Now I Can See
He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!”— John 9:25, NIV
I was reading the story about the man who was born blind in John 9, who received his sight through a miracle. He was accused of never being blind, that he was lying, but his parents confirmed that he was born without sight. I thought about his response in the 25th verse, to the pestering and relentless questions about the validity of this miracle. So this man testified to what he knew, “I was blind but now I see.” As I thought about the story and the miracle, it came to mind how much his life had changed because Jesus entered into his life story. Also, I thought about Jesus’ salvational work on the cross.
I sat with this song for many weeks. I did not only want to highlight the miracle that took place in this story, I also wanted to draw from a theme that is prevalent in the Gospel of John, the contrast between light and darkness. Since the beginning of this gospel, John highlights that Jesus is the light. “In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it (John 1: 4-5).” John speaks of Jesus, as the one who was there in the beginning, as the giver of life, and a light that darkness cannot over take. In John 9:5, Jesus declared that “I am the light of the world.” As the light of the world, He can dispel darkness, which is everything that was keeping our souls captive to sin. So, I wrote this song to celebrate Jesus as the light of the world, who came to shine His light into darkness, so that we can find a way out of sin’s dreadful sway. He gave us a way out.
Jesus came from glory, to change our story. Our story was one of condemnation before we were saved by Jesus. Jesus did this by using the shame of the cross, which the wise would call foolish, and the strong would call weak. There He took onto himself our sins, paid the price, and then rose to seal our salvation. We were once spiritually blind, but with Jesus we now see. He chose to endure rejection, humiliation, and false accusation just so He can pay the price for our sins. Why did He do it? He knew that we would need someone to lead us out. Someone to shine a light on the exit. Jesus, is the light of the world, who drew back the darkness so we can see our way to the righteousness of God.