James Nisbet Commentary - John 9:35

James Nisbet Commentary - John 9:35 - 9:35

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James Nisbet Commentary - John 9:35 - 9:35

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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

‘DO WE BELIEVE?’

‘Dost thou believe on the Son of God?’

Joh_9:35

The question, ‘Do we believe?’ which excited so long and so interesting a correspondence in a London daily newspaper a few years ago, was first asked by our Lord Jesus Christ. He was the first to ask it, and He did not take it in the general way, ‘Do we believe?’ He put it in a most personal way: ‘Dost thou believe on the Son of God?’ This is a very grave and solemn question, which it would be well for every man to answer for himself. It was asked of the man that was born blind, whose eyes our Lord had opened miraculously. The answer of the man was in the form of another question: ‘Who is He, Lord, that I may believe?’

I. It is a vital question.—It is a vital question because ‘What think ye of Christ?’ is the question which God asks, and it comes sooner or later to us all. When our Lord came into this world, the Jews came to Him and said, ‘What must we do to work the works of God?’ and He said: ‘This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him Whom He hath sent.’ This, then, is the first step; this is the first requirement. I can never be a Christian until, coming to God, I believe. There are only two classes in the whole world; this is the line of demarcation: the first, those who believe, and the second, those who do not yet believe. Just so many of us here as believe on the Son of God are the friends of God, and so many of us as do not believe on the Son of God are still the enemies of God. I must, therefore, believe for myself. Christ intended to save me—it is not enough to know that He is a Saviour, He must be my Saviour, as He became to this man.

II. It is a personal question.—‘Dost thou believe on the Son of God?’ Religion is altogether a personal thing. If he believes he believes in his soul, and the soul is the man. Therefore it is his own affair. Religion is his own personal question with God, and this, as when our Lord asked it, is the great personal question with the soul and the conscience: ‘Dost thou believe on the Son of God?’ Now suppose that Christ were personally present here, as he was long ago upon earth, and as we know He is spiritually, and suppose He were to ask you and me this question which He asked the man who had been born blind: ‘Dost thou believe on the Son of God?’ Should we have made the same answer? ‘Who is He, Lord, that I may believe?’ Who is He? Go back if you can into the very depths of eternity, and out of them there would come this answer: ‘When He made the heavens I was there; when He set the foundations of the earth I was with Him; I was truly His delight.’ This is the all eternal and all Divine Son of God.

Take this question home with you, ‘Dost thou believe on the Son of God?’ If you have not yet believed, to your eternal peace and joy, on your knees ask yourself this question to-night: ‘Do I believe on the Son of God?’

—

Canon James Fleming.

Illustration

‘Do we believe? If not we must write on our souls what George Whitfield wrote once, long ago, upon the window-pane with a diamond ring. He had been staying in the house of a rich man over night, but he recognised that there was no Saviour acknowledged in that house of wealth and luxury. In the morning—he was a very early riser—before he left his room he wrote in large characters upon the centre pane of glass in the bedroom these four words, one above the other: “One thing thou lackest!” And when the guest was gone the wife came along the corridor, and the door of this bedroom was open. She went in at the open door and looked around at the splendid furniture—everything in keeping, everything in good taste. She looked at the window. She read on the window, “One thing thou lackest!” She was transfixed; she read it again and again. She was glued to the ground, and at last she sent for her husband. He went up to the window and read it. Then she called her two daughters—beautiful girls, twins—and it was read by both. They all read it—the father, the mother, and the twin sisters—“One thing thou lackest!” And God through that window-pane brought them all to Christ. That window-pane was the book through which their hearts were all touched and changed, and they were brought to believe in Jesus Christ as the Eternal Son of God.’