“Amazing Grace” is my favorite song of all time. I’m not ashamed to admit that I cry almost every time I hear it. I grew up listening to the song, but it didn’t have much meaning until the summer of 2003 when I was at Officer Training School (Basic Training for Officers-I know, not as difficult as the enlisted training, but still, not fun). There are four days in the middle of training where you are out in the field doing survival type training. My last day in the field was a Sunday, and one of the Chaplains came out to do a service for all of us cadets. We sang “Amazing Grace” a cappella and it moved something deep within my heart. It was the closest I had felt to God in a long time. There is one line in the song that goes like this: “I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see.” The last part of that lyric comes from John 9 where Jesus healed the blind man. When questioned, the man was told to give glory to God and to admit that Jesus had sinned, the man replied, “Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” Of course, Jesus was not a sinner; He was the only one who ever lived a perfect life. On the other hand, we humans are all sinners, and in one way or another, we are all blind. The Bible outlines four causes for spiritual blindness, four results of this blindness, and four solutions to it.
The four causes of spiritual blindness are: lack of understanding of spiritual truth (Ephesians 4:18), being separate from God’s life (Ephesians 4:18), the influence of satan (2 Corinthians 4:4), and sinful actions and habits (the entire Bible).
The four results of this spiritual blindness. One will: develop a seared conscience (insensitive to wrong-also in Ephesians 4:18-19), give themselves to sinful desires such as lasciviousness, uncleanness, and greed (Ephesians 4:19, Proverbs 4:19), focus on the wrong thing (Matthew 23:24), and deny their own blindness (John 9:39, Matthew 23:25-26).
The four solutions to this problem are actually more of a four-step process. We need to: pray that God will open our eyes (Psalm 119:18), study the Word of God-the Bible (Isaiah 6:8-10, Acts 26:18), focus on Christ as the light (John 1:5), and then walk in the Light (Ephesians 5:8, Colossians 1:13).
The only cure for spiritual blindness comes through faith in Jesus Christ who said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Jesus is not one of many ways to truth and life, but the only way. My prayer is that everyone comes to a greater understanding of this absolute truth, only then will our eyes be opened, truly opened, to the love of Christ and life everlasting. His grace truly is amazing. Amen.
*This was first published in the Chappell Register on April 24, 2014. Revised and updated for this blog.
*Some material comes from John Regier’s Motivating with Scripture. Used with permission.
Scott Maxon 