OUR LOVE OF EITHER THE DARKNESS OR THE LIGHT DETERMINES OUR FATE

 

 

Humanity is afflicted with a terminal case of spiritual blindness. Even worse, it is our self-inflicted delusions of our worthiness and superiority. We will even kill to defend our self-esteem.

 

After Jesus had raised Lazarus from death after four days in the tomb, many of the Jewish rulers “made plans to put him to death” (John 11:53). They refused to consider the implications of Jesus’ many miracles. Paul explained that their blindness had been the result of “their hardness of heart,” and their hatred of anything—namely Jesus—that exposes their evil and hypocrisy:

 

·       They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. (Ephesians 4:18-19)

 

According to Jesus, we are self-deceived because we prefer deception—the comforting lie rather than the uncomfortable truth about our unworthiness and impending judgment:

 

·       “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.” (John 3:19-20)

 

Ultimately, we are condemned by what we love and not God. Judgment is a matter of what we love and hate. However, this love of the darkness is costly:

 

·       The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. (2 Thessalonians 2:9-10)

 

One indication of our love of the darkness is our pride and self-righteousness. Consequently, we disdain a righteous and just God before whom we will be exposed and judged (Romans 1:32).

 

Condemnation of spiritual blindness is found throughout the Bible because we know better—that we are sinners who are in desperate need of the mercy of the Savior! This is why our lives are feverishly devoted to trying to prove our worth. However, we reject this thoroughly apparent but suppressed truth about God and judgment. Consequently, we are without any excuse (Romans 1:20).

 

When we reject truth, we reject God, because truth belongs to God. Because of the darkness, Jesus came as the Light of God’s truth:

 

·       “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” (John 9:5)

 

Because the world is in darkness, Jesus came to pour forth the light of the Gospel to the blind to free them from their self-imposed darkness. He quoted Isaiah in the synagogue in Nazareth:

 

·       “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news [Gospel] to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed.” (Luke 4:18)

 

The congregants were initially impressed until Jesus preached God’s favor upon the Gentiles. Then they tried to kill Him. Why? Because they were blinded by their racial pride, which they esteemed more than God’s truth! They were still in darkness, convinced of their superiority, and were unwilling to accept the Good News, which challenged their self-righteousness and self-esteem.

 

Darkness—the lies we tell ourselves—is the enemy of truth. We will kill to shield ourselves from the Light. Eventually, they had Jesus put to death. Why? Jesus had explained to his biological brethren:

 

·       “The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil.” (John 7:7)

 

We will kill and even be killed to prevent our masks to be stripped from us. In the end, when the Light cannot be extinguished, many will flee from the Light, even to a place of torment:

 

·       Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb [of God], for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?” (Revelation 6:15–17)

 

In the end, we will get what we want—the darkness or the Light. Pray that the Lord would show you your blindness!