John 9:40-41

In this case, those who do not see, we will just say they are the common people. And those who see may be made blind. In this instruction, it is the Pharisees because they are saying that they see. They are saying that they get it. They are saying that they understand. And perhaps they are using the word "see" because in the beginning of the chapter, He had just healed a blind man. So the word kind of fits. He is using the word "see" here in the sense of understanding, knowing, comprehending. They get it.

You see, even God does not hold a person responsible if he is ignorant of something. That does not mean there might not be some damage to the person, if they are ignorant; but the responsibility is not the same.

A person can be ignorant, like a little child, he is ignorant that if he sticks his hand in an electrical socket of what will happen. But the little kid is not responsible if he does not know—yet he is going to get hurt if he does that. It is the same way with the spiritual law of God. If a person does not comprehend it, because the laws work automatically (you see, they are a part of God's creation), they are going to effect a penalty. But the responsibility is not going to be held against them by God. They are going to be judged lightly because of their ignorance.

But what if a person goes around saying that he knows, that he understands, that he comprehends it, that he gets it, and he sets himself up as a teacher (like the Pharisees were doing here)? That is different. Now, Jesus says, "your sin remains," because of the state of their minds. And I would say that what Jesus is indicating here is this: If a person says that he knows, and then this person goes out and lives a life that is not in harmony with what God says and what this person is teaching, then there has to be a measure of deliberateness to what he is doing; there is a wilfullness. And that is the subtle implication to Jesus' response to the Pharisees. What do you think their end is going to be? I bet they are going to be beaten with many stripes because of their circumstance.

John 9:39-41

Let us go to a place that amplifies this a bit, in the book John. This is the occasion when Jesus healed the man of blindness and after He did this, the Pharisees, recognizing who the man was, accused Him. Slowly but surely, this episode worked its way around where there was a confrontation between Jesus and the Pharisees, and in the process Jesus makes a very interesting statement that applies to this theme.

He is showing these people clearly that sin is far more devastating if it is done with knowledge than with ignorance. In other words, the very fact that Jesus was there and Jesus was teaching them, verbally, and also, Jesus was showing them an example, was putting them into judgment. They then had a choice.

It is obvious from all the confrontations that took place between Jesus and these people, that there was a measure of conviction coming upon the minds of these people that were bringing them a measure of guilt, and they felt it necessary to defend themselves and what they were thinking, what their attitudes were, and what they were doing.

So knowledge was coming to them, knowledge that would prepare the way for them to be cleaned if they would repent. But as we can see here, there was instead a deliberate rejection because they eventually put Him to death. And so Jesus said, "If you were blind—that is, if you were never cleaned; if you were never shown these things—you would have no sin, but now you say, we see and therefore your sin remains."