By Tin-chee Lo; July 5, 2020
Introduction
This article gives an overview of basic redemptive truths through a miracle performed by Jesus, including regeneration, sanctification, and glorification. In the latter part of this article, we deal with a thorny question asked frequently by peoples of non-Christian heritages such as Chinese, Muslims or Buddhists and the like. Their question is based on the assumption that the cultural background of their birth automatically make it more difficult for them to believe in Jesus than most Western peoples that raises the question that why doesn’t God give everyone equal and fair opportunities as far as accepting Jesus is concerned?
One of Jesus’ Miracle
Mark 8:22-26 records an interesting account with deep theological significance.
v.22 They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him.
v.23 He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?”
v.24 He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.”
v.25 Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.
v.26 Jesus sent him home, saying, “Don’t even go into the village.”
Sadly, blind people are often regarded as marginalized people in societies, and they are prejudiced as useless. But thankfully, some people who had faith in Jesus cared about this blind man at that time and brought him to Jesus, begging the Lord to heal him. As an application, the intercession of these faithful believers changed the blind man’s life forever. This shows how important it is for Christians to pray for others.
Jesus took the blind man’s hand (v. 23a). This must have been an unforgettable experience for this blind man. Most likely this might have been the first time in his life that his hand was held by a person. Because of Jesus’ hand, he was no longer afraid of falling or getting lost. If the story ends here, he could still be proud of himself, saying, “Wow! I have touched Jesus’ hand!” Jesus then led him away from the crowd, and even from his disciples (v. 23b). Here we see that Jesus respects the privacy of others. Today, we find some radical-Pentecostal leaders who like to show off their healing gifts in public. No matter how marvelous it may seem, in the end, I don’t know who gets the glory, the minister? or God? Christians absolutely believe in spiritual gifts. How can we not believe? I too believe in spiritual healing but I am not of the radical sort (Ref. 1). Spiritual gift by definition is the gift given by the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus Christ, and the Spirit of God (Romans 8:9). It follows that the power of our Lord Jesus is the power of the Holy Spirit. The aim of the Holy Spirit is to glorify Christ. Any human performance which does not bring glory to Christ is not the work of the Holy Spirit. Period.
First touch—signifies regeneration
If I am sick, I will pray to God who may heal me through the hands of the doctors, and I may take medicine as prescribed. In most cases, my healing took place through some kind of media. But Jesus’ miraculous healing are immediate and media-free. During this particular healing “process”, Jesus spit on the blind man’s eyes. Spitting is an action that causes people to feel uncomfortable, is also a culturally disrespectful act, and is insulting and contemptuous. But we know that this wasn’t the motive of Jesus. Then Jesus laid his hands on him. This was Jesus’ first gentle and considerate touch with the blind man. Jesus asked him, “What do you see?” The blind man looked up at Jesus and said, “I see people, but they are like trees.” Although the blind man was not able to see clearly, after all, it was still a dramatic change. The blind man was formerly in a state of never-ending darkness, and now he had vision, even though what he saw was still blurry. Imagine that his eyes were originally useless, at least now he could perceive the movement and shapes of objects. His sight was poor but not blind. He no longer needed a walking stick, and could walk freely without danger. This story is not a metaphor, but a historic miracle with time, space, and characters in it. However, the very fact that Jesus healed the blind man has deep spiritual significance to which we shall turn (Ref. 2).
The Bible often uses physical blindness as a metaphor for human being’s spiritual lostness. Everyone is born spiritually blind as if there are scales blocking the sight. We don’t have spiritual eyes to see the kingdom of God. People cannot use their will to clear the scales. We need the touch of the Holy Spirit. This first touch of Jesus upon the blind man represents regeneration. Regeneration cannot be achieved by ourselves, it is entirely, 100%, the act of God’s grace. This first touch, which is needed only once, radically transforms us. We, who are dead in the spirit because of our sin and transgression, come to life immediately. Immediately, our minds are awakened, our spiritual eyes can see the true light, and we have a renewed free will which inclines to choose God; God then gives us a gift of faith to accept Christ, and we will immediately move from the realm of darkness to the kingdom of light. Regeneration (Spiritual New birth) and faith occur simultaneously in time, but in terms of logical order, regeneration precedes faith. Unless a person is born again, he cannot have the saving faith needed for his salvation. Unless a person is born again, he cannot have the inclination to turn himself from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God (Acts 26:18).
The first touch of Jesus represents a touch of rebirth which enables us to have a correct understanding of ourselves. We immediately realized that we were once lost and that we are saved now any more than we were blind and we now can see. Formerly we are slaves of sin, and now we are forgiven individuals with liberty in Christ. Our lives were wrong-headed but now we know our eternal destiny. In the past, our spiritual eyes were blind, but now our spiritual eyes are bright. We have confidence in our self-understanding.
The second touch–signifies sanctification
Jesus’ work of healing did not just stop here. He also made a second touch. Having touched by Jesus for the second time, the blind man said excitedly, “My eyes now function normally; I can clearly see people of all shapes, they are tall, short, fat, thin, young and old. I can tell even the wrinkles on their faces. I no longer misunderstand trees as human beings. I can also see flowers and trees, even branches swaying in the breeze.” The most significant thing which we should note is that the blind man’s newly-made eyes could clearly see the face of his healer, Jesus, for the first time. Sighting the face of Jesus is really a good beginning of a blessed vision!
In the spiritual sense, Jesus’ first touch was a touch of salvation. Only God, and He alone, can do. Jesus’ second touch was a touch of sanctification. A person who has just been reborn, though he has his spiritual eyes opened, there are still elements of old-self like a thick layer of cataract scale which makes the vision obscure and causes him to mistake people as trees. But after being touched by Jesus for the second time, his eyes became clear and sharp, and he could focus on what he wanted to see. However, in the process of sanctification, we have a lot of “scales” to be taken of, so we need not just one second touch of Jesus, we also need the third, the fourth, the fifth, and so on, during our earthly lifetimes.
But one day in the future, believers will be welcome to the Heavenly home. At that moment, God will supernaturally remove their old-self. All the scales would completely drop by this final tender touch of Jesus. This is called “glorification” which is the ultimate goal of our earthly sanctification. With perfect purity, we enter into eternity and see our God face to face. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God (Matthew 5:8).”
Two Worldviews
Aristotle’s view of the universe is eternal, no beginning and no end, like a circle. Buddhist’s view of reincarnation (輪迴) is an endless life-death cycle; when a living being dies, it enters the afterlife in one of the six forms (六道輪迴) depending on the good or evil deeds done in its present life. Buddhism believes that if a living thing cannot achieve the purpose of liberation, they will always circulate indefinitely in six different forms. Such circular-worldview does not correspond to reality (Ref. 3) but is attractive because it avoids the issue of “beginning.” Since everything has a beginning must have a “cause.” Circular worldview does not need to answer the “first cause” and hence avoid the question of the existence of God. On the other hand, Christian’s worldview is linear. The universe had a beginning (Genesis) and an end (Revelation). Our physical life has a beginning and an end. Our spiritual life begins with new-birth and culminates at “glorification”. In between is our journey of sanctification. During this period, we may have been at times indifferent toward spiritual things, regressed in our faith, or even stumbled in our Christian walk, but overall, it is nevertheless, an upward, heaven bound journey toward the celestial city. Through Bible reading, prayer, devotion, worship, and evangelism, the new life of Christians are continuously renewed and the degree of their Christ-likeness are progressively growing (Ref. 4). This upward progress is brought about because Jesus took our hand and walked alongside us on this path of eternal life, as much as Jesus took the blind man’s hand and moved forward together.
Next to the Bible, is the book with the largest number of publications, “Pilgrim’s Progress” (Ref. 5), an allegorical literature written by John Bunyan (1628-1688). The main character in the story is a pilgrim, deliberately named “Christian.” Carrying on his back a burden that makes him difficult to move, he walked cumbersomely, one heavy step at a time, toward the Celestial City. Difficulties loom along his way, tribulations, temptations, and traps hindering his journey in every turn. Outlandish names of people and places pop up everywhere, signifying the challenges Christians may face during their earthly pilgrimage. The pilgrim’s rucksack symbolizes his sins which includes pride, laziness, greed, etc. One day, he came to a hill with a cross standing on it, as soon as he gazed up at the cross, the baggage immediately slid off his back and rolled into a grave adjacent to him. The pilgrim immediately felt brisk and vivacious. This story tells Jesus’ followers to understand two extremely important truths: (1) we are pilgrims and we are sojourners of this world which is not our home; (2) our life is upward moving and progressive. We have a heavenly call to move upward and not circling around aimlessly and endlessly. This is why we see so many missionaries who go to rusty places, non-stop, like the semi-nomadic people in the Old Testament. “This world is not my home” is the song they joyfully sing. Wherever they go, they are adventurous, and they do not drink stagnant water. Just as the father of faith, Abraham, who looked forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God (Hebrews 11:10). The contrary worldview is atheism and secularism. They are living in a closed system without transcendent intervention. They believe that there is no righteousness in life and no judgment after death. They concern only “Here and Now” without eternity in view.
Baptism
We firmly believe in the doctrine of “justification by faith alone.” But an alleged faith, without good deeds to support it, is the faith that does not justify. True “saving faith” is a faith that can sanctify people. I don’t know why this time Jesus healed the blind man with spit on his eyes. I do not believe that Jesus’ saliva is the panacea to restore his eyes any more than the water in the baptism pool can save people, but baptism points to the living water that brought us to life, and to the sign of sanctification by the Holy Spirit. Baptism is also the sign that the baptized person is to submit to the Lord, just as the blind man did not resist that Jesus spit at him. I think that the second touch of Jesus upon the blind man was pointing to the constant presence and guidance of God in our course of sanctification. Jesus holding his hand is a guarantee for the pilgrims that they will certainly reach the “city in heaven” in consistent with the doctrine of “perseverance of the saints.”
Difficult Questions
There are many blind people in Israel. Why did Jesus heal this one? The most obvious answer is: This blind man was at Bethsaida, and Jesus happened to pass Bethsaida that day, so this blind man was “luckier” than any other blind men. Such an argument puts too much emphasis on this non-being “luck” or “chance”, and disregards the sovereign will of God and the doctrine of predestination so evidently mentioned in the Bible. I often hear questions like this typical one: “Those born in Christian families were naturally easier to believe in Jesus than those who were not. Those who were born in Muslim or Buddhist families seem to be very difficult to believe in Jesus. Chinese have Confucianism and Buddhism influences, and thousands of years of cultural baggage. From human perspective, these upbringings have created tremendous resistance to faith in Jesus. Isn’t God unfair to these people-groups? Since salvation is for all kinds of peoples in the world without distinction, then why does God not give everyone equal or fair opportunities?” At the same time, God have chosen Jews instead of the most populous Chinese to be His agent for salvation. Is it not another evidence of unfairness?
My entry points for Christian’s responses to these questions are: We believe that God is omnipotent, so He is able to save. We believe that God is fully loving, so His intentions must be good. Regarding salvation, His purpose is clear: “The Lord wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth (1 Tim 2:4).” During the persecution, God’s children (Jews and Gentiles) longed for the return of Jesus Christ to abolish their sufferings. They cried out in complaint as to why the Lord was so slow to come. Referring to the timing of the second coming, the Bible is not without explanation, “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance (2 Pt 3:9).” So God’s intention to save all people-groups is evident from the pens of the New Testament writers. The concept of Great Commission is also found in the Old Testament. God established covenant with Abraham by saying, “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and ALL peoples (not just Israel) on earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 12:3). The psalmist prayed that God’s ways may be known on earth, His salvation among ALL nations (Psalm 67:2).
Israel was chosen for duty, not because they were particularly favored, but because God wanted them to advance the redemptive message to all nations (Gen 22:18). Therefore, the election of Israel is not a matter of fairness and injustice, it is a matter of mission. However, one must note that privilege and responsibility always go hand in hand: The greater the entrustment of the mission, the stricter is God’s demand for them. The greater their dereliction, the severer is the punishment for them. No wonder Israel had suffered more in history than had any other nations due to her rejection of the Savior whose message they were supposed to proclaim but fails to do so.
Vince Vitale (Ref. 6; p. 128) points out that there are two events which can be said to be the two bookends of Jesus’ life: (A) The magi from the East in the time of Jesus’ birth, and (B) the promulgation of the Great Commandment before His ascension. Everything in between was defined as Jesus’ earthly ministries.
(A) Jesus’ life begins with the affirmation of his supernatural identity. This must have been revealed by the magi. They were born Gentiles. They lived far away from the Holy Land. They had never heard the name of Jehovah in their lifetime. What they specialized in the arcane astrology that Jehovah deems abominable. The gold, frankincense, and myrrh they possessed were used to worship the evil spirits in their shrines. From a human perspective, their spiritual situation, cultural and family backgrounds, and their birthplaces were very unfavorable for them to believe in Jesus. But God, who loves all peoples, based on what these eastern wise-men knew (i.e., astrology) and what they had (i.e., materials used to perform magic), led them into Truth and the knowledge of Christ due to the grace of God (Matthew 2 :11). In the same way, God today can use what you know and what you have, to glorify Him as much as the magi were used by God. Even these things may not be pleasing to God, but God can transform them into a way to lead you to know Jesus. We must never make excuses by saying, “Yeah! I have a Confucius mindset; I grew up in a family with strong Buddhist background, I am not like most Westerners whose upbringings make them easier to embrace Christianity; how can one expect me to believe in Jesus?” If the magi could believe in Jesus, we have no excuse to blame God for being unfair to us!
(B) The other bookend of Jesus’ life was this: Jesus’ life on earth consummated with a mission statement to His followers. He appeared to the disciples on the mountain and gave them what is known as the Great Commandment: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthews 28:19-20). The key word is “all nations” which encompasses all people-groups without exception.
These two bookends of Jesus’ life—“Introduction and Conclusions”—had clearly revealed God’s commitment to all people-groups. Other than those who could naturally hear God’s Word (such as Jews, Westerners, or people who were growing up in Christian families), Jesus paid attention to those who thought they were “impossible” to believe in Him. If we read the Gospels in detail, we will find that between these two bookends, Jesus paid attention to the salvation of the Gentiles, such as the Samaritan woman by the well (John 4:4-26) and the centurion and his household (Acts 10). Jesus’ life had consistently surprised his friends and enemies, because He never ignores those who we all think are too foreign, too unintelligent, too incompetent, or too immoral. We all think that Jesus doesn’t have to spend time on these marginalized people, but this is not what Jesus in mind. Although I don’t know exactly how God guarantees that everyone has a fair chance to come into contact with the truth, the two bookends of Jesus’ life and the stories between the two bookends can assure us that He is fully willing to touch everyone in the world, no matter how different their backgrounds are. We must not arbitrarily say that God is unfair.
Blaise Pascal was a talented mathematician, physicist, inventor, and philosopher. He believed that the relational God in the Bible, who has been pursuing relationships with mankind, has always been willing to seek out outright those who seek him with all his heart; but to those who deliberately escape him with all his heart, God would hide from them. Therefore, Pascal thinks, we should not be surprised if “There is enough light for those who only desire to see, and enough obscurity for those who have a contrary disposition” (Ref. 6, p.130). God will not force us to follow Him. We follow Him not because He is irresistible, but because He is lovable and we trust Him sincerely. Perhaps we should ask ourselves this question: Is there such a possibility that the things that God wants us to know about Him, have already been clearly revealed to us?
Or we may ask differently: Do we not have the opportunity to come into contact with the truth? Yet we don’t know it just because we do not love the truth but suppress it? As the Scriptures say: “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them” (Romans 1:18-19). God gave us a promise: “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13).
God’s timing is often different from ours and it does not always seem fair to us. But fairness can only be perceived retrospectively. We cannot judge God’s fairness just by looking at what happened in a certain day. We dare not to say that Jesus was unjust on that special day, in that special place, where He only healed a special blind man but not the others. Even if Jesus had not heal that blind man, there is no injustice on Jesus’s part because Jesus did not owe that blind man anything. The fact that he was chosen to be healed was entirely God’s Grace. If we look back at the years of our lives with an eternal perspective, there is no excuse for anyone for not accepting Jesus Christ as one’s savior. “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities–his eternal power and divine nature–have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse” ((Romans 1:20). We don’t know how God reveals Himself to everyone specifically, but we can say that our search for Him can never been in vain. Because anyone seeks God will eventually find out that he or she is being sought by God. Looking at His life: Jesus, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but willingly made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled himself and became obedient to death– even death on a cross (Philippians 2:6-8)! We should be convinced that He really came to serve us and save us. I deeply believe that Jesus is treating everyone justly, because he Himself was willing to accept unjust treatment falling upon Him. Our Lords understands injustice so He would never treat us unjustly.
If we say, “The matter of faith is related to when we were born, where we were growing up, and under what culture we were influenced.” This statement can only be applied to atheism, Pluralism, and other worldviews, because this statement implies that our upbringing is influenced by all kinds of impersonal factors. But we cannot apply this statement to Christianity because only the personal God described in the Bible cares about all people. Our choices are: (1) a Christian God who is determined and capable of reaching people everywhere, or (2) the secular gods or philosophies which are relationally disconnected with us. Given these two choices, if I can only pick one, I clearly would choose Christianity, because only the Christian God offers a tender touch to my life. This is the most reasonable decision I can think of.
References
1. https://hocl.org/blogs/tincheelo/?p=1508
2. “Acts—St. Andrew’s Expositional Commentary” by R.C. Sproul.
3. “https://hocl.org/blogs/tincheelo/?p=284” and “https://hocl.org/blogs/tincheelo/?p=1556”
4. “Five Things Every Christian Needs To Grow” by R.C. Sproul.
5. “The Pilgrim’s Progress” by John Bunyan (1678).
6. “Jesus Among Secular Gods” by Ravi Zacharias and Vince Vitale; pp. 128-132.
