Matthew 9:29
Monday, 28 April 2025
Then He touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith let it be to you.” Matthew 9:29
“Then He touched their eyes, saying, ‘According to your faith, it became to you’” (CG).
In the previous verse, Jesus asked the two blind men if they believed that He was able to have mercy on them. Their response was in the affirmative. With that remembered, it next says, “Then He touched their eyes.”
Jesus does this elsewhere, such as in Matthew 20:34. It would be an indication to them that there is no doubt where the power came from. However, this is not the only way that Jesus restores sight to the blind. In Mark 8, Jesus spat on a blind man’s eyes, partially restored his vision, and then placed His hands on the man’s eyes and brought him to full vision.
In John 9, Jesus spat on the ground, made clay with it, and then anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. From there, He instructed the man to go to the pool of Siloam and wash his eyes. When he did, he came back seeing.
Therefore, Jesus’ various methods of restoring sight are instructive as much as they are curative. In this case, it is instructive to the men being healed that the power to heal has come from Him and that it came about when He touched them with His hands and then spoke the word. This restoration of sight would leave no doubt about who Jesus is because He would be the first person they would see.
Their testimony in this case would be infallible proof to those who knew them when they were blind. As such, upon touching their eyes, Jesus was “saying, ‘According to your faith, it be to you.’”
It is not the physical touching that healed them, nor is it their faith that healed them. They have professed faith, and that is what Jesus is acknowledging to them. In other words, “according to” isn’t “If you have this much faith, you will be healed and if you don’t, you won’t be.” Rather, “according to” is in response to the faith they have already acknowledged.
The healing is then brought about by Jesus’ spoken word. It would be like saying, “Because you have professed faith in My ability, I will now heal you. And so it is.”
Life application: The healing of these blind men is not unlike the process of our salvation. The Bible says, “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” Romans 10:9, 10
Jesus doesn’t ask, “Just how much do you believe in your heart?” Every person’s faith is on its own level. If Jesus were looking for a certain amount of faith, there would be a faith exam attached to the promise. No such thing exists. We are not asked to stand on a rooftop in an Islamic city and shout out that we have believed the gospel.
Nor are we told we must eat a habanero chili pepper to prove our faith. God reads the heart, and salvation is granted. These men professed faith in Jesus’ ability to heal them. In turn, He healed them.
Understanding this should help us to understand the fallacy of “works as a demonstration of salvation.” This is a common teaching that says, “If you don’t have works to support your profession of salvation, you are probably not saved.” This begs the obvious question, “What works? Just what exactly do I have to do to prove I am saved?”
The Bible doesn’t specify any such thing. It does provide instructions on what we should do in our salvation, but it never makes them a proof test for our salvation. The blind men were healed, and there is no string attached to the healing, such as, “If you don’t do what I say, you will lose your sight.”
In fact, there will appear to be a mark of disobedience in those men in the verses to come. But there is nothing to indicate that they somehow were re-blinded for it. In fact, the words indicate otherwise. We must keep the salvation message simple. Complicating it with requests for proof of salvation will only produce weak believers who will struggle with the surety of what Christ has done for them for the rest of their days.
Keep the gospel simple. From there, tell people to learn the Bible and apply it to their lives. In doing so, their walk with the Lord will be sound and their time in His presence will be sweet.
Lord God, may we be confident in our salvation, not because of an arrogant, haughty attitude, but because we understand what the word says. Christ died for our sins according to Scripture, He was buried, and He rose again on the third day according to Scripture. This is what You have asked us to believe in order to be saved. We do! Thank You for the salvation You have granted us. Amen.
