SECOND QUARTER 2024
SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #3
APRIL 20, 2024
“LIGHT SHINES IN DARKNESS”

 

“But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus' sake. For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to [give] the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:3-6, NKJV).

Recently I found myself in the country of Chad, at a mission hospital in Bere. This is very close to the equator, and so the sun sets predictably around 6 p.m. It also sets rather quickly, and the darkness descends on the hospital campus. At this point, even if someone knows where the paths are, there is a strong recommendation to use a flashlight to scan the area in front of their feet. Why?

Scorpions, the stings of which are extremely painful! Some small and tan colored, blending in with their surroundings. I was told that a student missionary was able to kill 120 of them in a few hours, finding them using a black light, which picks up their fluorescence to ultraviolet (UV) light. One theory is that they use their sensitivity to UV light to stay in the dark, which is their preference. At any rate, my decision was to follow the advice! Especially since I was wearing sandals (it is very hot there). I desired the pain free path. I believed, and therefore I walked in the light.

Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path“ (Psalm 119:105). “The entrance of Your words gives light; It gives understanding to the simple” (Psalm 119:130).

The early church lost their way because of losing the light, settling into the darkness of compromise with the spirit of paganism, which is self-exaltation. It is of course also the spirit of the “liar from the beginning,” who brings in distrust and unbelief of the word of God by questioning, reinterpreting, and replacing what God has clearly communicated with fallen human reasoning. The sting of sin was magnified by this compromise.

Although the 1260 years of papal supremacy is past, and God intended the light of the reformation to shine brighter and brighter to the end of time, the same struggle with darkness continues. After 1844 the light shone brightly through a deeper understanding of the cleansing work of Christ in the Heavenly Sanctuary, and then in 1888 the idea was that the latter rain, the loud cry of Christ and His Righteousness would appear with “ten times the power” of the midnight cry (see Ellen G. White, Spalding and Magan Collection, p. 4) to finish the cleansing work. What does it look like when the light shines brightly?

Ellen herself sat in meetings where this light was manifested.

 “I have attended all but two morning meetings. At eight o'clock Bro. Jones speaks upon the subject of justification by faith, and great interest is manifested. There is a growth in faith and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. There are quite a number who have not had an opportunity to hear upon this subject before but they are taking it in, and are being fed with large morsels from the Lord's table. The universal testimony from those who have spoken has been that this message of light and truth which has come to our people is just the truth for this time and wherever they go among the churches, light, and relief, and the blessing of God is sure to come in. We have a feast of fat things and when we see souls grasping the light we are rejoiced, looking unto Jesus who is the Author and Finisher of our faith. Christ is the great pattern; his character must be our character. All excellence is in him. Turning from man and every other model with open face we behold Jesus in all his glory. And their minds are filled with the grand and overpowering ideas of his excellency; every other object sinks into insignificance, and every part of moral discipline is lost which does not promote their likeness to his image. I see heights and depths that we may reach accepting every ray of light and going forward to a greater light. The end is near and God forbid that we shall be asleep at this time.”  —Ellen G. White, 1888 Materials, p. 447, emphases supplied here and onward.

Unfortunately, our unwillingness to allow the cleansing of the heart sanctuary has compromised our ability to appreciate and walk in the light, both then and now.

“The Christian world in this age are inclined to accept the sophistries of Satan in the place of the words of God. Many have separated themselves from God by wicked works, and they love not to behold God, or to retain him in their knowledge. They do not want to see God any more than did Adam when he hid himself from the approach of his heavenly Father. But let us not follow the example of Adam; for not one of the human family can hide himself from God. You may turn your face from God so that you can not see him, but you can not place yourself where God will not see you; for the darkness is as the light to him, and he knoweth every secret thing. —Ellen G. White,  Signs of the Times, October 3, 1895, par. 4.

 “It is sin that darkens our minds and dims our perceptions. As sin is purged from our hearts, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, illuminating His word, and reflected from the face of nature, more and more fully will declare Him ‘merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth.’ 

 “In His light shall we see light, until mind and heart and soul are transformed into the image of His holiness.” —Ellen G. White, Sons and Daughters of God, p. 339.

Both in the great falling away and in our own history, the darkness comes from losing sight of Jesus, of beholding in His face the knowledge of the glory of God. We lose our affinity for sin as our affinity for Christ grows.

“The Lord in His great mercy sent a most precious message to His people through Elders Waggoner and Jones. This message was to bring more prominently before the world the uplifted Saviour, the sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. It presented justification

through faith in the Surety; it invited the people to receive the righteousness of Christ, which is made manifest in obedience to all the commandments of God. Many had lost sight of Jesus. They needed to have their eyes directed to His divine person, His merits, and His changeless love for the human family. All power is given into His hands, that He may dispense rich gifts unto men, imparting the priceless gift of His own righteousness to the helpless human agent. This is the message that God commanded to be given to the world. It is the third angel's message, which is to be proclaimed with a loud voice, and attended with the outpouring of His Spirit in a large measure.” —Ellen G. White, Testimonies to Ministers, p. 91.

Jones articulates this connection:

“‘God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.' In connection with that I will read: 'But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.’ What is His glory? Let us be sure of that. Here is a message which we had some time ago, to which I will refer you, on page 16 of the Bulletin:

“‘The work will be cut short in righteousness. The message of Christ's righteousness is to sound from one end of the world to the other. This is the glory of God which closes the work of the third angel.’

“Then that glory is that righteousness, that goodness, that character, of His own. Where then do we see righteousness alone? [Congregation: ‘In the face of Jesus Christ.’] As we look at that, what effect has it upon us? It changes us into the same image--transforms us into the same image from righteousness to righteousness, from glory to glory, from character to character, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” —A.T. Jones, General Conference Daily Bulletin, March 7, 1893, p. 497.

“Is it too much, then, for us to think that sinful flesh, such as we, worthless dust and ashes, as are we--is it too much for us to think that such as we can manifest the glory of the Lord, which is refracted through Jesus Christ--the glory of the Lord shining from the face of Jesus Christ? It may be that you are clay; it may be that you are the lowest of the earth; it may be that you are sinful as any man is, but simply put yourself there and let that glory shine upon you as God would have it and then you will glorify God. O, how often the discouraged question is asked, ‘How can such a person as I am glorify God?’ Why, dear brother or sister, it is not in you. It is in the glory. The virtue is not in you to make it shine any more than it is in the mud to make the rainbow shine. It is our art to furnish a place for the glory to fall, that it may shine in the beautiful reflected rays of the glory of God. The virtue is not in us, it is in the glory. That is what it is to glorify God.

“It requires the emptying of self that God in Christ may be glorified. The mind of Christ does that, and then God is glorified. Though we have been sinful all our lives and our flesh is sinful flesh, God is glorified, not by merit that is in us but by the merit that is in the glory. And that is the purpose for which God has created every being in the universe. It is that every being shall be a means of reflecting and making known the brightness of the glory of the character of God as revealed in Jesus Christ.

“Away back yonder there was one who was so bright and glorious by the glory of the Lord that he began to give himself credit for that and he proposed to shine of himself. He proposed to glorify himself. He proposed to reflect light from himself. But he has not shined any since with any real light. All has been darkness since. That is the origin of darkness in the universe. And the results that have come from that, from the beginning until the last result that shall ever come from it, are simply the results of that one effort to manifest self, to let self shine, to glorify self. And the end of that is that it all perishes and comes to naught.

“To glorify self is to come to naught, is to cease to be. To glorify God is to continue eternally.” —A.T. Jones, General Conference Bulletin, February 27, 1895, p. 380.

Waggoner further elaborates:

The Light of Life.-"The life was the light of men." This is most literally true, for since all things were created and still exist by His life, the light of the sun, moon, and stars is simply the light of His life. In this, as in the resurrection of the dead, the Lord teaches us by those things that we can see, of those things which we cannot see. As the light of the sun is not diminished by being shared by hundreds of millions, so Christ's life is not lessened although He gives it to many. As each one gets the full strength of the sun, so each soul gets the fulness of Christ's life. Jesus said, "I am the Light of the world; he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." John viii. 12.

Light from the Word.-In the Word is light, and since it is the same Word that we find in the Scriptures, it must needs be that "the opening of Thy words giveth light." Ps. cxix. 130, R.V. We do not get light on the Word. That would be like getting light on the sun. The light is there already; all that is needed is to open it, and the light will shine forth. "Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." Ps. cxix. 105. Then follow the Word; for "if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin." 1 John i. 7.

Light In Darkness.-"And the Light shineth in darkness." When Christ came, then was fulfilled the word of the prophet, "The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death, light is sprung up." Matt. iv. 16. "Darkness was upon the face of the deep. And God said, Let there be light, and there was light." Gen. i. 2. Just as God commanded the light to shine out of darkness, so He shines in the darkness of our sinful hearts, "to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." 2 Cor. iv. 6. The place for light to shine is in the darkness. So when darkness covers the earth, and gross darkness the people, Christians, into whose hearts light has come, are to hold forth the Word of Life and "shine as lights in the world." Phil. ii. 15, 16.

The Incomprehensible Light.-"The darkness comprehended it not." Darkness can never comprehend light. There is nothing in common between them. "What communion hath light with darkness." 2 Cor. vi. 14. Darkness does not become light, but light shines in darkness, and drives it away.

But the word "comprehend" means to contain, to enclose, as in Isa. xl. 12, where we read of the dust of the earth comprehended in a measure. Darkness cannot shut in the light. As nothing is hid from the heat of the sun, so "the Sun of Righteousness" shall dispel all the darkness, and bring in the perfect day. In that day when the darkness is for ever dispersed, those who have loved darkness rather than light, will be scattered with it, so that no place will be found for them; but the children of light will "shine forth as the sun.”

Light for All.-Jesus is the Light of the world; so He is the true Light, "which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." Or, as some render it, In coming into the world, He lights every man. The point is that all do have the light. To them that sit in darkness light is sprung up. That

life-giving light has shone upon all, and is still shining. "By the righteousness of One the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life." Rom. v 18. God's love embraces all the world, and every man in it. To all He has given "His unspeakable gift." What a sad awakening it will be at last when men realise what was within their grasp, and what they let go. Let all give good heed to the words of Christ: "Yet a little while is the light with you; walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you. . . . While ye have the light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light." John xii. 35, 36. —E. J. Waggoner, Present Truth UK, November 21, 1895, pp. 740, 741.

You know that when you look right into anyone's eye, you see, in the pupil, a tiny picture of yourself. This is painted in the eye by the light reflected from you. Think then what will take place if you turn your eyes to the face of Jesus Christ, which will reflect into them all the glory of God. The light shining from His face will paint His image, not in your eyes only, but in "the tables of the heart," if they are made ready by His Holy Spirit to receive it, And so you may become a living picture of the Lord Jesus Christ; for "God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."

He not only shines upon you in the face of Jesus Christ so that you may see Him there, and learn to know and love Him; but that you, by "beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord," may be "changed into the same image." Then you will be able to give the light of the knowledge of His glory and beauty to those who have not yet learned to look into the face of Christ for themselves. And as the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ shines forth from you, there will be power in that light to change others also into the same glorious image. —E. J. Waggoner, Present Truth UK, August 11, 1898, p. 506.

May we walk in the light as He is in the light, be cleansed from all sin, and shed the light of the love of God revealed in and through Christ, is my prayer.

 

~Todd Guthrie