Missing Out On Christ As Life & Light

By Arthur J Licursi

John 8:12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

Psalm 36:9 For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light.

Apart from Christ, there is no life or light.

Thankfully, God our Father has made Christ so available to us – “Now the Lord is the Spirit” (2Cor 3:18, 1Cor 15:45) and dwells within our regenerated spirit (2Tim 4:22, Col 1:26-27, 1Cor 6:17, Jn 3:6, 1Jn 4:13).

Yet, even we as Christians can miss out on enjoying the benefit of His empowering life and light in our lives.

So many Christians are in darkness; because, though they are regenerated as the rebirthed children of God, they have not yet come to know Christ intimately, and so they do not walk with Christ in an experiential way in their daily life. They live their lives detached from Christ in their daily living – they ask Him to help them as though He were quite apart from them. They have yet to see the truth of Galatians 2:20 (below); that Christ lives in them as their life, so they live mostly by self-reliance and self-effort.

Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself (His life) for me (to possess).

Col. 3:4 When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, …

What may cause a regenerated child of God to miss out on the enjoyment and benefit, of Christ as life, and light in their lives?

You might ask, “After all, if we are born-again, aren’t we all set?”

Our rebirth may be likened to a marriage. Observing marriages on this earth, we must admit that it may only have taken a few minutes to become married, but it may take 20-40 years for those two to come to union. We each, as independent souls, may be likened to one who has become married to Christ, but it will take a lifetime to come to union with Him who is as our husband, within our spirit. That union inherently requires the loss of our soul’s independence. We then may become joined to Him as our head, our Lord.

I see three prevailing items that keep us from that intimate union with Christ, an intimacy that is available to each of us, as our normal portion.

1) First, we all start out not seeking after God.

Romans 3:11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.

After all, if you read carefully you will see that Abraham did not seek God first; it was God who intervened in the life of Abraham. Thankfully, God continues working in this day to intervene in the individual lives of all men. He wishes that none would perish, but that all would come unto Him and receive His Son, that these might also become His children, His birthed offspring (John 1:12).

Since independence from God was our natural state before we became Christians, it is not strange that the first and most fundamental cause of Christians not coming to enjoy all that the Father has provide in the person of His Son is that most Christians really do not want God Himself - they want their life and God at the same time.

Oh yes, they often want His blessings when they think they need Him, but not Him for Himself, as their all. The closest they may come to experience relationship with God in their daily lives is, as they live from crisis to crisis, they then seek and try to gain a blessing of deliverance from those times of crisis. Scripture says in John 2:23-24 “… many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did. 24But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men,” Those who seek Him for selfish motive will not enjoy the benefit of His life.

They do not hold Christ in their life and understanding “as their all”. No, this is something we must “come to” through a realization that life apart from “Christ as our all” is meaningless and fruitless.

So, initially, most do not seek God, but rather His blessing. They do not … “seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness” Matthew 6:33a. Thus, they miss out on the second part of Matthew 6:33b, which says “… and all these things shall be added unto you”.

They miss out on all the fruit of knowing His life as their new, all-sufficient, life. Jesus said in John 17:3 “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ,” The word “know”, here, in Greek is “ginosko”, meaning “a knowing that is personal and that we come to by experience”.

So few Christians “know” the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, in an intimate way. So the Father sets circumstances and situations in our life that help us to come to see our true state of neediness, and that we might “come to know” and rely upon Christ as our life. The Father is at work in our lives as Christians, that we might come “to will and to do of His good pleasure”, which, in fact, then becomes our good pleasure.

Philip. 2:13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

 

What is “His good pleasure”? Paul gives us more on God’s good pleasure.

Ephes. 1:5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,

Ephes. 1:9 Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:

His good pleasure first is that we become His literal children, birthed of His spiritual loins; that we might have a living relationship with Him. We were afar off as individual souls, and so we were “adopted”; but we also were at that same time reborn in our spirit by receiving the indwelling seed (Gk. “sperma”) of God the Father, which “seed” is Christ Himself (Gal 3:16, 1Pet 1:23). Having been born of His Seed, we then are His literal birthed children. We have the actual life of God, which is in Christ, as “the Spirit of life” (Rom 8:2, 2Cor 3:18, 1Cor 15:45), in our spirit (1Cor 6:17), as our new life (Gal 2:20).

Yet, many Christians miss out on enjoying the benefit of that union with the new overcoming life of Christ that already is accessible within them, as their new life. How is it that we can come to know Him who dwells in them to be their life?

Recall, God is at work. Seemingly insurmountable crisis ultimately occur in all our lives. These circumstances and situations are designed by God our Father to be used for the purpose of pushing us to seek Him genuinely. We, thereby, should realize our neediness, bit by bit, that we see that we are at a loss apart from Him, that we by ourselves are really not able to control of the things in our lives; that we should recognize our need of Him as our life a life that is able to soar above all circumstances. For His life is not of this world, His is the limitless eternal life. Crisis in our lives is to cause us to see our genuine need of Him as our all, that He may in fact become life, light and love in us.

Isaiah 55:6 Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:

Some however, after the crisis is past, return to their old ways - they’ve not considered their ways. They did not desire God for Himself, but rather they sought Him only to escape their problems. In this way we have many who claim to be saved, and they may well be saved from perdition (judgment), and still not yet desire God for Himself.

Haggai 1:7 Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways.

2) Then there are those that think that their study of Scripture imparts His life to them – but we know from the Apostle Paul that it is only the Spirit that giveth life. These Christians, and even Pastors, often do not differentiate between the two kinds of Greek words used for “word”, “logos”, and “rhema”. Rhema is the living instant word that we have by the anointing of the Christ Spirit in our spirit. This kind of “word” is “Christ” and therefore is “life”, as when Jesus said, “my words are spirit and they are life”. Use of the word “word” to be the Bible, should not be confused with it’s proper Biblical use as “rhema” in verses such Eph 1:13, 5:26, 6:13, in which the word “word” is “the speaking, instant word of Christ, who is the living “word” in our spirit”. Jesus’ words spoken personally, subjectively, to us in our spirit are enlivening and life to us. The word as the “logos” or letter, apart from the Spirit, may kill.

2 Cor. 3:6 Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.

I’m sure Paul also would go on to tell us that the written Scripture, the Bible, the letter, with the Spirit’s quickening is a conveyer of light and life to us. (See a paper by this writer entitled “The “WORD” - Logos and Rhema Two Kinds of Words” for a more complete explanation)

Thus, though useful and a most important tool of God’s communication with us, Bible study may, by itself, also be a lifeless and even a deadening exercise. Those in the seminaries may study theology and Christology, but they may perhaps not come to know and enjoy the empowering life experience of Christ as the indwelling Spirit of Life in our spirit as our new life. Therefore, they are also without light and genuine life. 

Most believers say that the Bible is full of light. This of course is true, so long as we find Christ, who is the light of the world, in its words. But if we do not read the Scripture in the living Lord’s presence, as He leads, even our reading of the Scriptures will be in darkness. We shall be like the Pharisees addressed by the Lord Jesus in John 5:39 and 40:

You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life, and it is these that testify concerning Me; and you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.

We may know of those people who were perhaps raised in Christian homes where the Scripture was read and revered, who then went to seminary, and yet lost their living faith. They may well be born-again, but likely never really had a living knowledge of Christ as their life (Gal 2:20); and then they went on to either study the Bible under a legalistic understanding, or they approached the Scripture critically, each being apart from the Spirit’s enlightening. Either way they missed out on Christ as life; they likely live in a deadening way for themselves, and toward those around them.

3) Having the Scripture apart from the enlightening of the indwelling Spirit of life leads us to legalism. The religionists of the day, who certainly knew the Scripture, were offended when Christ told them they were blind (John 9:39- 41). They thought they were in light because they had the Scriptures; but they only had the Scriptures in an outward way, a legalistic way. Actually, these Pharisees were blind because they did not have Christ within their living; He alone is the light of the world. Any place where the Lord Jesus is not present is in darkness and even deadening.

So even a born-again Christian may be a legalist, living by law and not by the governance of His indwelling life and light; they may do the same as these Pharisees whom Jesus spoke of. We’ve all been around dead-right Christians at times. These Christians certainly may have Christ within and even study Scripture, and yet be without light because they live the Christian life by external standards, laws, rules, and regulations implied or spoken – the same ones that Jesus took out of the way, nailing them to His cross, taking them out of the way. They sum up the Christian life as one of keeping a code of moral ethics, right and wrong, ignoring the indwelling Christ – they miss enjoying His life. They only know Christ at arms length – knowing about Him, or second hand to the pastor, but not really knowing Him intimately. Their legalist way makes Christ indwelling life of no effect, not enjoying His indwelling power for living overcomingly and His grace.

Galatians 5:4 Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.

We need to apply this understanding; that Christ is alive in us to live out His life through our co-operative selves. In this way we have and enjoy His light of life, with His rest and peace, and we may be bearers of His gracious life and light to others. Any part of our being or of our daily life that is without Christ’s light of life is in darkness. If we do not possess Christ experientially and in a practical way in our daily walk, we ourselves are in darkness while the light of the world yet indwells us. <END>