In this message we will consider the aspects of the experience and enjoyment of Christ in chapters nine and ten of the Gospel of John.
Chapter nine presents Christ as the light and the Healer of the blind.
The Lord Jesus is the light of the world to give sight to the blind (vv. 1, 4-5). Blindness, like sin in chapter eight, is a matter of death. A dead person surely is blind. “The god of this age has blinded the thoughts of the unbelievers.” Hence, they need “the illumination of the gospel of the glory of Christ” to shine upon them (2 Cor. 4:4) “to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light and from the authority of Satan to God” (Acts 26:18).
The man whose eyes were opened by the Lord Jesus in John 9 was born blind. This signifies that blindness is in the nature of a person when he is born. We sinners were blind by nature because we were born that way. Therefore, a person needs not only to confess that he is sinful but also admit that he is blind.
To the blind man in John 9 the Lord Jesus, as the light of the world, imparted sight in the way of life (10:10b, 28). When the Lord Jesus saw this blind man, He said, “While I am in the world, I am the light of the world” (9:5). The Lord Jesus is the light of life (8:12). Blindness comes from the shortage of the light of life. Every dead person is also a blind person. Everyone who is spiritually dead is also spiritually blind. The blindness in John 9, therefore, indicates the lack of life. If we have the divine life, we will have sight, for the light of life opens our eyes. For this reason, the Lord Jesus first pointed out that the blind man needed the light of life.
In John 9 we see that there is a connection between light and blindness. Blindness not only indicates death but also denotes darkness. According to the Gospel of John, blindness issues in darkness. If you were blind, you would be in darkness, unable to see anything. According to 1 John darkness also causes blindness: “He 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” (2:11). On the one hand, blindness causes darkness; on the other hand, darkness causes blindness. According to the Gospel of John, blindness comes first and then darkness. In John 9 blindness equals darkness. Hence, the blind man in this chapter needs Christ as the light of the world.
Christ is not only the light of the world (v. 5) to give sight to the blind; He is also the Healer of the blind (vv. 6-7).
How can the light come into us, who were born blind? According to verse 6, in order for the light to come into us, we need the anointing. The words out of the Lord’s mouth (signified by His spittle), being the anointing Spirit (6:63), mingle with humanity (signified by the clay) to bring sight to the blind. If we would understand this, we need to know the significance of the clay, the spittle, and the anointing itself.
In John 9:6, after the Lord Jesus spoke of Himself as being the light of the world, He spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle and anointed the blind man’s eyes with the clay. Clay here, as in Romans 9:21, signifies humanity. Clay signifies the natural man, the man created by God. As those created by God, we all are clay. Spittle here, as something that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord (Matt. 4:4), signifies the Lord’s words, which are Spirit and life (John 6:63). The Lord’s making clay of the spittle signifies the mingling of humanity with the Lord’s living word, which is the Spirit. The word anointed in John 9:6 proves this, because the Lord’s Spirit is the anointing Spirit (Luke 4:18; 2 Cor. 1:21-22; 1 John 2:27). Here the Lord Jesus anointed the blind eyes with the clay made of His spittle, that they might have sight. This signifies that by the anointing of the mingling of the Lord’s word (which is His Spirit) with our humanity, our eyes, which were blinded by Satan, can have sight.
We need to be deeply impressed with the significance of the mingling of the clay with the spittle. Our humanity (clay) is mingled with the element of the Lord in His word (spittle). This indicates that the Lord mingles His element with us by and with His word. This means that the clay has received something that has proceeded out the Lord’s mouth and has been mingled with it. This mingling of divinity with humanity is the most prevailing ointment, and no other ointment can surpass it. According to John 6 the anointing of the Spirit follows the mingling of the Lord in His word with the clay. From experience we know that immediately after we receive the Lord through His word, we have the anointing of the Spirit. As a result our blindness is healed, and we receive our sight.
Now we can see how the light of the world, Jesus Christ, can come into a person who was born blind. The light of the world comes into a blind man through the mingling of the life-giving Spirit with his being. In order to come into us, Christ became the life-giving Spirit. Now as the Spirit He is able to come into us and mingle with us and anoint us. This is the significance of the clay, the spittle, and the anointing in this chapter.