Sermons to the Spiritual Man by G.T. Shedd

Author:G.T. Shedd
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Primedia eLaunch
Published: 2011-05-29T21:44:08+00:00

SERMON XV. THE SENSE OF SIN LEADS TO HOLINESS, AND THE CONCEIT OF HOLINESS LEADS TO SIN

JOHN 9:41—"Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth."

SOME of the most striking and significant teachings of Christ are put into the form of a verbal contradiction. Taking them literally, they not only contain no sense, but are not even self-consistent. Such, for example, is the declaration that " he that findeth his life shall lose it, and he that loseth his life shall find it" If we read this text in its connection, so as to understand the intent of our Lord's teaching, we not only comprehend it, but we perceive that he could not have adopted a more terse and effective mode of conveying his meaning. The apparent and verbal contradiction: "He that finds his life shall lose his life, and he that loses his life shall find his life," only serves to impress the lesson all the more vividly upon the mind. The same remark holds, true of such sayings as these: "Whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. Therefore speak I to them in parables; because they seeing, see not; and hearing, they hear not." In these instances the impressiveness of the truth taught is all the greater, from its being couched in terms that would nonplus a mere verbal critic. For such a critic would begin his analysis and ask: "How can anything be taken away from one who has nothing? How can a man see and not see; how can he hear and not hear; at one and the same time?"

The passage of Scripture which we have chosen for a text is another striking example of the same sort. "Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth." This startling statement had been preceded, and called out, by another equally startling and apparently self-contradictory. For Christ had said to the Pharisees: "For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see might be made blind." Here, if we interpret the language in a bald and literal manner, the Son of God represents his mission to be one of darkness and not of light. He who calls himself the light of the world, here speaks of himself as coming into it, not for the purpose of illuminating the human soul, but of darkening it. The Pharisees were perplexed by such a statement, and asked: "Are we blind also?" To whom our Lord made the reply: "If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth." That is to say: "If ye Pharisees felt yourselves to be blind ; if ye were conscious of your mental darkness; ye would open your hearts to me, the light of the world, and the sin of unbelief, which is the greatest of sins, would no longer be chargeable upon you.

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