We learned previously that we maintain our righteous standing before God by constantly confessing our sins and repenting for our wrongdoing.  We learned through Daniel’s example of prayer in his ninth chapter that we should even identify with our people, our brothers, and confess and repent of their sins as if they were our own.  But, what effect does that have and are we really to repent for every other person’s evil on the entire planet?

Today, let’s examine the following Scripture: Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.”   (John 9:41 ESV) 

Obviously Jesus did not “repent” for the religious hypocrites in view here in John 9:41.  He, in fact, did quite the opposite.  Rather than repent for them, he told them, “your guilt remains.”   Remember, Jesus was “slain from the foundation of the world” according to Revelation 13:8.  His blood has always been and will always be the remedy for sin.  So, he did not say this to the hypocrites because he had not yet died for them.  His blood had effectively forgiven all of their sins since the beginning of time since Jesus, in essence, had already died for them.  Yet, he proclaimed that their sin remained for the present.  Why? 

We all know that we can see nothing unless at least some light exists to reflect off of that thing in our line of vision.  We also know that a fully blind man can see nothing regardless of the amount of light available.  He cannot discern the light that comes to his eyes even if it exists.  For him all is darkness.  In John chapter nine Jesus healed a man born blind, a man who never saw anything in his entire life.  He brought sight, i.e., light, to the blind man in order to show him and the rest of the Jews that He was the light of the world.  He performed a natural miracle in order to prove the spiritual reality that it is He who brings spiritual light to all men.

Yet, the religious establishment, the hypocritical Jews, continued to deny that Jesus was the Messiah even though he provided the natural and spiritual light to prove it.  Both his works (natural) and words (spiritual), which are the two witnesses, proved that he was the Messiah.  The religious elite believed that they knew the truth.  They insisted that they were the protectors of true spirituality for the people, that they could see spiritually on their own.  Thus they claimed that they saw (spiritual) and walked (natural) in truth.

Consider, who today correspond to the pharisees?  Surely this group includes Christians who claim that Jesus has saved them and yet walk in sinful ways that deny his very words.  But, the group is bigger than that.  Anyone who claims to see the truth and, therefore, thinks himself qualified to say what is true or false, right or wrong, yet does not subject himself and his words to the light of God’s Word, belongs to modern pharisaicalism.  He is the hypocrite who says he sees when he denies the light of God’s truth.  Thus Jesus says to him and to all who think like him, ” since you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.”