“THE LIGHT!”

 John 12:27-36                                  (ESV)

The Son of Man Must Be Lifted Up

“[27] “Now is MY soul troubled. And WHAT SHALL I SAY? ‘FATHER, SAVE ME FROM THIS HOUR’? But FOR THIS PURPOSE I have come to this hour. [28] FATHER, Glorify YOUR NAME.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have Glorified it, and I will Glorify it again.” [29] The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to HIM.” [30] JESUS answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not MINE. [31] Now is the judgment of this world; NOW WILL THE RULER OF THIS WORLD BE CAST OUT. [32] And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” [33] HE said this to show by what kind of death HE was going to die. [34] So the crowd answered him, “We have heard from the Law that the CHRIST remains forever. How can YOU say that the SON of MAN must be lifted up? Who is this SON of MAN?” [35] So JESUS said to them, “”THE LIGHT” is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have “THE LIGHT”, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. [36] While you have “THE LIGHT”, believe in “THE LIGHT”, that you may become sons of LIGHT.””

GOD IN THE FLESH, JESUS HIMSELF, “THE LIGHT”, didn’t come to earth to set up HIS KINGDOM as humans imagine Heaven.  The natural man cannot SEE the things of GOD.  In 1 Corinthians 2:9-10 Paul remembers Isaiah 64:4 when he writes “But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what GOD has prepared for those who love him”—these things GOD HAS REVEALED TO US THROUGH THE SPIRIT. For the SPIRIT searches everything, EVEN THE DEPTHS OF GOD.”  The ONLY WAY we can SEE the things of GOD is because “THE LIGHT” illuminates in such a way that our vision is TRANSFORMED to SEE what will Glorify Heaven.

The god of “this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4), the RULER OF “THIS WORLD”, WILL BE CAST OUT in the end!  Scripture doesn’t mean IT MIGHT HAPPEN, it says he WILL BE CAST OUT!  JESUS, the only begotten SON, had to humble HIMSELF (Philippians 2:8-10), so what makes us think we can ELEVATE ourselves and GOD BLESS our efforts?  FOR THIS PURPOSE JESUS came into “this world” to redeem THE CHOSEN OF GOD, because we couldn’t get to Heaven without HIM!

When we FINALLY SEE “THE LIGHT” and recognize that our ONLY HOPE lies in “THE LIGHT”, only then can we understand the DARKNESS that we were formerly enveloped!  The closer we get to “THE LIGHT”, the more we find how needy we truly are!!!