New Glasses

My little boy got glasses this week. Besides the fact that I think he looks adorable, he has also given me something to think about. He is far-sighted, so everything is now magnified by the prescription lenses. One of the first things he said to me with his new specks on was, “Wow, Mommy, you’re HUGE!” Thanks, Zach. A whole new world has opened up for him through his new little peepers. He is seeing things all around the house that before went unnoticed. Yes, like the cobwebs and dust-bunnies that need to be swept away.

That’s a lot like our spiritual blindness. We often don’t know what we don’t know. That was true of my own life before Christ gave me a new heart and made me a new creation. I was going through life doing all kinds of righteous acts like praying, going to Bible study and even talking about Jesus. I believed all the facts about Jesus, including His death and resurrection, but I was still blind and I didn’t even know it. I was a theologically informed Pagan with a great evangelical vocabulary, but I wasn’t a Christian. I came across something quite meaningful in this regard in scripture recently. I have been reading John Macarthur’s book, “The Gospel According to Jesus” and was led to see something in John chapter 9 that I had never understood before. In the account of the blind man’s healing, I saw great similarities to my own life. You may recall how Jesus mixed spittle with dirt, made a clay-like substance, and told him to go wash it off. After he did this, he could see and his physical blindness was healed. Soon after, there was quite a stirring amongst all the people who saw this great miracle. The man gave testimony several times about what Jesus had done, yet this man was still unregenerate and unredeemed. He was walking around talking about the good thing Jesus had done and yet God had not yet removed the veil over his heart and healed his spiritual blindness. It was not until later that Jesus came to him and asked him,

"Do you believe in the Son of Man?" He answered, "Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?" Jesus said to him, "You have both seen Him, and He is the one who is talking with you."
And he said, "Lord, I believe." And he worshiped Him. John 9:35-38

It is here within these verses that this man is saved. Though a miracle occurred in healing his physical blindness, the divine miracle of his salvation was even greater. With his understanding of the truth about Christ, he had newly opened eyes of faith. His response in verse 38 says it all: “he worshiped Him.” Is there any other response for one who now has eyes to see Christ as sovereign Lord? When God opened my eyes to my own sin and how I had offended the very One who gave me breath, I had the godly sorrow that led me to repentance and thereby salvation (2 Corinthians 7:10). My eyes were wide open to my terminal illness of sin and my due punishment of eternal condemnation because of it. As I looked at the ransom paid by Christ on the cross, it was ever so much sweeter than it ever was before. I came running to the mercy seat and I have been dancing ever since. As I read scripture now, I am amazed at my understanding of it. I see things there I never could comprehend before, which is explained in 1 Corinthians.

The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
1 Corithians 2:14

Before I was saved, I didn’t have the Holy Spirit dwelling within me, teaching me continually through my understanding of the word of God. Now, reading my Bible has become a daily nourishment for my hungry soul and I am so thankful that God opened my eyes to the truth. He has really impressed upon my heart this week that it is He alone who opens eyes and changes hearts. This has been especially meaningful in my relationships with people, especially those who may not yet be born again. I have a peaceful reassurance from Him that if they are to come to salvation, it is He alone that will open their eyes. That doesn’t mean I should stop sharing the Gospel. It is still true that faith comes by hearing the word of Christ (Romans 10:17). However, all the light in the world will not make the blind see apart from the work of Christ. Even Peter could not have said, “You are the Christ”, if God had not removed the scales from his eyes.

Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.” Matthew 16:17

So my son has a new pair of glasses and so do I. Yes, I have a whole new set of lenses and they are dramatically different than they were in my unregenerate state. Then, I was an enemy of God and did not have the Holy Spirit. Now I have become a child of God and have the Holy Spirit living within me to continually teach and guide me. With my new specks, He is able to continually perfect my vision. Just as Zach is learning to clean his new lenses, God also gradually wipes smudges off my lenses and shows me something new. He who began a good work in me will see it to completion (Phil 1:6). But it will be in His timing, not mine. I want to hurry through trials and get to the other end of them, with as little discomfort as possible. I want to learn the lesson quickly and be done with it. But I must go through the valley if I able to see clearly what it is He wants to show me on the other side of it. As I cry out to God for wisdom and direction in various areas of my life, I often hear Him say,

“I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.” John 16:12

The way Christ reveals things to me is always slower and more painful than I would like. I want to know and understand it all immediately, without the trial. In a quote from Spurgeon, I was recently reminded of the value of troubles we may face. “We should never enjoy the juice of the grape were it not trodden in the winepress.” Many times I feel like I’m being trodden in the winepress, but I trust that the juice will be ever so much sweeter because of it as I learn all that Christ has to teach me this day.