To those in the first century, walking in the darkness meant there was trouble. If they were forced to travel in the dark, they would have felt lost, vulnerable, and afraid. Jesus taught his disciples that he—his presence—gave light to the darkness in the world.

Sometimes the darkness seems to have invaded our lives even though we belong to Christ. Those are good times to pause and consider the truth of John 8:12. If our lives are filled with darkness, then our lives are not filled with Christ. Who or what might we be choosing to “follow” instead of Jesus?

We can’t avoid the distractions of living in a fallen world. We can work to not “follow” those distractions and their influence in our lives. Jesus said if we follow him, we will not walk in darkness. Instead, we will have the light of life.

Our witness to others may best be described using those words. When people are with us, do they experience the light of Christ in our words and actions? The reason our witness matters is that the light we are able to share is the light of “life” – eternal life. People can see the presence of Christ in us, and then his light can draw people away from the darkness of this world.

As the world grows darker, the light of Christ will become more and more visible. God will allow whatever is necessary for people to come to the realization that they desperately need his love and salvation. 

Christians are the visible and tangible light of Christ in the world. Jesus told his disciples they were the “light of the world.” Then he said, “A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5: 14–16).

Whatever your plans are for tomorrow, do everything with the understanding that we have been given the ability to lead others out of the darkness in the world and toward the “light of life.” We have been given that light because we have been given the Spirit of Christ. Now, we must become the lampstands who lift his light to others. 

Jesus is the model for our own faith, and the pathway for our eternal relationship with God. We have been given a high and holy privilege. May the Lord help us shine his light to others.

The prophet Isaiah wrote about the coming Messiah seven hundred years before Jesus was born. Most of the people of Israel had come to believe their Messiah would free them from Roman tyranny. They expected the Messiah to be an earthly king, who would help them become the leading nation of the world, like King David and his son, King Solomon had done during their reigns.. Isaiah had told them about Jesus, but most people in Israel wanted someone different.

Jesus didn’t come to save our earthly lives, or to promise prosperity on earth. He came for the sake of our eternal lives, knowing that mankind was unable to escape their sins without his sacrifice.

People often choose to live for themselves instead of living for God. When we break God’s commandments, we transgress. We have iniquities because we act immorally and treat people unfairly. Those are sins in our lives because we know to do better and sin anyway. For that, Jesus allowed his hands and feet to be pierced by nails. He allowed his heart to be crushed in sacrifice for our sins.

Jesus cried out from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). We deserved to be separated from God but Jesus bore our chastisement so that we could have his peace.

Our lives have been healed, eternally. We should have been pierced, crushed, and separated from God’s blessings, but Jesus paid our debt so we could receive all we needed to be saved. Jesus gave everything so that we could live eternally with God.

Jesus is the model for our own faith, and the pathway for our eternal relationship with God. How should we sacrifice our lives, so others can gain eternal life? Pray for the wisdom and devotion to live the life Jesus modeled for each of us.

If someone asked you, “What was the greatest gift you have ever received,” how would you answer? If we were sitting at a dinner table we might mention an engagement ring, a spouse, or healthy children. Most of us could name many gifts, but none compares to our gifts eternal.

In many ways, our salvation was received as a “gift basket.” It was a one time gift with many things inside. Some items included in our gift of salvation are

the promise of eternal life.

the assurance of forgiveness.

the hope of heaven.

the promise of eternal reward.

the peace of knowing we belong to an eternal family.

the constant presence of Jesus Christ through his Holy Spirit.

the God-produced abilities to serve our Kingdom-purpose.

Most gift baskets arrive covered with a clear wrapping and tied with a bow. So it is with our gift of salvation. It is possible to own the gift, see what is ours, but never really tear into it and use what we have been given.

Some Christians work as if their promise of salvation still needs to be earned. Some never live as the forgiven, loved child of God. Some still wonder if heaven is real, and if they will go there. Some live knowing they are saved, but not living for their eternal rewards. Some of God’s children live lonely lives, not understanding what a large family they belong to. And some Christians still live according to their old nature, rather than submitted to the guiding presence of the Holy Spirit. 

Why is the Holy Spirit our most important gift? Because we could never pay the cost for his Presence in our lives. Because we could never work to earn all of his blessings in our lives. Because only God could give what we could never have acquired for ourselves. 

Jesus is the model for our own faith, and the pathway for our eternal relationship with God. Jesus used every gift God gave him to serve his Father’s purpose. Is there anything you have left unused from your basket? Jesus said, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). Use and enjoy all the gifts Jesus came to give.

After God created the world, and everything in it, he rested. God had completed his creation, his plan for the world, and “it was good.” Jesus spoke from the cross saying, “It is finished,” and it was then that he gave up his Spirit to God. There is a beginning and an end to all things on earth, but in heaven, all things are eternal.

The author of Hebrews was probably not speaking about heaven when he wrote about the Sabbath rest for the people of God, at least not only about heaven. Instead, God’s rest is available for the people of God now, and ultimately ours in heaven.

Hebrews was written to Christians who had come from the Old Covenant, rule-driven faith of the first-century rabbinic teaching. The Pharisees had written and added hundreds of extra laws to obey, and they taught that the laws were necessary for obedience to God. The end result of all they added was the sense that pleasing God was impossible.

The writer of Hebrews said the “Sabbath rest” belonged to God’s people. It was the chance to rest from our works just as God had rested from his. What did he mean? He was explaining that the path to our salvation was complete. When a person places their faith in Christ as their Lord, there is no more need to “work out” a way for our salvation. When Jesus said, “it is finished” the road to heaven was paved for all who place their faith and trust in the sacrificial offering of his life.

Christians have no need to “work” our way to heaven because we can’t. We can rest knowing that the work has been done, and we have been received into God’s family. We can say, “it is good” and rest from our work. The future of our souls is in the safe hands of Jesus. 

We serve God now, not to earn his love, but in gratitude for his love. We aren’t working for our salvation, we are living our sanctification, the process of being made holy. Scripture says, “Jesus increased in wisdom, and in stature, and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52). Jesus is the model for our own faith, and the pathway for our eternal relationship with God. Jesus didn’t need to grow, he chose to. 

We don’t need to grow to be certain of our salvation. The work is done, and we can rest in that knowledge. But, we need to model our lives after Jesus. We choose to grow so that we can become more like him each day. One day, we will enjoy our Sabbath rest eternally, in his presence.

Jesus is still the same one Peter walked toward on the water. Jesus is the same one that Thomas reached out to touch. Jesus is still the one that sat with the woman at the well. Jesus is still the one that strode into the temple and turned over the tables of the money changers. Jesus is still the one who looked Pontius Pilate in the eyes. Jesus is still the one who confronted Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus.

That same Jesus will reach out to every Christian one day and say, “It’s time to come home.” Jesus is the same now as he has always been, and always will be. And one day, we will meet him, face to face.

One of the most powerful aspects of our Christian faith is that we share a love and faith for Jesus that every generation of humanity has experienced. King David loved and worshiped the same God we do today. It’s important to see all of God’s children as part of one, amazing eternal family.

Church history is a story marked by change. Everything on earth changes, including our churches. But, the worship of God is consistently defined in his word. John 4:24 says, “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” We share the same worship of God as everyone who has worshiped in “spirit and truth.”

Jesus has not changed, therefore his parables are still truth. Jesus would teach the same lessons to his disciples today that he taught to the disciples in the first century. God’s truth is as unchanging as the Author of the truth.

One day in heaven, we will live fully experiencing God’s unchanging truth. Until then, we must choose to be faithful to Jesus and his unchanging words. Are there areas in your life or your thinking that have shifted away from the truth of God’s word? Has your view of God, or his Son, become something different than is revealed in Scripture? It is good to remember that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.” 

Christians have the same Scripture, the same teaching and truth, that was given to those in the first century. Our faith should increase and grow, but should never be redefined. Jesus is the model for our own faith, and the pathway for our eternal relationship with God. The model is unchanging because the model is perfect. And one day, we will dwell with Jesus because of that truth.

Some of the men and women who lived in the first century were able to see Jesus and physically be in his presence. They didn’t know it at the time, but when they looked at Jesus, they were able to glimpse the glory of God. To witness God’s glory means to experience the magnificent, holy character of God.

Moses spoke with God in Exodus 33 and asked God to show him his glory. God told Moses that while he stood in the cleft of a rock, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name.” God also told Moses that “man shall not see me and live” so Moses would be covered with his hand until after God had passed by (Exodus 33:18–23).

God revealed his glory, his holy character, to Moses as he passed by saying, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation” (Exodus 34:6–7).

When God revealed and defined his character to Moses, he revealed the character his Son would one day reveal on earth. Those who saw Jesus, saw the Word, the glory of God, who had become flesh and had come to dwell on earth. Jesus, the glory of God, was “full of grace and truth.”

If we want to fully know Jesus, we must know him as the divine character of God the Father, who became flesh. Jesus was fully God, while fully man. There was never a time that Jesus was not full of both grace and truth.

To glimpse Jesus is to glimpse God’s glory. He was the essence of perfect grace, and he was also God’s perfect truth. God spoke to Moses of his grace, his goodness, his mercy, patience, and abounding steadfast love. God also spoke to Moses about the truth of his perfect justice and fairness. The fullness of God’s grace and truth includes judgment. God does not “clear the guilty,” and sins are inherited by the coming generations.

Jesus is the model for our own faith, and the pathway for our eternal relationship with God. Jesus is also the model of God’s eternal character. Jesus was and is the glory of God, full of grace and truth.

Realizing that most people don’t believe the clear truth of 1 Corinthians 8:6 is both sobering and most people believe that all the world’s god’s should be tolerated, respected, or even valued. Most people value faith more than the object of that faith. And most people feel like valuing all gods is giving kindness and respect rather than keeping people from knowing the truth. 

Tolerance would be an effective witness in our culture today except that Scripture teaches “there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things and through whom we exist” (1 Corinthians 8:6). Scripture doesn’t give us permission to acknowledge, value, and tolerate false gods. In fact, the first commandment has always been, “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3).

We can tolerate a person’s right to choose without tolerating or accepting a wrong choice. There is only one pathway to heaven because there is only one heaven. There is only one God because there is only one Creator of all that exists. Every other god is created. 

People don’t need other gods; they do have to choose the God they need. Is that the message we are teaching the world? We must first ask, is 1 Corinthians 8:6 the message we each believe? Secondly, is it the message of truth I teach?

I would like to believe that a faithful person will be saved and that God will honor their faith. But, that isn’t the truth of Scripture. The truth of Scripture is that the one true God has given the world his only Son, because his Son is the only Savior anyone needs.

Read 1 Corinthians 8:6 again, and again, until you understand the narrow truth it reveals. Jesus knew and preached the one true God and never gave other gods as an option. There is only one God and only “one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.” 

Jesus is the model for our own faith, and the pathway for our eternal relationship with God. We need to believe in biblical truth ourselves in order to be able to teach it to others. There is only one God because there is only one Creator. That is the only message about God we can tolerate because it is the only message that is true.

John 3:16 is the most quoted verse in all of the New Testament. The entire message of the gospel is found in the words, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16 tells us why God sent Jesus into the world. Jesus came so that everyone could have the opportunity to believe and be saved. 

It is John 3:17 that tells us what God did not send his Son to this world to do. John 3:17 says, “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world.” Jesus wasn’t born into the world to condemn people to an eternity in hell. His purpose wasn’t to bring God’s judgment, it was to bring the assurance of his grace. God sent Jesus to earth so that anyone could be saved through him, if they just believed in him.

If we examine our words, do we spend more time teaching why God sent Jesus into the world, or condemning the world Jesus came to save? Do our words cause people to feel wanted by God, or judged by him? Pick the person who you think of as most outside the Christian faith. Do you think about what they are doing wrong, or how God wants to save their soul and help them live rightly?

If God didn’t send Jesus to condemn, then we aren’t called to condemn either. Jesus has called us to speak the truth. Jesus said, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31–32). The apostle Paul told the church to “speak the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15). 

How do we help people know they are loved by God and live for God without speaking words that can sound like condemnation? Every Christian shares this struggle, or it should be our struggle. Jesus befriended the woman at the well before he told her she needed the water of life. He told the parable of the prodigal son, but included the sin of the older brother. He ate with sinners and held righteous anger for those who saw themselves as too holy to do the same. 

Jesus is the model for our own faith, and the pathway for our eternal relationship with God. Jesus never told a sinner their sin was allowed or permitted. He did tell them how they could be forgiven and told them to “sin no more.” Jesus lived a perfect sinless life, but didn’t use his perfection to condemn those who were imperfect. In fact, his strongest words condemned the religious leaders who didn’t realize their sin was the most costly to God’s purpose. If Jesus modeled that witness, we must be careful to do the same. We must speak God’s truth, but we shouldn’t say anything until we can speak with his love.

When the disciples looked at Jesus they were looking at the “whole fullness of deity” in human form. When Jesus put his hand on their shoulders, God was touching them. When Jesus listened to them, it was God hearing their words. When Jesus appeared to them after Pentecost, he was the risen deity reminding them that death had no power over their lives.

Paul told the church, “you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.” When we received the Holy Spirit, the fullness of deity came to dwell in us. Have we limited ourselves by failing to understand we are capable of doing anything Jesus wants us to do? Do we see ourselves as only human beings, or as human beings who have been “filled” with the holy presence and power of Christ?

Jesus is the “head of all rule and authority.” Jesus can do all things and Christians can do “all things through him who strengthens” us (Philippians 4:13). The name “Christian” actually means “little Christ.”

Our lives are not hindered by a culture that refuses to believe. Our witness is not weakened because people argue with or slander our faith. God is not who people believe him to be; God is who God has revealed himself to be. The same God that created the world is the God who governs the world today. And Christians have been filled and gifted by his Holy Spirit. 

God isn’t limited in our lives unless we choose to limit him. We don’t feel the hand of Jesus like the disciples did, but his hand does touch our lives. We don’t hear the voice of Jesus like those who physically walked with him, but his voice is just as clear in the red letters of our Bibles.

Jesus returned to heaven and then the Holy Spirit came to dwell in us bodily. We have been “filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.” What ministry will Jesus accomplish tomorrow through your surrendered, obedient life?

Jesus is the model for our own faith, and the pathway for our eternal relationship with God. Jesus is the Holy Spirit who empowers every Christian’s life today, and he tells his disciples, “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).

There is nothing impure or imperfect in heaven, which is why everyone needs Jesus in order to enter heaven. We will never confess every sin we commit. We will never be fully right with God until we dwell with him in heaven. So the Lord provided a way for us to live on earth with as much freedom from our sins as possible.

The Lord gave us the opportunity to bring our sins to him and lay them at his feet. We don’t have to pay the full price of our sins because only Jesus could do that. Yet John wrote, “if we confess our sins” God will forgive them. Why do we need to confess what God already knows? Why do we need God’s daily forgiveness if we have been made eternally righteous by our salvation?

God didn’t want us to wait for heaven to live a righteous life. God wants us to live as his children now, even as we live on earth. God wants us to understand and help others understand that our sins have consequences to our lives now and to our lives eternal. He wants us to live high and holy lives and help others do the same.

God calls us to “confess our sins” so that he can cleanse us from those sins now. He wants us to live righteous lives and model the character of Christ to those around us. We can’t model the perfection of Christ, but we can model the “perfecting” nature of Christ’s presence in our lives.

We confess our sins so that we acknowledge those things in our life that cause us to be less than godly. Confession isn’t for God’s sake, it is for ours. When we acknowledge our sins we are less likely to repeat them. God wants to clean up our sins so we can live righteous lives now. So, he gave us the ability to confess so he could cleanse our lives and teach us to live rightly.

Jesus is the model for our own faith, and the pathway for our eternal relationship with God. Jesus never had to model confession because he didn’t sin. Jesus did model the powerful life of a person who is fully right with God. He modeled the best way for us to live as we walk our pathway to heaven. 

We don’t have to walk our pathway carrying the burden of our sins. Spend some time laying your burdens at the feet of Jesus.