Who Sinned?

John 9:2-3

 

Who Sinned? It’s a natural question, isn’t it? But not all natural questions are right. Why am I struggling and others are having it in a silver plate is one of such questions.

When the disciples saw a man born blind, they assumed that someone must have sinned. So was it his parents or was it the man himself?

The disciples are half-right and mostly wrong in their thinking. They are half-right that someone sinned, but that “someone” was Adam, not the man or his parents. Not that they never sinned at all, but Jesus means that the man’s blindness is not a judgment on any particular sin they committed

This question leads us to a warning and to a reminder and then to a great encouragement.

The warning is, don’t presume to know what only God can know. Speculating about why someone gets cancer or why someone dies or why an earthquake hits here and not there puts us on dangerous ground. Those things are part of the “secret providence” of God.

The reminder is, because we live in a sin-cursed world, we will never be free of suffering and death until sin itself has been decisively removed by God. That day will come when Jesus returns, but until then we can expect to deal with suffering in one way or another as long as we live.

The encouragement is, you never know when or how the Lord himself may break into your life with transforming power. Sovereign grace means God can do it any time he chooses, and because it is grace we’re talking about, we don’t have to deserve it, and in fact we won’t deserve it, and that’s what grace is all about.

May the God of light, who sees  even when we don’t see help us to trust Him even when the way forward seems filled with darkness; and be grateful that God is using trials as a means of showing forth His grace.

May the Lord be glorified in us and through us today.

Mariam. (Mama Joe)

Grace is the heavenly resource behind all of God's promises.
Faith is the simple means of accessing that grace

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