Healing the Spiritually Disabled
John 5:1–15
In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. John 5:3
The scene of the disabled by the pool is a desperate picture if we take it seriously. Yet it is the glorious prelude to the gospel of God’s grace, for it is to such people— blind, lame, and paralyzed—that Christ came.
We read that the Lord Jesus Christ walked into that vast collection of sick people and saw there a man who had been disabled for thirty-eight years. No one recognized Christ as he moved among them, for they were blind spiritually. Besides, they had their hopes set on the superstition about the moving of the water. No one rose to meet him, for they were lame. No one reached out a hopeful hand; they were paralyzed. Yet Jesus moved among them and healed this most helpless of sinners.
“Do you want to be healed?” Jesus asked him.
The lame man answered, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.”
Jesus commanded, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk” (v. 8). At once the man was made well and did as Jesus commanded.
That is how God saves sinners today. If our salvation depended upon our recognizing him or reaching out a hand toward him, who would be saved? The answer is: no one. Yet instead of waiting for us to come—instead of waiting to “help those who help themselves”—Christ comes to us and speaks the words that give life.
He came to find you. Will you argue that you are not helpless, that you are not blind, lame, or paralyzed? If you will argue God’s verdict upon your spiritual capabilities, you will not be saved. The Bible teaches that God will not debate his verdict upon the spiritual condition of the human race. God declares that the creature is not the Creator. You are not as perfect as the Lord Jesus Christ, and that makes you a spiritual paralytic or any other name for a handicap that you may wish to apply to it. Yet—this is the glory of the gospel—it is for such that Christ died.
As soon as I am able to accept the fact that I am an ungodly man by nature and therefore completely unable to rise to meet God by any inborn effort, then I can also know that my sins have been dealt with in Christ and that he gives new life to all who trust him for their salvation.
Taken from Come to the Waters by James Boice ISBN 9798887790954 used with permission from P&R Publishing, Phillipsburg NJ 08865
Scripture quotations are from the ESV (the Holy Bible English Standard Version) copyright 2001 by Crossway a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved.