They Won't Come Into the Light

John 3:16 NASB

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life.” 

“For God did so love the world, that His Son -- the only begotten -- He gave, that every one who is believing in him may not perish, but may have life age-during” (John 3:16 Young’s Literal Translation).

So many people in America today are quoting John 3:16 separate from the rest of its context, and separate from other teachings in the New Testament on the same subject, and separate from any biblical interpretation (definition) of what “believing” in Jesus Christ looks like. And so we have many professers of faith in Jesus Christ who are claiming that they believed in Christ who are now claiming that all their sins are forgiven (past, present, and future), that heaven is now guaranteed them, and that nothing can take it away, but regardless of how they live. But that is not biblical faith.

For the word “believe” here is a present active verb tense which indicates that this is something that is present and that it is continuous and that it is not just something that happened in the past one time. For the Scriptures teach us that if we believe in Christ with genuine God-given and God-persuaded faith in Christ that we are saved (past), we are being saved (present active), and that we will be saved (future) when Jesus returns for his bride, but provided that we are dying to sin and living to God and to his righteousness, in practice, and that we are no longer walking in sin.

[Matt 24:9-14; Rom 8:24; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Jn 8:31-32; Jn 15:1-12; Rom 11:17-24; 1 Co 15:2; Col 1:21-23; 2 Tim 2:10-13; Heb 3:6,14-15; 2 Pet 1:5-11; 2 Pet 2:20-22; 1 Jn 2:24-25] 

So, what does it mean to “believe” in Jesus Christ? For the Christian it means to be persuaded by God. And where does this faith come from? Jesus is the author and the perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:1-2), and it is gifted to us by God, and it is not of our own doing (Ephesians 2:8-10), and it is not of the will nor of the flesh of humans (John 1:12-13). And we can only come to faith in Jesus Christ if God the Father first draws us to Christ (John 6:44). And what is God going to persuade us to do? To leave our lives of sin behind us and to follow him in obedience to his commands and in holy living.

[Romans 1:18-32; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Titus 2:11-14; Acts 26:18; Luke 9:23-26; John 6:35-58; Matthew 7:21-23; Ephesians 4:17-24]

And what did Jesus say in John 10:27-28? “My sheep listen to My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.” Therefore, those of us who are his true sheep, his true followers, are those who listen to what the Lord says, not just with our physical ears, but with our hearts, and we follow him, we obey him, we emulate him, and we do what he says to do, for that is what followers do. They learn from the master and they follow his lead and they become like the one whom they are following.

And we are the ones who have eternal life in him and who will never perish. And so this is yet another passage of Scripture which teaches us what it means to believe. And Jesus also said that if anyone would come after him, he must deny self, take up his cross daily (die daily to sin and to self) and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to our lives of sin we will lose them, but if we deny self, die to sin daily, and follow (obey) him, we have eternal life. And he said that not everyone who says to him, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one DOING the will of God the Father.

[Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23; cf. 1 John 1,2&3; Romans 6:1-23]

And this then brings us to what it says in John 3:19-21 NASB:

“And this is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the Light; for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light, so that his deeds will not be exposed. But the one who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds will be revealed as having been performed in God.”

So, what is this teaching us? It agrees with all that has just been written above. And sadly it describes where many professers of faith in Jesus Christ in America are today. They claim to be Christians but they are still walking in darkness (in sin, in wickedness, in immoral behavior), and so they truly have not yet come into the light, because the light is not only Jesus Christ, but it is truth and righteousness and godliness and moral purity, etc. But they are still living in sin and in immorality and in adultery and faithlessness and in lying and cheating, etc. And they don’t want to own up to the sins they are committing in the darkness, so they won’t come into the light.

Yet they are professing faith in Jesus Christ, and they are claiming all his promises as though those promises are for them. But they are the selfish and the self-indulgent, and the addicted to sin, who are morally unclean, who are egocentric, and who are not trustworthy for they lie habitually. And they are those who fake their Christianity but who are hypocrites, for they live the opposite of what they profess. But they go through the motions of religious performance while they are still walking in sin, without conscience. And they are stubbornly holding on to their sins, and they are not letting go.

And what did Jesus say about them? They love the darkness (wickedness, sin, immorality, rebellion) rather than the Light (Jesus Christ, the truth, moral purity, obedience to God) because their deeds are evil. And so they will not come into the Light/light (to genuine faith in Jesus Christ via dying to sin and living to God and to his righteousness) because that would mean owning up to their secret sins, which they don’t want to do, and having to turn away from them, which they also don’t want to have to do. They just want their “ticket” into heaven but while they continue to live in sin and for self while they still live on this earth. But they are sadly mistaken.

For it is those who make righteousness, holiness, and obedience to the Lord their practice who are those who have come into the light. And they are those who are no longer walking deliberately in habitual and addictive sin against the Lord and against other humans. So, please take this to heart, for there are far too many professers of faith in Jesus Christ who are still walking in the darkness and who are refusing to come into the light. And all the verses referenced above speak out against that. For if sin is what we practice, and not righteousness, we will not inherit eternal life with God.

Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer 

Lyrics by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897

Music by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897

Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,

This is my constant longing and prayer;

Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,

Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.

O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,

Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;

Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,

Fit me for life and Heaven above.

Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,

Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;

Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;

Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrYhiK2nQBg 

Caution: This link may contain ads