Do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. (1 John 3:7)
IN HIS BOOK An Anthropologist on Mars, neurologist Oliver Sacks tells about Virgil, a man who had been blind from early childhood. When he was fifty years old, Virgil underwent surgery and was given the gift of sight. But as he and Dr. Sacks found out, having the physical capacity for sight is not the same as seeing. Virgil’s first experiences with sight were confusing. He was able to make out colors and movements, but arranging them into a coherent picture was more difficult. Over time he learned to identify various objects, but his habits and behaviors were still those of a blind man. Dr. Sacks asserts, “One must die as a blind person to be born again as a seeing person. It is the interim, the limbo . . . that is so terrible.”
To truly see Jesus and His truth means more than observing what He did or said; it requires a change of identity. Seeing spiritually is a further step into knowing, for by knowing we come to seeing through vivid realization and experience. Many profess to believe in God but act from disbelief. Many believe Jesus died for their sins but do not have a working, active belief in God, here and now. They have sight and yet do not see.
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Jeremy Summers is ministry director at 12Stone Church in Lawrenceville, GA and coauthor of Awakening Grace and Paradox (WPH).
