You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Matthew 5:14-16
Romans 1
There is no shortage of evidence proving the existence of the God, nor the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Yet, people swallow the lies and follow the liars to death. You and I, Believers, we know the truth and we can shine the light of truth into the darkness of ignorance.
Paul wrote to the believers in Rome in order to give them a firm foundation of faith, though he longed to go there and spend time with them, teaching them in person, he had been consistently prevented from traveling to Rome. Verses 1-7 read,
Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2 which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures,3 concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 4 and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, 6 including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,
7 To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Prophets, the Laws, and the Psalms all declare Jesus to be the Christ. They do not hide it. It is not written in riddles and mysteries unless the person reading refuses to see the truth. We know that Scripture is best understood when read with The Holy Spirit. Jesus said,
“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” (John 16:12-15).
Through the truth is clearly in front of people, they just can’t see it, they choose not to see it. God blinds their eyes so that they will come to Him by faith rather than mere knowledge. But once we choose Him by faith, those scales fall off and everything, the evidence of God, the love of the Father, the power of the Spirit, and the truth of Jesus is so clear to us. John 12:35-43 reads,
So Jesus said to them, “The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. 36 While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.”
When Jesus had said these things, he departed and hid himself from them. 37 Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, 38 so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:
“Lord, who has believed what he heard from us,
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”
39 Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said,
40 “He has blinded their eyes
and hardened their heart,
lest they see with their eyes,
and understand with their heart, and turn,
and I would heal them.”
41 Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him.42 Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; 43 for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.
The evidence of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is obvious through the Holy Spirit. Jesus’ Resurrection cannot be denied, yet people try. They come up with a thousand crazy lies they would rather believe such as somehow over 500 people all suffered the exact same hallucination or chose to lie and be persecuted than accept the fact that Jesus rose from the dead and walked the earth for forty days before ascending to Heaven (1 Corinthians 15:6). The Jewish historian Josephus is said to have written[1], “About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, …When Pilate . . .condemned him to be crucified, those who had . . . come to love him did not give up their affection for him. On the third day he appeared . . . restored to life. . . . And the tribe of Christians . . . has . . . not disappeared.”[2] Josephus was not a Christian, yet he spoke about Jesus and His resurrection.
Even if people can’t see the evidence for Christ in history and in scripture, they should be able to see Jesus as Savior in our lives. People should be able to see our love for one another and recognize who we are in Jesus Christ (John 13:34-35). Verses 8-15 read,
First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. 9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you 10 always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God's will I may now at last succeed in coming to you. 11 For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— 12 that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine. 13 I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. 14 I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. 15 So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
Our fellowship should produce fruit. We strengthen one another, share our spiritual gifts with one another and often even release them in each other. When we live together, unified and loving, the light of Christ that shines in each of us becomes brighter, He becomes a beacon to the lost and blinded. Through our love of one another living out our faith, they can see the faith and have the chance to be healed and saved. Through edifying and teaching each other, we can teach the truth to the lost, and that is before we go out and proclaim the truth specifically to them. But Believer we are also supposed to go and tell them so they have a chance to believe. Verses 16-17 read,
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
The consequences for unbelief are real! God’s wrath is real. I do not want to see them crushed in the harvest and spending eternity in torment but many will. We can proclaim Jesus’ righteousness, we can declare the Gospel, live by faith and snatch some of them from the fires of Hell. The Gospel is so utterly simple, so beautifully perfect that people cannot grasp it. They want it to be harder than “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9). They want to earn salvation, see gods, and be the power of their own deliverance. Verses 18-23 read,
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
People have created their own gods since the fall. They have forsaken The Lord and made idols, authored religions, and thought and lived inside the box of human limitations. We are born knowing that eternity is real and that there is a “higher power” because we are made in God’s image (Genesis 1:26). But it is too simple, too plain and too exquisite for people to accept The LORD and so they trade the perfect truth for their imperfect lies. Even atheists choose themselves as god over the obvious truth of God.
Believer, we can tell them the truth! We can show them the Gospel. We can lead them to the reality they have blinded themselves to. God will not force them and neither can we but we can try and open their eyes and show them the way. God wants them to come to Him, but rather than force them, He let them live the life they choose and in so doing choose their eternity. Verses 24-34 read,
Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips,30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.32 Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
One day, we will be judged. We will either be saved by Jesus’ righteousness or condemned by our unrighteousness. So many people are choosing condemnation. So many people have chosen ignorance over truth. God is not condemning them, they condemn themselves. But we know the truth! We know how deeply God loves them and I hope we love them too, enough to let them see the love of God. We don’t do that by pointing out their depravity and hatefully judging them for their sins. God will judge them for their sin, that is not our job or right. 1 Corinthians 5:12-13 reads,
For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? 13 God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”
We tell show them by our love, we tell them with love. They have not seen the truth in the scriptures. They have not seen the truth in the evidence of the creation. The have the opportunity to see the truth in our lives, lived in demonstrated faith and expressed love.
[1] Many theologians think this report was altered but do not deny he wrote about Jesus.
[2] Josephus, Antiquities 18.63-64, cited in Yamauchi, “Jesus Outside the New Testament”, 212.
There is no shortage of evidence proving the existence of the God, nor the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Yet, people swallow the lies and follow the liars to death. You and I, Believers, we know the truth and we can shine the light of truth into the darkness of ignorance.
Paul wrote to the believers in Rome in order to give them a firm foundation of faith, though he longed to go there and spend time with them, teaching them in person, he had been consistently prevented from traveling to Rome. Verses 1-7 read,
Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2 which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures,3 concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 4 and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, 6 including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,
7 To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Prophets, the Laws, and the Psalms all declare Jesus to be the Christ. They do not hide it. It is not written in riddles and mysteries unless the person reading refuses to see the truth. We know that Scripture is best understood when read with The Holy Spirit. Jesus said,
“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” (John 16:12-15).
Through the truth is clearly in front of people, they just can’t see it, they choose not to see it. God blinds their eyes so that they will come to Him by faith rather than mere knowledge. But once we choose Him by faith, those scales fall off and everything, the evidence of God, the love of the Father, the power of the Spirit, and the truth of Jesus is so clear to us. John 12:35-43 reads,
So Jesus said to them, “The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. 36 While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.”
When Jesus had said these things, he departed and hid himself from them. 37 Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, 38 so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:
“Lord, who has believed what he heard from us,
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”
39 Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said,
40 “He has blinded their eyes
and hardened their heart,
lest they see with their eyes,
and understand with their heart, and turn,
and I would heal them.”
41 Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him.42 Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; 43 for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.
The evidence of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is obvious through the Holy Spirit. Jesus’ Resurrection cannot be denied, yet people try. They come up with a thousand crazy lies they would rather believe such as somehow over 500 people all suffered the exact same hallucination or chose to lie and be persecuted than accept the fact that Jesus rose from the dead and walked the earth for forty days before ascending to Heaven (1 Corinthians 15:6). The Jewish historian Josephus is said to have written[1], “About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, …When Pilate . . .condemned him to be crucified, those who had . . . come to love him did not give up their affection for him. On the third day he appeared . . . restored to life. . . . And the tribe of Christians . . . has . . . not disappeared.”[2] Josephus was not a Christian, yet he spoke about Jesus and His resurrection.
Even if people can’t see the evidence for Christ in history and in scripture, they should be able to see Jesus as Savior in our lives. People should be able to see our love for one another and recognize who we are in Jesus Christ (John 13:34-35). Verses 8-15 read,
First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. 9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you 10 always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God's will I may now at last succeed in coming to you. 11 For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— 12 that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine. 13 I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. 14 I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. 15 So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
Our fellowship should produce fruit. We strengthen one another, share our spiritual gifts with one another and often even release them in each other. When we live together, unified and loving, the light of Christ that shines in each of us becomes brighter, He becomes a beacon to the lost and blinded. Through our love of one another living out our faith, they can see the faith and have the chance to be healed and saved. Through edifying and teaching each other, we can teach the truth to the lost, and that is before we go out and proclaim the truth specifically to them. But Believer we are also supposed to go and tell them so they have a chance to believe. Verses 16-17 read,
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
The consequences for unbelief are real! God’s wrath is real. I do not want to see them crushed in the harvest and spending eternity in torment but many will. We can proclaim Jesus’ righteousness, we can declare the Gospel, live by faith and snatch some of them from the fires of Hell. The Gospel is so utterly simple, so beautifully perfect that people cannot grasp it. They want it to be harder than “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9). They want to earn salvation, see gods, and be the power of their own deliverance. Verses 18-23 read,
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
People have created their own gods since the fall. They have forsaken The Lord and made idols, authored religions, and thought and lived inside the box of human limitations. We are born knowing that eternity is real and that there is a “higher power” because we are made in God’s image (Genesis 1:26). But it is too simple, too plain and too exquisite for people to accept The LORD and so they trade the perfect truth for their imperfect lies. Even atheists choose themselves as god over the obvious truth of God.
Believer, we can tell them the truth! We can show them the Gospel. We can lead them to the reality they have blinded themselves to. God will not force them and neither can we but we can try and open their eyes and show them the way. God wants them to come to Him, but rather than force them, He let them live the life they choose and in so doing choose their eternity. Verses 24-34 read,
Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips,30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.32 Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
One day, we will be judged. We will either be saved by Jesus’ righteousness or condemned by our unrighteousness. So many people are choosing condemnation. So many people have chosen ignorance over truth. God is not condemning them, they condemn themselves. But we know the truth! We know how deeply God loves them and I hope we love them too, enough to let them see the love of God. We don’t do that by pointing out their depravity and hatefully judging them for their sins. God will judge them for their sin, that is not our job or right. 1 Corinthians 5:12-13 reads,
For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? 13 God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”
We tell show them by our love, we tell them with love. They have not seen the truth in the scriptures. They have not seen the truth in the evidence of the creation. The have the opportunity to see the truth in our lives, lived in demonstrated faith and expressed love.
[1] Many theologians think this report was altered but do not deny he wrote about Jesus.
[2] Josephus, Antiquities 18.63-64, cited in Yamauchi, “Jesus Outside the New Testament”, 212.
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