John 3:19-21 ESV
“And this is the judgment: 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. But 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.”
The Light Has Come
And this is the judgment (ruling, decision, verdict, decree):
The light has come into the world. The Light is Jesus Christ. Light is also
instruction, teaching, and doctrine. Light is also truth and righteousness. And
light exposes evil for the evil that it is but it also reveals truth and
righteousness. It reveals what is wrong in contrast to what is right. It lets
us know the path we are not to follow as well as it shows us the way we are to
follow.
Jesus Christ did come into the world as a baby born to a
human mother but with God as his Father. So when Jesus lived on this earth he
was fully God and fully human. And when he was around age 30 he began his
public ministry which lasted about 3 years before he was put to death on that
cross. And Jesus brought truth and righteousness and knowledge and
understanding into the world, but most people rejected him.
And the reason that most rejected Jesus and the truth that
he brought to them is because they loved the darkness (sin, wickedness) rather
than the light (truth, righteousness) because their works (deeds, actions) were
evil. And it is the same reason why most people today reject Jesus Christ and
his gospel of salvation because they love their sin and they do not want to
give it up in order to follow Jesus in obedience.
And this includes many people who profess faith in Jesus
Christ who are buying into a cheapened form of the gospel which is a diluted half-truth
(false) gospel message which does not require them to die to sin and to self
and to submit to the Lordship of Christ and to walk in obedience to him. So
they “believe” in another Jesus and a different gospel than that of the
Scriptures because then they can continue living in habitual sin, only now
guilt free, and then they can still claim heaven as their eternal destiny, or
so they think.
Hating the Light
Now, notice that this does not say that everyone who does
not believe in Jesus hates the Light (Jesus Christ and his righteousness), but
it says that everyone doing (practicing) evil (sin, wickedness) hates the Light
and does not come to the Light. So this includes many people professing faith
in Jesus Christ who are still walking in (practicing) sin. If sin is what you
practice, and you deliberately and habitually commit the same sins over again,
in deliberate defiance of God’s commands, then you hate Jesus Christ.
For to love God/Jesus is to obey him and his commands, and
if we deliberately and habitually do not obey him we do not love him and we do
not know him and we do not have eternal life with him. For we can’t hate Jesus
and love Jesus at the same time. We can’t embrace evil and embrace
righteousness at the same time. If we love one we hate the other. We have to choose.
We can’t continue in sin and have the hope of heaven, too.
And so if you do not come to the Light because you hate the Light
because the Light exposes the evil that you are doing in secret (usually), that
means that your profession of faith in Jesus Christ, if you are making one, is
null and void. It does not exist. For it means that you never truly came to the
Light but you just made a show of doing so while you withheld yourself from
actually dying with Christ to sin and being born again of his Spirit.
All of it was just for show to impress others or to find
acceptance and approval of others or perhaps for more nefarious purposes such
as those who masquerade themselves as servants of righteousness but who are
truly of Satan and who are wolves in sheep’s clothing. So you pretend to be a
follower of Jesus in order to trick and to trap the sheep in your snare so that
you can lead them away from the Light to remain in the darkness.
Those Who Come to the Light
Now, we can do nothing in and of ourselves, in our own
flesh, to be approved of God or to be accepted by him. There is nothing we can
do in our own flesh to earn or to deserve our own salvation. So, when this says
that whoever does (is practicing) what is true comes to the Light, it is not
suggesting that we are able to do right in God’s eyes without having first come
to the Light. But it is true that those who are living in God’s righteousness
by his grace and in his power are those who come to the Light. We love Jesus
and his word and so daily we come to him.
Also, we don’t come to the Light in order to make a show of
righteousness or to look good in front of others. This is not about looking good
in front of others. We come to the Light (Jesus Christ and his righteousness)
because we love Jesus and we love his truth and righteousness, and because we
want to obey him and to live for him and to do what pleases him because we are
so eternally grateful for all that he has done for us.
And the result should be that it should be clearly seen that
the works that we do, which are of God and which are done in his Spirit and in
his power and strength, under his direction, have been carried out in God and
not in our flesh. But not everyone is going to see that because not everyone,
not even everyone professing to be Christians knows what that looks like
because they are so used to seeing people operating in the flesh.
But again, we don’t do what we do for God to be seen of men
or to be approved by men, but we do what we do in obedience to our Lord out of
love for our Lord and out of a desire to do what pleases him. And we also do
what we do because we love other humans and we can see what sin does to their
lives and so we want to get to them the message that Jesus Christ made a way
for them to come out from their addiction to sin where they can now walk in
freedom from addiction and in holiness and righteousness.
So, whether or not other humans acknowledge that the works
that we do in the Spirit of God are actually of God and not of our flesh, it
should not impact one way or another what we do. We should continue in Christ
in following him in his ways and in doing what he says to do and in loving
others with his love and in sharing the truth of the gospel and in exposing the
lies of the enemy because it is the right thing to do, and because we care what
happens to people and we care about where they spend eternity.
An
Original Work / September 26, 2011
When
in the stillness of this moment,
Speak
to me, Lord, I humbly pray.
Be
my desire, set me on fire,
Teach
me to love always.
Help
me to walk in fellowship with You,
Listening
to You; sit at Your feet.
Whisper
Your words to me,
Oh,
how gently, guiding me in Your truth.
While
we are waiting for Your blessing,
Lord,
in our hearts be King today.
Help
us to live for you ev’ry moment,
List’ning
to what You say.
May
we not stray from your word within us,
Help
us obey You, Lord, in all things,
Walking
each moment, Lord, in Your presence,
Our
offerings to You bring.
Help
us to love You, Lord, our master;
Be
an example of Your love,
Helping
the hurting, lift up the fallen,
Showing
them Your great love.
Teach
them to love You, follow You always,
Bearing
their cross and turning from sin;
Walking
in daily fellowship with You,
Making
You Lord and King.
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