John 12:36 “Put your trust in the light while you have it, so that you may become sons of light.”

There is almost a pun here, because in the Old testament light is conflated with life. Psalms is loaded with verses that do exactly that. Then we have Jesus’ statements that He is the light of the world, (John 8:12) and that He is the way, the truth and the life. (John 14:6) John pulled it all together by stating, “In him was life, and that life was the light of men.” (John 1:4) I believe that Jesus was saying that while we are alive (have light) we need to trust Him (the Light) so that we may become His children indeed. Jesus’ statements about light obviously made a deep impression on John, and he wrote about it further in 1 John 1. This is also closely connected with that best-known of all Bible verses, John 3:16, because verse 19 of that chapter says, “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.” It all boils down to this: if we run from the light, we lose, period. While we have opportunity, we need to run to the light, to receive the eternal salvation God has for us.

This is intensely meaningful for me right now, because I’ll be seeing someone this morning who is dying, physically speaking, but he still has the opportunity to receive the eternal life that God has prepared for him. He’s been stubborn to this point, deceived by the devil, and this is something of a last chance for him. I cannot force him to receive the light, but I must make the offer clear to him yet again. It is not too late for God! I don’t know that I will be able to gauge his response accurately, since he is currently unable to speak, but God knows his heart. I need to be fully sensitive and obedient to the Holy Spirit in this, because I have neither wisdom nor power to do it, but God wants his soul for eternity, and I believe I’m to be instrumental in that.

Father, Thank You for this Word this morning. I love that man, though in some ways I hardly know him. You love him far more, and You know him perfectly, even the parts that he has thought disqualified him from receiving Your salvation. I pray that Your Spirit would prepare his heart for what he will hear through me this morning, so that he may go from death to life indeed, for his eternal blessing and Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!