THE KING’S BUSINESS
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we are told, “God is light, and in'Him' is no darkness at all.” In Jesus this light has become incarnate and from Him as He lived among men streamed forty rays of truth and goodness. What is more benefi cent than light? It illumines, reveals, cheers, brings life and health and happiness, and Jesus Himself brings all these things. Only by the natural light can we see nat urally', and only by Jesus, the fight of the world, can we see spiritually. Without fight there is no vision: without Jesus there is no spiritual vision. Without fight we know not whither we are going: without Jesus we grope in utter darkness. Every ray of light, of truth, of holiness, comes from Him. If you would see what abso- lute. truth is, absolute goodness, perfect holiness, just look at Him, He is “the light.” He does not merely say I give fight, (many a man could say that), but what He says is vastly more meaningful than that: He says, “I AM the fight.” Only God has a right to say that. And of what is He the fight? “Of the world,” not merely the fight of a nation, nor of the church, but of the world. Rays of fight went out from Him even before His incarnation (John 1 :4, 5; 8 :56), but in His incarnation the light was embodied in a form that all might see, and as the incarnate fight of Jesus became the fight of the world.' Not some race alone, but-ultimately all races shall receive fight from Him: not merely from His words, but from His person; not from what He says merely, but from what He is (Luke 1:78, 79; Isa. 42:6, 7; 49:6; 60:1, 2). Because JesUs is the fight it naturally follows that every one who follows Him “shall not walk in darkness.”“ Get away from Him, turn your back upon Him, and it will soon be dark enough, as many a Christian is aware; but keep close to Him by the utter renunciation of self and cross bearing (Matt. 16:24) and there will be no darkness, but perpetual day, constant sunshine: you “shall have the fight of fife,” i. e., the light that brings fife, the fight that is fife (John 17:3). Are you in the dark just now, then somewhere you are not fol
lowing Him. Ask God to show you wherein it is that you are not following Him. ( v. 31. “Then said Jesus (Jesus therefore said) to those Jews which (add, had) beliet/ed on (omit, on) Him, I f ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed (truly my disciples)."' These words were spoken “to those Jews which had believed Him” (R. V.), not to those Jews which “believed on Him” as in the Authorized Version. If they had “believed on Him,” they would abide in His Word (Heb. 10:39). Many people believe Jesus, i. e., believe some things He says,' but do not reach the point of “believing on Him.” To those who believed Him Jesus said that this fact, the fact of their believing Him, did not necessarily make them disciples. To be truly His disciples they must abide (or continue) in His Word. The true disciple lives in the atmosphere of Christ’s Word, the Word is the soil in which His life roots itself; he meditates therein day and night (Ps. 1:2). To abide in Christ’s Word is to continue in meditation upon it, and obedience to it. Are you truly a disciple of Jesus? Are you abiding in His Word? v. 32. “A nd ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Here our Lord makes two further promises to those who abide in His Word: (1) “Ye shall know^the truth;” (2) “The truth shall make you free.” Knowledge and liberty come from continuing in Jesus’ Word,, i. e., by faith in it, meditation upon it, and obedience to it. Those who thus continue in the Word will receive “the Spirit of Truth” (John-14:15-17), and '“the Spirit of Truth” shall guide them into all the truth (John 14:26; 16:12, 13). But that is not all: the truth (thus known) shall make them free. Ah! there is the secret that men have sought for so earnestly, the secret of freedom, and the secret is the knowledge of truth received by continuance in Jesus’ Word. Many today are rejecting Jesus because they say they wish liberty, but they will never find liberty by reject-
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