Good Sunday morning! When thinking of the commandments in the Bible we often think that the first commandment starts with "Thou shalt" However, looking in Genesis, we find the first spoken commandment by God is "Let there be light" This light is not the light we commonly see from the sources around us. The sun and moon were not created until later. In Eden there seems to have been another light. We see the stars and moon at night, we see the sun in the daytime and we have all manner of other forms of light in the modern world. If all of those lights were extinguished, we would have some serious darkness, often called "total". What if this other light were to shine though; that light that God created first but seems to have been lost somewhere? Isaiah foretold a new light coming into the darkness when he spoke of Messiah; "Those living in darkness have seen a great light." He wasn't speaking to cave people and certainly the people back in the day had the same sun and moon as we have now. So what is this other light? A light that shines when all others are dark, I want some of that!
We have learned in various ways that good people can do bad things; we also learn that bad people can do good things. So why do we need salvation if even bad people can do good things? First, bad and good as we tend to judge others is a relative measure. One bug can call another bug good or bad based on its actions, but they are both still bugs. The Bible does not say that all people are bad or good, but that all have sinned and fallen short of God's glorious standard. If you were born of Adam, and all of us were, then you have sinned even before that first conscious decision was made. Doesn't seem fair, does it? Even if that were not true, all of us have at one time or another committed a sin. We like to call some of them little sins, but sin is sin. Children of rebels and rebels ourselves, we have all fallen short of God's standard which is perfection. We don't know the way to gain salvation, the truth about our condition, or what life is in truth. We don't have God's first light and we are lost in the darkness. What are we to do?
The answer is one man and one God. Jesus came on the scene and fulfilled Isaiah's prophecy. Two statements make the choice clear. Jesus said: "I am the light of the world" and "I am the way, the truth, and the life." Jesus is that light seen in the darkness, the one not dependent upon sun or moon. Jesus doesn't know the way or point to the way; He IS the way. Jesus pointed out the truth of our condition, much to the discomfiture of the Pharisees, and created the way to have life in Him. The choice is to scoff at his bold statements and not believe in Him, or to stand with Him and believe. One way offers eternal condemnation, the other eternal life. Adam and Eve decided to lean on their own understanding, believed a serpent, and brought sin into the world. Jesus had God's wisdom, told the serpent to go away, and brought the light of his life into the world. Praise God for a new day in Christ!
Bucky
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