Now let us consider another way to state the matter. Hear what Christ said about Himself in John 8.
Please turn with me to Matthew 5, verse 14. Now He says the world is in darkness apart from Me, and He is the only light the world can ever receive. Everything else is just an attempt by people trying to find light, and they inevitably fail. There is no light or dignity apart from Christ, but notice what He says about us in
So you are the light of the world. In other words, because He is what He is and because of our relationship to Him, we also become the light of the world. It is challenging for us to realize and comprehend this miracle, but it has to do with dignity. We are just a small group in this pagan world and sadly sometimes we are ashamed of ourselves and sin leads to shame.
The state of mind of being embarrassed or ashamed of God's way of life manifests itself in a feeling of inferiority and unworthiness. We are restrained by shame in a way that interferes with our commitment to Jesus Christ and His teachings.
When Christ used the phrase ashamed of Me and My words, He was contrasting the willingness to lose one's life for His sake. But the truth about us is this we are the light of the world. Jesus Christ said that about us. This dark evil world knows no light and has no spiritual light apart from the light from Christ that we are reflecting.
Considering our dignity, what Christ is and what He makes us, is inevitable because of our relationship with Him. Now hear what Christ reveals to the Laodiceans and the rest of the church in the book of Revelation. I am going to just read this to you very quickly.
So we must overcome our problems, and if we do have any sense of shame, we should certainly overcome that as fast as we can.
So the New Testament portrays Jesus as the personification of light, of divine illumination.
In John 8:12, Jesus said, I am the light of the world. And He clearly stated that those who rejected this divine light will bring judgment upon themselves. Sin separates us from God, and if we are separated from God, we are separated from spiritual enlightenment, from spiritual understanding.
If God and His Son are light, then light also symbolizes salvation and new life. The individual who does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been done in God.
So when Jesus spoke of Himself as the light of the world, those who follow Him are described as people who will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. According to I Peter 2:9, God's own special people are those who have been called out of darkness into His marvelous light. And when light exposes something, it becomes illuminated because anything that becomes visible is light, as Paul explains in Ephesians 5:8.
