“I once was lost, but now am found; Was blind, but now I see.”
These are perhaps the most famous words in the English hymnody. They were written by John Newton, a man who once captained slave ships—a man who was physically sighted but spiritually blind to the horrific image of God in the people he shackled. When Newton finally encountered the grace of Jesus Christ, he didn’t just change his mind; he changed his sight. He began to see the world, and himself, through the eyes of God.
Today, our scriptures from 1 Samuel, Ephesians, and John invite us to undergo that same surgery of the soul. They challenge us to stop looking at the surface and start looking with the eyes of the Spirit.
The Error of the Surface (1 Samuel 16:1-13) The prophet Samuel is grieving over King Saul’s failures, and God sends him to the house of Jesse to find a new king. Samuel arrives and sees Eliab, Jesse’s eldest son. He is tall, handsome, and looks exactly like what a king “should” look like. Samuel thinks, “Surely this is the Lord’s anointed.”
But God stops him. In 1 Samuel 16:7, we find the thesis for today: “The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
Jesse brings out seven of his sons, and God rejects them all. Finally, Samuel asks, “Are these all the sons you have?” Jesse essentially replies, “Well, there’s the youngest, but he’s just out with the sheep.” David was so overlooked that his own father didn’t even think to invite him to the meeting.
This is our first lesson in sight: Human sight is often limited to the “obvious,” but God’s sight is attuned to the “anointed.” We often go through life blind to the potential in others—and even in ourselves—because we are too focused on outward metrics of success, beauty, or status.
The Testimony of “One Thing” (John 9:1-41) This theme of misunderstood sight reaches its peak in John’s Gospel. Jesus encounters a man blind from birth. The disciples ask a “surface” question: “Who sinned, this man or his parents?” They want a legal explanation for suffering.
Jesus rejects their premise. He says this didn’t happen because of sin, but so that the “works of God might be displayed.” He heals the man, but the miracle creates a crisis for the religious leaders. They are so blinded by their rules—like the fact that Jesus healed on the Sabbath—that they cannot see the miracle standing right in front of them.
They interrogate the man, trying to trap him in a theological debate. They call Jesus a sinner. But the man, with the raw honesty of a new believer, gives the response that John Newton would later echo:
“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).
This man’s physical healing led to a spiritual revelation. By the end of the chapter, the man is the one who truly “sees” Jesus as the Son of Man, while the leaders, who have perfect physical vision, are declared to be in spiritual darkness because they claim they “see” while remaining closed to the Truth.
Living as Children of Light (Ephesians 5:8-14) So, what do we do once our eyes are opened? Paul gives us the marching orders in Ephesians: “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light.”
Notice Paul doesn’t say you were in the darkness; he says you were darkness. And now, you don’t just have light; you are light. This is an identity shift. When we see through the eyes of grace, our behavior must change. We are called to “find out what pleases the Lord” and to expose the “fruitless deeds of darkness.”
Paul quotes an early Christian hymn in verse 14: “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” This is the call of the Gospel: to wake up from the blindness of our own pride, our own grudges, and our own limited perspectives.
The History of Amazing Grace
This brings us back to John Newton. In 1748, during a violent storm at sea, Newton cried out to God for mercy. It was the beginning of his conversion, but his “sight” was not perfected instantly. It took years for him to fully realize the evil of the slave trade and to become a vocal abolitionist.
His hymn, Amazing Grace, was written for a New Year’s Day sermon in 1773. When he wrote, “Was blind, but now I see,” he was describing the slow, painful, yet beautiful process of God’s grace peeling back the layers of his own inhumanity until he could see the “immeasurably more” that God can do with a life.
Today, Jesus stands before us asking the same question he asked the man in John 9: “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
To believe is to see.
- It is to see the “David” in your neighbor when everyone else sees a “shepherd.”
- It is to see the “Works of God” in your struggles instead of just a “punishment for sin.”
- It is to see yourself not as a “wretch,” but as a child of light, found and redeemed.
If you are sitting in a “Saturday” of darkness today—blinded by grief, confusion, or the feeling that you’ve been overlooked—remember the Lord is not looking at your outward appearance. He is looking at your heart. And He is ready to shine His light upon you.