We have been reflecting on some passages in Scripture that speak of faith as seeing. Here are a couple more examples:

In Romans 15:21 Paul speaks about the fact that his practise is to preach in places where Christ is not known. As a result of his preaching, people who have not heard about Christ will come to see. Here the word see and the word understand are synonymous. As you read this verse, probably the most prominent text that comes to mind is Romans 10:17, “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.” I conclude that in the mind of Paul, to receive the faculty of saving faith is to receive the faculty of sight.

You know the wonderful story of John 9. Here we have a man born blind. I find this chapter a stirring analogy of faith as seeing. The Lord graciously reaches into this miserable man’s life and grants him the ability to see. Jesus grants a blind man the ability to see. This is not the whole story here however. The Lord Jesus declares in verse 3 that the reason this man was born blind was that the work of God might be displayed in his life. Now to most who saw Jesus give this man back his sight, it was amazing (v16b), and it really is amazing. But this wonderful action on the part of the Lord Jesus is only a small sample of the far greater work He is doing here; giving this blind man the ability to truly see!

God is glorified in this man’s life by giving him his sight, but God is glorified in this man’s life by God giving him sight in the sense of saving faith. In verses 13-34 the Pharisees are looking at this man born blind and are perceiving what this means in their hearts, but they can’t see what has really happened here. When Jesus tells them that they are like blind men trying to see what is going on here, they take offence and say, “What? Are we blind too?” They had begun to despise the blind man and resented the fact that Jesus compared them to him.

How wonderful that on that day, Jesus’ giving physical sight to a blind man is a perfect analogy of how God gave the gift of spiritual perception to a spiritually blind person. This is what happens every time God saves a sinner—see how it looks in John 9. See how the Lord Jesus uses the terms believe and see as synonyms in verses 35-39 as He discusses the new belief of this sinner and the belief of every person to whom God will give this ability to see. I really love this account, please don’t rush through this thought, it truly is precious.