The Light of Life
John 8:12 ESV
“Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life’.”
Jesus is the light of the world. The light is righteousness
and truth, and it is the gospel of our salvation. It is God’s revealed word to
us. And it is the opposite of darkness, which is sin, wickedness, and lies. God’s
word imparts truth which leads us to faith in Jesus Christ and to salvation
from sin.
The light exposes the darkness for what it is. It exposes
the lies of the enemy of our souls which he uses against us, and which he uses
to lead many people away from the true light to believe in a false light which
will lead them to hell and not to heaven.
For, the false light tickles itching ears. It appeals to the
desires of the flesh, and it pacifies the flesh rather than put it to death. It
allows the flesh to thrive and to survive while it speaks against the light,
and while it convinces its adherents to reject the true light and thus to not
come into the light.
But Jesus says that whoever follows him will not walk in
darkness. Whoever obeys his word and does what he says will not conduct their
lives in sin and wickedness. Sin will not be what they practice, but
righteousness will be what they practice, for they have come into the light.
Those who do not walk in the darkness, but who walk in the
light as Jesus is in the light, and who walk according to the Spirit, and not
according to the flesh, will have the life of Jesus living within them, and
they will have eternal life with God, for they are not living to please the flesh
but to please God.
If You Abide
John 8:31-32 ESV
“So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, ‘If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free’.”
To abide means to live, to stay, to remain, and to continue.
It isn’t just about reading the Scriptures, but it is about living them. It is
about abiding by them, obeying what they teach (New Covenant teaching). And it
is about being doers of the word and not being hearers only.
It is about applying the truths of the Lord’s word to our
hearts and lives, making the word our practice, and not making wickedness our
practice. And to be doing this, we need to daily be in the word, reading it in
context, so that we know what it teaches us, so we know what and how to obey.
But in order to be those who walk in obedience to our Lord’s
commands, which are his instructions to us, we need to be surrendered to our
Lord. We must have been crucified with him in death to sin, and we must be
walking according to the Spirit and no longer according to the flesh.
For, if we don’t have the life of Christ living within us,
and if we don’t have God’s Spirit leading us to all truth, we are not going to
be able to abide in his word. We may try to do what it says in our flesh, but
we will not be able to abide because the Living Word is not abiding in us.
But if we live in Christ and in his word, and he lives in
us, and we walk in obedience to his commands, and we remain in him and in his
word, and we don’t drift away from the truth to follow after the lies, then we
will be the Lord’s disciples (his adherents, his followers).
And when we live in God and him in us, and we abide in his
word, and his word abides in us, we know the truth because we are listening to
the truth and we are applying the truth to our daily lives, by God’s Spirit,
and the truth sets us free from all slavery to sin and empowers us to live holy
lives.
What You Practice
John 8:34-36 ESV
“Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed’.”
Now, this is not saying that if Jesus died to save you from
your sins, and if you claim to have believed in him as your Savior, that it
means you are free from sin. Just because you make a profession of faith in
Jesus Christ doesn’t necessarily mean you have been delivered from sin.
For, when we believe in Jesus with God-given faith in him,
we are crucified with Christ in death to sin and we are resurrected with Christ
to newness of life in him which is to be lived to him and to his righteousness.
For he died to deliver us from our slavery to sin, so we’d be slaves of his
righteousness.
Therefore, if we have crucified the flesh with all its sinful
desires and we are now walking according to the Spirit and no longer according
to the flesh, then we are no longer slaves to sin but to righteousness, because
Jesus set us free from our bondage (addiction) to sin. So, we are free!
But if we professed faith in Jesus Christ, yet we are still
walking in darkness, making sin our practice, and righteousness is not what we
practice, then we aren’t free, but we are still enslaved to sin. For, everyone
who practices sin is still a slave to sin, so they are not free.
So, when this says, “So if the Son sets you free, you will
be free indeed,” there is a little word here we must pay close attention to,
and that word is “if.” Just because you prayed a prayer to receive Christ, or
you acknowledged or confessed Jesus as your Lord and Savior doesn’t mean you
are free.
But if the Son sets you free, you will be free. So that means
if you aren’t free, because you are still living in sin, the Son didn’t set you
free. You just thought he did. But we aren’t set free on a mere confession of
Christ as Savior, but by dying with him to sin and living to him and to his righteousness.
So, if sin is what you practice, you aren’t free. This doesn’t
mean that Christians never sin, but that sin should not be their practice.
Righteousness should be their practice (habit, way of life). Thus, if sin is
still your practice, you will die in your sins. You won’t have eternal life
with God. So, please take this to heart.
Jesus,
Rescue Me
An
Original Work / September 18, 2011
Based
off of Romans 7:7-8:39
Jesus, rescue me today.
Listen while I bow and pray.
I need Your help to obey You;
Live for You always.
Meet me in my hour of need, Lord,
As I pray to You.
Help me walk in fellowship, Lord,
Living in Your truth.
Jesus, how I long for You to
Change my heart anew.
Father, God, my heart’s desire
Is to live for You this hour
In Your Holy Spirit’s power
Living in me now.
Teach me to walk in Your love, Lord,
Guiding me each day.
Help me to show love and kindness
To the lost, I pray.
Father, teach me to love others
As You love always.
Holy Spirit come in pow’r.
Revive our hearts in this hour.
Change our hearts to be like You, Lord;
Live for You each day.
Help us to forsake our sins, Lord,
As we humbly pray.
Teach us how to live for You, Lord,
Obey You always.
Holy Spirit come in power,
Revive us today.
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