Daily Bread: June 2011

Thursday, June 30, 2011

The Story in Isaiah 50:4, 5

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Has there been some mystery in your life that has always perplexed you? Like the untimely loss and death of a loved one; of the crushing disappointment of a love lost, or betrayed, that you had hoped would lead to a happy marriage--?

When Jesus told us how to pray (to "our Father which art in heaven"), He told us of the only way we can find peace and reconciliation with God after such bitter disappointment.

Our heavenly Father is infinite; at first thought, this truth may tempt us to wonder if the comfort He can give us is real and effective; how can it be if the Father is an infinite being?

Don't forget that He was also the "our Father which art in heaven" to Jesus during His 33-1/2 years of sojourn with us in this human life. Whatever the Father was to Jesus, He is the same to us. His being infinite does not in the least lessen the personal attention He gives to us each one.

Take for example, the way that the Father in heaven manifested Himself to Jesus (as a teenager?) when He awakened Him from sleep early in the mornings.

The story is in Isaiah 50:4, 5: "The Lord God hath given Me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: He wakeneth morning by morning, He wakeneth Mine ear to hear as the learned."

As a Teenager or as a Youth (Jesus was a Youth all His life among us here!), He may have loved to sleep in each morning; teens are proverbially difficult to awaken in the morning!

But the heavenly Father (the same as your Heavenly Father!) persisted in waking Jesus up to start each new day.

Jesus had to go to school! He had to learn how to "speak a word in season" to the weary crowds, or to the solitary inquirer like Nicodemus who "came to Jesus by night" long after office doors should be closed! (John 3:2, 3). Those early morning awakenings and "schoolings" taught Jesus the wisdom He needed so desperately, which is why He said, "I can of Mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: ... because I seek not Mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent Me" (5:30).

That same "our Father which art in heaven" will awaken us and teach us, day by day!

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: June 12, 2008.

Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" messages are availalbe via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

"Under" One or the Other

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Christians of all faiths, around the world, study about the New Covenant versus the Old Covenant. But can we tell the difference between the two covenants? If we end up confusing the Old with the New or vice versa, we'll be worse off than when we started. There are only two covenants and every individual in the world is "under" one or the other. They are as different as night and day, yet are often confused.

Those under the Old Covenant, no matter what their profession of religion might be, are in "bondage," says the Book of Galatians. Spiritually speaking, they are slaves (4:21-25). Their spiritual condition is identical to that of ancient Israel after Mount Sinai. They profess to be God's people, they try to keep His commandments, they think they worship Him, but their "Christian experience" is up and down, often down. Ancient Israel were constantly backsliding, repenting, asking for forgiveness, trying again, enjoying only brief interludes of revival. Jesus describes the Old Covenant experience of His last days' church as being "lukewarm." He says the situation is so acute that it makes Him feel like throwing up (Rev. 3:14-19).

The only possible way that we in these last days can become fully reconciled and "hot" in our devotion to Him, is to trade in our Old Covenant way of thinking for New Covenant truth. It is embarrassing to Jesus to have to confess before the vast unfallen universe that He seems unable to bring His church out of its lukewarm condition. Surely the great sacrifice He made on His cross should elicit from His people on earth a greater devotion! The problem that Jesus has is like that of a bridegroom who loves a bride-to-be but can't motivate her to go to the altar with him and say "I do."

In fact, the Book of Revelation specifies that to be precisely the logjam that is holding up the finishing of God's great plan of salvation (19:1-8). Only a clear understanding of the glorious New Covenant can set us free from our lukewarm, half-hearted devotion. May the Holy Spirit make the truth clear!

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: January 2003.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

God Has Chosen a Wiser Way

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Yesterday we were talking about how nice it would be if the telephone should ring and when you say Hello, there is the voice of God telling you, Yes, He loves you personally, individually, and how your prayers are answered, etc. Many people say they would believe if only God would do that for them!

Well, if that were the way God speaks to us, everybody's phone all over the world would be ringing 24 hours a day--you would never even get a chance to sleep! AT&T and all the other phone service providers wouldn't be able to handle any other calls.

God has chosen a wiser way to tell you that He loves you personally and is answering your prayers--in His word, the Bible, ministered individually and personally to your heart by the Holy Spirit. That is all that Jesus had; He had to depend on the Old Testament which He had, and yet He was the divine Son of God. Now you also have the New Testament--so you have far more evidence of God's love for you personally than even Jesus had!

The Jews in Jesus' time didn't want to accept Him as the Messiah because they wanted a miracle to prove it to them. That's why Jesus told them the parable of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31. The miracle of someone rising from the dead didn't help them to believe! Jesus said, "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though One rose from the dead" (vs. 31).

Dear reader, let me appeal to you--listen to Moses and the prophets, that is, the Bible itself. Believe the Good News it has for you. You must not despise this greatest of all evidence that God loves you personally and individually. Read the Bible on your knees, pleading for God's forgiveness for our unbelief.

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: 1994 Phone Message.

Monday, June 27, 2011

Has God Called You on the Telephone?

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Has God ever called you on the telephone? You hear the phone ringing, you say Hello, and a voice says, "This is God calling!" No? Well, I have never heard His voice, either. Some people say they have, but I have not, and sometimes I doubt that they have.

But that doesn't mean that God is not speaking to us. Think about Jesus. He was the divine Son of God; surely you would expect that He would hear His Father's voice every day like on the telephone. But no, the Bible indicates that Jesus had to live by faith just as we do. In fact, there is no evidence in the Bible that Jesus ever heard His Father's voice in a physical sense throughout the 30 years of His life on earth before His baptism. And then when He was baptized and a voice was heard from heaven saying, "This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased," those words were nothing more than direct quotations from the Old Testament, Psalm 2:7 and Isaiah 42:1. So even then as He began His ministry, Jesus had to rely on what the Bible says, rather than on a direct communication from Heaven.

Are you waiting for a telephone call from Heaven, or an e-mail, or even a letter addressed to you signed by God? You already have it in the Bible. You say, Everybody has that! I want something special!

Well, you have something special, because the Holy Spirit is given to you specially, to abide with you forever (that's John 14:16), and He Himself communicates the words of the Bible directly and specially to you as if you were the only person on earth. Now, believe it; read your Bible slowly, thoughtfully; take each promise as directed to you personally. That is precisely what Jesus did. And when you pray in His name, that is precisely what you do!

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: 1994 Phone Message.

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Bread: The Divine Salesman

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

When you think of God, how do you think He relates to you? Probably all church members view Him as making salvation available to "all men." But in what way? Is He like a shopkeeper who has his goods available to "all men," his doors open always night and day like a gas station open 24 hours, 7 days a week? All the customer has to do is go there and obtain what he wants; do you think of God in that way? Never turns any "customer" away who "comes"? Sounds like Good News, doesn't it? Yes, it is!

The Jews thought of themselves as His agents, His "shopkeeper." They had the "goods" of salvation; if the Gentiles wanted it, they could "come" and get it. But Jesus had an even better idea: He would not only "open shop" but He would go in search of customers! He would become a divine Salesman (Good Shepherd?), and through the Holy Spirit would "knock" on every man's "door." And if someone would open the door to Him, He would do more than "sell" His goods of salvation, He would "give" what He had "without money and without price" (Isa. 55:1). It's as though He would take "every man" (that means every person) by the hand and say, "Come, let's go to heaven! You're welcome! When My Father accepted Me, He accepted you; He has a place for you in heaven!" Short of actual coercion (for He will never force anyone against his/her will), He says, "Come, you simply MUST be saved!"

That's what Peter meant when he said, "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). In other words, the religion of Jesus (rightly understood) is the only one in heaven or earth that goes beyond the Shopkeeper version and says, "God insists! You MUST be saved!"

The first version is good, orthodox, lukewarm righteousness by faith--your salvation depends on you taking the initiative. The second ... ? Sounds like your salvation depends on God taking the initiative, and your heart is melted by His love, by appreciating what it cost Him to save you.

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: April 28, 1998.

Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" Web site resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/
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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" messages are availalbe via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.

Saturday, June 25, 2011

A Special Message for Youth

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Today's "Dial Daily Bread" is a special message for youth (but adults are invited to read too).

Why was Christ punished for our sins? He was innocent.

In school, Billy does something wrong and must be punished. But the teacher decides to punish Johnny instead of Billy, when Johnny is innocent. He has done nothing wrong. Is this fair?

Children have a keen sense of justice. Somehow they get the idea that God the Father is angry with sinners, but He knows that if He punishes them for their sins, they will perish. So, the common idea is that He lets His hot wrath fall on an innocent man instead, on Jesus. So Jesus dies on the cross instead of us sinners. That way, God can forgive us. Is this fair?

The answer is important:

(1) God did not kill His Son Jesus; people did.

(2) God was not angry with His Son Jesus, neither was He angry with us. He was angry because sin brings misery, agony, and death.

(3) God does not hate the sinner, but He hates the sin.

(4) When God forgives a sin, He does not merely pardon it and excuse it so that we go on doing it again and again. True forgiveness means taking the sin away so the sinner won't do it again. Therefore true forgiveness is what teaches us to actually hate sin.

(5) While it is true that Christ died to satisfy the claims of the law, which says that death is the punishment for sin, His death does more than that: it shows us how sinful we are by nature, and it shows us what sin can do--it can murder the Son of God. That's terrible! When we see this, our selfish human hearts are actually changed. We are reconciled to God, that is, our enmity is changed to true friendship. We become members of a new family--the family of God.

(6) When we see the cross of Christ we see that He not only died instead of us, He died as us. In 2 Corinthians 5:14 Paul says, "If One died for all, then all died." You identify with Christ as He dies on that cross.

And (7), from then on you want to live for Him.

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: 1994 Phone Message.

Friday, June 24, 2011

The Closing Scene of a Titanic War

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

When we wake up each new morning, we face bewilderment and confusion all over the earth. We humans cover the earth like little ants running around when you disturb them, and yet we humans are the family of God. We are created in His image; the glorious Creator of the vast universe left His high and holy place and became one of us. We are not "ants," we are sons and daughters of God "in Him." We are fellow-saints with Him engaged in the greatest struggle that has ever been waged in the universe--the controversy between Christ and Satan. We are not spectators at the arena; we are players on the field.

What's happening around us is the closing scene of this titanic war between two "spirits"--the One designated in the Bible as "Holy," and "the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience" who is inspired by "the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world" (Eph. 2:1; Rev. 12:9).

How can "the whole world" be deceived? Jesus says that so terrible will be the deception that it will come "on the face of the whole earth" like "a snare" (Luke 21:35). It's happening now. But thank God, not everyone will be deceived.

Think what it was like when Jesus was born; the masses knew the inspired prophecies of the Old Testament or at least had ready access to them if they didn't want to be deceived, yet how many recognized the Messiah when He came as a humble Baby in Bethlehem? Some did, but only a few.

So today; there is for sure "a remnant" (Rom. 9:27), "few that be saved" (Luke 13:23), who have learned the lesson of Bethlehem, who "walk softly" (1 Kings 21:27), who respond to "the still small voice" (1 Kings 19:12), that calls them in God's word, who choose to believe every truth that the Holy Spirit teaches as "He guides [you] into all truth" (John 16:13), who "follow the Lamb [the crucified Christ] wherever He goes" (Rev. 14:5, 6), who are "with Him" as He takes His final stand in the struggle of the nations of earth (Rev. 17:14), who identify with "the Lamb" so closely that they penetrate His thinking and His feelings as a bride penetrates her husband's deepest yearnings.

Amid earth's clash of arms and the din of its endless traffic, LISTEN.

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: February 14, 2004.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

A Child of Abraham

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

The most precious message of Christ's righteousness exalts the cross of Christ and what He accomplished there for the world. He reversed the judicial "condemnation" that our fallen father Adam brought upon the human race and as the second Adam pronounced upon us instead a judicial "verdict of acquittal " (Rom. 5:15-18). By His sacrifice upon His cross He gave the Father the legal right to treat "every man" in the world as though he has never sinned!

You may have thought about this a thousand times, but each new morning it's a fresh new revelation of grace. The Father demonstrates what "be ye therefore perfect" means by "mak[ing] His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and send[ing] rain on the just and on the unjust" (Matt. 5:48, 45). And so, by His much more abounding grace (Rom. 5:20) which He bestows on us "in Christ," He enables us to treat others the same way; and to our amazement, we discover that we begin to win souls! We discover in the most unforeseen places someone who is hungry and thirsty for the bread of life and the water of life that we can now share, and what a joy it is to meet that person.

When you know yourself and confess yourself to be empty, that you are eternally hungry and thirsty, you are prepared to be "filled" (Matt. 5:6), and no one is ever "filled" without at the same time his "cup runn[ing] over" (Psalm 23:5). Then everybody who comes in contact with you is blessed. You are continually exuding that much more abounding grace; there's no end to it. You've found a new life.

What's happening is that God's New Covenant is playing itself out in you; all the promises He made to Abraham are being kept and fulfilled in you as a child of Abraham (you know, of course, that not one human soul will enter any of the gates of the New Jerusalem except as a child of Abraham [cf. Rom. 4:1-16], and that is what you are if your heart has just begun to "comprehend … the breadth, and length, and depth, and height [of the] love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God" (Eph. 3:17-19).

It's real! You are not the water of life but you are a channel through which it can flow.

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: August 6, 2007.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

The Diagnosis of the Great Physician

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Is it Bad News or Good News to realize how sinful your human heart really is? Suppose you have a pain inside your body, and you don’t know what causes it. One physician tells you jokes to amuse you and gives you an aspirin and sends you home laughing. You are blissfully unaware of the cancer that is eating away at your very life, but at least you are smiling and happy.

Believe it or not, our genetic human nature likes that kind of medical care! The Great Physician Himself says of us: “Thou knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked” (Rev. 3:17). Paul says he was happy as long as he did not realize the sin that was deeply buried within his human heart (Rom. 7:9-17). But when the Holy Spirit begins to enlighten our natural sinful hearts, we realize that the best Good News is always the truth, even though we naturally think of ourselves as being “rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing” (Rev. 3:17). That feeling “rich and increased with goods” can apply to us individually, or to us as a church, and even to us as a nation.

If one has a mysterious pain deep inside, it is best to go to a sober physician who will make a thorough examination and then tell us the full truth--immediate surgery, or death. The option to live would be immense Good News! So should we seek the diagnosis of the Great Physician, Jesus, our High Priest ministering in the heavenly sanctuary mentioned in Hebrews 7:24-27. He is concerned for reality, not mere appearances.

An unfaithful physician may give you a “Certificate of Health” to enable you to get a job when in fact you are mortally ill, but Jesus won’t do that. For Him merely to “declare” you righteous when in fact you are sinfully selfish and polluted in heart will not prepare you to enter heaven! He wants the cancer of sin to be removed; and that ministry is what He is accomplishing on this great final Day of Atonement.

Don’t be afraid to go to Him for a Diagnosis. He will not wound you, He will heal you. The removal of the darling sin will be a blessing to you. But remember that just as the best Mayo Clinic physician in the world cannot operate on you without your written consent, so neither can Jesus do the blessed work of saving your soul without your consent.

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: June 17, 1999.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Legal Justification for "All Men"

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

What happened when Jesus died on His cross? What did He accomplish? There are two radically opposite views held by sincere Christians on both sides:

(1) Christ died to forgive people who repent and obey Him. He did not give the gift of a legal justification to "all men"; His sacrifice does the unrepentant no good. Only the believing, penitent ones enjoy the benefits of His cross. This view is cherished as a concern to preserve the importance of obedience to God's law. For the Father to forgive everybody, to pronounce on everyone a "judicial verdict of acquittal," will encourage people to go on sinning. Thus there can be no universal, legal justification.

(2) The other view sees that Christ did indeed accomplish for "all men" a legal justification, which is the "judicial verdict of acquittal for all men" that the New English Bible renders Romans 5:15-18 as teaching (and which all responsible translations also say). This is why God can treat "all men" as though they have never sinned, why He can send His rain on the just and on the unjust. "All men" have enjoyed the benefits of Christ's sacrifice whether or not they believe, because our very physical life is the purchase of the cross. Seen in this light, every meal becomes "a sacrament"--the Lord's supper, in reality. "Every man" is already totally in debt to Christ for all he has; and heart-conversion is a response to God's much more abounding grace, not a grasping for eternal life. It's saying "Thank You" for that eternal gift ALREADY GIVEN "in Christ."

Which view is biblical? When on His cross Christ prayed, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do," did His prayer embrace the world of "all men"? Did the Father do that, or did He forgive only those few who have believed?

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: June 4, 2002.

Monday, June 20, 2011

God Wants to Build a Skyscraper

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Contrary to conventional wisdom, it's healthful for men to shed tears. Furthermore, it's manly. And if you repress them and keep them bottled up under the surface, you damage your soul. God made you to be able to shed tears; and although it's popular to be hard-hearted, it's not being truly Christ-like.

He was the greatest Man ever to have lived (yes, that's true: the Bible clearly says that He was a man, a male, Rev. 12:5). We read that He shed tears at the grave of Lazarus (John 11:35), and that he was convulsed in sobbing that last Sunday of His life when He stopped the jubilant multitude as they came over the crest of the Mount of Olives to see the gorgeous city of Jerusalem, and its famed temple before them. "And when He was come near, He beheld the city, and wept over it ..." (Luke19:41). When He prayed, His whole soul was overcome "with strong crying and tears" (Heb. 5:7). Those tears were in sympathy with the sufferings of other people, often as He saw the anguish that has yet to come upon the impenitent.

A wise man touched a hidden nerve of truth when he said, "Sorrow is better than laughter, for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better" (Eccl. 7:3). I'm not wise enough to explain that mysterious saying, but you can readily understand that a person who has known no tears of sympathy for someone else is often painfully shallow. Don't be ashamed or afraid to be like Jesus. If God wants to build a chicken coop, He doesn't need to dig a foundation; but if He builds a skyscraper, He has to. That's what He wants to build out of you; let Him do so, and "faint not" (Heb. 12:5-7).

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: September 20, 1999.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

The Glorious Reality of a Bad Dream

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Have you ever woke up at night from a bad dream in which you felt lonely, rootless, not knowing who you were or where? Then in a few moments as your mental faculties were re-activated, you began to remember all the good news about yourself. It was like turning your cold computer on, and in a few moments the software in the "lifeless" machine restores itself to what your computer was when you went to sleep that night. It regains its identity.

The Holy Spirit permits us to have these fleeting moments of being "orphans," a taste of what it means to "perish." Then He reminds us of John 3:16: the heavenly Father loves you so much that He gave His only Son for you. He did it; it's been done, "that whosoever [that's you] believes should not perish, but have everlasting life." He has redeemed you from being an orphan; by election you are a member of His family, a child of God. As you recover from your bad dream, all this glorious Reality is conveyed to you by the renewing of the Holy Spirit.

Romans 8 was being demonstrated before your eyes: "Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit [Himself] beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ. ... " (vss. 15-17).

The Holy Spirit convicts you that you can call the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ your Father! You can pray the 23rd Psalm--He is your Shepherd. Do you remember when you were a child how secure you felt if your father was with you? He never threatened to disown you with curses if you should make a mistake! You never got the idea he was planning for you to fail. You never had a sense that he had you on probation, that you were always almost on the skids with him. No, you were his beloved child. That's how Abraham "believed in the Lord" when his faith was counted for righteousness. God had no plans for him to fail! That's why He never threatened him with curses, never asked him to promise anything. It was Father-Son business, "heart-religion," not "under law."

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: February 15, 2003.

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Will God Ever Have a Perfect Church?

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

An important question is being asked: Is it possible that God will ever have on earth a perfect church? Not just one tiny little congregation out in the backwoods somewhere far away from civilization where its members will be isolated and insulated from the devil's temptations, where there's no TV, no malls, no radio even. No, that would not be a fair test. The question is: Can God ever have a perfect worldwide church--in the world but not of the world--out in the midst of all the evil that the devil can produce?

The question itself is controversial with many saying a decided No. "Nobody is perfect, so how can God ever have a perfect church?" If we let Paul's words mean what they say, the answer becomes Yes! He says Christ "gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar [unusual] people, eager to do good" (Titus 2:14). The word "peculiar" doesn't mean outlandish, but they stand out, different, unique.

Then there is Ephesians 5:25-27: Christ "gave Himself" with the purpose in view of having "a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing." The word "church" doesn't mean some tiny little group of fanatics out in the woods. And there is in Ephesians 5 the idea that this church is to be the Bride of Christ. In fact, the expression "without spot" is quoted from the Song of Solomon 4:7, again speaking of the Bride of Christ at last ready for the wedding. (You never saw a wedding where the bride's dress was dirty, have you?) Christ will not marry some super-woman; but the corporate body of His people are brought to view in Revelation 14:1-5, 12, 15, 16 as a church in whose "mouth there is no guile, for they are without fault before the throne of God." And they finally surface again in 19:7, 8 where the Bride is seen as at last "making herself ready."

But back again to the objection: "Nobody's perfect." Granted; but the fact that there never has been a church as yet "ready" to be the Bride of Christ doesn't mean that it's impossible or that it will never happen. It won't be a "works program" or ecclesiastical promotion that accomplishes Christ's purpose. It will be a "faith trip," something to do with that phrase: "Christ gave Himself."

Here at last will be a group of people who in a corporate, united sense have grown up out of their childish understanding to grasp "the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge," that led Him to "give Himself" for us (see Eph 3:18, 19). Let's start growing up today!

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: November 23, 1999.

Friday, June 17, 2011

YOU Are the Light of the World

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Why did Jesus tell His people in Matthew 5:14, "You are the light of the world" and then in John 8:12, He said of Himself, "I am the light of the world"? Is there a contradiction?

Not if you understand how those who believe in Him are "in Him." They identify with Him; in fact, that's what faith is in its true definition, it is identifying with Christ, becoming one with Him, so that as He shines, the believer shines with reflected light from Him. If the believer has come out of darkness into the light, he appreciates how Christ is indeed "the light of the world," how it is true that "in Him is light, and no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5), how "in Him" is life, "and the life was the light of men" (John 1:4). Those are very simple one-syllable Anglo-Saxon words, but what depth of meaning lies in them! "And the light shines in darkness, and the darkness overcomes it not" (vs. 5).

What does it mean? Christ is the source of all the love and light and joy there is in this world. Even the pagans who know Him not, what pleasure and happiness they have ever experienced is a gift from Him. "That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world," which must include those who know Him not (vs. 9)!

If it were not for Christ and what He has accomplished for the world itself, not one human being anywhere would ever know anything but the densest darkness of despair. And that darkness would be the second death itself. That is why Paul says in Hebrews 2:9 that Christ has "tasted death for every man," has endured that darkness of soul that is the torture of the second death for every human being, that is, has paid the price of the punishment for his sins. That is how He Himself is "the light of the world." Something to be profoundly thankful for!

Now, Jesus says, "YOU are the light of the world." Tell the Good News to someone, don't block it or cover it up with legalism. And don't be afraid that telling such Good News will encourage him to go on sinning; it's the only way he can overcome sin!

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: June 21, 1998.