The Necessary Light.

Do you, like me, enjoy the lighter evenings? As I type it is almost 2200 hours, yet it is still not dark outside! Indeed, if I didn't have so much to do inside, I could still be working outside! 

All human experience understands the relationship between darkness and light. Speaking to the Pharisee, Nicodemus, the Lord Jesus said: "... this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." (John 3:19).  Those who love wickedness crave the darkness to hide their deeds.

That same Jesus insisted that He is "the Light of the world" (John 8:12). Writing to the young Timothy. Paul describes Almighty God as the One   "... Who alone has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, Whom no man has ever seen or can see. " (I Timothy 6:16). This is not a mere metaphor. John, also, reminds us that "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all." (I John 1:5).

 

It is certainly clear in God's written Word, that those who have not yet been twice born must come "to the light" before they can ever receive the gift of eternal light (John 3:21). Indeed, the very process of "coming" is empowered by the drawing power of the Father Himself. Jesus said that: "No one can come to Me unless the Father Who sent Me draws him;"  (John 6:44). No one who is "dead through the trespasses and sins" (Ephesians 2:1) is able to come out of darkness on their own into the light, without the supernatural power of the "Light" Himself.

 

Once we are rescued from the darkness by the atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus and "birthed" from above by the power demonstrated in the resurrection of our Lord, we who are so redeemed become "sons of light and sons of the day;" (I Thessalonians 5:5). Thus empowered, we are to "walk in the light" (1 John 1:7) and have no "fellowship . . . with darkness" (II Corinthians 6:14). With the "armour of light" complete (Romans 13:12), we can openly let our "light so shine" that we become a "light of the world" (Matthew 5:16, 14). 

It was Paul's testimony that he had been sent, by Father God, to the Gentiles: "to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.’" (Acts 26:18). May we be found doing likewise!

Spirit, Soul, Body

In the previous post, we looked, briefly, at the Holy Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - one God. In this post, I want to point out the trinitarian nature of humanity. 

This threefold nature of mankind reflects, to a degree, the triune nature of the Godhead. Just as each member of the triune God is complete and wholly God, yet distinct, so each aspect of mankind is also the whole, yet distinct. The body of man comprises the entire man, yet he also possesses certain soulish emotions, desires, and propensities; and finally, the total man is endowed with a spiritual, eternal nature, somehow reflecting the image of God.

 

These three reflect the three great creative acts of God during creation week, identified by the three usages of the Hebrew word bara, or create. "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth" (Genesis 1:1); i.e., physical material. Later, certain of this physical material was granted consciousness (1:21), which man shares with animals. On the sixth day, man was created as a spiritual being "in the image of God" (1:27), setting him qualitatively distinct from the animals, though he shares body and consciousness with the animals.

 

Writing his first letter to the believers in Thessalonica, Paul expresses this wish: "May the God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." (I Thess.5:23), when the "God of peace" sets about the task of sanctifying representatives of sinful, fallen mankind, restoring such ones to a measure of Christ-likeness, He does so in the order mentioned, beginning with a spiritual awakening. Then, through the transformed spirit, the soul is reached, and finally the body, with its appetites and lusts.

 

The wisdom of man says just the opposite, claiming the inner man can be improved by changing outside influences, a mentality all too often reflected even in evangelistic efforts. God's way is to start with the inner man - the root of the problem - and then affect the outer man.