Lenten Daily Devotional 2021
Saturday, March 6, 2021
Day 18: "I am the Light of the World"
Jesus said to the people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
John 8:31-32 (NLT)
John 8:31-32 (NLT)
As this lengthy passage opens, we hear Jesus speak some familiar words: “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.”
The people understood, as do we, that when light shines into a dark place, you can see what is there . . . what is real . . . what is true.
And Jesus would tell them a bit later what was, is today, and always will be true:
If we are faithful to him and his teachings, we will know the truth. And the truth will set us free.
We need to remember that today, as we live in a world in which “what is true” can change from person to person, day to day, place to place.
Why is that? Because, according to a variety of surveys, more and more people today do not believe that there is an absolute truth. And that includes a troubling percentage of people who describe themselves as Christians.
Some have come to believe that truth is what an individual determines it to be. Or what the majority of people decide it is. Or how the culture defines it. Or what a person of influence – a politician, a captain of industry, a celebrity – says it is.
But later in John’s Gospel we hear Jesus declare, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father but by me.”
So, if Jesus is the truth, and his teachings are the truth, and God’s Word is the truth, then indeed there is absolute truth. It is in and with and through him.
In today’s world, God’s absolute truth so often is tweaked ever so slightly and sneakily that it almost sounds true – but it’s not. So how do we tell if something we read or hear or see is true? We measure it against the only thing that is absolutely, eternally, 100 percent true: God’s Word.
If we do that, if we know and live the truth, Jesus promises us that we will have freedom. Not the worldly kind of freedom that we treasure as Americans, but the spiritual freedom from sin and death that is ours as citizens of Heaven.
--Mark Vasché
The people understood, as do we, that when light shines into a dark place, you can see what is there . . . what is real . . . what is true.
And Jesus would tell them a bit later what was, is today, and always will be true:
If we are faithful to him and his teachings, we will know the truth. And the truth will set us free.
We need to remember that today, as we live in a world in which “what is true” can change from person to person, day to day, place to place.
Why is that? Because, according to a variety of surveys, more and more people today do not believe that there is an absolute truth. And that includes a troubling percentage of people who describe themselves as Christians.
Some have come to believe that truth is what an individual determines it to be. Or what the majority of people decide it is. Or how the culture defines it. Or what a person of influence – a politician, a captain of industry, a celebrity – says it is.
But later in John’s Gospel we hear Jesus declare, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father but by me.”
So, if Jesus is the truth, and his teachings are the truth, and God’s Word is the truth, then indeed there is absolute truth. It is in and with and through him.
In today’s world, God’s absolute truth so often is tweaked ever so slightly and sneakily that it almost sounds true – but it’s not. So how do we tell if something we read or hear or see is true? We measure it against the only thing that is absolutely, eternally, 100 percent true: God’s Word.
If we do that, if we know and live the truth, Jesus promises us that we will have freedom. Not the worldly kind of freedom that we treasure as Americans, but the spiritual freedom from sin and death that is ours as citizens of Heaven.
--Mark Vasché
Prayer Focus: The individuals who serve and receive support from the Modesto Gospel Mission
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