107. Not remain in Darkness
John 12:46 I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness.
Not staying in darkness is really a more remarkable promise than we may realize at first, because we do not normally realize how deep is the darkness in which we live on a regular basis. Like the frog in the kettle of boiling water we do not notice the darkness if we just get used to it and don’t know any better. We walk in the valley of the shadow of death, listen to the dark lies of the Devil, and live in the dark evil of daily sin in and around us.
The good news is that we don’t have to stay there. The light has come, it pushes back the darkness, and it brightens every day. Jesus is the Light that has overcome the darkness of Sin, Death, and Devil. Once we have come into the light we never want to go back into the darkness again. We are enlightened enough to know that sins from darkness produce more darkness.
Darkness has no power against the light. The Gospel is the light switch. The only thing darkness can do is lie to us long enough to get us to turn off the light ourselves. Our sinful flesh listens to the lies, switches off the light of the Gospel, and then gropes in the darkness. However, one flick of the light switch chases away the darkness and we see. The light switch is the forgiveness of sins announced in the Gospel, in whatever way we hear it. Choosing to live in darkness is a problem but sinners can’t solve it (we can’t stop); the real problem we deal with is closing ourselves off from the light of the Gospel, simply turning off the switch.
We may not always notice the light going on, but it does; the light turns on and the darkness is gone. We need to simply believe the promise that we are no longer in the darkness and we don’t have to stay there. Let the Light shine!