[Continued from Pt. 2]

Respecting the use of logical analysis by Christ’s non-expert disciples, firstly let us consider the man born blind whom Christ heals in John 9. After being healed by Christ, the man – who was likely illiterate – logically scrutinized the Pharisees’ accusation that Christ was a sinner and demonstrated the irrationality and immorality of the Pharisees.

The passage in question is John 9:24-34, which states –

So for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.” He answered, “Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?” And they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.” The man answered, “Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” They answered him, “You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?” And they cast him out.

Many people have mistakenly treated the blind man’s assertion – “One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see” – as an example of how a Christian can simply fall back on his experience of being converted by the Lord if he, the believer, cannot answer a question raised about Christ, the Gospel, and the Christian faith. However, that is not supported by the text itself. To get a clear picture of what is happening we need to look at the passage in some detail.

Firstly, note that the blind man is responding to a claim made by the Pharisees about the Lord Jesus Christ. They exclaim –

“We know that this man is a sinner.”

The blind man responds by stating what he knows to be true about Christ –

“Whether he is a sinner I do not know.”

What is communicated by the blind man is that he did not personally know Christ apart from the healing he performed. This is evident when we look at the next portion of the narrative, John 9:35-38 –

Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and is he who is speaking to you.” He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.

The blind man did not know Jesus personally up until this point, but he did know that Christ was not a sinner. We see this during his exchange the Pharisees in John 9:26-28, wherein the blind man and Pharisees imply that the blind man is a disciple of Christ. Upon asking the Pharisees if they were curious about Jesus’ healing miracle because they also wanted to become Christ’s disciples, they declare –

“You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.”

Although the blind man does not point this out to them explicitly, let us note that the Pharisees here are contradicting themselves. They begin their interrogation with the claim that they know Christ is a sinner; however, here they claim that they do not know where he is from. This idiom expresses their ignorance of Christ’s person and works.1 If they were ignorant of Christ’s person and works, then they could not make a claim about him and his works either way. However, if they could speak negatively about the person and works of Christ, then this demonstrates that they were not ignorant of his person and works. They could not both know that Christ is a sinner and not know where he comes from, and this is precisely the point the blind man goes on to make.

The blind man takes the assertions of the Pharisees about their simultaneous ignorance and knowledge of the person and works of Christ, drawing out the logical consequence of their self-contradiction. He begins by stating –

“You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes.”

The blind man refers back to his knowledge: He was once blind, but now he sees. He then makes reference to the knowledge he and the Pharisees share. He states –

“We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him.”

What he and his opponents know is that God does not hear sinners, but only hears those who do his will and worship him. Therefore, the blind man concludes his speech saying –

“If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”

The blind man did not know Jesus personally, but he knew the following –

If Jesus were not from God, then he could not heal the blind man.
However, Jesus did heal the blind man.
Therefore, Jesus was from God.

A similar hypothetical deduction from assumed premises occurs in the writing of the apostle Paul in his great chapter on the resurrection of the dead, to which we will turn in our last part of this series.

[Continued in Pt. 4]

1 Matthew Poole explains –

Indeed they did know whence he was as to his human nature, for they often made that the cause of their stumbling at him; that he was of Galilee, that his father was a carpenter, and his mother called Mary: but they knew of no Divine mission or authority that he had: this they might have known also, for he did those things which no man ever did, nor could be effected by any thing less than a Divine power; but their eyes were blinded, and their hearts were judicially hardened; they studied to shut out the light by which they should have seen, and would not know whence he was.

Likewise, John Gill comments –

They imagined they knew the country from whence he came, which they supposed to be Galilee, and the place where he was born, which they concluded was Nazareth; though in both they were in the wrong; and they knew his parents, Joseph and Mary, and his brethren and sisters; but as to his divine filiation, they knew nothing of it; nor would they own his mission, commission, and credentials to be from heaven; and pretended they had no reason to conclude they were.

Calvin, similarly, explains that –

When they say so [viz. that they do not know where Christ “comes from”], they refer not to his country or the place of his birth, but to the prophetical office. For they allege that they have no knowledge of his calling, so as to receive him as having proceeded from God.

[Continued from Pt. 1]

It was the experts during the Lord Jesus’ earthly ministry who were wrong about the most important subjects in Scripture. Jesus frequently demonstrated this by logically scrutinizing their claims. For instance, in Matthew 12 Jesus, addressing the Pharisees’ claim that he cast out demons by the power of the devil, made the following argument –

“Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand. And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.”1

Firstly, note that Christ logically scrutinized the claim that “it is only by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, that [he] casts out demons.”2 He drew out what is implicit to their assertion, namely that that there is a kingdom of demons of which the devil is the prince.

Secondly, note that Christ argued from the general to the particular as regards the nature of the kingdom of demons. Specifically, the Lord Jesus stated that every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste (i.e. is utterly defeated/reduced to ruins by its opponents 3). The word “every” is universal, which means that what Christ asserted applies to all kingdoms, including the kingdom of demons. Thus, if the kingdom of demons is divided against itself, it will be laid waste/utterly defeated/reduced to ruins by its opponents comprising the kingdom of heaven/the kingdom of God.

Thirdly, note what Jesus asked his opponents –

“...if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand?”

The kingdom of demons does not want to be laid waste. Why then would it oppose itself and seal its own doom? If there is a war between the two kingdoms, and kingdoms that want to obtain victory over their opposition operate as a united front, then this applies to the kingdom of demons as well. Consequently, if the kingdom of demons desires to obtain victory over the kingdom of God it will not be divided against itself.

Fourthly, Christ emphasized his point by asking –

“…if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out?”

If the Pharisees believed that their sons cast out demons by the power of God, this implies that they agreed with Christ regarding whether or not a kingdom seeking to obtain victory over its opposition would be internally divided. Thus, Jesus went on to state –

“Therefore they will be your judges.”

Christ, essentially, argued that if the Pharisees believed their sons cast out demons by the power of God, then they agreed that the kingdom of demons is a unified front against the kingdom of God. But if the kingdom of demons is a unified front against the kingdom of God, then it cannot be the case that Jesus cast out demons by the power of the devil. If the Pharisees claimed their sons cast out demons by the power of God, then they tacitly admitted their blasphemous claim about Christ was ipso facto false. Jesus refuted their claim, reducing it to absurdity, but also demonstrated the utter hypocrisy of the Pharisees.

Lastly, Christ drew out the logical consequence of what the Pharisees tacitly admitted to when they claimed their sons cast out demons by the power of God. He stated –

“…if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.”

The assertion here follows the Lord Jesus’ emphasis on the implied unity of a kingdom as it attacks an opposing kingdom. If the nature of kingdoms in general is to seek victory over their opposition by presenting a unified front against them, then it follows that the kingdom of God does the same. Whoever opposes the kingdom of demons, therefore, is on the side of the kingdom of God. Moreover, note the significance of Christ’s assertion –

“…if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons…”

If it is not an evil spirit, namely the devil himself, who is empowering Christ to cast out demons, then it can only be the Holy Spirit who empowers him to do so.

The response given by Christ not only addresses the blasphemous foolishness of his enemies, it also implicitly teaches that the Holy Spirit is a divine person. Whereas the Pharisees said that Christ’s actions demonstrated he had an unclean spirit,4 he stated that his actions demonstrated that through him the kingdom of God had come upon his enemies. Christ is not possessed by an unclean/unholy, intelligent, volitional, and morally deviant agent who can indwell humans and cause them5 to sin – viz. an unclean spirit; rather, he is filled with, and guided by, the clean/holy, intelligent, volitional, and morally pure agent who can indwell humans and cause them to live righteously – viz. the Holy Spirit.

Christ could have given an elaborate Scriptural argument demonstrating why the claim of his opponents was false. Instead, he took their claim and drew out its logical consequences. And his disciples followed suit.

[Continued in Pt. 3]

1 Matt 12:25-28. (emphasis added)

2 Matt 12:24. (emphasis added)

3 This idiom is used repeatedly in Scripture this way. See Num 21:30, Jud 6:5, 2nd Kings 1:17, Ps 79:6-7, etc.

4 See Mark 3:30.

5 While we are all ultimately responsible for our sin, Christ teaches that men can be caused to sin, by which he means they can be urged and encouraged to sin by wicked men, in Matt 18:5-7.