I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about John chapter one, and more specifically about the references in the first few verses to Light and darkness. It says in that chapter that the Light shines in the darkness. Now, to me, in my human understanding, that means that the darkness exists but that when the Light shines, the darkness flees. That's not what the passage says. It says that the Light shines IN the darkness, ... and that the darkness (does not flee, but) does not comprehend the Light.
Whoa. That takes a person aback, doesn't it? It doesn't make sense to us because we go into a dark room, we turn on a light, and the darkness goes away - that's what darkness is, isn't it? the absence of Light?
Not here in this passage. John is talking about a kind of darkness that it doesn't matter how bright the light, it does NOT go away, nor does the darkness have any concept of Light. Well, what kind of darkness cannot understand Light?
There is only one answer that is possible: blindness.
Suddenly all makes sense. Jesus said to the Pharisees, "... because you say, 'We see,' your blindness remains." (John 9:41)
And herein lies the darkness, dear friends. The darkness consists of insisting that everything is fine, actually believing that it is so, while all the while stumbling around in darkness, in blindness, not even aware that there is so much more: so much more freedom, so much more love, so much more Life than we ever thought possible. Yet all the while, blazing white Light is all around, piercing through everything, illuminating Life all around us, shooting rainbows and moonlight in our paths, and yet unseen by the blind who will not see.
The darkest of all blindness is the one in which the blind one has convinced himself that he can see. It is religion, religious ritual and self-righteousness, hypocrisy and wallowing in fear that God will take out His big cudgel and squash us like bugs. But ... God is not like that. That's why Jesus came!! The Word says, "God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself..." (2 Cor. 5:19).
And Jesus stands and proclaims that the Spirit of God is upon Him to preach the good news to the poor, to proclaim deliverance to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, and to set free those who are oppressed. (Luke 4:18). In reality, those who are blind in the way that John 1 reveals are poor, and captive, and oppressed - by virtue of their own -- OUR own -- blindness! Jesus came to prove God's love to us in a way we could understand, and we killed Him for it in our darkness - our lack of comprehension. But when we first turn to Him and ask Him to remove our blindness, He does - and we can see the Love that was there all along, and the Light that has brightened our path if we but knew it! This Light is transformative, redemptive, and irrevocable (Rom. 11:29).
When we are in darkness, in blindness, we can do absolutely nothing to rid ourselves of this sad state; HE is the only One who opens blind eyes. We only ask. He does it - He does it because He wants to do it, and has been waiting for us to ask Him!
This makes salvation and even faith itself (Eph. 2:8d) something that He does on our behalf, and rightly so - because if we could, we would boast about how much we did, how much we believed. It is HIS faith!! Galatians 2:20 says in the original Greek, "...and the life I live in the flesh, I live by the faith OF the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." Not IN, but OF. That means that it is JESUS' faith and we can have confidence in His faith because it does NOT waver!!
Can we see how much this frees us to live in happy gratitude? Can we? The pressure is off! the love of God is unconditional, the grace of God is free, and the faith of Jesus in His Father is rock-solid! Hahahahahahahaha!! What glorious liberty! what amazing love! how bright the Light is!! How delirious the joy that comes from total and complete acceptance in the Beloved One!
Can I make it any more plain? This is GOOD news!! This is what the apostles were ready to die for! No adding to it; that only takes away from it! No reservations - that leads to bondage! Pray God that He will open our eyes to see the wonder of His full, free, intense, passionate, scandalous love for us!
Whoa. That takes a person aback, doesn't it? It doesn't make sense to us because we go into a dark room, we turn on a light, and the darkness goes away - that's what darkness is, isn't it? the absence of Light?
Not here in this passage. John is talking about a kind of darkness that it doesn't matter how bright the light, it does NOT go away, nor does the darkness have any concept of Light. Well, what kind of darkness cannot understand Light?
There is only one answer that is possible: blindness.
Suddenly all makes sense. Jesus said to the Pharisees, "... because you say, 'We see,' your blindness remains." (John 9:41)
And herein lies the darkness, dear friends. The darkness consists of insisting that everything is fine, actually believing that it is so, while all the while stumbling around in darkness, in blindness, not even aware that there is so much more: so much more freedom, so much more love, so much more Life than we ever thought possible. Yet all the while, blazing white Light is all around, piercing through everything, illuminating Life all around us, shooting rainbows and moonlight in our paths, and yet unseen by the blind who will not see.
The darkest of all blindness is the one in which the blind one has convinced himself that he can see. It is religion, religious ritual and self-righteousness, hypocrisy and wallowing in fear that God will take out His big cudgel and squash us like bugs. But ... God is not like that. That's why Jesus came!! The Word says, "God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself..." (2 Cor. 5:19).
And Jesus stands and proclaims that the Spirit of God is upon Him to preach the good news to the poor, to proclaim deliverance to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, and to set free those who are oppressed. (Luke 4:18). In reality, those who are blind in the way that John 1 reveals are poor, and captive, and oppressed - by virtue of their own -- OUR own -- blindness! Jesus came to prove God's love to us in a way we could understand, and we killed Him for it in our darkness - our lack of comprehension. But when we first turn to Him and ask Him to remove our blindness, He does - and we can see the Love that was there all along, and the Light that has brightened our path if we but knew it! This Light is transformative, redemptive, and irrevocable (Rom. 11:29).
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| Photo "Sun In The Sky" courtesy of graur razvan at www.freedigitalphotos.net |
This makes salvation and even faith itself (Eph. 2:8d) something that He does on our behalf, and rightly so - because if we could, we would boast about how much we did, how much we believed. It is HIS faith!! Galatians 2:20 says in the original Greek, "...and the life I live in the flesh, I live by the faith OF the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." Not IN, but OF. That means that it is JESUS' faith and we can have confidence in His faith because it does NOT waver!!
Can we see how much this frees us to live in happy gratitude? Can we? The pressure is off! the love of God is unconditional, the grace of God is free, and the faith of Jesus in His Father is rock-solid! Hahahahahahahaha!! What glorious liberty! what amazing love! how bright the Light is!! How delirious the joy that comes from total and complete acceptance in the Beloved One!
Can I make it any more plain? This is GOOD news!! This is what the apostles were ready to die for! No adding to it; that only takes away from it! No reservations - that leads to bondage! Pray God that He will open our eyes to see the wonder of His full, free, intense, passionate, scandalous love for us!
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