The Only Solution to Spiritual Blindness

00:00:03.500 | Hello Pastor John, my name is Jacob, a college senior.

00:00:07.500 | I'm reading your book, "A Peculiar Glory," and looking forward to your new book, "Reading the Bible Supernaturally."

00:00:13.000 | My question comes from chapter 12 of "A Peculiar Glory."

00:00:18.000 | "If it is indeed God who shines the light into darkness, how is it that we as humans are responsible then for knowing God?

00:00:27.000 | I may have misinterpreted something along the way, but this seems like a legitimate question in light of Romans 1, verses 18-23.

00:00:36.000 | Pastor John, what would you say to Jacob?

00:00:38.000 | Jacob is absolutely right that I argue in "A Peculiar Glory" that all human beings are spiritually blind to the superior value of the glory of God.

00:00:54.000 | Which means that left to ourselves, we will see the gospel, see Christ, see scripture, but not see it or see him for what it truly is, namely the most beautiful, valuable reality in the world.

00:01:14.000 | So we can see, but there's something wrong with our spiritual capacities to discern the beauty and value of what we see, so that we always wind up preferring other things over God.

00:01:31.000 | "Seeing we do not see," Jesus said. That's the essence of sin, and it's the plight of every human being, not just a few.

00:01:42.000 | "The only hope," therefore, he noticed, I argued, for salvation, for recognizing who Christ is and what his word is,

00:01:51.000 | "The only hope for this salvation, therefore, is that God would miraculously shine in our hearts with the light of the glory of God."

00:02:03.000 | And the text that he's talking about, mainly, I think, at least it's the text I go to, is 2 Corinthians 4, verses 4 through 6, where our blindness and God's supernatural intervention is so beautifully expressed.

00:02:22.000 | Let me read that. "The God of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God."

00:02:35.000 | So, hence, our inability to see the truth and beauty and worth of Christ in the gospel. We're blind.

00:02:42.000 | And verse 6 is the solution. "God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ."

00:02:55.000 | So, there's the problem. We're blind. There's a solution. Supernatural, God-given sight of glory.

00:03:02.000 | So, that's what Jacob is referring to. We're blind and unable to see the beauty and worth of Christ in the gospel, and a miracle is required to save us, which verse 6 says, "Only God can give by shining into our hearts."

00:03:17.000 | And Jacob asked, "Well, then, how is it that we are responsible and liable to God's judgment if we're blind and can only be saved from our blindness by God?"

00:03:31.000 | And the key to the answer of why spiritually dead, spiritually blind people who can only be rescued by a divine miracle, the key is to see that this blindness and deadness is willful.

00:03:51.000 | It is rooted in what we prefer. It is owing to our desires for darkness, desires that are stronger than our desires for light.

00:04:06.000 | And we're responsible for our moral preferences, our desires for darkness, and our desires for light.

00:04:14.000 | Even though the devil does have a hand in keeping us blind, like I read back in 2 Corinthians 4.4, our blindness originates from within us, and it is owing to what we want.

00:04:30.000 | It's not forced on us against what we want. So, here's the key text to help me get a handle on this.

00:04:38.000 | It's what Jesus said in John 3, 19-21. It goes like this, "This is the judgment that light has come into the world, and people loved darkness."

00:04:53.000 | Now, notice, "loved darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.

00:04:59.000 | Everyone who does wicked things hates the light." So, he got love of darkness, hate of light.

00:05:06.000 | "And does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.

00:05:10.000 | But whoever does come, but whoever does what is true, comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been wrought by God."

00:05:23.000 | Now, this is a description of the blindness and deadness of all human beings in the world who refuse to come to the light.

00:05:34.000 | The light that God reveals of himself in nature, they refuse to go there.

00:05:39.000 | The light that he reveals in Christ in the gospel, the light that he reveals of himself in Scripture.

00:05:46.000 | And the reason people don't come is not that they lack light, but that they love darkness.

00:05:56.000 | They are not kept from light against their will.

00:06:02.000 | It's precisely their strong-willed preferences for the darkness that keeps them away from the light.

00:06:10.000 | And therefore, our blindness and our deadness is a real blameworthy desire and love and preference for darkness over light.

00:06:23.000 | And we are really responsible for these desires, these loves, these preferences that we have.

00:06:30.000 | They are the very essence of what is evil about us.

00:06:35.000 | And so, oh, how thankful we should be that God does not simply leave all of us in our rebellion, but instead breaks in with light,

00:06:48.000 | so we can see and savor and embrace the glory of Christ as our supreme treasure.

00:06:56.000 | Amen. Amen. This is grace, unmerited vision to see the unmerited glory in Jesus Christ.

00:07:04.000 | Thank you, Pastor John.

00:07:05.000 | Well, the book that we are talking about is John Piper's release from last year, a book titled "A Peculiar Glory."

00:07:11.000 | It's a book about the self-authenticating nature of Scripture. So good. Don't miss it.

00:07:16.000 | You can download the whole thing at DesiringGod.org/books, and you can get to reading it right away.

00:07:23.000 | So how do we read and perceive the flow of arguments throughout an entire chapter of the Bible or one long psalm?

00:07:31.000 | How do we work our way through the biblical logic of certain chunks of Scripture?

00:07:36.000 | That is the question on the table Friday.

00:07:39.000 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke. Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast. We will see you then.

00:07:44.000 | [END]

00:07:47.000 | [END]

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The Only Solution to Spiritual Blindness

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