November 2
“For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.” (Ephesians 5:8)
Over the past two weeks we have been talking about the amazing contrast between what we were (before committing our hearts to Jesus) and what we are now because of that love relationship.
Scripture paints the picture that those who receive Jesus (and what He has done) have a new identity. Immediately! We are not gradually becoming something new. We ARE something new – simply by receiving God’s grace, by faith. From the very moment we first receive Jesus.
This is the miracle of the new birth. We come from one “realm” of existence, to another. And that new realm is, quite frankly, hard for us to wrap our minds around. That’s why we need our minds renewed. To think in accord with what God has done for us – and provided to us, freely, in the relationship He offers us.
Because of Jesus, we were one thing (sinners, self-consumed) and now we ARE re-created in the image of God (see Ephesians 4:22-24). The difference is night and day.
Literally.
Our verse for today reminds us that our previous identity was “darkness.” We were darkness. This “darkness” is defined in Scripture, not just as sin (though we had plenty of that) but of confusion, doubt, fear, wrong thinking, and unbelief.
Jesus came to change our darkness into light. To make us righteous… to give us direction and purpose, to fill us with hope and confidence, and to align our thinking with God’s thinking. Now, we ARE light in the Lord. And we are to live each of our days as that light!
That’s what Jesus came to show us. He was the first to declare: “I am the light of the world.” (John 8:12; 12:35) And each and every day, He showed us what that meant. Loving people. Helping the helpless. Bringing hope to the hopeless. Living as the living, breathing representation of God… with us.
But Jesus didn’t just come to BE the Light – He came to impart the light. So that in every generation of souls, the light would be seen. The light would be felt. The light would draw people to The Source of that light. Opening eyes. Changing lives.
That’s how Jesus defined our task as His disciples. And it all begins with an understanding…
“YOU are the Light of the world,” He told us. “A city set on a hill cannot (and should not) be hidden… Let your light shine before others that they may see your good works and give glory (worship God as God!) to your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:14-16)
The light exists to dispel darkness – but more than that… it exists to bring a true revelation of God. The Source of that light works in, and through, us to bring light to all the sinful, confused, doubting, fearful, and unbelieving – who are trapped in their all-too-human viewpoints about everything.
Without the light no one will ever see the One they need to see…
We must see ourselves as light… right now. Not as becoming the light. But transformed into the light by the Lightgiver. It’s what He came to do for us – to make us to be the light of the world.
Everything we are called to do begins with being the light…
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