A few weeks later I was sitting in a chair, pupils dilated, waiting for an optometrist. After I submitted to a battery of eye tests and answered the “Which is better, A or B?” questions, the optometrist informed me that my eyesight had diminished, especially in my right eye, which explained my many Waze faux pas. I now am seeing clearly through new glasses.
The Scriptures have much to say about seeing and how Christ Jesus enables it. Sometimes the Bible refers to physical sight. A man was born blind, John’s gospel reports, causing the disciples to ask Jesus, “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus said that he was born blind, not because of his or his parents’ sins, “but that the works of God might be seen in him.” Jesus gave him physical sight.
The Apostle Paul was struck blind at his encounter with the risen Christ on the Damascus Road. The gospel writer, Luke, reports, “Although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing.” His sight was restored after Christ’s appointed messenger Ananias communicated to Paul that Christ had called him to be His apostle to the Gentiles.
The most troubling vision impairment is spiritual blindness to the truth of the gospel. Even when the gospel is proclaimed clearly, says the Apostle Paul, “the god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”
What hope does anyone have of coming to “see” the truth of the gospel? Just as Christ Jesus was able to give physical sight, it is through Christ Jesus that a person can gain the necessary spiritual sight. In His grace and by his Spirit, God regenerates the spiritually dead sinner, thus opening their “eyes” to perceive the gospel truth about Christ Jesus, and gives to them the gift of faith to believe it. It was that eye-opening experience to which hymnwriter John Newton was referring when he wrote, “I once was lost, but now am found, was blind but now I see.” My eyes were opened on April 2, 1984.
There yet awaits a complete improvement of sight for the believer. The Bible promises that on the day Christ returns, we will see him as he is because we shall be like him.
