The Light John 3:21

In our last study, we spent a lot of time unpacking what it means to be in the darkness and what it looks like. Make no mistake about it, in case I did not make the point clearly is that we are living in very dark times where men and women love sin more than they love life, and they prefer the darkness to the light. People do not like the light, they hate the light because the light is pure, the light is holy, and the light exposes them and their actions in truth. The ugly reality is that people hate the light and live in opposition to it. The crucial act of being born again changes our characteristics; we are no longer children of darkness but children of light. Because of this, our attitude is changed about things associated with darkness, and we are attracted to and marked by the light. In this message, I would like to dig into what light is, and, more importantly, who light is.

21 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.”

What is true? Sincerity in action, character, and in what we say. We do what is true when we act in accordance to the reality of Christ in us. Light is a metaphor for what is true. When Jesus is called the logos, it means that" The Word was God" (John 1:1). Jesus as logos is the eternal expression of God as a word is the expression of a thought. This expression is also truth, and this truth shines light into our lives. When we have honestly responded to the revelation (the light) that God has given us, and we respond to His seeking of us by responding in repentance and faith, we are walking in the light. This is doing what is true; If we honestly and with an open heart respond to and put into practice the revelation God has placed before us. The light also reveals us for who we are in truth. As we understand who we are in truth, we can either deny it or be cleansed. As John teaches us in his first epistle:

1 John 1:5-9 this is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

When the light of God shines on us, we can choose how we want to deal with what is true about ourselves. We may understand what is true in action, but more importantly, we need to understand that Jesus is the truth (John 14:6) and what He says about us in His Word is true. As Christians, one of the major tests of our lives in Christ is how we deal with the light of truth when it is shined on us. There is no darkness in God at all. His light is perfect, it reflects His holiness and purity. His light is perfect, and it exposes imperfections. We cannot walk closely with God when we are walking in darkness. It is impossible to do! We deceive ourselves when we walk in darkness and say that we have fellowship with him. The greater deception is when the light of God shines in on our lives, and we deny that we have sin. When a Christian is exposed to the light of God, by the reading or preaching of the Word, and there is sin exposed, the Christian humbly acknowledges the sin, confesses it, and repents. When a Christian does that, the promise is that we will be forgiven and cleansed from all unrighteousness. If we deny our sin, it is worse off for us. Proverbs 28:13 tells us that if we cover our sin, we will not prosper. But if we confess and forsake our sin, we will obtain mercy.

Nicodemus, Spurgeon, and even my own testimony bear this out. We were all three drawn by Jesus Christ. We welcomed his good news. Though the light exposed us for who we were, we responded to the light by repentance and faith. Now, we live by the truth. We live differently because of who Jesus is in us. Nicodemus was a secret follower of Christ, but stood up on Jesus’ behalf before the Sanhedrin and came alongside Joseph of Arimathea to bury Jesus. Jesus Changed Nicodemus! Spurgeon, despite his parents’ faith, and yet with their blessing, was baptized and began 42 years of Gospel ministry at the age of 15 that only ended in his death. His life was one that was brought out of the darkness of sin and despair into the light by simple repentance and faith; Jesus changed Spurgeon! And, as I testified this last week, Jesus changed me, and is still changing me. He is growing me in holiness every day.

So, let us examine in depth the word light. What is light? I think it is much more important to examine who is light? First of all, God is light:

"God is light, and in him is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5).

Darkness, as we discussed in our last study, is the universal symbol and condition of sin and death; indeed it is the universal condition of mankind outside of Christ. Light is the opposite of darkness; it is the symbol and expression of holiness. When the light shines in, there is no doubt about whose presence you are in. This is why no man can look upon God and live, indeed, His light is so bright that it exposes any hint of darkness. Isaiah is an example, as God called him to ministry, he realized how impure he was and could not even see himself being a servant of God because of the darkness in himself.

"The light of Israel will be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame" (Isaiah 10:17).

Light is interchanged with God here; you could just as well say the God of Israel will be for a fire. The fire was a symbol for purification, indeed gold is placed in the fire to burn off any impurities. When Jesus came (the Holy One) he operated like a fire, purifying those who would take Him as Lord. The difficulty here is that it is not always a pleasant experience to be purified. This is part of dying to ourselves, indeed in giving up the very thing that we love the most, the sin that we hold precious. When we are growing in holiness as followers of Christ, our view of the light changes. God, by His presence and grace, is to us as Christians, a "marvelous light"

1 Peter 2:9 But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God's OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;

As Christians, we see the light as marvelous, because it is the light that God has used to expose us for who we are, but he has also called us into this wonderful light. We can be partakers and participants in this new life where we have passed from death to life; from darkness to light. We are now His possession, His people, His priests and His representatives because we have been called into His light. This is the benefit of being in His light while on earth, and the good news is that we will enjoy this light forever, for the glory of His holiness and presence is the "everlasting light" of the redeemed in heaven:

Isaiah 60:19, "No longer will you have the sun for light by day, Nor for brightness will the moon give you light; But you will have the LORD for an everlasting light, And your God for your glory.

Revelation 21:23 And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb.

Revelation 22:5 And there will no longer be any night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign forever and ever.

Jesus Christ is light: Jesus, as the eternal Word is God, and the term light is applied to Him as another proof that He is fully God. As light He was "God.... manifest in the flesh (1 Timothy 3:16 ) Jesus, who said "Let there be light" (Genesis 1:3), and there was light, is Himself the "radiance of (God's) glory"

Hebrews 1:3 And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

Jesus Christ is the exact representation of God’s nature, which we have already learned has the aspect of light. And as God, Jesus Christ is light as God is light:

John 1:4-5, 9 4 In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. 5 The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. 9 There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.

As the predicted Messiah, He was to be "for alight of the Gentiles" and indeed, he was to free the captives of darkness through shining the light of goodness, purity, and holiness:

Isaiah 42:6-7; "I am the LORD, I have called you in righteousness, I will also hold you by the hand and watch over you, And I will appoint you as a covenant to the people, As a light to the nations, To open blind eyes, To bring out prisoners from the dungeon And those who dwell in darkness from the prison.

And indeed, he came to save all people from their sin by shining His light:

Isaiah 49:6. He says, "It is too small a thing that you should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make you a light of the nations So that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth."

His birth was the fulfillment of this prophecy in Isaiah (Luke 2:32). As confirmation of this, Jesus called Himself "the light of the world" in one of his many I AM statements, again affirming His deity:

John 8:12; Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, "I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life."

John 9:5; "While I am in the world, I am the Light of the world."

John 12:46: "I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness

Jesus Christ is the light of the world, and he came into this world to bring men out of darkness, that is, to save them from darkness, which is sin, and death, and hell. Paul describes this truth as the Gospel:

2 Corinthians 4:4-6 4In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

God gives "the light of the knowledge of (his) glory in the face of Jesus Christ", and this salvation is called "the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ” Indeed, the darkness tries to keep us, but the light of Christ has come into the world, and the darkness cannot swallow Him up! Christ is indeed the Teacher, Enlightener ("Christ shall give thee light," Ephesians 5:14) Guide, the truth, the life, indeed, He is the light, which brings salvation to all mankind.

When we are saved, we are regenerated, our lives are changed, we live differently than we did in our former lives of darkness. In fact, Jesus calls us as individuals ‘light’ and, as the church; we are to manifest His light to the world. (Ephesians 3:9-10) When we come to Jesus, our lives are new, and should be shaped by Jesus and His Word. The Holy Spirit, working in our lives, gives us new power, new goals, and new interests. One of those new interests is the desire to see people saved; therefore we have a desire to share the good news with others. In our new lives, our works that we do for Christ are sanctified and identified as works that are carried out in God. Indeed, when we come to Christ that is the only time that we actually do works that are seen as good by God; in our flesh all of our good works are filthy rags in God’s sight. When light is shined into our lives, we don’t mind the light; in fact, we enjoy walking in the light. We enjoy being with other believers. We love the things we used to hate and hate the things we used to love. When we step into the darkness, we feel uncomfortable; and we also bring light there, which makes those in the dark feel very uncomfortable!

The result of being light carriers is that people who are in the darkness will hate you. This includes others who may call themselves Christians. There are those who call themselves Christians who love the dark more than they love the light. They want to live like Hell six days a week and believe they are in God’s grace because they attend church on Sunday. Of course, there are those who live very good lives, marked with very good works, and they are very religious, but they hate the truth that you are not justified by good works, rather, you must be born again. These ‘Nicodemites’ are blinded to the light like Nicodemus was. And they will hate you because they are very comfortable with their works and their religion. One sign that a person is a Christian is that they will love other believers. When your light shines, and the reaction is love, you are in fellowship with another true believer. That is why weekly assembling of ourselves together is so important; we are battling darkness and hatred all week long if we are allowing our lights to shine and we need the building up and equipping and fellowship that church provides.

My challenge is this as we close this very important passage: Have you been born again? There are many ways in which one can tell. Has there been a time in your life when you have repented of your sin, agreeing with God that you are pursuing a life of darkness, and turning from that life of darkness you have responded by faith to God’s remedy; the suffering death and victorious resurrection of Jesus Christ on your behalf? You can know that you have been born from above by some very simple, yet important self-examination. Are you growing in holiness? Do you love what you used to hate, and hate what you used to love? Do you love the Word of God, the Bible? Do you pray daily? Do you find it easy or a burden to live in obedience to God’s will? Do you love and desire to fellowship with, other believers? Do you share your faith? Are you walking in the light? I am not talking about works; I am talking about the natural development of one who has been born of God. The first step of this journey of sanctification is being born from above. These are just family traits that distinguish whose family you are in! I pray that you have responded to the drawing of God to look to Jesus Christ as the only way of salvation and that you are growing to be more like Him every day. May God grow you more and more into the image of Jesus Christ today and this week.