Then He touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith will it be done to you.”Then he touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith be it done to you.”Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you.Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it done unto you.
3 sermons cite this verse
Even in His last agonies Christ uttered words which plainly prove that He had put His trust in God, "Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit." There is more faith in that final commendation of His soul to His Father than some of you might imagine, for it takes great faith to be able to speak thus in the circumstance in which Christ was then placed. Not only was He suffering the terrible pangs that were inseparable from death by crucifixion, but He had to bear the still greater grief that was His portion when His Father's face was withdrawn from Him because He was in the place of sinners and, therefore, had to endure the separation from God which was their due. Job said, "Though He slays me, yet will I trust in Him"—and this was what Jesus actually did! What wondrous faith it was that trusted in God even when He said, "Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, and against the Man that is My Fellow, says the Lord of Hosts!" Yet even then Jesus turned to His Father and said, "Father into Your hands I commend My spirit. I commit Myself into the hand that wields the sword of Infallible Justice. Into the hand that has crushed Me and broken Me in pieces." Talk of faith! Did you ever hear of such sublime confidence as that having been displayed by anyone, else? When a martyr has to lay down his life for the Truth of God, his faith is sustained by the comforting Presence of God—he believes in the God who is smiling upon him even while he is in the midst of the fire. But Christ on the Cross trusted in the God who had forsaken Him! O Beloved, imitate this faith as far as it is possible in your case! What a glorious height of confidence Jesus reached! Oh, that we may have Grace to follow where He has so blessedly led the way! …
28. And when He was come into the house, the blind men came to Him: and Jesus said unto them, Believe you that I am able to do this? They said unto Him, Yes, Lord. They were most eager for the gift. They gave Him no leisure—they pressed into the house where He had sought privacy and rest—they came to Him, even to Jesus Himself! The Lord would have them express their faith and so He makes inquiry of them as to what they believe about Himself. Jesus makes no inquiry about their eyes, but only about their faith—this is always the vital point! They could not see, but they could believe and they did so. They had a specific faith as to the matter about which they prayed, for our Lord put it plainly, "Believe you that I am able to do THIS?" They had also a clear view of the Character of Him to whom they applied, for they had already styled Him, "Son of David," and now they called Him, "Lord." 29. Then touched He their eyes, saying, according to your faith be it unto yoi. Again He questions their faith and this time He throws the whole responsibility upon their confidence in Him. "According to your faith be it unto you." He touched them with His hand, but they must also touch Him with their faith! The word of power in the last sentence is one upon which He acts so continually that we may call it, as to many blessings, a rule of the Kingdom of God. We have the measuring of our own mercies—our faith obtains less or more according to its own capacity to receive! Had these men been mere pretenders to faith they would have remained blind. If we will not in very truth trust our Lord, we shall die in our sins. …
The generosity involved in our Lord's question, "What do you want Me to do for you?" supplies us with a strong incentive to boldness at the Throne of Grace. This is our last thought. Should we not seek much liberty in prayer when we are encouraged by such liberality, such a profusion of Grace? Let us not be so reluctant to ask while our Lord and Master is so ready to supply! "Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it," says our God. A traveler thinks that this passage must bear an allusion to a custom which prevails in the East and was practiced not many months ago by a Persian Shah. The monarch told one of his subjects to open his mouth, and when the man had done so, he began to put into it diamonds, pearls, emeralds, rubies and all sorts of jewels! Well, though I suppose that these are not very pleasant things to have in one's mouth, I can readily understand that a man who knew he was to have as many of them as he could hold in his mouth would open his mouth rather wide! And are not God's mercies so rich that they are like diamonds of the first water and jewels beyond all price? Surely there should be no need to press the exhortation—we do not ask enough. This is a complaint which was never brought against any poor mendicant in quest of this world's comforts, and yet it is a complaint which God brings against us! Our puny souls do not crave so much as His infinite bounty is willing to bestow! Let us so account of God as that courtier whom Alexander bid to ask what he would. He asked for so much that the king's treasurer was staggered at the demand. Not so Alexander the Great! He said, though it was much for a subject to ask, it was not much for Alexander to give! Let the riches of God's Glory, rather than the meanness of your own estate, measure the compass of your requests, when He says, "What do you want Me to do for you?" …