Light for Everyone

John 1:9 “The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.”

I was just talking to my brother in Arizona this last weekend about how the Bible clearly teaches that faith in the person and saving work of Jesus Christ is essential for salvation. Jesus Himself said in John 14:6: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” The Apostle Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit said in Acts 4:12: “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” This means that there is no salvation whatsoever in other religions, and certainly not in evolutionary secular humanism - or anything other than faith in Christ! A bold claim in this politically correct generation and society.

One devotional asks: But what about the millions over the ages who have lived and died without ever hearing about Christ? Paul answers: “But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world” - Romans 10:18. That is, they have heard! Our text reminds us that Jesus Christ is the true Light that has been sent to every man and woman in the world. Paul was referring to the familiar 19th Psalm.

Psalm 19:1-4 “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun.

It's about light and darkness. Paul also stressed in Romans 1:20, that even God’s “eternal power and Godhead” are “clearly seen” “from the creation of the world,” so that those who don’t see are “without excuse”. Thus, as Peter said in Acts 10:34-35: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right.” Although Christ has provided light for “every man,” the tragedy is that “men loved darkness rather than light” - John 3:19. But for those like Cornelius (to whom Peter was sent with the gospel in Acts 10, who act on whatever light they have (in nature or conscience or any possible remnants of truth in their native religion), God will send more light. There is light for everyone.

John 3:21 “But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.”

In Christ, Brian