Spiritual eyesight is the main proof of saving grace, Newton wrote. My paraphrased abridgement keeps corresponding paragraphs.
“The Lost Are Blind, the Saved Can See”
1. I have been pondering what would be a sign that God’s saving grace is at work in someone’s soul. I hope my answer satisfies you.
2. Unbelievers are profoundly ignorant of spiritual truths because they are spiritually blind, as Nicodemus was when Jesus spoke to him about the new birth (John 3). I think the Holy Spirit’s gift of spiritual sight is the main criterion for judging whether one is born again. Scripture compares gospel truth to light which we cannot perceive unless God by His grace grants it. The physically blind vary greatly in their abilities. In some things they are even more capable than sighted persons, but none of them can distinguish colors. They may learn to speak about the experience of seeing from listening to others, but their knowledge is only hearsay. The philosopher John Locke told of a blind man who thought he knew what the color scarlet was, and then declared that it was similar to the sound of a trumpet. That illustrates Nicodemus’ ignorance of spiritual things. Unless and until God opens a person’s eyes, all study is useless.
3. This analogy helps explain why spiritually-blind sinners think as they do of real Christians. The physically-blind are not offended by being told they cannot see because there are so many sighted persons who testify of what sight is, and hearing that, the blind acknowledge their lack. In a society of many real Christians, unbelievers know they are different, though they are not completely sure why. Imagine a very different situation, where everyone in a nation was physically blind with but one or two exceptions. If the sighted went about trying to explain what seeing was and convince others that they could see, they would likely be ridiculed for it, just like the few real Christians are by the vast majority who are unbelievers. And if one physically-blind man were healed, he would likely admit publicly how wrong and stubborn he had been, and then suffer the persecutions of the minority, except worse for his defection.
4. This illustration suggests several important truths.
5. First, regeneration happens by God’s almighty power. The blind cannot be taught or argued into seeing—all the more with spiritual blindness (2 Cor 4.6). One may imitate Christians to some degree without being saved but he really has no idea what he is talking about, what “scarlet” really means. We see God’s sovereignty in this, for He grants only to some the outward gospel light, and only some of those upon whom it shines experience also the inward spiritual illumination. Many people have light but no eyes; they are never saved who hear the very same gospel as real Christians. It is good for the spiritually blind to desire sight and to keep hearing the gospel with hope that God will eventually bless them. If they truly desire it, He shall.
6. Second, we can observe the proper use and value of gospel preaching as the great instrument by which the Holy Spirit opens the eyes of the blind. This depends completely on God’s blessing. Of course preachers must aim to be spiritually useful in what they say and how they say it, but it is all for nothing without the Spirit’s work in the hearts of those who hear them. In a way, this puts all faithful ministers on the same footing. The best of them still need God’s sovereign blessing, and He may bless the least gifted of them as well as any. Some preachers are better at getting attention and stirring passions, but none can reach the heart.
7. Also, we observe that one can go a long way without becoming a true Christian. He can feel deeply guilty, be afraid of hell, seem to have a desire for salvation, hear the Word with joy, behave somewhat like a Christian should, and yet eventually fall away, since the root of the matter is not in him. Any such apostate did not really ever have spiritual sight. On the other hand, a true Christian’s spiritual sight may be dim and fuzzy at first, yet it grows like the dawn. This is God’s work, so it shall certainly progress toward perfection.
8. Lastly, a believer’s spiritual sight is permanent, even if the Lord varies His gracious light. A Christian may suffer some spiritual darkness, but he never loses the ability to see. The spiritually blind cannot see no matter how much light there is around them. A believer, having once beheld the Lord of glory by faith, is secure in that blessed vision! I pray you may have His light in your soul. Signed, JN.
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John Newton evidently writes as one whose eyes the Lord had opened, and whose long experience of walking with God included many highs and lows. But he goes beyond experience and appeals to the biblical theology of salvation. True believers understand these things like no one else because we know the contrast of our blindness before conversion and our illumination within after conversion. The man born blind who was healed by Jesus, said, “One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see” (Jn 9.25). May God grant each of us to be able to say the same thing spiritually. Ω