153. Open Eyes
Acts 26:18a To open their eyes….
Jesus speaks to Saul at his conversion experience; He calls him and sends him to open the eyes of the Gentiles. This is the first result of the preached Gospel. The first thing the Gospel does is “open their eyes. ”Paul is to be a servant and a witness to what he has seen and heard; Paul saw and heard Jesus; witnessing who Jesus is and what He did.
The Gospel has great power to open eyes by revealing sin and forgiveness. First, the Gospel convicts the world of sin and the need for God. Without this opening people will not see sin and guilt along with the wrath and punishment of God. Second, the Gospel convicts the world of forgiveness of sin and the restoration of the life of God to the sinner who repents and believes.
Opening eyes implies that the person is blind: he cannot see his sin and he cannot see the love of God that gives the Son to die for sin and bring forgiveness and salvation to the individual. He cannot see Jesus, who unites the person to the eternal God and eternal life. Because he is blind the Holy Spirit uses the Gospel to open the eyes to see. The HS does it all through the Gospel. Without the Gospel the person remains blind; with the Gospel he sees sin and repents; with the Gospel he sees love and believes forgiveness.
There is no hope and no salvation without the Gospel because we cannot see. There is no possible way we can save ourselves, but upon hearing the Gospel the eyes are opened and we see and believe and are saved. Once the eyes are opened there are so many more promises and blessings that come from a loving and faithful God that we begin to see and enjoy.
We need to take this promise as our own promise regularly; otherwise we don’t even see our blindness, and the Enemy still seeks to cloud our newly found vision. One word from God opens the eyes to see the continued mercy and goodness of God. Psalm 119:18: “Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.” Pray to see clearly Love and Truth in Jesus.