What a statement, Paul here writing to the Galatians explains the way that he lives. In this part of the letter Paul wrote to the Christians in Galatia, he is speaking about how he challenged his friend Peter on the way that he was living. So Paul is talking here about how we relate to the law of God, and how grace doesn’t cancel out the law, but that we are not saved by observing the law.

When Paul says this statement; “…I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” He is giving us a filter through which we must, as Christians, live our life. The fact that Jesus lives in you is the defining aspect of being a Christian, there is no non-Christian that has Christ living in them, and there is no Christian that does not have Christ living in them. So if the fact is that as Christians we have Christ living in us, why do we not live that differently to non-Christians? Many would say that the primary difference between Christians and non-Christians is that Christians don’t get to sleep in on Sunday morning.

I think that the place where we as Christians miss the mark, in this whole thing is not that we don’t accept the fact that Christ lives in us, but rather that we don’t live out the first part of this statement. “…I no longer live…” if we accept that Jesus lives in us, then we must believe that we have died to ourselves, you cannot be a Christian if you do not desire to die to yourself. It is impossible to live for Christ and to live for yourself, the call that Jesus has on every single Christians life is this; “Die to yourself, live for me, and be truly satisfied.”

So how do you die to yourself? Well this is a road that I want to walk together with you through these next few posts. I feel that this is the place in my own life that I am missing the mark, and as we seek together to die to ourselves, my prayer is that we will be able to live as if we really believed that Christ lives in us. I don’t have all the answers, and I don’t intend to pretend that I do, but I want to just share with you what I learn as over the next few weeks we actively begin to seek to live a lifestyle where one day (by the grace of God) we can say with Paul; “…I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”

Please feel free to comment, and share any insights that you have in this area of our Christians life, as well as any prayer requests. Pray for us as we pray for you.

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Faith in Jesus comes about because people hear the Gospel. People hear the Gospel, because other people tell them the Gospel, but why do people tell other people the Gospel?

Romans 10v17: So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

It says right here that their hearing is through the word of Christ… Huh? What is that, what does that mean? It is this, people preach, witness, evangelize, or whatever because Jesus has told them to. Jesus sends out His people, to spread His message, about His sacrifice, and His love… Don’t get it? Check this out…

Matthew 28v18→19a: And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…”

Do you see it, this is known as the great commission, its Jesus sending us (that means you and me…) out to make disciples. What is the action word, what is it that we should be doing? GO!!! Jesus is there shouting to us and encouraging us, “GO you can do it, I will strengthen you, I have all authority in heaven and earth, GO!!!”

That’s what Romans 10v17 is saying, that hearing is through the word of Christ, and that word is… You guessed it; “GO!” He is sending you out to go and make disciples, He is sending you out to spread His message, He is sending you out to go and tell other people about what He has done for you. Remember a few verses before in Romans 10, where Paul reminded us about how people get saved? He said that everyone who calls on the Name of the Lord will be saved, but how are they going to know to call on His Name unless they hear about Him (Romans 10v13+14)? There are people around you in your everyday life that have not truly heard (or understood) the message of the Gospel, you have a unique relationship with these people, God has put them in your life for a purpose, help them to hear!

A final word on this, witnessing for a Christian should be as natural as swimming is for a fish, but for most of us it doesn’t feel like that. Some of the methods that have been taught to us make us feel like we have be a judge sitting on the bench passing sentence on the person that we are trying to witness to, other methods basically tell you just to be friends with them and live like a Christian, never talking to them. But what is witnessing really? Witnessing always come down to a conversation of some kind (remember they need to hear), it is you telling your friend about what Jesus has done in your life; why and how. You’re not a judge, you’re a witness on the stand, telling what Jesus has done in your life. What has He done in your life that’s worth telling about, that will make God famous?

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God shows us His glory in the healing of a blind man, the Pharisees respond by dismissing it because they don’t understand it. What happens to the people who faithfully and humbly accept the miracle is God’s. Today we look at the impact on the man born blind and how his life is changed by God.

John 9: 35 – 41

Spiritual Blindness

³⁵Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”

³⁶“Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.”

³⁷Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”

³⁸Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.

³⁹Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”

⁴⁰Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?”

⁴¹Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.

The blind man in this story goes through a process that begins with the healing of his eyesight and ends with the healing of his heart. Lets look at this process and how God\’s plan to display His glory affected this man.

The Man Meets Jesus:

Jesus walks past the man at some point during His ministry on earth and responds to the man by seeing the need in his life and filling the void. Jesus does this exactly the way that God intended in order to display the glory of God in his life.

The Man Experiences the Glory of God:

As God heals the blind man, the man experiences the power of God in the fact that he is healed. Everything is different for him, life as he knows it has changed drastically and for the better. The man may have gotten used to the idea of being blind and may not even have completely realised what he was missing. God healed him and the man can now experience life in a very different way thanks to God\’s will working out in his life.

The Man Shows Jesus His Faith:

During the trial, the man comes to the realisation that Jesus is from God. After the trail, Jesus comes to him and they have the following conversation:

Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”

“Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.”

Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”

Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.

The man chooses to believe Jesus because he has realised that he comes from God. Whatever Jesus says the man will believe because he comes from God. The man’s life was impacted in such a real way that he undoubtably believed that anything from Jesus and God was good. He wanted to believe because of the experience he had not necessarily because it all made sense to him.

What happens when we see His glory?

Like in this story, God often chooses to display His glory to us. We can then choose to be a part of that Glory. The man in this story, became a part of the story by obeying the directions that Jesus gave Him (Go and wash in the pool of Siloam). Once the man had obeyed Jesus instruction he experienced the blessing that came from his obedience.

God\’s glory was experienced by the man because the man was obedient to God. If we want to see God’s glory displayed in our life we need to be obedient to Him. He has laid His law out in the bible, that is His instruction manual to us. As we obey the things of God, laid out in His word, we will no doubt see they glory of God displayed in our lives.

Seeing the glory of God in our lives lead us to trust God and to worship Him because He is worthy (Psalm 100). His glory in our lives will lead to a heart of thanksgiving for what we have seen and experienced from God.

How do we react to His Glory?

To wrap up this series on John 9 let me ask you 3 simple questions:

1) When was the last time you saw the glory of God displayed before you?
2) Are you letting your interpretations of God’s word cloud you spiritual eyes, that you have become judgmental of whatever does not make sense to you?
3) Or are you simply trusting God and obeying, because of your experience of Him?

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Jesus heals a man who was born blind. This man experiences the touch of God in his life and God is glorified as He displays his power in his life.

John 9: 1 – 12

Jesus Heals a Man Born Blind

¹As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. ²His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

³“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. ⁴As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. ⁵While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

⁶Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. ⁷“Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

⁸His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, “Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?” ⁹Some claimed that he was.
Others said, “No, he only looks like him.”
But he himself insisted, “I am the man.”

¹⁰“How then were your eyes opened?” they demanded.

¹¹He replied, “The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see.”

¹²“Where is this man?” they asked him.
“I don’t know,” he said.

The disciples open up a conversation with Jesus by asking a simple question. According to their culture, for this man to be born blind either he or is parents must have sinned. This was a culturally accepted understanding and therefore the question seemed common enough.

However Jesus corrects the disciples and their culturally accepted norm, neither this mans sin nor the sin of his parents is the reason for his blindness. The reason for the blindness is so that God’s glory can be displayed in his life.

God wants to show people how awesome he is by healing this man from his blindness. This kind of miracle had not even been heard of yet. A man, blind form birth, receiving his eyesight. God was showing off, catching the attention of the people of this earth. By glorifying Himself like this God reveals to us part of who He is.

The purpose of this mans blindness up until that point was so that God could show us the following things:

1) God is a healer

Disease and deformity have no control over Him. Should He desire He is able to heal people from the disease that troubles their life, from the deformity that plagues them. We see so often in the new testament how God chose to heal people. The lepers were healed and people were bought back from the dead. Sometimes God chooses not to heal us. However that does not mean that He is not a healer. It simply means that God has chosen not to heal. That brings us to our next point.

2) God has a plan.

This man was blind so that God’s glory can be displayed. The reason he was born blind was because God planned it like that. He wanted this man to experience the glory of God in such a way that the people around him would stand up and take notice. Before he met Jesus, this man and others who knew him may not have understood why he was blind. They may have questioned God’s existence or they may have blamed his blindness on the sin of his parents. Either way they probably didn’t come to the conclusion that he was born blind to glorify God.

3) God’s plan is not predictable.

God is so great, so powerful, and so mighty that our understanding of who God is could never bring us to a point of being able to predict God’s actions. This is simply because we could never really completely understand every aspect of God. Just because we didn’t predict God’s action towards something in our lives, or we don’t understand God’s plan, does not mean that God is not at work and that he has no plan or purpose for our lives.

Getting Practical

Therefore the next time something happens to you or someone you know that you don’t understand, remember the man who was born blind. Remember that God’s plan, although it may not always make sense, is still at work in your life and the life of others.

God is glorified when His plan works it’s way through our lives. Like this man, God was glorified when He healed him of his blindness. The man’s life was blessed and enriched because God chose to heal him, and that was God’s plan for this mans life! Blessing and enrichment.

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