John 9:3–4

John 9 opens with the case of a man who prompts a question from the disciples about the government of God in Israel. Was it his parents' sin that brought this trouble on their child, following the principles God had given them in Exodus? Or was it his own sin, known to God though not seen by men, that had earned him this judgment? The Lord replies that the man's condition did not depend on God's government dealing with the sin of the man or of his parents. His case was simply the misery that made room for the mighty work of God in grace.

God's ways are not like man's. When He makes them known, they stand against the Jewish idea that suffering pays back sin. The reason lay deeper than what his parents deserved, or than God's foresight of the wrong the man would do. It is not that the man and his parents were not sinners. But when Jesus looked at the man's blindness from birth, His eye saw beyond nature, law and government… The case was completely beyond human help, and that is just what made it the occasion for Jesus to do the works of God.

The Lord's reply shows that suffering can come with no punishment in it at all. It can come only so that God may show His work. Here He showed it by delivering the man from the affliction completely. He can show it just as powerfully by delivering someone from the weight and depression of an affliction while the affliction itself stays; and that is often seen today… this blind man was a fit subject for the work of God, though he never asked for it, as far as the record goes.

The meaning of blindness from birth is too plain to need comment. But the Lord, dealing with the faithful remnant in Israel, did not count it as sin, nor treat it as a case of sin being charged to anyone. He treated it as an occasion for grace. This is how sovereign grace views such a case… the work done in him was definite and effective. It was grace that looked at his condition, and knew no cause but itself and the fruit it was going to produce.

The Lord treats it as a case that shows God's ways in grace rather than in government… It always comes back to this, if a person is to be happy before Him — to the works of God: the great atoning work of the cross for him, and the work of the Spirit of God in him. Let us hold on to the words of verse 3, "the works of God might be displayed in him" (older translations read "manifested in him"). This is not about merely saying you believe, and even less about man's works. It is about God's work, done and displayed in a man.

The man blind from birth is surely a picture of Israel, and indeed of all mankind by nature. The root of this is of course sin — but not, as the disciples supposed, one particular sin… Sin, the root of all sins, has infected the very nature we all share as children of Adam. That is the reason for all sickness, and for spiritual blindness from birth too.

His disciples ask, "Who has sinned?" It was all wrong. The question now was, "Who is at work?" God was there in the person of the Son, at work to bring men out of darkness into light. There was no time to lose. The night was coming, when no one can work.

In God's goodness, the deepest and truest reason — God's own reason — was to give Christ an occasion to work the works of God on the earth. How wonderfully grace works in a hopeless case, and how rightly it judges one! That it was wholly outside the resources of man made it just the occasion for Jesus, for the works of God.

The eighth chapter has presented the testimony of the Lord's words. He spoke to the world those things which He had heard of the Father. The ninth chapter presents the testimony of His works. Before, He had spoken the words of the Father. Now He says, "I must work the works of Him that sent Me." The Lord brings the light into the world and makes known the heart of God. He also works in grace to open blind eyes to see the truth.

He had to do this. The world had rejected Him, and He might have turned aside because of that rejection. Still He had to work the works of the One who sent Him. The work of grace all remained... He had to work, and He had to work while it is day. The day is the time of the presence of the light. But while Christ was in the world He was its Light. The night is His absence.

Notice how day and night take on a new meaning once we look at them in relation to Christ's stay and work on this earth.

It was the day of His presence in the world in active grace. The night of His absence was coming, when no one can work. As long as Christ was in the world, He was the Light of the world. While He was here He had to work. Love could not rest where there was sorrow, and light could not rest in the presence of sin. When Christ departs, all is over with the world until His return. Yet because of His death and ascension, a testimony still goes out to the world declaring the grace of God.

There is little to note in the revisers' work on John 9, except that they accepted "us" in verse 4 in place of the first "me" — without even a word of caution in the margin.

The duty of evangelising always remains... Let us work, dearly beloved, while it is day; the night comes, when no man can work. The love of Christ is the best guide for our daily duties.

But the most blessed service has its snares. Let us be careful. We can be busy telling others about Him while our own hearts are cold to His love. Christ is not first. Instead of judging ourselves for it and confessing it, so that communion is restored, the heart feels the distance and throws itself into more and more service. But that only keeps the distance in place, because it hides the soul's real condition.