We Are All Blinded

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As sinners we are characterized by many spiritual disabilities. One of which is blindness. As descendants of Adam we inherited his rebellious nature and are, therefore, utterly depraved. Prior to conversion—through repentant faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior—our depravity renders us utterly unable to see God in His holiness, perceive His truth as it is, or see our desperate need without the intervention of the Holy Spirit.

7 CHARACTERISTICS OF SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO SIN

  1. Sin darkens the mind, hardening our heart against God. “For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures” (Rom 1:21-23).
  2. Sin is willful blindness (sinners love darkness rather than light). “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God” (John 3:19-21). “The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes” (1 Jn 2:10-11).
  3. Satan has blinded unbelievers from seeing the glory of Jesus in the gospel. “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Cor 4:3-4).
  4. Sin consists of works of darkness. “Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret” (Eph 5:11-12).
  5. Sin loves and thrives in secrecy. “You have placed our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your presence” (Psalm 90:8).
  6. Sin has deceiving, blinding power. “But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called ‘Today,’ so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin” (Heb 3:13). “The sins of some men are quite evident, going before them to judgment; for others, their sins follow after” (1 Tim 5:24).
  7. God blinds some who are confirmed in their unbelief. – “But though He had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him. This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet which he spoke: ‘LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT? AND TO WHOM HAS THE ARM OF THE LORD BEEN REVEALED?’ For this reason they could not believe, for Isaiah said again, ‘HE HAS BLINDED THEIR EYES AND HE HARDENED THEIR HEART, SO THAT THEY WOULD NOT SEE WITH THEIR EYES AND PERCEIVE WITH THEIR HEART, AND BE CONVERTED AND I HEAL THEM’” (Jn 12:37-40).

For the next couple days we will briefly look at three more elements of mankind’s spiritual disability and how Jesus Christ is the all-sufficient Healer.

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