Quiet time 26 May - Light and Darkness part 1

We know that we are called on to follow Christ and to be his disciples. But we also can see that we fall short of the standard that Jesus calls us to. How do we reconcile this? What is that nature of sinful man vs a perfect God, and how dies Jesus come into the picture? We will look at scriptures about the sacrifice of the cross next week, but today we will start to look at sin.

“"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 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."”
‭‭John‬ ‭3:16-21‬ ‭ESV‬‬
http://bible.com/59/jhn.3.16-21.esv

Jesus came into this world and lived a perfect life. He showed us what the light looks like. For this, he was crucified. The world loved sin and darkness more than light, so it tried to put the light to death because everything that Jesus did highlighted our iniquity. The Pharisees loved having the illusion of righteousness, and could not stand having that illusion stripped away. Their pride left them in the darkness despite knowing the law (probably having most of it memorized) and despite sticking assiduously to tradition. Many of the common people (the rich young ruler comes to mind) are not able to disentangle themselves from sin and the world in order to pursue the light (a relationship with Jesus). We easily find ourselves in the same position as the Pharisees (where we insist on sticking to a tradition and pride thereby ignoring and hating the light) or the rich young ruler (where we are unwilling to give up our attachment to the world thereby abandoning our pursuit of the light).

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”
‭‭1 Peter‬ ‭2:9-10‬ ‭ESV‬‬
http://bible.com/59/1pe.2.9-10.esv

Jesus is calling us to walk in the light and to abide in him, when we do evil we are choosing darkness over light. When we are in the light we are Jesus's own possession and we should always remember that he called us out of the darkness (meaning we have to renounce our sinful ways) to save us. God's mercy enables us to make this change from darkness to light.

“Behold, the Lord 's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.”
‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭59:1-2‬ ‭ESV‬‬
http://bible.com/59/isa.59.1-2.esv

Our sin separates us from God. God sees all of our sin, even our sinful thoughts and desires separate us from him. God never abandons us though, we abandon him by insisting on the darkness over the light. The above passage in Isaiah references the lamentation of the Israelites that their prayers were not being heard. At the same time, they were living in darkness and making sacrifices to Baal. Like petulant teenagers who storm off into their rooms in an argument with their parents, they were blaming God for their abandonment rather than blaming themselves. But God has never abandoned us - he patiently waits for all of us to turn to him and away from darkness.

“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭3:23-25‬ ‭ESV‬‬
http://bible.com/59/rom.3.23-25.esv

We have all sinned. Let's not kid ourselves into believing that we are righteous on our own. It is not even helpful to try and justify that we are "pretty good comparatively" or at least "better than that other guy". When we are being judged by an absolutely perfect and righteous God the smallest blemish or sin separates us from him by an insurmountable distance. Since God's nature is perfect righteousness, our sins have a price that must be paid. Luckily for us, Jesus paid the price for us in his crucifixion as long as we place our faith in him (this is more than praying Jesus into your heart). The wages of sin are death (Rom 6:23) we can either pay the price ourselves (as we deserve), or die to the darkness and walk in the light of Jesus's redeeming sacrifice. This is God's mercy - that we do not have to bear the burden of our sins because Jesus bore it for us. But this grace comes at a price for us - we must renounce the darkness.