John 8:12, 31-36
There is no uncertainty in the Gospel or Christ. The difficulties which men imagine they see in it are all in themselves, and these will vanish as soon as they accept it. This assurance which Jesus gave is true: "I am the light of the world; he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." (John 8:12) The light of life is the very essence, the perfection, of light; it is light which one has in himself even as he has life because it is his life.
Life, light, and love, are three things that agree in one. "He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes." There is, however, no need for anybody to walk in darkness, "because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth." (1 John 2:8-11) Whoever walks in darkness walks only in the darkness that is in himself. "Darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people; but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee." (Isa. 60:2) If the darkness were primarily upon the earth, it would be deeper there than on the people; but inasmuch as the denser darkness covers the people, it is evidence that the seat of darkness is in the people themselves. "Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold." (Matt. 24:12) When love waxes cold, the light goes out, and death comes.
"Love is of God," for God is love. He is love because He is life and light. "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all." (1 John 1:5) Jesus Christ is "the brightness of His glory." (Heb. 1:3) He is the true light that lighteth everyone that comes into the world, because His light is His own life, and none live except by Him; the life is the light of men. (John 1:4, 9) He is the Word, and so it is that the entrance of the Word of God gives light. But this light is the light of life and love, for His commandment is life everlasting (John 12:50), and "this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments." (1 John 5:3) Note how the words of Jesus are introduced: "Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, "I am the light of tile world." When had He said this before?--At no time had He said it directly, that we have any record of, but He had said only the day before, "He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." (John 7:38) Believing on Him is receiving Him (John 1:12); thus the living water that flows from the one who believes on Him, is from the indwelling Christ, who is the fountain of living waters. We see therefore that since life is light, the water of life is the source of the light of those who follow Christ. How often we speak of "sparkling water." That may most truly be said of the river of life, because it is "a flood of light."
The blood is the life. We are saved by the life of Christ, that is, we have redemption through His blood. Everything therefore that is life to us is but a manifestation of the blood of Christ. We must not think that the blood of Christ is merely that portion that issued from the wounds of His body on Calvary, and that it fell on the ground and was drunk up by it, so that all talk about being washed in the blood and drinking the blood is only figurative. Not by any means. His blood is incorruptible, and it is real. It is today the life of every man on earth. It comes to us in the food that we eat, in the water we drink, in the air we breathe, and in the light that warms and cheers us. We must get rid of our narrow and gross ideas of Christ's life. His life is the Spirit, since the indwelling Spirit is Christ come to dwell in the heart. God manifests Himself in an infinite variety of ways. We have in our own bodies proof of the fact that the blood of Christ--our life--exists in all things that support our life, for our blood is formed from the food we eat, the water we drink, the air we breathe, and the sunlight. If we would see and acknowledge Christ in all these blessings of life, we should be walking in the light as He is in the light, and the blood of Christ would cleanse us from all sin. Is not the Gospel indeed good news? It is the good news that to every man is salvation come in the life of Christ, which shines in the light, and which breathes in the air. Truly, he who is not saved has no cause of complaint against God.
"Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on Him, If ye continue in My word, then are ye My disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." (John 8:31, 32) Again we repeat that certainty accompanies the Gospel of Christ. Whoever wishes to do the will of God, shall know. By faith we understand. We are not to guess at truth, not to speculate about it, not to be "ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth," but to know it absolutely. Is it too much for a man to say that he knows that he lives? Do you chide a man for saying, "I am alive?" That is knowledge that a man has not to learn; he has not to go outside of himself for it; he does not need to ask anybody's opinion about it. But Jesus Christ is "the way, and the truth, and the life;" the life is the truth; the true light that lights every man is the truth itself. So every man may and should be able to know the truth as absolutely as he knows that he lives. By what means can it be determined that a man is alive?--By seeing if there is motion. If the heart beats, if we can detect the faintest flutter in any artery, showing that the blood is moving, we know that the man is alive. So even a dying man will demonstrate to us that life is not yet extinct, by moving a finger or turning his eyes. How much more can that man in whom there is abundance of life be sure of the fact. He can move his arms freely; he can leap and shout; there is free action in every muscle. He knows that he lives, and if some croaking skeptic should chide him for his positiveness, saying, "You should not express yourself so confidently; you may say that you think you live, or you hope you are alive, but it is altogether too presumptuous for you to say that you know you are alive, at least until you have had a council of doctors," he would laugh in his face. This same joyous confidence may anybody have as to his absolute knowledge of the truth.
Just as we know that we live, by the working of life in us, so may we know the truth by what it does. It gives freedom. "Everyone that committeth sin is the bondservant of sin. And the bondservant abideth not in the house forever; the Son abideth ever. If, therefore, the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." There is no bondage but sin, even as sin alone is death. But the truth is life, and the truth of life makes the conscious possessor of it free from sin. Truth is not a theory, a dogma, a creed, but it is life--the life. Whatever a man holds that does not make any difference in his life, is not truth; but everything that gives a man freedom from something that binds him, is truth.
The statement of truth is not the truth itself, any more than the recipe for making bread is food. A man might have a perfect knowledge of the proper food elements for the nourishment of the body, and might know how they should be combined, and might be able to tell just how every dish should be prepared and might starve to death while telling it. Even so a man may have a perfect theory of truth and yet not know the truth, because he has not yielded himself to its quickening influences; he may die while talking about life. A man knows only what he experiences, and experience is life. Only that man knows the truth, in whom the truth is the life.
There is no attempt in this to disparage statements of truth. It is well to have a perfect form; but the form of a man, without life, is nothing. A man may say, "I believe," and go on to recite a creed in which the keenest theologian or Bible student can detect no flaw, and still be densely ignorant of the truth. No creed or formula, however true it is, is the truth, for the truth is the life. For example, chemists tell us that the formula for sugar is C6H12O6. That is, sugar is composed of six molecules of carbon, twelve of hydrogen, and six of oxygen. Now a person may know all that, and may repeat the formula a thousand times without once having a sweet taste in his mouth. That formula is not sugar; it simply stands to the eye of the chemist instead of the word; it is a description, but it is not the thing itself.
There is not a soul that has not been at some time conscious of being in bondage. "For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other; so that ye cannot do the things that ye would." (Gal. 5:17) This is something real; it is no theory. When a man wishes to do something, and finds himself bound, or is compelled to do something that he does not wish to do, he is painfully conscious of the reality. Now if that which he holds as truth enables him to do the good that he would do, and to refrain from the evil that he would not do; yea, more than this, if it enables him to wish to do the good which before he shrank from, and to abhor the evil which he once loved, then to the extent that this is true, he has the truth. The truth makes free. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" (2 Cor. 3:17), "because the Spirit is truth." (1 John 5:6) Let nobody rest content that he has all the truth, because he knows something of this freedom. Many a near-sighted man has supposed that he could see as well as anybody, until he put on spectacles. It is possible for a person to become so accustomed to a cramped position as to feel quite comfortable in it. To move from it may cause him pain, but when he is fully aroused he is conscious of a buoyancy and freedom that he did not know before. The ignorant man may think that he knows everything; but when knowledge actually comes to him, he knows it, and knows that formerly he was ignorant. A man may be mistaken in his ideas of knowledge and freedom while he is ignorant and in bondage, but when light and freedom come there is no mistaking them. "Always more to follow" is true of God's gifts; so let every soul know that there is always greater measure of freedom and larger measure of life yet before him.
Jesus Christ is the truth. Notice how He uses the words "the Son" as synonymous with "the truth." He says: "If ye continue in My word, then are ye My disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. ... If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." So just as one may know the truth, so may we know Christ. It is possible to make His personal acquaintance, and know Him better than we know anybody else in the world. "We know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know Him that is true, and we are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life." (1 John 5:20) He who knows not this knows nothing; he who knows this truth has the key to "all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge."
--February 23, 1899