building which has the broadest base upon the ground can rise to the highest upward point in safety, so he who is fullest of the greatest seen fact of life is fullest also of the richest, most aspiring, most practical and most spiritual faith. (Fred Brooks.)
The experimental evidence of Christianity
Here we see a practical conviction of the claims of Christ set against speculative doubts of those claims; and so this dispute between the restored blind man and the Pharisees is a symbol of what often happens in the world. It would be easy to find men now who have doubts concerning Christianity born of intellectual inquiry, which they find it impossible to appease; while there is another class of persons who feel a confidence in Christianity born of inward experience, which it would be impossible to overthrow. And if two persons representing these two classes should meet and attempt a discussion, they could not understand each other, for their souls would not touch. The believing man could not confute nor dispel the doubts that would be reported to him by his opponent, because he had never felt those doubts, and could not judge of their validity. The sceptical man could receive no immediate aid from the practical conviction of the believer, for that conviction could not be translated from feeling into effective statement in words. One is troubled with doubts about the miracles; the other can tell only of the sweet peace of Christian duty and a sense of pardoned sin. One cannot see that the links are complete in the historical chain of evidence for the authenticity of the four Gospels; the other can only answer that the words of those Gospels have nourished his soul, and made life a more noble experience, and bereavement less painful, and the tomb less dark. One cannot be entirely sure that such a person as Christ ever lived; the other feels that it is his highest privilege to follow the spirit of the recorded Christ and to be a disciple of His published temper. One may anxiously be waiting for the last book by some great German theological scholar, to settle or confirm his wavering mind upon some point of the evidence; the other strengthens his faith by the daily responses that are vouchsafed to Christian prayers. One questions from a darkened intellect; the other answers from a sunlit soul. One cannot but say, from the force of the doubts which his philosophy has started, As for this Man Jesus, I know not from whence He is; the other replies, Why, herein is a marvellous thing, that you know not from whence He is, and yet He hath opened mine eyes! A truly Christian man, although he may never have looked into a volume of the evidence for the genuineness of the Christian records, feels a testimony for the Christian religion in his own heart which raises him above scepticism about the record. Jesus referred to this proof when He said Joh 7:17). Perhaps such a man had long been wholly selfish and worldly. But by being brought within the circle of Christian influences his best faculties have been awakened and developed. And now he sees life in a different light. The wisdom and goodness of God are suggested to him from every side of nature; it is a delight to cherish a sense of reliance upon the Deity and to feel at all times that God is the Father; the darkness of selfishness is exchanged for the deep satisfaction of devotion to duty, the slavery of passion for the peace of purity, the misery of fear for the joy of love, the fever thirst after worldly goods for the serene bliss of faith, and holy longings for the favour of God and the perfectness of Christ; existence is recognized as a spiritual privilege, death regarded as the door to immortality, and the universe becomes a temple for the worship of the Almighty. Find a heart in which this conversion of principles, feelings, and aims has been experienced, and you find a heart that feels an immovable conviction of the truth of Christianity. Its peace, its joys, its consciousness of spiritual health, its insight into a new world of which before it had no conception, all bear testimony to the reality of Christs religion. (T. Starr King.)
Experience the condition of Church membership
When Moody, the great evangelist, wanted to join the Church in Boston, under the pastor of which he had been awakened, he was questioned about doctrines, and seemed to know nothing about them.. He could only say, Whereas I was blind, now I see. He applied to this Church three times before he could get in. (J. F. B. Tinling, B. A.)
An undoubted cure
George Moore once dislocated his shoulder, and after suffering great agony for weeks, all the surgeons failing to relieve him, he went to Mr. Hutton, the bone setter, who in a few minutes gave him lasting relief. He was much taken to task then by his professional friends for going to a quack. Well, said he, quack or no quack, he cured me, and that was what I wanted. Whereas I was blind, now I see. (S. Smiles.)
Living Christians an argument for Christianity
An unhappy woman who has associated herself with a notorious atheist in this country, went down to a great northern city in England to deliver a lecture against Christianity, and the object of her able deliverance was to prove that Christ was a myth. A great crowd of working men assembled to hear her, drawn together, as I believe they often are on such occasions, a good deal more by curiosity than by sympathy with the lecturer. When the lady had finished, a man got up at the other end of the room and said, My friends, you know me. I have lived among you for twenty-five years. Twenty-five years ago I was a drunken brute. I used to beat my wife and make my home a hell upon earth. Now, this lady says that Jesus of Nazareth is a myth. I am not quite sure that I know what a myth is, but I suppose that she means that He never existed, or, at any rate, is not what we declare Him to be. Now, my friends, twenty-five years ago, when I was a drunken, wife-beating rascal, Jesus of Nazareth met me and opened my eyes, and I saw that I was a sinner, and He forgave my sins; and you know what a change took place in me then, and you know what sort of a man I have been for the last twenty-five years. Perhaps the lady will be kind enough to explain me. Down he sat. The lady said that she could not explain him, and she did not deliver the two other lectures in that course, I have no doubt that she was perfectly familiar with all that Strauss has written, and with what Renan says, and with the difficulties which the great men of science have suggested, and she went down to that northern city flushed with the anticipation of victory; but there was one very awkward fact which she had overlooked–that there happened to be living in that very city a well-known man whose eyes Jesus of Nazareth had opened twenty-five years ago. What is the use of making most difficult and endless inquiries into the origin of ancient documents until you have explained me? And standing here addressing some whom I shall never meet again until we meet at the judgment seat, I present myself as a living witness. What you have to explain is me. My mind goes back twenty-three years, when, in a beautiful little village in Wales, Jesus of Nazareth opened my eyes, and I saw that He was my Saviour, and that God was my Father; and in that light I have been walking with perfect happiness for twenty-three years. That is what you have to explain, and you are in a very great difficulty, because there are so many of us. Two thousand years ago there was only one at Jerusalem, and they were able to dispose of him pretty quickly. They lost their tempers; and bullied him, and finally excommunicated him. But you cannot excommunicate us all. Let every man speak of that which he knows. (H. P. Hughes, M. A.)
Agnosticism and Christian experience
Is there a God? Dont know! Is the soul immortal? Dont know! If we should meet each other in the future world will we recognize each other? Dont know! This man proposes to substitute the religion of Dont know for the religion of I know. I know whom I have believed. I know that my Redeemer liveth. Infidelity proposes to substitute a religion of awful negatives for our religion of glorious positives, showing right before us a world of reunion and ecstasy, and high companionship, and glorious worship, and stupendous victory; the mightiest joy of earth not high enough to reach to the base of the Himalaya of uplifted splendour awaiting all those who on the wings of Christian faith will soar toward it. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
Conversion a real experience
This man knew that he could see. Possibly some of you have been decent people all your lives, and yet you do not know whether you are saved or not. This is poor religion. Cold comfort! Saved, and not know it! Surely it must be as lean a salvation as that mans breakfast when he did not know whether he had eaten it or not. The salvation which comes of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is conscious salvation. Your eyes shall be so opened that you shall no longer question whether you can see. He could see, and he knew that he could see. Oh, that you would believe in Jesus, and know that you have believed and are saved! Oh, that you might get into a new world, and enter upon a new state of things altogether! May that which was totally unknown to you before be made known to you at this hour by Almighty grace. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
Value of a personal knowledge of salvation
I recollect the lesson which I learned from my Sunday school class: I was taught, if the other boys were not. Though yet a youth, I was teaching the gospel to boys, and I said, He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. One of them asked somewhat earnestly, Teacher, are you saved? I answered, I hope so. The boy replied, Teacher, dont you know? As if he had been sent to push the matter home to me, he further inquired, Teacher, have you believed? I said, Yes. Well, then, he argued, you are saved. I was happy to answer, Yes, I am; but I had hardly dared to say that before. I found that if I had to teach other people the truth I must know and believe its sweet result upon myself. I believe, dear friends, that you will seldom comfort others except it be by the comfort with which you yourself are comforted of God. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The value of experience
A hundred thousand tongues may discourse to you about the sweetness of honey, but you can never have such knowledge of it as by taste. So a word full of books may tell you wonders of the things of God in religion, but you can never understand them exactly but by the taste of experience. (N. Caussin.)
Personas knowledge valuable
The first qualification, then, of a faithful witness is a personal knowledge of the facts to which he witnesses. If a witness in a court of justice begins to talk of what he thinks, feels, and believes, Oh! hush, hush, says the judge, we cant have that; we want to know what you know–what you have seen, heard, and felt of this case; and these are the sort of witnesses Jesus Christ wants, who get up and say, I know! That is what the Lord Jesus Christ wants–people who know, who experience, who realize, who live the things they witness to. This is what the world is dying for–people who can get up and say, I know.
What did He to thee
The quibbles of infidelity
Pertness and ignorance may ask a question in three lines, which it will cost learning and ingenuity thirty pages to answer. When this is done the same question will be triumphantly asked again next year, as if nothing had ever been written on the subject; and as people in general, for one reason or other, like short objections better than long answers, in this mode of disputation, if it can be styled such, the odds must ever be against us; and we must be content with those of our friends, who have honesty and erudition, candour and patience, to study both sides of the question (chap. 10:25). (Bp. Horne.)
Infidelity can only go round and round the same topics in an eternal circle, without advancing one step further. It produces no new forces: it only brings those again into the field which have been so often baffled, maimed, and disabled, that in pity to them they ought to be dismissed, and discharged from any further service (Act 19:28; Act 19:34). (J. Seed.)
Will ye also be His disciples?–Bold irony this–to ask these stately, ruffled, scrupulous Sanhedrists. Whether he was really to regard them as anxious and sincere inquirers about the claims of the Nazarene prophet! Clearly here was a man whose presumptuous honesty would neither be bullied into suppression, or corrupted into a lie. He was quite impracticable. So, since authority, threats, blandishments had all failed, they broke into abuse, Thou art His disciple, etc. Strange, he replied, that you should know nothing of a man who has wrought such a miracle as not even Moses wrought; and we know that neither he nor anyone else could have done it unless he was from God. What! Shades of Hillel and Shammai! Was a mere blind beggar, a natural ignorant heretic, altogether born in sins, to be teaching them? Unable to control any longer their transport of indignation, they flung him out of the hall, and out of the synagogue. (Archdeacon Farrar.)
Thou art His disciple
I. THE CHARACTER OF A TRUE DISCIPLE. This was the first name attached to Christs followers. It is a correlative to His title, Teacher: hence they who received His instructions were His disciples. And when they obtained the more distinctive name of their Master, this was recognized, The disciples were first called Christians at Antioch. Names are but arbitrary signs of things, and are really characteristic no further than as the things themselves exist. The Christians were no worse for being called Nazarenes, and Judas was no better for being called an apostle. Hence the necessity of distinguishing between the proper and the lax use of words. A man may be a disciple universally or really. Such a distinction is coeval with the use of the term. Many of His disciples went back, Ye are My disciples indeed. A true disciple
1. Believingly embraces the doctrines of Christ. They are received into His heart as the basis of conduct; they are the mould which gives its impression to the character. Such doctrines as credible, require faith; as authoritative, bind; as graciously given, are to be used for the benefit of a guilty and erring mind. So close is the affinity between Christ and His truth, that believing His Word is believing in Him. But it is one thing to believe the gospel to be true, and another to believe its necessity to our own wellbeing; the former will make a man a disciple in name, the latter in truth.
2. Cherishes an ardent affection for Christs person. Faith is His word by realizing to the mind His great excellencies and gifts, engages its esteem, desire, and delight. It opens the springs of gratitude and awakens the purest sensibilities. This love is a master grace, leading a train of other virtues, which receive their highest worth from it.
3. Devotes himself to the cause of Christ–giving himself up to Christs disposal–living or dying. This devotedness includes self-denial, confession of Christ before men, lively activity in extending His kingdom.
II. THE NECESSITY AND IMPORTANCE OF BEING A TRUE DISCIPLE.
1. From the absolute requirement of God, My son give me thy heart. Everything short of this is robbery. He who delays obedience holds out his enmity against God; and can this succeed?
2. From a principle of consistency. Shall God be treated as we deem it base for man to be treated? In common affairs mere outward respect is insulting. With whom do men trifle when they assume the form of godliness without a care of the power.
3. From a regard to our safety and peace. (Congregational Remembrancer.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 25. Whereas I was blind, now I see.] He pays no attention to their cavils, nor to their perversion of justice; but, in the simplicity of his heart, speaks to the fact, of the reality of which he was ready to give them the most substantial evidence.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
This poor man being of no higher quality than a beggar, can be presumed to have had no great education; yet his answer is as good as could be expected from one of the greatest breeding, both for security to himself, and his stout asserting what was truth. As to their charge upon our Saviour of his being a great sinner, he avoids it, telling them, as to that he knew nothing, nor was it his concern to inquire; but this he knew, that he had wrought a great work on him, for whereas he had been blind from his mothers womb, he now had his sight by his means: so as all their frowns could not tempt him to deny the miracle wrought upon him, nor yet to speak the least in abatement of it.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
25. He answered and said, Whether hebe a sinner or no, &c.Not that theman meant to insinuate any doubt in his own mind on the point of Hisbeing “a sinner,” but as his opinion on such a pointwould be of no consequence to others, he would speak only to what heknew as fact in his own case.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
He answered and said,…. That is, the man who had been blind, who takes no notice of the confession they pressed him to, which is what he could not do; there being no collusion in this case, he only replies to the reproachful character they had given of his benefactor.
Whether he be a sinner or not, I know not: or “if he is a sinner I know not”, as the Vulgate Latin version renders it, suggesting that he did not know he was a sinner; he could not charge him with being one; nor could he join with them in saying he was a sinner; nor did he think and believe he was: however, he was sure he had done a good thing to him, and in that he was no sinner; and what proof they had of his being one he could not tell: and be that as it will, adds he,
one thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see; as if he should say, whatever charges you bring against the person that has done me this favour, which I am not able to answer to, you cannot reason me out of this; this I am sure of, that once I had no eyes to see with, and now I have, and that by the means of this man you reproach. And so it is with persons enlightened in a spiritual sense, whatever things they may be ignorant of, though they may not know the exact time of their conversion, nor have so much Gospel light and knowledge as others, or be so capable of expressing themselves, or giving such a distinct and orderly account of the work of God upon them as some can, nor dispute with an adversary for the truths of the Gospel, or have that faith of assurance, and discoveries of God’s love, and the application of such great and precious promises as others have; yet this they know, that they were once blind, as to the knowledge of spiritual things, as to a saving knowledge of God in Christ, as to a true sight and sense of themselves, their sins and lost estate, as to the way of righteousness and salvation by Christ, or the work of the Spirit of God upon their souls, or as to any true and spiritual discerning of the Scriptures, and the doctrines of grace in them: but now they are comfortably assured, they see the exceeding sinfulness of sin, the plague of their own hearts, the insufficiency of their righteousness to justify them before God, and the beauty, fulness, suitableness, and ability of Christ as a Saviour; and that their salvation is, and must be of free grace; and that they see the truths of the Gospel in another light than they did before, and have some glimpse of eternal glory and happiness, in the hope of which they rejoice.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
One thing I know ( ). This man is keen and quick and refuses to fall into the trap set for him. He passes by their quibbling about Jesus being a “sinner” () and clings to the one fact of his own experience.
Whereas I was blind, now I see ( ). Literally, “Being blind I now see.” The present active participle of by implication in contrast with (just now, at this moment) points to previous and so past time. It must be borne in mind that the man did not at this stage know who Jesus was and so had not yet taken him as Saviour (9:36-38).
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1) “He answered and said,” (aphekrithe oun ekemos) “Then replied that one,” the former blind one.
2) “Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not:” (ei hamartolos estin ouk oida) “If a sinful man he is, I know not,” I do not comprehend or fathom it, the most blessed thing or One anyone could know, and whom he later came to know and believe, Joh 9:35-38; Joh 17:3.
3) “One thing I know,” (hen oida) “One thing I do know, perceive and experimentally comprehend,” that I did not, and could not know from birth, until the day I met “a man that is called Jesus,” or known as Jesus, Savior, or deliverer, Joh 9:11. They were baffled by the independence and obstinacy of the man.
4) “That whereas I was blind, now I see,” hoti tuphlos on arti blepo) “That once being or existing in a state of blindness, at this moment I see,” and that is good enough for me, Joh 9:11; Joh 9:15. He saved, delivered, liberated, or set me free from the bondage of blindness and begging, Luk 4:18,21. This was a definitive example of Jesus’ fulfillment of the prophecy that the Pharisees claimed to believe, Isa 61:1-2.
The blind man’s testimony:
1 ) Was short, only one article. I was blind.
2) Was founded on experience. Now I see.
3) Was personal and peculiar. A liberation witnessed by many.
4) It did not compromise with hypothesis, of whether or not there was something wrong with Jesus who set him free.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
25. Whether he be a sinner, I know not. The blind man appears not to have been at all prevented by fear from giving a sincere testimony. For there is no reason to believe that he had any doubts about Christ, as his words seem to imply; but I rather think that he spoke ironically, in order to wound them more deeply. He had already confessed that Christ was a Prophet, (verse 17.) Perceiving that he gains nothing by doing so, he suspends his judgment about the person, and brings forward the fact itself, so that, while he makes this admission in their favor, he is not free from ridiculing them.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(25) Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not.The words, or no, are added to the text, but rightly complete the meaning. He, like his parents, will confine himself to matters of fact coming under his own certain knowledge. They had declared authoritatively that they knew this Man to be one whose life was characterised by sin. He is convinced that this cannot be so (Joh. 9:31; Joh. 9:33), but he does not dispute their assertion; he simply makes his own, which cannot be gainsaid, and which cuts the ground from under them.
One thing I know.For this use of one thing to mark the chief thing which is so important that all others are excluded, and it is left as the only one in the mind, comp. Mar. 10:21 (one thing thou lackest) and Luk. 10:42 (one thing is needful).
Whereas I was blind, now I see.Better, Being a blind man, now I see. He places the two things in contrast. He was the well-known blind man, whose experience of his own blindness had extended from birth to manhood. They declare that he has not been healed. He is conscious of his power to see, and this one thing he affirms. The difficulty is of their making; let them explain it as they think best.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
25. Whether a sinner Rather, If he be a sinner I know it not. He stands first upon a profoundly conscientious know not, and next upon his own infallible
know. Was blind, now I see Upon this point his knowledge was surer than any Sanhedrim’s that ever sat. A feeble character might have surrendered; but in soul this is a most princely beggar.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘He therefore answered, “Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that whereas I was blind, now I see”.’
Without actually criticising them he brought home the important point that they must recognise that what he had said happened, did actually happen. He insisted that he was in no position to judge religious conformity, but that he did know that what had happened had happened, and that it was extraordinary. However, they could not accept that any credit should go to Jesus, and so they tried again.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Joh 9:25. Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not: In this answer of the beggar there is a strong and beautiful irony, founded on good sense; and therefore it must have been felt by the doctors, through they dissembled their resentment for a little while, hoping that by gentle means they might prevail with the man to confess the supposed fraud of this miracle. See the next note.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
25 He answered and said, Whether he be a sinner or no , I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.
Ver. 25. Whether he be a sinner or no, &c. ] That is, a notorious impious man, as you affirm him. And this is an ironic speech; as if he should say, You may make of him what you will, and call him at your pleasure; he is as he is. And this one thing I know, and will testify, that whereas I was blind, now I see; yea, and I see day at a little hole too. If this man were not of God, he could do nothing, Joh 9:33 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
25. ] See on Joh 9:8 . The man shrewdly evades the inference and states again the simple fact. Bear in mind, that must here be strictly kept to its present sense , as being joined with a present verb : the rule for the construction of a pres. part. being, that it is contemporaneous with the verb which rules the time of the sentence. So that we must render, not ‘ whereas I WAS blind, now I see ,’ as E. V.: but as A.V.R., being a blind man [or, though a blind man ], now I see. The shrewd and nave disposition of the man furnishes the key to the nigmatical expression. He puts it to them as the problem, the fact of which he knows for certain but the reason of which it was for them to solve, that he, whom they all knew as a blind man, now saw. So that the carries not so much present matter of fact, as common designation and title.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Joh 9:25 . But they find in the man a kind of independence and obstinacy they are not used to. . He does not question their knowledge, and he draws no express inferences from what has happened, but of one thing he is sure, that he was blind and that now he sees.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
he = Therefore he.
Whether = If. App-118.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
25. ] See on Joh 9:8. The man shrewdly evades the inference and states again the simple fact. Bear in mind, that must here be strictly kept to its present sense, as being joined with a present verb : the rule for the construction of a pres. part. being, that it is contemporaneous with the verb which rules the time of the sentence. So that we must render, not whereas I WAS blind, now I see, as E. V.: but as A.V.R., being a blind man [or, though a blind man], now I see. The shrewd and nave disposition of the man furnishes the key to the nigmatical expression. He puts it to them as the problem, the fact of which he knows for certain but the reason of which it was for them to solve, that he, whom they all knew as a blind man, now saw. So that the carries not so much present matter of fact, as common designation and title.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Joh 9:25. , if [whether]) In a case, concerning which he has as yet no certainty, he nevertheless does not yield to the false authority of others; and he rather believes, that Jesus is not a sinner, than that He is a sinner.- , whereas I was blind) The participle has the force of a prterite tense, which is manifest from that which follows, now I see. Comp. Gal 1:23, They had heard only, That he which persecuted us in times past, now preacheth the faith, which once he destroyed, , , .
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Joh 9:25
Joh 9:25
He therefore answered, Whether he is a sinner, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.-The man refused to enter into the casuistry or the ethics of the. case, but stood to the stern facts that I was blind and now I see. [He refused to be drawn into a dispute over the matter or to participate in their deceptive scheme. He was firm and held fast to the truth.]
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
one: Joh 9:30, Joh 5:11, 1Jo 5:10
Reciprocal: Son 8:1 – I would Joh 5:15 – which Joh 9:39 – that they
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
ONE THING I KNOW
He answered and said, Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.
Joh 9:25
We must all have been struck by the simplicity of wisdom exhibited, under these trying circumstances, by this poor and probably unlettered man. It may be profitable to consider the principle on which it was founded. That principle consisted in this, that he would not suffer his knowledge to be disturbed by his ignorance. He might be ignorant on many points, but one thing he knew, that his cure had been effected.
I. In our present imperfect state, our ignorance on every subject is much greater than our knowledge, while yet we know quite enough for practical purposes.
(a) Our ignorance may be compared to that of a child. How little does the child know! A favourite toy is of more value in his eyes than an estate. His distinctions are accidental, and his judgments superficial. And yet this little child, ignorant as he is, knows enough for his practical guidance. He does know his parents, and what they are to him. He knows that it is his happiness and duty to submit to them.
(b) The instance of a little child may help us to realise the proportion, which human ignorance must always bear to human knowledge. In our present imperfect state we are all, in this respect, children. The discoveries of science, which justly excite our admiration, are but as so many excursions into the vast unknown regions of nature and Providence, disclosing but a minute portion of the wonders which they contain. As the child, if he be only humble and docile, has sufficient light for his practical guidance, so is it with us all. The mariner may know little of the system of the universe, but he knows enough to take an observation and steer his vessel to the desired haven. The husbandman is unable to explain the secret process of vegetation. But one thing he knows. He knows perfectly well that if he wishes for a crop, he must diligently prepare the soil and cast in the grain. And so in everything else.
II. And now apply these considerations to the subject of religious inquiry.
(a) Here, if anywhere, we might expect that these remarks would hold good. There are mysteries in Revelation which we cannot fathom, and questions about the mode in which it has come to us which we cannot answer. And yet we know quite enough for its practical and saving reception and use.
(b) We will suppose our inquirer to be an unlearned and ignorant man. A peasant, who has only received the most necessary and elementary education. How may he assure himself of the truth? He knows nothing of history or criticism. He cannot enter into abstract arguments. But one thing he knows, that from a child he has been taught to believe and reverence the Scriptures; that the best, and holiest, and happiest human beings with whom he has been acquainted, have loved the Bible, and drawn from it all their strength and consolation.
(c) And now let us suppose an inquirer of a different order. Let him be an educated man, with literary tastes and resources. Let him investigate the evidences of his faith with every aid at hand. Let him be conversant with works of history and criticism. Let him examine the Scriptures in the original languages. Let him, moreover, not be ignorant of the results of scientific investigation. And now he will find it essential to apply the principle of the text; in other words, to take the measure of his own ignorance, and steadfastly to hold fast the truth which he knows. Acquiescence in partial knowledge is clearly our wisdom as finite creatures. This principle will furnish us with a valuable safeguard against all those anxious and perilous questionings by which so many are unsettled in the present day, such as the mystery of vicarious suffering, the eternity of punishment, the origin of evil. Such subjects must ever be to us shrouded in impenetrable obscurity. But one thing we know, that the Judge of heaven and earth will do right, that God is love, and that His love has been manifested, beyond all possibility and doubt, by the gift of His only begotten Son.
III. The best antidote to all misgiving is found in the believer himself.In the consciousness of his cure, the happy exercise of his newly-found faculty of vision, the poor man in the text had an argument quite beyond the reach of controversy. It was the logic of fact. And in the gift of spiritual discernment, and the manifold blessings of spiritual experience, the humble believer has an answer to speculative difficulties, which he cannot better express than in the words of the text: One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.
Rev. J. G. Heisch.
Illustration
Miss Penley, a lady missionary working at Quartier Militaire, Mauritius, tells the story of a young converts life: He came to me soon after my arrival, looking most sad and miserable, and said he had been baptized more than a year, but did not understand much, and was unable to answer the arguments of Hindus and Mohammedans. He asked how he could get wisdom and knowledge, and stated that he had given up reading the Bible, as he did not understand it. He then began to come every evening for Bible reading. One day he came alone, and, to my surprise, burst into tears, and then poured out the story of his trouble, how he had been persecuted and despised, but, worse than all, had no assurance or peace in his heart, and had been seeking for long, but had got no light. Another day he came, quite early in the morning, in great distress, and asked how he could be saved from sin and from all the evil within and around, and inquired if God would answer his prayers. Each time I exhorted him to pray, and turned him to the Word of God, I myself praying very much for him. A few weeks later I began to notice a change in him: his face began to lose that hopeless, miserable look. One day he was reading with one or two others, and said something like this: Do you not see any difference in me? I said, Yes, I see you are looking happier. He said, Yes, God has heard my prayers, and a great happiness has come into my heart. I see that Jesus Christ has paid all my debt. I have found Him, and see that in Him I have all. I know I have been a great sinner, have often denied Him, but now I want to serve Him only all my life, and feel that I could give my life for Him. God is showing me wonderful things in His Word; now everything is changed for me. Pray very much for me that I may he a real, true Christian. His friends and neighbours all testify to the change in him, and his one great desire is to tell others and bring them to Christ. One man said, He is like a man who has found something.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
5
But this blind man was not one to betray his conscience as a jury sometimes does. He did not pretend to decide for the present whether his benefactor belonged in the class known as “sinners,” but he was not afraid to affirm what he did know. That statement was the simple truth that he was blind but now was able to see.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Joh 9:25. He therefore answered, Whether he be a sinner, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see. His simplicity leaves them no real excuse for condemning: by his steel fast adherence to the one testimony which he alone was competent to render, he most effectually brings condemnation on his judges, who, had they been sincere, would first have sought certain knowledge of the fact (see note on Joh 9:16).
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
The healed man refused to speculate on Jesus’ sinfulness. He left that to the theological heavyweights. However, he refused to back down and deny that Jesus had given him sight. Here is another of many instances in the fourth Gospel of personal testimony, which John consistently presented as important and effective. Regardless of a believer’s understanding of Christology, he or she can always testify to the change that Jesus Christ has effected in that person’s life.