Ask Pastor Mike Live

Jonas: Tell me about these two verses. They seem to oppose one another. One seems to be positive on blindness and the other negative.

Focal Point Ministries: Let’s start with the negative one. Second Corinthians 4:4 is the second one you listed and it says this, talking about people that are perishing. Let’s start in verse 3. Even if our gospel is veiled, the gospel is not understood, someone doesn't get it, they're not interested in it, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In other words, it's a sign that they're going in the wrong direction and they're going to end in destruction.

They are away from God and the one lifeboat that God has sent out to save them, Jesus Christ. If they fail to embrace that, if they choose to reject it, they are perishing. The gospel being rejected is a sign that they're perishing. In their case, the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God. That's a mouthful, but in essence, it's saying Satan is blinding people's minds, blinding the eyes of their mind.

They don't get it, they don't care for it, they don't value it, and they don't see the significance of it because Satan is involved. That is a negative thing regarding blindness. That's the motif, the metaphor, and the illustration. Here you're right, Jonas, that is a bad thing. We don't want people to perish. We don't want people to not catch the value of the only means of salvation that God has provided in Christ. So it is negative, absolutely.

Now, John chapter 9, there's a physically blind man and Jesus makes a story or a parable here about blindness, a metaphorical statement about it. He says this in verse 39 through 41, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things and said to him, “Are we also blind?” Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.”

That may seem confusing because it seems like what these Pharisees need to do is say to Jesus that they're blind. If they say that they're blind, it seems like in Second Corinthians Paul is saying blindness is a bad thing. That’s exactly right. It's like saying sin is bad. Yes, sin is bad, but it's good that you see that sin is bad and that you're a sinner. So it is that they are blind without embracing Christ, and the Pharisees were rejecting Christ.

The point of this particular statement is that I want you to see your blindness. There's a clear play on words in that statement. Christ wants them to see their blindness. If you saw your blindness and you said, “We're blind,” like the parable he tells in Luke about the man who says, “I’m a sinner. Have mercy on me, I’m a sinner,” that man went home justified. God will forgive you and give you sight to see that Christ is the means of salvation.

For judgment I came into the world that those who do not see may see. That's what He wants, people that are blind to say, “I now can see.” How do you get seeing if you're blind? If you don't see the value of Christ, you don't see your own sin, and you don't see that you need Him, He wants you to see that you do need Him. We want people to see the light of the glory of Christ who is the image of God. See the greatness of Christ, the need for Christ, and the salvific work of Christ.

How do you see it? You’ve got to know that you're blind without it. So blindness is good when you realize you're blind because that's the only way that you can see. That's why Jesus came that those who do not see may see, but you cannot start seeing what it is to be a sinner and to be saved by grace by Christ unless you recognize your sin. Let’s take the analogy out of it. Here's what it says in Second Corinthians chapter 4: sinners don't recognize they are sinners and Satan keeps them from recognizing that.

John chapter 9: Jesus came so that people that are sinners can get salvation. If the Pharisees said, “What are you saying? We’re sinners?” Jesus said, “If you would say that you're sinners, then your guilt would be removed. But you say, ‘Oh no, we’re fine, we see. We’re not sinners.’ Well, that makes your sin remain.” That's as clear as I can put it, Jonas, and I hope that helps. I think it's easy to follow if you think about this as an analogy of someone who does not see that they're a sinner. Jonas, great question.