The Light

 

I want to address a subject that is in some ways difficult for all of us. I want to speak first to you who are not religious. There are many reasons for not being religious. And I cannot address all of them. Some of you may say that what I am about to deal with is not one of your reasons for not believing in God or for avoiding spirituality. Interestingly enough, the fact that this is not an issue for you may help you see this more objectively. However, some of you will find this difficult or even painful. But this is important, and I urge you to struggle through it with me. In chapter 3, verse 19 of The Gospel of John in the Bible, says light has entered the world in which we live. 

“And this is the judgement: the light has come into the world.”

John 3:19

How is light judgment? That is because this light shines into us and reveals our inmost selves. That can be terrifying. The reality of God comes as a floodlight into our lives. We don't want God or anyone to see what we are really like. And we don't want to think about it ourselves. We fill our lives with many things, seeking anything that might satisfy, and with little success. Sometimes we are busy just to keep from coming to the light and looking into our own hearts. 

Later in the New Testament we find the letters written by the Apostle John. In 1 John, the first of these, chapter 1, verse 6, John says that God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all. The very nature of God is a floodlight. When we seriously consider God or dare to come near him, his light shines into our lives.

Look with me at the broader context of the verse I began with. John 3:19-20 reads,

“And this is the judgement: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.”

I would like us to consider some related promises that may give you the freedom to step into God’s floodlight.

1. Forgiveness

God does not reveal what is in your heart to condemn you. John 3:17 says God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world. God sent his son to die on a cross to forgive you and pay the very real consequence of greed, and pride, lust, resentment and hatred that are in us.

2. Cleansing

When I was a boy we had barn cats. And I remember a number of times that I was scratched by a cat. When that happened, I would go to great lengths to hide the scratches from my mother. Even though cats are always cleaning themselves, a cat scratch will almost always become infected. I suspect this is even worse with barnyard cats. My mother’s remedy was a very painful cleansing of the wound. 1 John 1:7 says the blood of Jesus cleanses us of all sin. And while the honesty before God necessary for this cleansing is painful, there is relief in having been cleansed.

3. Love

Even when my mother was pouring alcohol on those scratches, I knew she loved me. John 3:16 begins with the words “For God so loved.” Very few things in life are as comforting and sustaining as knowing we are loved. And God's love is unconditional. He loves us in spite of our faults. He will not force his love on us, but he offers it to us without any limit.

4. Transformation

The Bible promises heart transformation to those who come to Him through Jesus. He gives the power to change us internally. John 3:21, just after verses 19-20 which tell us why we hate the light, says those people who live by the truth come to the light so everyone can see that it is God who is working in us. If you have to clean up your own life you are in trouble. But God changes our deepest motivations. 

5. Fellowship

1 John 1:7 says, “If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with each other.” Our pretenses and deception, along with criticism of others form barriers to deeper relationships. But when we have come clean before God he brings us closer and closer to others who live in his light.

Are you willing to step into the floodlight of the presence of God? 

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LIVING IN THE LIGHT

Last week I wrote about coming to the light from John 3:21

“Whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

http://thinkinginthespirit.blogspot.com/2020/08/coming-to-light.html

I pointed out that this verse says wanting others to know that any good in you was done by God is evidence that you have been born again. That is clearly the point of this statement in the context of John 3. But this truth requires some practical application for those of you who have come to Christ. In the real world we need encouragement. Even if you have seldom thought about this, your tendency as a believer is to reach for His light like plants reach for the sun. We too are Heliotropes. But in our daily lives we need to develop the willingness to be honest about ourselves before God and the world. Let me point out four aids to such honesty.

First we need a Willingness to Repent.

You had to repent to come to Christ in the first place. But repentance needs to be a lifestyle. You continually God to search your heart. Psalm 139:23-25 prays,

“Search me, God, and know my heart; 

test me and know my anxious thoughts. 

See if there is any offensive way in me, 

and lead me in the way everlasting.”

I need to pray regularly for God to deliver me from the willingness to look better than I am, while asking God to change my heart.

We need to Desire to Please Him.

Often our willingness to give impressions of ourselves that are less than honest comes from fear of what other people will think of us. The only way to combat this in your own heart is to increase your desire to please our Lord.

We need a Willingness to Trust Him.

You can trust God to grow this desire in your life. You can trust that pleasing Him will be satisfying to you.

And we need a Desire to Praise Him.

Living in the light does not mean we go about moaning over sins. Instead, we are to focus on giving Jesus all the glory for what He is doing in our lives. You can only combat your desire to be honored by growing in your desire to praise and glorify God. You can regularly pray for His name to be glorified.

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COMING TO THE LIGHT

“Whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God..”

John 3:21

Do you like people to notice when you do what is right? Are you offended when you are not recognized for the good that you do? If so, you are showing your need for a spiritual heart transplant. It is important to see that this statement of Jesus in John 3:21 is given to us in the context of the new birth. I am not sure there is any greater evidence of having been born again than the willingness to be truly seen in our Lord's light.

You have to recognize your need. This is akin to Paul's quotation from Isaiah that our righteousness is like filthy rags. You have to admit that there is absolutely  nothing that is good in you. If God doesn't plant good in you, it will never grow there. Coming to God’s light will make it obvious that every good thing you are, or have, or do, is given to you. 

This includes what you may do for God. The Holy Spirit illustrates this truth in the life of John the Baptist. John's disciples told him everyone was going to Jesus to be baptized. John answered, “No one can receive anything that is not given him from heaven.” John knew his great ministry was given by God. He was a great preacher. He knew that was given to him. You might say, “I worked hard to develop my skill.” Where did your willingness and ability to discipline yourself come from? You might say, “What I did was ingenious.” Who gave you your intelligence? Who put you in those situations and around those people that you learned from?

 

Coming to the light of God is more than admitting your need to yourself. You need to be willing for everyone else to know. Do you seek the light of our Lord to show everyone your great lack and His wonderful sufficiency?

There is more that needs to be said about this. I will deal with it later. But what Jesus says here needs to be digested first.

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IN HIS NAME

IN HIS NAME

“But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”

John 1:12

I have always had some trouble understanding the phrase, “believing in His name.” What does it mean to believe in His name? Like many things in Scripture there are depths to this phrase that are beyond any of us. The deeper we look into one of these, as with other Scriptures, the more God will give us. We seldom use anything like this phrase in common speech. When I came to it in Scripture I would scratch my head and read on past it. God finally got my attention this week and I spent some time meditating on the words believing in His name. And God showed me some things I needed to see. I could write a great deal about what God gave me in these words, but there were two things that especially struck me..

1. First, we believe in The Identity of our Lord.

In Exodus 34:6-7, the Lord passed before Moses and proclaimed His name. 

“The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.”

His name means all of this and more. His character is spoken in His name. His glory is in His name. His grace is in His name. His power and holiness are in His name. When you begin to realize who our Lord really is, it will transform your life. 

Do you see why John 3:18 says,

“Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”

2. And believing in His name means trusting in The Paternity of our Lord.

I bear the surname of my earthly father because I am his child. To believe in the name of Jesus is to trust that you are His because you have been born again into His eternal family. 

To believe in His name is to realize that He calls you by His name, and you are His. You have become a child of God!

In the model prayer Jesus taught us to begin with the words, “Our Father in heaven.” That prayer is an expression of faith in His compassionate fatherhood of His children. It is putting our trust in His name.

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