‘The blind receive their sight.’ I was blind once. I did not understand that Christ had to die for me to take away my sin. I did not understand I could not go to heaven without this. Is there something better than having our physical sight restored? Oh yes – that is limited to this life, but it is a sign of the Messiah opening our spiritual eyes. We are all blind – to our spiritual needs. We don’t see our need of conversion. Someone has commented, Hollywood doesn’t know anything about marriage – it is blind to the beauty of deep friendship. Their own lives show it.
‘And the lame walk.’ I was lame – I could not go very far. Some may wish to could get rid of that evil temper, or those constant lies or lust. But like the lame, they could not go very far, and they always failed to do it by themselves. But Christ cures our lameness and gives us the victory.
‘The lepers are cleansed.’ Sin is unsightly to God, and even to men. The leper was shut out of society; he was also numbed by his condition. The conscience of the unbeliever is calloused over as a result of continually being overridden. We are driven out of the only society that counts – the society of the people of God – we drive ourselves out, for we wish to have no part with them..
‘The deaf hear.’ Spiritually we are uncomprehending before we are converted. I was in schools where these things were taught every day, and yet I did not grasp anything. After I came to salvation I said, Why could I not see this? Wilberforce took Pitt to hear John Newton preach, and heard such a wonderful message, but Pitt with great irritation said, it didn’t make any sense at all.
‘And the poor have the gospel preached to them.’ To the spiritually poor compassion is shown. What is life – to be happy, to get money? We need a Saviour who preaches to the spiritual poor. We are simple ones; we may be a PhD, but we understand nothing of the gospel.
Why doesn’t Christ heal all? Because he came to save souls, not to pamper us and leave us unsaved. Why are there so many religions? Because men invent their own religions. What is the difference between true religion and human-invented religion? Man-made religions flatter human beings. They are designed to flatter men or to let them do what they like. The true God does not allow us to play games like that, but calls us to his one unchanging standard. Only the Christian religion is true. Only it has God entering into the human race to take our eternal punishment. On Calvary Christ suffered our eternal punishment compressed into six hours to make a perfect and complete atonement for those who believe. Christianity gives us free salvation. Only Christianity has power to change lives; God will renew your soul. Only Christ is perfect. Holy men of other religions are all sinful man, and they said dreadfully cruel things at times. See his mission was not to make the world a better place, but to save millions one by one.