Deceptive Darkness … One True Light

I want to share a quick thought about a recent sermon I heard at my church.

The sermon was called I Have Come as a Light to the World  and it was about how Jesus is the one true Light.

It got me thinking …

Some kinds of darkness are painfully easy to see: murder, mayhem, violence. These are obviously all darkness.

But what about the darkness that seems like light, but really isn’t? What if there’s a darkness that looks like light, so you don’t even know to be alarmed?

You see, if we center our lives on morality, we are in darkness. If we seek to be right before God in our own strength, we are in darkness. The only true center for our lives is Jesus Christ. I think it’s easy to think that what we should be seeking is doing good, but that’s not the ultimate goal. Seeking Christ is the ultimate goal, and resting in His good. (And doing good should then flow from a heart of thankfulness for His work, and not from a heart seeking justification by doing those good things.)

I recently read The Reason for God by Pastor Tim Keller, and he talks about how true Christianity, while it can be called a religion, is really different from every other religion, and why the solution has to be Jesus:

The answer is that there is a profound and fundamental difference between the way that other religions tell us to seek salvation and the way described in the gospel of Jesus. All the other major faiths have founders who are teachers that show the way to salvation. Only Jesus claimed to actually be the way of salvation himself. This difference is so great that, even though Christianity can certainly be called a religion in the broader sense, for the purposes of discussion we will use the term “religion” in this chapter to refer to “salvation through moral effort” and “gospel” to refer to “salvation through grace.”

Is it possible that you are falling into the trap of “salvation through moral effort” to make you right with God, instead of “salvation through grace”? Abandon all to him! Only Christ’s goodness will save!

I heartily recommend The Reason for God for believers and skeptics alike. Keller takes on the doubts people have about faith with kindness and integrity. Another book I heartily recommend, that may help with seeing the true Light, is The Prodigal God, also by Tim Keller.

Please feel free to contact me and/or comment to continue this dialogue.  If there is one thing that’s important in this new year, it’s trusting in Christ, and Him alone. I want you to know Jesus, the one true Light!

Jesus said:

“All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.”

John 6:37

 

May your New Year be full of family, friends, but mostly Him!

Blessings to you,

Noel 🙂