Light is Sown Like Seed

[Sue J Love]

“Light is sown like seed for the righteous..” (Psalm 97:11 NASB1995)

What is light? It is the opposite of darkness. Jesus Christ is the Light of the World. And light is truth and righteousness. The message of the gospel of our salvation is light, and light is true knowledge and understanding. Light also reveals truth while darkness hides it. For darkness is opposed to the light. For darkness is all that is evil, wicked, sinful, and full of deception. Darkness not only hides the light, but what truth it allows it alters and it twists so that it speaks lies instead of truth. So we must seek after the light to find it and to let the light shine in the darkness to expose what is evil.

For Jesus Christ taught that to come to him we must deny self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin), and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to living in sin and for self, we will lose our lives for eternity. But if we deny self, die daily to sin, by the Spirit, and we walk in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, in his power, then we have eternal life with God. For not everyone who calls him “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING (obeying) the will of God (see Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23).

 

[Sue J Love]

“..And gladness for the upright in heart.” (Psalm 97:11 NASB1995)

The Light of the World, Jesus Christ, and the gospel of our salvation – of deliverance from addiction to sin, and the hope of eternal life with God – should make those of us who have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ glad at heart. For we who now believe in Christ as our Lord and Savior, in truth, have been delivered from our slavery to sin so we can now serve the Lord Jesus in walks of surrender and in obedience to his commands. Therefore, we are the upright in heart, but only by the grace of God, and only as we submit to the Lordship of Christ over our lives, making him our Master.

For by God-gifted faith in Jesus Christ, which is not of our own doing, we are crucified with Christ in death to sin and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin but as slaves to righteousness in walks of obedience to God’s commands. We are no longer to permit sin to reign in our mortal bodies to make us obey its desires. For if sin is what we obey, it results in death. But if obedience to God is what we obey, it results in sanctification, and its end is eternal life with God (see Romans 6:1-23).

 

[Sue J Love]

“Be glad in the Lord, you righteous ones..” (Psalm 97:12 NASB1995)

Who are the “righteous ones”? They are all who have been made righteous by faith in Jesus Christ. Yes! But they are also all who are living righteously, by the grace of God, as followers of Jesus Christ. For to be righteous in the eyes of the Lord means that, in the power of God, we are living, in practice, in conformity to God’s standards, to his will, to his commands. So, to be glad in the Lord is not all this “feel good” “happy-happy” stuff of human flesh that is all surface level. It is rather a deep-seated joy that comes from knowing we have been set free from slavery to sin to now serve God with our lives.

For God’s grace, which is bringing us salvation, is training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives while we wait for Jesus’ return. For Christ “gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.” “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (See Titus 2:11-14; Ephesians 2:8-10)

 

[Sue J Love]

“..And give thanks to His holy name.” (Psalm 97:12 NASB1995)

We who are righteous in the eyes of our Lord, by faith in Jesus Christ, who are living righteously, by the grace of God, in walks of obedience to our Lord’s commands, in surrender to his will for our lives, should give thanks to Him who rescued us out of our sinful lives, who renewed us by His Spirit, and who has given us new lives in Christ Jesus to be lived for his glory. We should give him thanks daily that he did not leave us in the darkness but that he brought us into his wonderful light and he rescued us from what enslaved us so we can now live holy lives, pleasing to God, in service to him.

For we learn in 1 John 1-3 that if we claim that we have fellowship with God, but yet we walk in darkness (sin), we are liars. If we claim that we know God, but we do not obey his commandments, in practice, we are liars. For it is not the one who claims he is “in Christ” who is “in Christ,” but it is the one who has denied self, died with Christ to sin, and who is now walking in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, in practice, and no longer in sin. We have the hope and the promise of eternal life with God in heaven.

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22]