The Mosaic Law is not contrary to the gospel.  In fact, the Mosaic Covenant is an exfoliation of the Covenant of Grace.  However, John 9 helps us to understand the division when the Pharisees say to the now healed blind man, “You are his [Jesus] disciple, but we are disciples of Moses.  We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.” Moses is being set over against Jesus. 

Think of the story of the man born blind (John 9). It’s well known and well thought of.  It’s one of those stories that take work to read because we must disabuse ourselves of contemporary concern for those with disabilities.  For example, there were no Seeing Eye dogs, Braille books or reading machines.  This man was a beggar whose hope of social advance, marriage, or even a job was a pipe dream.  He was an unnoticed beggar.  He was alone.

For example, notice the man’s neighbors after he is healed. The man is obviously making a stir and those who have lived closest to him say, “Isn’t this the man who sat and begged?”  And some said yes but many of those same neighbors said, “No, he just looks like him.”  And all the while the man who was blind said, “I am the man.”  That’s amazing. How unnoticed he must have felt for all those years.  Not only was he blind but they had been blind to him.

So, they brought the man to the Pharisees, and things got worse. But before saying more about the blind man and the Pharisees we must understand that the text. Like all of John’s Gospel, this text reaches back to his Prologue (John 1:1-18).  For example, in those early verses John writes that the law came through Moses, but grace and truth came through Christ.  Now, the Mosaic Law is not contrary to the gospel.

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