“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.” John 3:17-21
Desiring to be in the Light
Did you catch that last part – the part about those who desire to and actually come into the light? How awesome is it to see a heart truly transformed for God’s glory? There’s no faking it. There are no traditional or cultural reasons why they do it. They simply do it because they desire to be right with God. They love His Son and don’t claim to be in love with Him. This person is the one who doesn’t have a walk that looks different from their talk. I admit that I have been the opposite of this person in my past, thinking that I was right with the Lord, but honestly my heart was far from Him. To believe that Jesus is who He says is different from truly believe in Him. How so?
There are many who already believe that God exists, and even more that believe He that Jesus existed, but they don’t believe in Him. Man!! Even the demons do that (James 2:19). But these people don’t plan on giving their life to Him for Him to do as He pleases. They don’t desire to have everything wrecked that they’ve worked so hard to build (their current life). They only want Him to be involved when times are tight and when things are great and their greed wants more prosperity in what they already have. No, these people simply believe, but fear their evil deeds being judged, so they do as Jesus said. They will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. v. 21
The one that Jesus speaks of in the passage above is one who has laid their entire life before God and said “have your way.” This seems so hard to do when we try to comprehend it with our fleshly, finite mind, but when our heart is sincere and desiring true salvation from the Father, then our Spirit trumps our flesh and we make that true decision to “come into the light” of God.
But here’s some encouragement for the fellow believer, the one who thinks he believes and the non-believer alike. God has already judged sin and taken action of punishment on His one and only Son. What that means for each of us is that we have the opportunity to come before God without fear that we will be condemned to “fire and brimstone” because of our wickedness. In fact, just the opposite happens. When we realize who God is and what His Son has done for us, then we can make the decision in our hearts to surrender our lives to God, repent of all our sin, and receive the free gift of forgiveness due to Jesus’ sacrifice! How awesome is that? This decision is more important than any other you will ever make in life. It’s bigger than deciding to get married, or whether or not to have the baby at the risk of the mother’s life, or even ending life support for that loved one who you can’t seem to depart with. Yeah…it’s that big. It’s eternity!! It’s awesome and shouldn’t be taken lightly or made on a whim. You have the same opportunity that I had.
I remember the day I said the “sinner’s prayer,” but it wasn’t the same day that I gave my life to Christ. No, that happened when I realized what I’m sharing with you now. Evaluate your life and know for yourself where you stand with God through His Son, Jesus Christ.
NOTE: It’s not often that I get a post on here that is all about lubby-dubby grace from God and zen-like love, but I wanted to provide my fellow believer’s in Christ who have a hard time reading postings of judgment and rebuke. However, let me say that if you are a person who is all about trying to lead people to Christ by only talking about how he was “nice” and “loving,” you’ve done everyone a disservice. John 3:16, itself, is about the entire wrath of God that we deserve being placed on His Son for our many sins. That’s brutal!! Get it right! Man, I almost made without any correcting.
No comments:
Post a Comment